Buying a Used Camper

Stories

Photo: Ralph Yates — Buying a Used Camper

Buying a used camper can be like rolling dice—you might win big, you might lose. The trick is to weight the dice in your favour by being a smart shopper.

The big advantage to buying used is that campers depreciate in value faster than they deteriorate. You’ll find used campers at RV dealerships, in the classifieds, and in the shopping guide at the corner store. With perseverance, there’s a good chance you’ll find a camper in pristine condition for a fraction of its new price.

Once you’ve found an enticing pre-owned camper, there are a few important things to check before deciding it will be a sound investment.

Get Down and Dirty

Check the undercarriage for serious rust, cracks and signs of old repairs. While you’re crawling around, be sure there are no cables or lines hanging loose. Check the floor for rot, especially beneath the doors. If tire wear is uneven, it might indicate a bent axle. If you’re negotiating with a dealer, try to get a repacking of the wheel bearings and an inspection of the brakes as part of the deal.

Watch for Water

Exterior joints are supposed to be re-caulked regularly, so old, dried-up caulk is a sign of neglect. Remember though, an isolated spot of new caulk could mean that a leak was patched. Check all joints for possible leaks, especially around openings in the roof and inthe corners. Check every inch of the ceiling for signs of water damage, as repairs to a ceiling can cost a fortune. Look under sinks, beds and in every compartment for signs of water damage. Use your nose and knuckles—check for the smell of mildew and knock while listening for the sound of punky wood. Look also for signs of insect or rodent damage.

The Gadgets

Make sure all appliances and systems operate properly. Insist that the camper be connected to power and water before you reach for your bankroll. Check all lights, faucets and the outside shower. Make sure the electrical and gas appliances work properly, especially the expensive refrigerator and air conditioner. In the case of a pop-up, be sure that the lift system works smoothly and easily and that the canvas is not mouldy or brittle.

Know You Can Tow

Check the towing capacity of your vehicle and be sure it exceeds the gross vehicle weight rating of the RV. Check to see what class of hitch you’ll need and whether your vehicle needs special wiring for the running lights and brakes.

There are a thousand little things you could check, but being thorough while checking these big things will let you put your money down with confidence.

Ralph Yates wrote about keeping your RV looking like new in the June issue last year.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Editorial: It’s Not a Man Van

Stories

Photo: iStockPhoto.com/Oksana Perkins — Editorial: It's Not a Man Van

In the 1970s, vans were cool: painted flames, mag wheels, smoked-glass bubble windows, shag carpet and the Doobie Brothers on the eight track. vans were rolling clubhouses for the wild and crazy youth of the ’70s. re-watch Fast Times at Ridgemount High if you don’t know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the bumper stickers, “If the van’s a rockin’…Don’t come knockin’.”

When minivans rolled onto the scene they changed all that. If a minivan is rockin’ it means the kids are inside beating the crap out of one another and the parents are oblivious to the racket because they are wearing Bluetooth headphones. For nostalgia’s sake I hope they’re listening to Rockin’ Down the Highway.

Women think men hate minivans because of the word mini. They think it’s a Freudian thing stemming from insecurities about size. Not true…I don’t have a problem with the word mini at all. Mini-putt is a challenging and fun short game of golf. The Mini is a sporty and practical city car. And my favourite, miniskirts, are a classy fashion garment freeing women of burdensome knee-length skirts.

And it’s not vans men have a problem with. Take Mr. T’s black and red-striped 1983 GMC in The A-Team for example. “My van’s cool, fool,” B.A. Baracus might say. The Mystery Machine in Scooby-Doo is cool. What guy didn’t want to travel around with Freddi, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy in their 1968 Chevrolet Sportvan eating Scooby snacks and solving mysteries? Without their van (and the scooby snacks, maybe) the show would be just a bunch of meddling kids and their damn dog solving the same dumb crime over and over again.

The minivan is not without its benefits.

Theatre seating, tons of luggage capacity, a smooth ride and reasonable fuel economy are qualities men use to justify their purchase. The same men always provide a qualifier when they praise it. “It handles pretty well…for a minivan.” or, “It’s actually pretty cool…for a minivan.” There is also a standard set of statements they use when being ribbed at the office. “It’s my wife’s.” Or, “It’s what works best for my family right now,” is another good one.

The problem with minivans is the image. If you’re 20 years old and driving a minivan, it’s obviously your dad’s. If you’re over 35 and driving a minivan, you are the dad. Minivans strip men of every ounce of pride and suction cup a diamond-shaped yellow sign to the rear window that reads, “Middle-aged sucker on Board.” And this is pretty rough for me because, as my wife puts it, I still see myself as a 25-year-old, raft-guiding, canoe instructing, camping-in-my-truck university bum, despite a greying goatee and mortgage.

