Speaker 1: Welcome to this country Life.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Brent Reeves from coon hunting to trot
Speaker 2: lighting and just in general cuntry living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a.
Speaker 2: While as I share my experiences in life lessons. This
Speaker 2: country Life is presented by Case Knives from the Store
Speaker 2: More Studio on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the
Speaker 2: best outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 2: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
Speaker 2: stores to share. First the bear, then the bike. We're
Speaker 2: still in Saskatchewan and we've got a bear in the bag.
Speaker 2: Now it's time to fish. Join me at the fire.
Speaker 2: Let's get started. I've described Saskatchewan, Canada as one of
Speaker 2: my most favorite places on earth, and it's true. My
Speaker 2: first introduction was a decade ago with the mule Skinner himself,
Speaker 2: Clay Nucombe. I was up there following him around with
Speaker 2: a camera, long before either of us went to work
Speaker 2: for Meat Eater, him obviously being there longer than me.
Speaker 2: But the first trip there for me was important because
Speaker 2: it was the one that got me hooked. That was
Speaker 2: the infamous five and a half hour boat ride of
Speaker 2: Peril fifty five miles.
Speaker 1: I think that's like.
Speaker 2: Six million kilometers on a dog's lid. Just not sure
Speaker 2: what the exchange rate is to watercraft. Anyway, Clay and
Speaker 2: the boat he was in beat us to the bank
Speaker 2: by a few minutes, and when I got there, Clay
Speaker 2: Bolt was standing on the end of the dock, grinning
Speaker 2: like a baked possum. Offered me a hand out of
Speaker 2: the boat and on to terra firma. As I took
Speaker 2: his hand and stepped up beside him, I quoted my
Speaker 2: favorite line from Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1: I'd had that.
Speaker 2: Song playing over and over in my head from the
Speaker 2: time we left the bank until mercifully coasting up to
Speaker 2: the dock where my h'll billy buddy was waiting to
Speaker 2: get my reaction to the start of our big adventure together.
Speaker 2: For anyone wondering, I did the math fifty times from
Speaker 2: start to finish. You can listen to the Wreck of
Speaker 2: the Edmund Fitzgerald fifty times in five and a half hours.
Speaker 2: But as I stepped up beside him, I said, with
Speaker 2: the joy of still being alive, does anyone know where
Speaker 2: the love of God goes? When the waves turned the
Speaker 2: minutes to hours, they looked at me with the most
Speaker 2: astonished expression, said, did you just make that up? We
Speaker 2: saw a lot of bears on that trip, a lot
Speaker 2: of big ones too, and I got my first glimpse
Speaker 2: of the Northern lights. It never really got dark, but
Speaker 2: late one night we were outside by the fire and
Speaker 2: saw them. They looked more like a little wistful colored
Speaker 2: smoke than what I would eventually see almost a decade later. Regardless,
Speaker 2: when the bear tags were filled, we all started fishing,
Speaker 2: and that gave the cameraman the first opportunity to participate
Speaker 2: in the action rather than just observing it from behind
Speaker 2: the lens. We caught northern pike by the boat loads,
Speaker 2: mostly on yellow painted spoon with five red diamonds painted
Speaker 2: on one side like a playing card, towing a treble hook.
