This was a rough one. And unfortunately I didn’t log this like I usually do, and I’m writing this all based upon memory.

My father and I had pre-planned this trip prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. We had been delaying it for quite some time because we couldn’t cross the border without having a negative test, quarantine and just a whole lot of extra stuff. Someone like me, who was deemed essential personnel during the pandemic, could not do that. So we waited, carried the credit from 2020 to 2021 then to 2022. Because Dina and I were getting married in 2022, my father and mother were going to go on the trip in late June like we always did. As most of you know, that day never came and we had to push it to 2023. Dina was going to go with me because she wanted to see what it was like, and get some real good fishing under her belt. Well, with Dina being 7 months pregnant, we decided that wasn’t going to be the best of ideas. Because the guys had already pre-planned their vacations, I couldn’t ask them to go. That left me going with my mother. Mind you, Mike, the owner of Garden Island Lodge for the last couple years, has been awesome with everything and understood our situation as well as being very easy to work with. I had a job to do though, circling back to my final orders from my father, knowing that this was probably that last trip I was going to do for a long, long time.

The drive up wasn’t too bad. I wound up scheduling a doctor appointment on the way up there with my primary care physician so that I could start getting back to the routine of yearly check ups, as well as being healthy for my children. The funniest bit was at the border crossing, where I didn’t realize what type of shirt I was wearing or how the officer would potentially profile me. I was wearing the Patriot definition shirt from Grunt Style, and as we are going through the border I got the typical question of “do you have any firearms or weapons with you?”

“Just my fishing gear.”

“Do you carry a gun or normally carry a gun?”

“No…” I can sense mom staring at me.

“Positive?”

“Yes sir.”

“Very good, have a good trip.” He hands us the passports and we go on our way.

“You realize he asked you that because of your shirt right?” Mom says.

I look down. “Yeah, should have probably kept the sweatshirt on for that.”

When we got to the hotel, I was texting the two guys that Dad and I had been friends with for years from going up to the Lodge who were meeting us for dinner. We got there and had a good couple laughs, and were told that the weather had changed from that morning, which originally had been perfect fishing weather. The original forecast was 50s to 60s, cloudy with some days rain all week. But by the evening, it had turned to sunny every day and up to high 70s on some. Kind of had the feeling my father had something to do with that to just mess with us.

Day One – Saturday

Morning came, and we headed to Mowats Landing. After dropping our gear off, I parked the truck before getting VIP service from Trevor, when he drove me in his golf cart to the landing. We loaded up onto the boats, got to Garden Island, and started setting up gear. We had lunch, paid off our debt to the owner, as well as got a nice red flannel shirt that had a Garden Island Logo on it. I got a quick recap of how to run the boat, because this was my first time truly running the boat, whereas my father would only let me drive it to and from our spots from time to time while we were up there. In the afternoon, we headed out to Preachers Point, and trolled around the point and into the bay, before heading to the bay that I had found years ago after my grandfather had passed. Caught a few fish but as it was getting closer to dinner, so we headed in.

After dinner, we took our time heading out like usual because we knew the fish don’t really bite right away until it gets cooler. We headed towards sucker gut, because it cools off a little quicker over there and there’s a few channels that the fish cool in. Like I had foreseen, it wasn’t the easiest, but we caught a few fish before it was starting to become too dark to see.

Day 2 – Sunday, Father’s Day

We started the morning going all the way down to Walsh Bay, also known by Dad and Grandpa as Dave’s Bay. Dad used to catch walleye after walleye in the bays that were there. The bass and pike were biting as we got there, and caught a few as we moved around into the bays and shallow areas. As the day progressed, we moved up to Long Island, and then headed in.

This was the part that wasn’t fun, but I had my orders. There is a spot, that Grandpa always wanted to go fishing at, called Eagle Island. Back in the day, I guess the eagles would always nest there and you could see them in the trees. After Grandpa stopped going to Garden Island, Dad and I decided to give Grandpa an “award” stating that from here on out, that it would be renamed to being ‘Grandpa’s Island’ because that was the place he wanted to go every night after dinner. In the past it was always a place where we would catch walleye. On the reef when Dad retired, he caught a monster 30-inch walleye. He nor I would ever catch something that size again.

One of Dad’s wishes was to have his ashes spread up on Lady Evelyn. Mom brought a little jar with some of his ashes up with us and, because it was Father’s Day, it was the most appropriate time to do it. Murph and Al came and followed us down to Grandpa’s Island, and over the reef was the best spot. I unscrewed the top, opened the little baggy that had dad in it, and let some of him, flow into the water. I kept some in the jar, and filed the jar with water, and sealed it, before sending his remaining ashes in the jar, to the bottom of the lake, at the reef. It sounds easy or like something I did so heartlessly. But when you have such a close relationship with your father, all you could wish is that this wasn’t truly happening and you, as a 34 year old man, didn’t have to do this. It will never be easy, especially when you lose your best friend.