I swear if ever the appeal of two sliding doors of practicality wins out over my dirt-bag sense of self, I will only refer to my reluctantly acquired vehicle as “the van.” And I’ll have it so plastered with stickers, loaded with canoes, kayaks and bikes and packed full of tents, sleeping bags, coolers, fishing rods, my wife and our kids that there will be only just enough room left over for a middle-aged guy and his iPod, holding the complete Doobie Brothers anthology.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Skills: Light a One Match Fire

Skills

Photo by icon0.com- https-::www.pexels.com:photo:photography-of-piled-red-matchsticks-1243550: — Photo by icon0.com: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photography-of-piled-red-matchsticks-1243550/

In Jack London’s short story To Build a Fire a greenhorn gold prospector falls through river ice and realizes he must build a fire or perish. He meticulously coaxes a flame from some kindling, but his fate is sealed when melting snow falling from an overhanging spruce bow smothers the fire.

Starting a campfire on a rainy summer night may not be a matter of life and death, but try telling that to the cold, wet and hungry mob that’s waiting for dinner. Fear not, with a single match and the following tips, you can have a roaring blaze in no time.

Tips to Remember

To avoid a reluctant, smoky fire that needs constant attention, take the extra time to collect good firewood. The biggest mistake is using wood that isn’t dry enough, that is, wood that hasn’t been dead long enough. When wood is dry the bark has already fallen off or can be easily removed. And don’t be fooled by a recent rain. The wet surface of good wood will dry quickly in a fire. Collect dry firewood from beneath the canopies of coniferous trees and piles of driftwood. If you can’t find dry twigs, make your own by whittling off the wet outer wood to expose dry wood underneath.

Timing is everything. If you’re going to get ignition with just one match, have all your wood ready so you don’t have to dash back into the woods as your flame flickers.

Organize your supply into three groups:

A fist-sized bundle of toothpick-sized twigs. The ends of dead spruce boughs are ideal for this but you’ll need to crush them so you can get the bundle compact enough.
A thigh-sized bundle of pencil- to finger-sized sticks that you’ll add to the fire as soon as the twigs ignite.
A torso-sized bundle of larger sticks that are up to the thickness of your wrist. Logs larger than your wrist are less useful for cooking and harder to light.

Rest the twigs on a stick to get the match underneath. You can give the twigs more time to catch by lighting tinder such as birch bark (only from deadfall) or scraps of paper under them, but don’t get distracted by getting a lot of scattered flames from quick-burning materials such as pine needles or leaves. Concentrated heat and flames are what you need.

When the twig bundle is ignited, add the second bundle carefully so you’re not scattering the twigs and dispersing the heat. Once the second bundle is burning well, dump lots of larger pieces on early to get a good bed of coals. Set your remaining wood around the fire or on the grill so it can begin to dry.

Consider using a firebox, a folding metal box that contains and concentrates the fire so you use less wood. It is relatively light- weight, doesn’t leave a fire scar and allows you to move the fire if the wind shifts or it starts to rain.

Nothing compares to a roaring fire to raise morale, provide warmth, dry your clothes and offer entertainment for those who like to poke and prod, or just gaze at the fire’s play of light.

Mark Scriver is a Black Feather Guide, author of Canoe Camping and co-author of Black Feather’s Camp Cooking.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Betcha Didn’t Know About Leeches

Stories

Betcha Didn't Know About Leeches | Photo: Toni Harting

Bloodsucking leeches use microscopic teeth to break the skin of their host and secrete an anti-clotting enzyme into the wound to keep the blood flowing.
Healers have used leeches for thousands of years for their ability to keep blood from clotting. The anti-coagulant in leech saliva prevents blood clots better than most pharmaceuticals. Today, leeches are used during some surgical reattachments of amputated limbs.
The word leech is thought to be a derivative of laece, the Old English term for physician.
Leeches are distinct among invertebrates in that some species of leech will nurture their offspring.
When a leech clamps onto a host, it will stay attached until it fills up. A leech can ingest enough blood to expand its body size by a factor of 11.
Salting and burning a bloodsucker are effective means of removal, but they may cause the leech to barf up its meal. A leech’s stomach bacteria can infect the wound. Menthol-based heat rubs are the safest way to remove a leech.
A separate order of worm-like leeches, common in freshwater, don’t have teeth or a love for blood.
In 1851, Dr. George Merryweather introduced the Tempest Prognosticator, a barometer using leeches housed in small bottles. He claimed that when a storm approached, the leeches became agitated and tried to climb out of the bottles, triggering a small hammer to strike a bell. The British Navy bought none.
Robin Leach was the host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, a show profiling the lives of rich bankers, lawyers and politicians, a whole different kind of bloodsucker.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Editorial: Freedom Fighters

