Napken Lake Chronicles: Trip 3 Part 2 – Northern Lights.
Fall 2016.
If you missed Part One of this 3rd trip to Napken Lake, you can read it here.
After the thrilling flight into Napken lake, we unloaded the plane without incident, unpacked a few things and took to the boats. I had promised Russ’s wife that I would look out for him so he joined me in one of the boats and away we went.
- 12 Smokeless Hexamine Fuel Tablets
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- Weatherproof Matches With Waterproof Case
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- Magnesium Fire Starter
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- Ez Fire Firestarter - 10 Pack
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The fishing went as it had the first two years and by now I was becoming very familiar with the lake. This year the water was down quite a lot which kind of changed things a little, more care in watching for hazards and some of the old spots looked a little different. That was actually a good thing because it meant that there was now a great excuse to try some different approaches. Plus, we knew what had worked in the past and we could always go back to those things if we got bored. Russ did great right from the start. As a matter of fact he out fished me for the week.
Once again there were a lot of pike caught in the high 30’s and a handful that broke 40 inches but nothing of tremendous size this year. Again, the channel that I have mentioned in previous articles was a good place to fish, but as usual it wasn’t until the last full day that I had anything particularly interesting happen there…
One Fish, Two Times: A Pike’s Tale from Napken Lake
The week passed quickly and Russ and I had done well for ourselves with lots of fishing and lots of stories. As a last run on the last full day, we thought we would troll through the channel. As we entered, I had a good hit and could tell it was a nice fish.
After a few minutes a northern pike was in the boat and measured out at 37″. There was a large open wound on the right side of the fish about midway back that I took note of and wondered if maybe something bigger than she was had tried to have her for lunch.
Anyway, I slid her back into the water and away she went. Since we were barely at the opening of the channel we turned the boat back out to make another approach. I tied on a different lure for this pass just to try something new.
Again, as we entered the channel I had another good hit and brought in another northern.
This one was a nice sized fish but she didn’t put up a tremendous fight. I measured her out and she was exactly 37″. She also had a wound on her right side about midway back – this was the SAME fish I had just released 5 minutes before!
That just goes to prove that northern pike are very aggressive and not much can spook them. We took her picture a second time and I said goodbye as I slid her back into the water. I hope she is still out there…
Chilly Nights and Close Calls: The Cabin Smoke Incident
Since this was September, the nights (and even some of the days) can be quite chilly. In the cabin is an old wood stove that works well but has certainly seen its best years.
One evening we had a nice fire going in the wood stove and as we all went to bed one of the guys closed the damper.
Not knowing this, one of the other guys threw a few pieces of wood into the firebox. Sometime around 2 am I could hear in my dreams a female voice talking in french.
This went on for a few minutes and then all of a sudden one of the guys (George?) shouted that we had a fire!
Of course that got everyone moving but it seemed that I was in a fog and couldn’t fully comprehend what was going on. We searched for the source of the fire but it turned out that all we had was smoke – a LOT of smoke. We could hardly see our way to the door. After we all got some fresh air we opened all of the doors and windows to air out the cabin and we all thought about how lucky we had just been.
Carbon monoxide can kill quickly and we felt that we had woken up just in time. Oh, and the female voice was a talking carbon monoxide detector that was in the cabin – I wish I knew french!
Napken Lake and a Northern Lights Extravaganza: A Night to Remember
There was an upside to all of this confusion – the northern lights were on display and it was amazing!
I’ve seen them before but never quite like this, the colors were so vibrant and they danced all over the sky in great ribbons of green and red. It was a sight to behold.
I tried my best with my cheap camera to capture them and I’m kind of happy with the way the pictures turned out.
Finally it was time to call it a night and the end of another successful and tremendously enjoyable camping and fishing experience. This is what life is all about.
Rod