There was barely any fishing done that night, considering how emotional my mother was, and I just had my line in to see what would happen.

Day 3 – Monday

Because, like the whole week was turning out to be, sunny and hot, we went down to Sucker Gut again, and into Betty’s Hole. Given that in 2014, I had caught a giant 40 inch pike there, and the weather conditions were similar, that seemed the most logical spot to go. We casted most of be no the morning, catching some pike and bass, before having lunch and heading back to the lodge because it was just too hot.

After dinner we went to Bassacre Bay, another spot that was a favorite for evening fishing. We caught a few fish in there, but for the most part it was very slow. I took out my new camera when I saw a Bald Eagle and probably took about 100 photos of it while we were sitting in the boat. We went through the mouth of the bay and trolled around the stumps and caught a few walleye for take home before heading in.

Day 4 – Tuesday

Another hot and sunny day. We made a trip to the east side of long island again, and into the channels where we’ve seen people catch fish before. We drove around just casting away at the shore line and went up to Midway Island and the channel and caught a few pike there. Midday we headed back in to cool off and get out of the sun. I wound up cutting a pair of jeans to make shorts so I could have something cool to wear.

Since it was so hot during the day, we waited to go out because there isn’t much of a point to go out with the sun still beating down on the lake. We went down to Grandpa’s Island again and circled the island a lot, catching some walleye and a couple pike to bring home before heading in.

Day 5 – Wednesday

Yes. Hot and Sunny. We went down to Sugar creek and opening to it, to potentially catch something trying to stay cool. Unfortunately not the case as we trolled around the opening, before continuing south along the coast line scaring up a bass or two in the process. The wind started to pick up as we got towards Cookies Bay, and trolled across the channel to the old Osprey nest south of Grandpa’s Island. We scared up a couple more fish, and we decided to head in.

Evening came, and we decided to head to Grandpa’s Island again to try our luck some more there. We caught some more Walleye, and circled the island a few times before we headed in for the night.

Day 6 – Thursday

Yes it was. HOT AND SUNNY AGAIN. Do you see a theme yet here? We tried something new for once, because Dad and I never did it, and went straight across from the docks to an area that we’ve seen go. We started in a bay and immediately caught a couple Pike swimming around. We explored the shoals that are on that side of the lake too, catching some small bass. We went over to the secret waterfall and tried our luck again in there before trolling the coast line, exploring more bays and other shoals, finding more Pike and bass as we went. Before long we were looking at the open lake, and since it was afternoon we headed in.

The evening trip: another one Dad and I hadn’t done before. We went down into Betty’s hole to scare up something. As it got closer to dusk, we started catching some fish including a nice couple 28 inch Pike. Before long it was getting dark, and I didn’t want to try to figure out the hazards at night, so we left and did a pass in the channel at the gut before fully heading in.

Day 7 – Friday

As it was the last day for us to fish, I decided to be a little frisky, and attempt going to Franks Falls. Talk about a drive down there – almost 10 miles by boat to get down to the falls, and navigate the hazards. Frankly, there were quite a few. As we started fishing there, we wound up catching our limit in Walleye to take home, which was a blessing considering how long it took us to get that amount. We started back trolling out of the rocky terrain and caught a few more Pike in the process, staying out into the afternoon before finally calling it a trip and headed in to start packing up our gear.

We packed up our non-essential stuff and put it outside, like we normally do on the final night. After dinner, I took a walk around the island with my video camera and video’d the whole island like I had done years ago with my dad’s old VHS video recorder. As it got closer to night, I started messing with the camera more, and, from the dock, I could zoom in and see that there were easily 9 boats over at the Idiot’s point, where everyone had been catching fish.

Day 8 – Saturday / Sunday

Travel day is always sucky, because we have to get in the boat, get to Mowats landing, load the truck up and then drive. The trip back stateside was pretty uneventful: stayed the night in the Watertown area, ate at the Olive Garden, woke up in the morning, got Dunkin Donuts and headed home. Except I used the mobile app for Dunkin and chose the wrong store in Watertown. Oops.

Final Word

I’m writing this months after the trip, or there would be a heck of a lot more detail involving this. Thankfully, I took my phone, and was using Onx Maps while we were up there to track everything we were doing, including waypoints for fish and obstacles. I know this was my last trip for quite a long time, and quite frankly I’m okay with that. I’ve got a family now to worry about, other things I need to do, and Viv’s property to manage and take care of. If I went up again, I’d be too worried about the stuff at home.