Stories

Photo: Steve Muntz — Editorial: Freedom Fighters

They didn’t set out to be rebels. They were just four ordinary guys driving station wagons and wearing brown suits while trying to raise young families at the dawn of the 1980s. One was my father and the others—Dobson, Cruickshank and Kinnear— were people I would only hear about as their annual fall canoe trip approached.

One September, they were paddling deep in Ontario’s canoe country north of Elliot Lake when they finished a portage and discovered an aluminum canoe with a faded camp logo on the bow. It had obviously fared poorly in the rapids above and been left on the rocks as a memorial to mark the spot where one camp counsellor had gambled his $300 salary for the sake of a class II thrill.

They rehabilitated it with pine gum and duct tape and carried their new canoe to the top of the set to see what this whitewater thing was all about.

After running it a few times, the canvas canoes they had always rented seemed to be fragile liabilities, and they resolved to buy a second canoe of their own.

The next summer Cruickshank heard about an Indian selling canoes for $60. Perfect, he thought. He and Kinnear collected $15 each from the other two. After work one day they parked their car at the docks and took a ferry to Toronto’s Centre Island where they were told they could find the Indian. He was at the rental kiosk. His name was Gyan Jain, a real Indian who had come to Canada with an engineering degree that wasn’t recognized so began renting canoes by the hour to tourists.

Without negotiating, they picked out the best of the bunch, a flat-bottomed, triple-thwarted, orange-trimmed, aluminum barge of a canoe, rolled up their polyester slacks and pushed off to paddle across the harbour.

It was a sunny day and the ferries and cruisers were staying clear. All was well until Cruickshank looked over his shoulder to see the Harbour Police following slowly in the patrol launch.

“Let’s make a run for it,” suggested Kinnear. With their wide, richly-textured ties swinging from their necks—this was the early 80s remember—they gave it all they had for a few minutes. The cops bore down on them and, no doubt eager for a chance to use the loud hailer, ordered them to put their paddles down.

The police were preparing to confiscate the apparently-stolen rental canoe and take it back to the island when Kinnear pulled the receipt out of his pocket and proudly proclaimed that the canoe belonged to him.

After a curt warning about the dangers of canoeing in open waters, the police motored away.

It would be easy to say the police were just doing their jobs, or were concerned about public safety. But I suspect something more sinister was at work. For the last 27 years that canoe has taken men and women away from their offices and jobs, out of service as productive members of society. Not everyone can be happy about that.

As Kevin Callan notes in this issue’s Butt End column, in this society we are working harder and canoeing less. There must be something driving this unnatural trend, a dark force that would rather have us at our desks boosting the GDP instead of punching new waypoints into our GPS.

We haven’t yet uncovered how shadowy business organizations like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives pull levers of power to enlist the police in their fight against canoe purchases and the leisure time that follows, but we have our best freelancer on the case. That will be an issue you won’t want to miss.

In the meantime, I’d like to dedicate this, our sixth canoe buyer’s guide, to Cruickshank and Kinnear. Two men who faced state-sponsored harassment of canoe buyers and came home with a canoe to call their own.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Remote Park Routes

Trips

Photo: Ron Erwin / AllCanadaPhotos.com — Remote Park Routes

For the canoe tripper, parks present a dilemma.

On one hand, park services such as information staff, route maps and marked campsites and portages can make planning and executing a trip a simple affair.

For the canoe tripper, parks present a dilemma.

On one hand, park services such as information staff, route maps and marked campsites and portages can make planning and executing a trip a simple affair.

On the other hand, the simpler the planning is the more likely that the route will be crowded and you’ll be plagued by a feeling of being watched by park authorities.

By digging a little harder than the average park visitor you can still find routes that are unfairly neglected.

Every park has a corner that is hard to get to or a lake in the middle that requires a tough carry to reach. Here we offer four routes that enjoy all the ease of park tripping and all the seclusion of a forgotten piece of Crown land that only you know about.