Speaker 2: I've had learned that the regard for that bait up
Speaker 2: there is second only to Gordon Lightfoot himself. Mister Lynn
Speaker 2: Thompson started churning out that iconic bait back in nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty one in Abernathy, Saskatchewan, and for the last seventy
Speaker 2: five years it's been handing out sword lips all over
Speaker 2: the continent. Gordon Lightfoot was thirteen when the first one
Speaker 2: rolled off the production line, and as of last count,
Speaker 2: they've made more than fifty five million. Gordon has sold
Speaker 2: ten million albums. Both are treasured Canadian originals worthy of
Speaker 2: their lofty status. But if spinning reel fishing for big
Speaker 2: pike was something to behold, I couldn't imagine what fly
Speaker 2: fishing for them would be.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: That was back when I was getting into fly fishing,
Speaker 2: and with every turn of the handle on that spinning riel,
Speaker 2: I longed for it to be me stripping a big,
Speaker 2: single hooked streamer over an ambush point where a pike
Speaker 2: was waiting to smash it with a violent take. That
Speaker 2: opportunity came this month on the bear hunt with Dante
Speaker 2: Tobacco Pilot's Lodge that I talked about last week. You
Speaker 2: never you never know how these hunts will go. You're
Speaker 2: dependent on a lot of things that you have no
Speaker 2: control over, like the weather and the animals. But we've
Speaker 2: tried to prepare for each scenario. However it played out,
Speaker 2: bear hunting was priority to Numero Uno. If that turned
Speaker 2: out to be a struggle, then the secondary story to
Speaker 2: the project.
Speaker 1: Would be how tough the hunting was.
Speaker 2: With the primary remaining, me going from behind the camera
Speaker 2: to in front of him. Now, if we tagged a
Speaker 2: bear before the time came for us to leave, we'd
Speaker 2: use what was left to fill out the story and
Speaker 2: fish fly fish. We'd be targeting the big ones that
Speaker 2: patrolled the cold waters of the Fonderlack in Bays where
Speaker 2: they patrolled in a constant.
Speaker 1: Search for food.
Speaker 2: Before leaving on this trip, I googled Northern Pike in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 2: The area where I was going was in the first
Speaker 2: four destination areas to find them. I felt good about
Speaker 2: my chances of getting an opportunity if the bear hunting
Speaker 2: worked out. If you listened last week, you already know
Speaker 2: that on day three, I feel my bear tag. If
Speaker 2: you haven't listened yet, alert on day three, I may
Speaker 2: or may not have filled my bar tag.
Speaker 1: You'll just have to go and listen.
Speaker 2: But I talked at length to Dante, one of the
Speaker 2: owners of the Pilot's Lodge where we were staying, about
Speaker 2: fly fishing there and whether I needed to tie any flies,
Speaker 2: what sized fly rod I needed to bring with me,
Speaker 2: and he assured me that he had everything I needed.
Speaker 2: I was nervous about depending on someone I didn't know
Speaker 2: having the equipment I was used to using, but space
Speaker 2: was at a.
Speaker 1: Premium on the floatplane.
Speaker 2: Flying in and between my bag and bowcase and Dave
Speaker 2: Gardner's bag and camera equipment, we were having to count
Speaker 2: and divvy up the weight allotted between all our gear.
Speaker 2: Since fly fishing wasn't either of the top two priorities
Speaker 2: to capture with the camera, I deferred to Dante's judgment
Speaker 2: and didn't bring anything, and it was the right decision.
Speaker 2: It was late when we finally caught all the quits
Speaker 2: on the day I got my bear. The next morning
Speaker 2: we spent skinning the bear and getting the bear meat
Speaker 2: squared away, some of which we were going to have
Speaker 2: for supper that night. Then, when all the chores were done,
Speaker 2: we loaded up in the boats and headed up river
Speaker 2: to the same bay where I'd gotten my bear the
Speaker 2: evening before. There was a bald eagle nest on the
Speaker 2: cliff face about twenty feet above the water in a
Speaker 2: series of rapids, which we went by, and we could
Speaker 2: see two fuzzy little eaglets staring at us, says. We
Speaker 2: shot up the rapids in Dante's boat, pushed by his
Speaker 2: new jet foot out board The fly rod Dante had
Speaker 2: waiting on me was a nine foot ten weight, the
Speaker 2: same length that I was used to casting, but twice
Speaker 2: as heavy. If you're not familiar with what that means,
Speaker 2: checked this out. Fly rod weights range from one to
Speaker 2: fifteen plus and indicate the size of the fly line
Speaker 2: the rod is to cast. The rod and line must
Speaker 2: match for the rod to bend over or properly load.
