9-11-03 - Another of many nice views of the Garden.

Turned around, shot downstream.

THIS IS NOT THE GARDEN! Some stupid no-name lake we hiked 5 miles to!

Pretty, but no fish activity at all in this lake.

MS2, Chief and FAT after hiking 5.2 miles...and to think we have to turn around and walk it all the way back.

FAT's Nature Hikes do produce some great scenery.

I think this is the same lake as before, just the other side.

Fishin' fishin' fishin' 'cause that's all there was to do.

Tim whacks a nice Creek Chub. Chief's jealous!

My Peanut Gallery.

You need to bath at some point!

Matt & Larry W. hiked a lot too, but it paid off with three nice males!

Male Pink!

Male Pinook!

Male Chinook!

9-11-03 - Canada, Part II - Where's the river?!?! (Another FATMAN Nature Hike)

Waters Fished: Garden River
Fish Caught: 0 personally
Outing Date: 9-11-03
Weather: Clear & Sunny
Air Temp: 70's dropping to about 40's - 50's at night
Water Temp: Didn't Take it
Water Level: LOW
Water Color: Clear
Fish Species: Pink Salmon, Chinook Salmon, Pinook (Chinook X Pink), Perch?!
Pattern Fished: All Sorts
Pattern Color: you name it
Fishing Quality: UM, we didn't FISH!

So here you go..no fish again. What do you do? Go downriver of course! Well, we left camp to check out a trail we scouted back in July...we got stuck on that one but it was RAINING that day...maybe with 2 months of no rain the trail would be nice and hard.

No such luck! We still get stuck, and we're looking at eachother like "What next"?! Ok, the map looks, in FAT's opinion, that we're about 3 miles from the river. TIME TO HIKE! We're all pretty healthy, we can walk 3 miles! We gear up, bring what we can, and head out.

An hour goes by, we see tons of "nature" and even spot the tracks of Bear, Moose, and either Lynx or Bobcat. Maybe even a wolf (or dog, it's hard to say).

Another hour goes by and we find some water; well, actually the first water we passed was a lake...this looks "kinda riverish"; yeah! Wait, it's a LAKE? I didn't remember a lake on the map? Well, maybe it's like the Milwaukee downstream...wide and deep? I tossed for a bit, but saw absolutely NOTHING going on.

We take a look at the GPS...we've hiked 5.2 miles! Alright, it's time to turn back.

A couple hours later we make it back to the trucks...after consulting the GPS and the map the river was NOT 3 miles away...it was like 20! HOLY GEEZE FATMAN! Well, 10.4 miles of hiking...we're beat!

On the way back to camp we passed another lake and found the 2 Tims fishing. They had landed a few perch, and supposedly the lake held brookies and splake. Well, we all tossed, and I managed to land a nice 5" chub. Considering the now famous wager of the "Smokin' Tahoe" (MS2 & MP) vs. the "Fat Tribe" (FAT and Chief) of who would land the largest fish in Canada, I was now in the lead!

Later that evening, after total exhaustion had set in, a couple of our buddies (Larry & Matt) made it back to camp...after hiking/wading way downriver they had managed to land a few males! Pink, Pinook, and Chinook. All I can say is congratulations...I didn't even really FISH that day!

  MP