Clearwater-Azure

Alpine wildflowers, old growth rainforest, extinct volcanoes and snowy peaks are not the typical scenery of a canoe trip. Clearwater and Azure Lakes provide an ideal setting to soak up several days of B.C. wilderness. If the stunning views aren’t enough, the route offers great campsites, sandy beaches, a river section, and, in addition to the standard-issue moose and eagles, the Clearwater-Azure route is home to grizzlies and mountain goats.

Wells Gray Provincial Park comes by its nickname of “the waterfall park” honestly, and Rainbow Falls is your proof toward the end of the steep-sided, glacier-fed Azure Lake. If you tire of the falls, forest and beach, explore the wetlands up the mouth of the Azure River.

Need to know

The trip begins and ends at the south end of Clearwater Lake, where you self-register and pay five dollars per person per night (cash only, kids under 13 are free). The lakes, each about 25 kilometres long, are joined by a three-kilometre section of river and a 500-metre portage. On the paddle up the Clearwater River, watch for the portage on your right. On your return trip, enjoy the downstream ride.

Powerboats are permitted on the lakes, but boat traffic is not a major detractor, especially if you go in June or September, and at low water fewer powerboats travel into Azure. Both lakes have campsites (Ivor Creek and Osprey) that are designated for canoeists.

Info

Wells Gray Information Centre: Clearwater, B.C., (250) 674-2646, env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/wells.html

Park Facility Operator: (250) 674-2194, explorewellsgray.com/index.html

Maps

Download a map from the B.C. Parks Wells Gray website. Additional topographic maps are not necessary for canoeing. env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/wells.html

Outfitter

Clearwater Lake Tours: (250) 674-2121, clearwaterlaketours.com

Probably didn’t know

Wells Gray was set aside in 1939 to protect an area almost as large as Prince Edward Island. It has since become an important refuge for the increasingly threatened mountain caribou. Much of their low-elevation habitat outside of the park has been lost. Caribou are often munching away on the forested slopes south of Azure Lake.

Need to bring

Bring sturdy hiking shoes and a comfortable pack so you can make the full-day hike up to Huntley Col (six kilometres, five hours one way, 1,300-metre elevation gain). You could also plan an overnight hike to Hobson Lake, where Clearwater Lake Tours also rents canoes (15 kilometres, 7 hours, one way, 300-metre gain). Either sidetrip could justify another few days in Wells Gray.

—Patrick Yarnell

Pine Loop

Quetico’s forest is primarily spruce, balsam fir and jack pine. But when you come upon a red or white pine rooted along any of the park’s 600 lakes, you’re in for a treat. Most of the pine stands average around 340 years old, making them some of the oldest trees growing on the Canadian Shield. And one of the best patches of trees to go and see are the ones found on Shan Walshe Lake.

The lake was named after a park naturalist that the Thunder Bay Chronicle called “the conscience of Quetico.” Visiting this lake, and the forests he slowly convinced others to protect, is a perfect way to spend a week in a canoe.

Need to know

The access point for this five-day loop is Ely, Minnesota, meaning a quarter of the route is in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), one of the United States’ largest chunks of protected wilderness.

Drive northeast out of Ely (and while there, be sure to pronounce it Elee, with an emphasis on the first syllable, or incur the wrath of otherwise friendly Elyians). Take Highway 169 (Fernberg Road) and then Moose Lake Road. It’s 31 kilometres from Ely to the public launch on Moose Lake. From there you paddle half a day across Moose, Newfound and Sucker Lakes to reach the Canadian border. To legally cross the 140-metre Prairie Portage in either direction, Canadian and U.S. paddlers must have a Remote Area Border Crossing permit. The route then heads clockwise through a chain of lakes linking Basswood, South, West, Shade, Dell, Grey, Armin, Shan Walshe, McNiece, Kahshahpiwi, Side and Isabella lakes, which brings you back to Basswood’s North Bay.

To obtain a Remote Area Border Crossing permit download an application at queticopark.com/rabc/. Canadians can also contact the Canada Immigration Centre, (807) 624-2158. The permit costs $30 Cdn and takes four to six weeks to process. Each paddler must have one.

Info

Quetico Provincial Park: (807) 597-2735 (Trip Planning Information Line).

BWCA home page: bwca.com

The route is written up in A Paddlers Guide to Quetico and Beyond, by Kevin Callan, (Boston Mills Press/Firefly Books).

Maps

The Friends of Quetico canoe map costs $14.95 and can be ordered from (807) 597-2735 or purchased at a ranger station.

Canadian topographical maps: 52 B/3, B/4, B/5, B/6.

U.S. fisher maps: F-10, F-18, F-25.