Speaker 2: As they say, the higher number means it's stiffer and
Speaker 2: a heavy rod built for larger flies and fish. In Arkansas,
Speaker 2: when I'm troutfishing, I typically use a five.
Speaker 1: Weight rod, smaller number, smaller line than flies.
Speaker 2: Coincidentally, that's the same size fly rod I grew up
Speaker 2: fishing for brim with my dad, but a rod of
Speaker 2: that size could potentially get wrecked by the fish that
Speaker 2: inhabit the trophy class fishery in northern Saskatchewan. Dante asked
Speaker 2: me if I knew how to double haul when casting.
Speaker 2: I told him, in my mind I was a pro
Speaker 2: added but in reality I could possibly kill someone with
Speaker 2: my erratic and out of rhythm false casting. That looked
Speaker 2: more like I was sword fighting a swarm of yellow jackets,
Speaker 2: and he did fishing. I watched him and Nick Goff's
Speaker 2: another guy in Campton I told you about last week.
Speaker 2: They were standing at the end of the dock and
Speaker 2: I watched them send a pike fly the size of
Speaker 2: a small child effortlessly through the air with a minimum
Speaker 2: of effort and a maximum of accuracy using the double
Speaker 2: Hall method.
Speaker 1: Now there's a.
Speaker 2: Ton of how to videos on the University of YouTube,
Speaker 2: but I learned it while watching two childhood friends from Lloyd,
Speaker 2: Saskatchewan putting on a clinic at the dock beside what
Speaker 2: I like to call Fort Fondelot, our remote wilderness outmost.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about what I saw them doing when
Speaker 2: Dante killed the engine and we coasted into the middle
Speaker 2: of that bay, the same bay where the evening four
Speaker 2: we'd given a beautiful cinnamon colored BlackBerry. A ride back
Speaker 2: to the Fort, I was handed a hearty fly rod
Speaker 2: designed by the folks over in England who've been making
Speaker 2: them for the last one hundred and fifty years. It
Speaker 2: was the first one I'd ever held in my hand.
Speaker 2: It was awful, pretty to look at, and it had
Speaker 2: a match in reel with a turquoise colored fly line.
Speaker 2: I spooled out some line and started false casting and
Speaker 2: feeding the coils of line that had gathered at my feet.
Speaker 2: As the weight of the line forward and backward pushed
Speaker 2: that red and yellow fly further and further toward my target.
Speaker 2: The first cast landed surprisingly where it I had intended
Speaker 2: it to. I had initially been hopeful just to get
Speaker 2: it out of the boat and into the water reasonably
Speaker 2: close to where the fish were. I was more than
Speaker 2: proud of the results of my first attempt. I repeated
Speaker 2: the process, gaining confidence along with distance on each successive attempt.
Speaker 2: They didn't all look like what Dante and Nick had demonstrated,
Speaker 2: but a lot of them did. And with Dave filming
Speaker 2: and running his camera from next boat, less than a
Speaker 2: dozen cast in, I hooked something I've been instructed to
Speaker 2: strip set the hook, which is the counterintuitive to every
Speaker 2: other method of catching the fish I've ever been taught
Speaker 2: brim bass, crappy catfish, and trout. When you get a bite,
Speaker 2: you try to put them on the bank with a
Speaker 2: big upward pull, forcing the rod tip way above your head,
Speaker 2: and burying that hook in the fish well. With the
Speaker 2: strip set, it's just an extended version of stripping the
Speaker 2: bait to entice a bite for whatever you're fishing for.
Speaker 2: When pikes are the target, it usually doesn't take much
Speaker 2: coaxing to get them chunk. They're always hunting for something
Speaker 2: to eat. Nick explained it to me this way. The
Speaker 2: water may look calm and nice on the top, but
Speaker 2: beneath the surface it's the wild wild West twenty four
Speaker 2: to seven. It's full of predatory fish, and nothing is safe.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many took, but I had been
Speaker 2: fishing for less than fifteen minutes when I saw the
Speaker 2: pike hit the fly and swirl to leave. As I stripped,
Speaker 2: set the hook as hard as I could.
