SUMMER FOG, SCORCH A HOG

It’s a funny thing about colloquialisms, they often explain an event in shorter terms than a weatherman could. I hadn’t heard the term, ‘summer fog, scorch a hog’ but it was never more true than this year’s fishing adventure at Bear Lake in Ontario, Canada.

Our border crossing at the Sioux Locks was uneventful and when we arrived at our motel in Espanola, I stashed my money, my ID’s and my keys in my soft-pack case. Those 3 things are the things I check each morning before leaving for work. When you are on an island in the middle of a lake there is no need for such nuisances. We rented two fishing boats at the Lang Lake Resort, loaded them, and brother Bill’s boat with gear and headed for our island retreat.

Big Bear Lake resides within the Boundary Waters between Canada and the United States. It is adjacent to Killarney National Park. Killarney is famous for its canoe trails. Canadian people come from all over the Province to canoe and portage along the Killarney trails. The attraction of these trails is a trek through a Canadian wilderness, which abounds with black bear, moose, waterfowl and beautiful unscarred landscapes.

Our cabin gives us access to the same wilderness areas without the need to carry everything on our backs. The cabin is equipped with gas refrigerators, a head-tank with fresh lake water, gaslights and insect free sleeping quarters. If you are the type of person that likes to hike to the back lakes in the park, then there are more lakes available than you can hike to in a week. If you like to set on the deck and look out over the lake during a relaxing week of blissful nothingness then that is also available.

As we boated through Lang Lake and then navigated the narrows through Little Bear and Big Bear there was a summer fog hanging over the lakes. The still air and high temperatures brought us summer heat and humidity that is more normal for Midwest August weather. The unusual hot weather had the smallmouth bass feeding.

The fog dissipated by Wednesday and by Thursday evening the Northern Pike finally decided it was time to eat. Saturday morning we were again in the boat, heading back to reality. Money, ID’s and keys back in my pocket and then back to Waynedale, where there was yet another summer fog.