Outfitters in Ely, Minnesota

Canoe Country Outfitters: 1-800-752-2306, canoecountry.com/canoecountry/

River Point Outfitting: 1-800-456-5580, elyoutfitters.com/index.htm#si

Canadian Waters Canoe Outfitters: (218) 365-3202, canoecountry.com/canadianwaters/

Probably didn’t know

The portages leading in and out of Shan Walshe and McNeice lakes aren’t easy. One kilometre-long carry descends into a swampy bog then climbs up a nearly sheer slab of rock. But it’s worth it because it was this rugged terrain that kept the loggers from getting there in the first place. The pine were eventually scheduled to be cut in the 1960s but by then there were so many politically active paddlers who knew about them that the cutting was stopped.

Need to bring

An eye for the weather and a good rain tarp. Quetico is well known for its sudden rain squalls and frequent lightning storms.

—Kevin Callan

Chochocouane River

Before we get a letter of correction from the Official Languages Commission, we should point out that réserve faunique does not, strictly speaking, translate into English as provincial park. It’s true that there is hunting and logging in La Vérendrye, but they also occur in some so-called parks, and La Vérendrye has a maintained network of canoe routes that puts most parks to shame. For 15 years Canoe-Camping La Vérendrye (CCLV) has made tripping on the 800 kilometres of routes crossing the 13,615-square-kilometre reserve a simple affair.

Need to know

To paddle the Chochocouane, the reserve’s biggest river, you will want to follow circuit 61, a loop of 65 kilometres, or circuit 63, a variation that traverses 132 kilometres.

But wait, you say, how does a river trip constitute a loop? You have to ascend the Canimiti River at either end of the loop for a total of 31 upstream kilometres. At summer levels the current should only be noticeable for 10 kilometres and it means you won’t have to arrange a shuttle.

The put-in and take-out for both loops is the bridge on the Canimiti River, 113 kilometres northwest of Le Domaine, the CCLV visitor’s centre on Highway 117. The amount of the Chochocouane you descend will depend on which loop you choose, but either section offers plenty of easily avoided whitewater, making it suitable for any skill level.

Permits and fishing licences are available at Le Domaine. Permits for each circuit are handed out on a first-come, first-served basis every day.

Info

You can learn everything you need to know from CCLV (819) 435-2521, canot-camping.ca.

Maps

CCLV: Map #6 (order for $8 through the website).

Topographical: 31 N/11, 31 N/14, 31 N/15.

Outfitter

Rent canoes at the CCLV base at Le Domaine. You can also arrange a shuttle if you want to spare your vehicle some logging road travel. A round trip from Le Domaine for two canoes or less is $226.

Probably didn’t know

You don’t need to own a car or freeload off your friends to paddle La Vérendrye. Le Domaine enjoys daily bus service from both Ottawa and Montreal, both less than 350 kilometres away. Once at Le Domaine you can pick up your rented canoe and pre-arranged shuttle. Bus from Montreal, $109, (514) 842-2281. From Ottawa, $106, (613) 238-5900. Schedules are posted on the CCLV website.

Need to bring

Your dog. Though some restrictions exist, Sparky is welcome in La Vérendrye.

—Ian Merringer

New Northern Loop

In the 1990s the Ontario government conducted public consultations named Lands for Life. The result was an increase in the number and size of provincial parks. For the Killarney area it meant new parkland would reach up and grab Lake Panache and environs within its protective embrace.

But the wheels of land use management turn slowly, too slowly for Kevin Callan. In the spring of 2005 and 2006 he explored the park’s new territory, searching for “lost” portages and routes the park could use. Not only did he find some, he even recorded them for the park staff who went out last season and “re-discovered” them. What they have yet to do, however, is to create a reservation system for the new extension, meaning you won’t have to take your Palm Pilot to ensure you get to all your appointed campsites on time as you explore the rugged land north of the La Cloche mountains.

Need to know

Strictly speaking, the route is not in Killarney proper but in a new park called Killarney Headwaters and Lakelands Provincial Park. It doesn’t receive the same level of protection as Killarney itself, but administration and management are done from the same park office. You still have to get a park permit, but not reservations for specific campsites.

Start this loop either at Lake Panache Marina or Walker Lake public launch. To reach the marina, drive south on Regional Road 55 from Highway 17, about 30 kilometres west of Sudbury. After 1.5 kilometres turn right onto Regional Road 10 and drive south to Lake Panache. For Walker Lake public launch drive south on Highway 6 through Espanola and turn left on Panache Lake Road (Queensway) directly across from the Tim Hortons coffee shop. Drive nine kilometres and turn right at the first fork, toward Hannah Lake. Another six kilometres will take you to another fork. Go left to reach the launch area or Mountain Cove Lodge.