Speaker 1: I stripped it twice in a row and held a slack.
Speaker 2: Firm as I as I went to the rill and
Speaker 2: cranked in the loose line cold around my feet as
Speaker 2: fast as I could while maintaining pressure on what I
Speaker 2: thought was a pretty big fish. He made a couple
Speaker 2: of runs, peeling line off the riel as the drag
Speaker 2: sang out loud that whatever was on the other end
Speaker 2: of my line had no intention of giving up easy.
Speaker 2: Two or three runs later, I was holding a forty
Speaker 2: three inch version of est soox Lusius, the northern pike.
Speaker 2: Anything forty inches and above is considered a trophy class
Speaker 2: pike and estimated to be beyond fifteen years old. I
Speaker 2: had just landed one three inches beyond that mark, the
Speaker 2: first specimen of such on a fly rod. We got
Speaker 2: our photos and released her back into the cold water
Speaker 2: to rest, recover, and resume what she was built to do.
Speaker 2: The feeling of seeing that fish swim away unscathed after
Speaker 2: the fight was just as satisfying as landing it. Fished
Speaker 2: for a while longer, and as we worked our way
Speaker 2: back toward the river, I hung another one. My casting
Speaker 2: had improved and I was way more comfortable on the
Speaker 2: second hookup than I was on the first, and that
Speaker 2: was the biggest fish of the day and the longest
Speaker 2: fresh water fish of my life. A massive dinosaur of
Speaker 2: a pike that measured forty six inches be pretty hard
Speaker 2: to top that one. So we called it a day
Speaker 2: and made our way back to camp, filming different scenic
Speaker 2: things along the way. The next day we fished for walleye.
Speaker 2: In the span of less than i hour. We had
Speaker 2: more than enough to feed the five of us. The
Speaker 2: rest we caught that afternoon received a pass and we
Speaker 2: returned to the chilly depths of the river. Our trip
Speaker 2: was now nearing the end, and with our departure, Fort
Speaker 2: Foondelock would be boarded up and secured. A few months
Speaker 2: will pass before Dante and his crew returned to guide
Speaker 2: other folks on the quest for.
Speaker 1: Big fish and bull moose.
Speaker 2: But along the river between the camp buildings, the day
Speaker 2: to day activity will continue, just as it has for
Speaker 2: the last ten thousand years, following the retreat of the
Speaker 2: last glaciers that formed this wilderness mecca, a place that's
Speaker 2: been home to bear, moose and the Thenesoline people for
Speaker 2: just as long. I don't know when I'll get to
Speaker 2: physically return to Northern Canada, but since I've come home,
Speaker 2: catch myself going back whenever my mind gets idle or
Speaker 2: something subliminately reminds me of.
Speaker 1: It, and for a moment I can.
Speaker 2: Feel the air that has never been breathed before, the
Speaker 2: wildlife that no one has seen before, in a place
Speaker 2: with the oldest exposed bedrock on Earth, and for that moment,
Speaker 2: I'm right back there among the newest, oldest things. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for letting me taking your fishing with
Speaker 2: me north of the border. Next week We're heading south
Speaker 2: of the border, the border of Arkansas. We'll be fishing
Speaker 2: for flathead catfish on the Washita River in Louisiana with
Speaker 2: my good friend Bradley Smith, the man behind the YouTube
Speaker 2: channel God's Country Hunting and Fishing.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure you've probably heard.
Speaker 2: I hope you have the bear grease overalls lost yesterday.
Speaker 1: If you fancy yourself a pair.
Speaker 2: You might want to get over to the Meat Eater
Speaker 2: dot com and get them order. Thank y'all so much
Speaker 2: for listening to all of us here on the Bear
Speaker 2: Grease channel that includes Clay bow the Professor and Yours Truth.
Speaker 1: Until next week, this is Brent Reeves. I don't know,
Speaker 1: y'a'll be careful.