ODDS’N’SODS — The catch of the day

During a summer reconnaissance geology project in northern Manitoba, my assistant and I were dropped off for a 2-week stint at a commercial fishing camp on a large lake.

The fishery there appeared to be active in the fall. The ice house was full, yet we found no signs of activity preceding our mid-summer arrival.

During our second evening at the camp, my assistant suggested we supplement our rations with fresh fish by setting a net we found in the fishery. The plan sounded like a good idea to me, and so we set the net in 25 ft. of water, about 200 yards from shore.

The weather, however, turned nasty that night and, by morning, our attempts to recover the net and its catch were stymied by heavy winds and rain. We could not safely get out to haul in the net to see if a fish supper was at hand. We were not able to retrieve the net until the afternoon of the second day.

To our surprise, we discovered we had caught more than just a single fish in our net — we had snared no fewer than 34, ranging in weight from 2 to 10 lb.

Our catch consisted chiefly of whitefish and walleye, though we also caught a few ling and a lake trout.

We decided to eat the lake trout but were at a loss as to what to do with the rest of the catch. We couldn’t eat them all and couldn’t simply discard them.

My partner suggested we send the fish back to Thompson, Man., on the plane that was due to arrive at our camp the next day. We cleaned the remaining fish, packed them in ice in the boxes we managed to find, and sent them on their way to civilization.

When the pilot returned eight days later for a planned camp move, he delivered orders from some of the locals for more fish — walleye in particular. Our newfound popularity with some people in Thompson quickly abated, however, when we sent the pilot back with the message that we had retired as fishermen. Our boss, on the other hand, was delighted to learn that we had decided to return to our geological pursuits.

— The author, a consulting geologist and frequent contributor to this column, resides in Thunder Bay, Ont.