Paddle the route counterclockwise, from Walker Lake to Bear, High, Basson, Panache and back to Walker. You can take a number of side trips from Bear Lake, allowing you to travel throughout the northern range of Killarney Provincial Park itself.

Info

Killarney Provincial Park: (705) 287-2900, ontarioparks.ca/english/kill.html

Friends of Killarney: (705) 287-2800, friendsofkillarneypark.ca

The route is written up in A Paddlers Guide to Killarney and the French River, by Kevin Callan, (Boston Mills Press/Firefly Books).

Outfitters

White Squall Paddling Centre: Nobel, Ontario, (705) 342-5324, whitesquall.com

Killarney Kanoes: Sudbury, 1-888-461-4446, killarneykanoes.com

Maps

Topographical maps: 41 I/3, 41 I/4.

Friends of Killarney will be coming out with an updated map marking campsites in the new area on July 1st.

Probably didn’t know

Dan Brown and his sister Betty, both in their 70s, have lived reclusively on Panache Lake in a remote cabin all their lives. Their stories about the past are inexhaustible, including how a German spy, Baron von Hausen, sent radio signals to Germany from his cabin on Killarney’s Nellie Lake during the Second World War and how Al Capone visited the cabin of the ex-mayor of Chicago on Threenarrows Lake. Apparently enough tommy guns to sink a canoe were found behind the cabin’s walls when it was torn down.

Need to bring

Compass or GPS. The portage route gets a little confusing between Basson and Panache Lake and if you don’t take a bearing with your compass or GPS, you might find yourself wishing the route wasn’t so secret after all.

—Kevin Callan

This article first appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

How To: The Compleat (Beginner) Angler

Skills

Photos: James Smedley — How To: The Compleat (Beginner) Angler

At first it’s a distant whine, but in the time it takes to raise your eyes, it’s upon you.

Zoom!

The metallic blue blur of a bass boat blasts by with two guys hunkered down behind the windshield, clutching their fishing hats.

Then they’re gone.

Television fishing shows would have you believe that fishing requires heavy-duty horsepower and enough equipment to open a tackle shop. Not so. By keeping it simple you can get started on a shoestring (though I still recommend monofilament).

Let’s assume you’ll be fishing for freshwater panfish like bass or crappie. Allowing some room for additions from local experts, the following items make up a basic fishing kit for each fisher in your family:

• A spincasting reel and rod combo. This will come with line, usually 10-pound test, which is more than adequate. This type of reel is easy to use and gives little trouble. You can outfit yourself and two kids with rigs like this for under $50, much less if you shop at yard sales.

• A package of plain #6 hooks. Have the staff at a fishing store show you how to tie the hook onto the line. If you don’t want to use live bait you’ll need some lures and swivels or leaders.

• Bait and tackle. These will vary depending on your quarry. Ask some locals. When it comes to lures don’t assume more expensive is better.

• An assortment of split shot weights. Weights get the bait deep or keep the lure down while casting or trolling.

• A bobber for each line. These let you keep your bait at a constant depth and let you keep your eye on things.

• A licence. Keep it legal by checking the rules for your area.

To rig up your outfits for fishing with bait, which is the simplest way to start with a family, tie a hook to each line using the knot you learned at the tackle store. About 6 to 12 inches above the hook, attach a split shot weight or two. About three feet further up, attach the bobber.

Now look for someone at the campsite you can quiz. If you find yourself standing on shore without help or a clue where to begin, remember that fish are attracted to spots that are different than the surrounding areas. If most of the shoreline is beach, find a point, pier, boat launch, pile of rocks or a downed tree—anything that looks different. Fish at the edge of features; that is where the fish will be.

All set? Okay, cast out your bait and get comfortable; fishing is a waiting game. Every 15 minutes, slide the bobber one foot up the line until your bait is seven or eight feet deep. You can also have each member of your family start fishing at different depths.

When a fish bites, raise the top of your rod briskly to set the hook and then keep the line tight. As you reel it in, grin widely, turn your head and yell, “Put the frying pan on, Hon! We’re having fish for supper!”

Fishing can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, but one thing’s for sure: it’s contagious.

Ralph Yates wrote about buying a used camper in the April issue of Family Camping.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Snoopy Rods, Dandelions and Other Fishing Secrets

Stories

Photo: Rick Matthews — Snoopy Rods, Dandelions and Other Fishing Secrets

It’s a familiar scene: a tranquil summer evening, setting sun, calm water, several anglers idly casting from shore. The rhythmic lapping of water against the rocks is punctuated by a loud smack as someone slaps a mosquito.

