Kerri is working this weekend and I have 4 days off, so I figured it was a good opportunity to head up to Grande Prairie to visit Shawn. Shawn worked with us at Hatch in Perth before we came to Canada. He's currently waiting for the Aussie government to stop stuffing him around so he can go back to Perth with a new 5 year open working visa. He's currently marking time living in his parents' basement in Grande Prairie. "Where's Grande Prairie?" you ask. Have a look at the map above. It's about a 6 hour drive NW of Edmonton. Add 3 hours from Calgary north to Edmonton, its a hike and a half. (check on Google maps if you're still struggling). Fortunately I was able to jag a couple of cheap flights so I didn't have to spend two days on the road.
After arriving at Calgary airport a touch after 8, I was in Grande Prairie by lunch. Right away, we packed up the cars (& boat) and headed for Sturgeon Lake which is about an hour's drive to the East of G.P.
Many of Shawn's relatives have cabins at Sturgen Lake, as do many Grande
Prairie residents. I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of nights
with Shawn & his parents in one of the cabins owned by his aunt.
They had already organized all the food & drink so I just had to
show up & get myself a fishing licence ($36 CAD). By 3pm, we were
out on the lake fishing. Not bad considering I'd left home in Calgary at
7.30am.
About 5 minutes after we started fishing, I had my first Walleye (above), the target species. It was easily a legal keeper (legal size is 17"). It was the first fish on the boat & the 2 locals were not amused. Shawn caught the next keeper, then I hooked into the fish of the day. This bad boy was 21" which is apparently about as big as you can catch in Sturgeon Lake. Two baits, two fish, 10 mins for me. I was on a roll, except I'd reached my bag limit, so technically I was done. The boys were liveried, particularly Shawn's Dad, Captain Ed, who hadn't even had a bite yet.
We kept fishing, with another 3 walleye to land before we had reached our bag limit. I soon had my 3rd fish with my 4th bait. This time it was a northern pike (the locals call them Jackfish, Fresh water alligators & slough sharks). It wasn't a large on by any stretch, but I had only seen them on the English fishing shows before, so it was cool to have caught one. They're a big hassle to fillet with a weird bone structure that means it takes an expert to avoid a mouth full of bones. They're slimy fish as well. Typically fishermen let them go.
Eventually Captain Ed got in the game and caught the next 3 keepers on the trot. We couldn't shut him up after that because he kept reminding Shawn that he'd caught one of his bag fish. Between the two of them they also hooked a few smaller Walleyes. Four of the six fish easily fed us, particularly with the accompaniments laid out for us by Shawn's mum Lois. Nobody went hungry & the fish and sides were all delicious. We definitely weren't roughing it that night.
We headed out on the lake a little after dinner with no success. Ed caught a couple of well under sized walleye, but no keepers. The next day it was a hot bright sunny day & the fish were to skittish to even bite. Fishing's a strange sport sometimes and after a hot streak for about 45 mins when we first arrived, we may as well have not bothered for the remainder.
It was still fun and a bad day out fishing is still better than the best day at the office.
Thanks to the northern latitude of Grande Prairie, the sun doesn't leave the sky until very late. This photo was taken at 11.45pm. Time gets away from you when the sun's still up. I didn't get to sleep until 1pm.