Whether success comes through skill, patience or just plain luck, the thrill of a memorable catch is what fishing is all about.

Sadly, neither skill nor luck were present that evening on Kettle’s Lake. At dusk, the lids on the tackle boxes slammed shut, canoes pointed back to the landing and the familiar explanation “They’re just not bitin’ tonight” was muttered around the lake. My husband and son were among the defeated. After thoroughly fishing a weedy area that should have yielded results, they could only ponder their strategic shortcomings.

So you can imagine the sheer horror when my four-year-old daughter landed an 18-inch largemouth bass on her Snoopy rod, reeling it in from shore, right under the nose of her father and brother. She landed it, petted it, named it Freddy, and then released it amid the astounded stares of jealous anglers.

It’s not supposed to be this way.

Camping and fishing are synonymous to my kids. Our camping trips are orchestrated to provide the best fishing opportunities possible.

We arm ourselves with stacks of fishing magazines, towers of videos, spires of reference books and an intimidating arsenal of lures. But the kids break all the rules. They ignore the professional advice from the fishing gurus on television and make do without the latest gadgets from the fishing shows; and they still catch fish. Last summer, my friend’s daughter caught a bass using a dandelion as bait.

With their record of success, kids should be writing for the glossy fishing magazines. I can imagine engaging articles filling the following sections:

Bait and Equipment

• Pantry Bait— Reel them in with Marshmallows and Wieners

• 101 Things You Can Do with a Fishing Net (Other Than Catch Fish)

Tips and Techniques

• Back in the Box: How To Snorkel for Snagged Lures

• Tree Climbing 101: Ten Tree-Top Tips for Retrieving Lures

• Whose Line is it Anyway? Untangling Messes of Not-so-Monofilaments

• Getting Mom to Hook your Worm

Exclusive Features

• Landing Monster Sunfish!

• The Season’s Most Popular Names for Live-Release Catches

I suppose such magazine articles wouldn’t be serious enough for the average angler. After all, fishing is serious business. Too serious, if you ask me. I’ve never seen a kid come back in a bad mood after fishing with a marshmallow as bait, getting a soaker, or climbing a tree to retrieve a snagged lure.

Kids are great anglers because they’ll take fun over conventional wisdom any day. And when you have a tackle box, a bag of marshmallows and a few friends, who needs skill or luck?

Toss your line in these parks:

Kejimkujik National Park

Nova Scotia

pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ns/kejimkujik

In the spring the brook trout are active in lakes and streams. When the water is warm the white perch lurk in the shallows.

Killbear Provincial Park

Ontario

ontarioparks.com/english/killb.html

The clear Georgian Bay waters are home to walleye, whitefish, perch, pike and bass. A nearby lake trout sanctuary is shelter to a resurgent population.

Voyageurs National Park

Minnesota

nps.gov/voya/

Walleye, pike and smallmouth bass cruise the waters of this park adjoining the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on the
Canadian/U.S. border.

Yellowstone National Park

Wyoming

nps.gov/yell/

Trout rule in the 1,200 kilometres of rivers and 175 lakes in the oldest park in the U.S.

Waterton Provincial Park

Alberta

watertoninfo.ab.ca

Numerous rainbow, cutthroat, bull and lake trout rub scales with whitefish, pike and sculpin. One lake trout weighed in at 24 kilograms.

Lynn Iles loves fishing, she just doesn’t like to fish. She is a fishing facilitator who books the camping trips, documents the catches and listens to the stories when “They’re just not bitin’.”

This article first appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Editorial: Catch Fishing

Stories

Photo: Virginia MacGregor — Editorial: Catch Fishing

This is me, July, 1974. I’m fishing in the pond on my grandfather’s farm. Cute, isn’t it? My earliest memories are of fishing in this pond, but I can’t remember ever catching anything. After bombarding my parents with questions, they’ve finally admitted there weren’t any fish in the pond.

That didn’t stop me (although it may have, had I known) from sitting there for hours and even making up elaborate fish stories with all the determination and imagination of a three-year-old sitting on a cherry pail, worm on hook.

There is an allure to fishing that kids can’t explain and grownups shouldn’t ignore.

The fishing industry—a massive group of grownups who still pretend to be kids—has figured out that hooking real kids on fishing while they are young is the secret to the industry’s long-term survival and the long-term survival of fish populations as we know them. They know, for instance, that the likelihood of kids fishing, buying rods and giving cash to conservation groups as adults is far more likely if they are exposed to fishing at an early age.

This is why you’ll find Zebco Finding Nemo rod and reel combos at Wal-Mart. It should also be a statistical wake up call for us parents. Analyzing the data another way, if you are looking forward to going fishing with your sons and daughters when you retire, your chances are significantly greater if you take them fishing now.

My son just turned two years old. For his birthday I gave him his own Plano tackle box with a couple of Rapalas, spinners, spoons (all with the hooks removed, of course) and a dozen rubber worms. Instead of cheap, crappy toys from a dollar store that so many parents get sucked into buying, he and I go shopping for tackle. It is something he loves, it isn’t broken by the time we get home and it’s planting the seed for a lifetime of fishing together.

Planting seeds on a larger scale, the Canadian National Sportfishing Foundation’s awareness campaign, Catch Fishing, is all about getting youngsters into fishing. One of their posters hangs in my local general store. Staring at every parent buying 20 bucks’ worth of gas or lottery tickets is a six-year-old with a big toothy grin holding a beautiful walleye.

What’s the message?

Recreational fishing is an excellent outdoor activity that fosters family values and can assist children in their emotional and social development. What that really means is, if you really want to win big this summer take your sons and daughters fishing. Go during the official National Fishing Week, July 1 to 8, or go whenever you can.

And one more bit of advice from a guy who knows: take them somewhere there are fish.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Canoes Without Borders

Stories

Photo: Frederic Remington Art Museum, Ogdensburg, New York — Canoes Without Borders

No matter where you are reading this, you likely have a certain affection for the canoe. A recent trip to a U.S. event called Canoecopia helped me realize that the canoe is a much more populous and geographically-dispersed notion than some Canadians like to think. Unlikely as it might seem, there may be room in this realization for improvements in the social and political fortunes linking Canadians and Americans.

Canoecopia, organized by an outdoor retailer in Madison, Wisconsin, bills itself as the world’s largest paddlesports exposition. Largest, in this instance, means that in an exhibit hall the size of a small township hundreds of equipment manufacturers, boat builders, conservation groups, park personnel, paddling clubs, food vendors, gizmo inventers, and publishers (yes, Canoeroots was there) gathered to hobnob and hock their wares.

Add to that more than 7,000 canoeists (at least half of whom looked like Bill Mason, including a good proportion of the women) who sloshed in over three days in March. Besides the displays, these willing delegates could avail themselves of an Olympic-sized pool with dawn-to-dusk demonstrations and seven (count ‘em) theatres running simultaneous back-to-back programs every hour.

While navigating my way across the exhibit floor for the first time, the ever-perky Kevin Callan hied up out of nowhere and said, “Think of it as a Star Trek convention for canoeists.” That’s exactly what it was… a paddler’s mind meld.

I’d been invited to Canoecopia to speak about Bill Mason but by the time my presentations were done, I had attended programs about all aspects of the canoeing and kayaking world delivered by other people from near and far. And although I had crossed the border with a touch of trepidation (having been refused entry on a previous occasion), the sense of connection to these fellow paddlers, most of whom were American, highlighted a lesson and an opportunity.

Although the canoe has a unique and special place in the hearts of Canadians, if one were to draw a line—let’s call it an isothwart—joining points of equal affection for the canoe, it would be clear that canoeophilia would not cease at the 49th parallel. You’ve got this enthusiastic rump of paddlers in Wisconsin and Minnesota. You’ve got Ralph Frese in Chicago (Uncle Sam’s Kirk Wipper…or is Kirk Wipper Canada’s Ralph Frese?) who argues that the American confederacy was not cast of horse shit and wagon grease, as so many believe, but of birchbark and pine pitch in the hands of French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, who crossed from Lake Michigan through to the Illinois River and down the Mississppi 434 years ago. You’ve got Lewis and Clark. You’ve got the great canoe building companies of the Northeast states. You’ve got boatbuilder Henry Rushton. You’ve got the Adirondack Museum and the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. You’ve got the American Canoe Association and the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association.

At a point in history when crossing the border is getting increasingly difficult, canoeists on both sides might consider showing leadership by working to celebrate what we have in common rather than capitulating to circumstances that would keep us apart. Rivers, fortunately, know no such bounds—the St. Croix, St. John, St. Lawrence, Red, Milk, Columbia, Fraser, Yukon and many more between—maybe it’s time we used them to paddle to meet our neighbours. As Henry David Thoreau once famously said, “Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.”

James Raffan has not yet disclosed why he was once refused entry into the United States.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

1...529530531...564 Page 530 of 564