Take a week off work and go fishing and relax they said.................

[Darryl - swazies]

This is where all the bugs are.....
The fish are good at hiding.....
The bbq still does taste delicious.......
All things said I am having a relaxing time with the MRS. I haven’t had many great cooks to post, a bit of booze keeps getting in the way.
That and all easy cooks so far...sausages Saturday, steak on Sunday and chicken thighs last night.
Still have great cuts to cook, picahna and ribs are still in the freezer. Smoked chops tonight with beans and maybe a salad.
Caught a few fish, but only been out in the mornings so far.....apparently it’s not cool to consume alcohol and operate a boat.....
This tends to interfere with my afternoon fishing plans.
All jokes aside, we get out for 5 or 6 hours in the morning so it’s been great.
No pickerel (walleye) yet.....which is funny because I am staying on pickerel river....
I know where they are but haven’t landed any.....also it would seem like I am not a very good fisherman.
Caught a handful of sport fish, largemouth bass and pike have been good, and good size too.
All the fish pics are on the wife’s phone, may get to post those at the end of the week.
So all I have is strip steaks and sides on file to show, I will try to get a few more dinners posted.

Oh yeah....the bugs, different pests for different times of the year.
We missed black flies thankfully but around 8pm the mosquitoes come in so thick it changes the colour of the sky.
Not literally but I got the food inside last night and looked at the bbq and there must have been about 30 around it.
Then there are the horseflies......
And these little bastards get you while on the boat and they chase the boat while you drive away.....cannot outrun them.
Fortunately they are pretty easy to kill.
Triangle looking flies that take hunks of flesh and makes you swell up pretty good for each bite.
I think I got bit over 15 times this morning....
I am on reactine and Benadryl......lol.
Thanks for looking, chops are thawed and hopefully ribs tomorrow and picahna for Thursday.

 

[ChuckO]

That part of Canada is a fisherman's paradice. I've been to French River Provincial Park, it's beautiful there. I don't remember the bugs being too crazy, at least not as bad as Alaska

Enjoy your stay

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Edit: I believe these flies I hate are deer flies........horse flies are much larger and dumber.
Thanks Chuck, the next river north of us is the French river, we have spent lots of time there too, also getting eaten alive by the same critters. It is a beautiful area, but it is fairly popular so the fishing has a fair amount of pressure. We knew this but love the area.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Also thought I would share this.
Nailed a nice pike today on my favourite white spinner with gold and silver spoons.
He bent the snot out of it.....if you fish you understand everything is supposed to be parallel, not all bent this way and that. Good lure, it is garbage now.

 

[Tim Campbell]

This thread is epic, Darryl. I've caught my share of pike but I've never had a spinner damaged like that. Damn...scary fish.

 

[Peter Gallagher]

looks like some fun times - The place looks nice!

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Nothing crazy, last nights dinner was pretty tasty, smoked and grilled chop and brown beans.
Like a campfire meal is how it felt.
Pictures are poor, tonight’s meal is pork again, looks great so far just have to figure out how to fit these bad boys on the JJ. 1 rack of babies, I had them chopped in half already so I could vac pac them......gotta buy things you see on sale now and save them for later apparently.
This competition rub is heavenly.
Try to remember to get pics again, I’m forgetting about 50% of the time.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Weather update.....
They called for 4 days of rain before we left........
It only rained once and it was for about 2 minutes, the weather has been great.
And if by great I mean it was questionable to start a fire in the fire place when we arrived and now we are mid 2 day heat warning....it’s about 90 or warmer here.....then yeah, it’s great.
My feet have swollen up like balloons from deer fly bites........
I’m done complaining now....it’s miller time

 

[Darryl - swazies]

My internet is very sporadic.
I’ve been making ribs so here we are so far.
Got them wrapped right after the last pics.
I have only butter, apple juice and bbq sauce so that is what it is.
Going to finish with some vinegar bbq sauce, served with beans and salad.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Let’s check those bug bites again...getting real..this happens to me often,but it’s still never fun.
Ribs should be a bout an hour or so.

 

[John K BBQ]

Great pics Darryl! Bug bites and fishin' go together like hot dogs n' baseball.... although I hate bug bites too. I'm hoping to do some fishing later this summer near Detroit Lakes MN.... I'll post some fishin' pictures if we catch any good ones. Lots of bass and some pike in the lake, but the Walleye are usually staying pretty deep and harder to catch.

 

[Wil A]

Thanks for all the updates. Despite the bugs, camping is where it’s at!

Also, love the mustard with the beans.

And, here’s a Coors Light for you!

 

[Jason Godard]

Cool thread. Sorry about the bugs, I can sympathize, I’m always the only one who gets eaten alive outdoors.

 

[Bruno]

Love the Oakridge rub, the fly not so much.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Thanks for looking everyone.
Fishing was great again this morning, hooked 2 nice large mouths but only got one in the boat. The other jumped right out of the net at the side of the boat. The bigger one got away....looked like between 3 and 5 pounds but hard to say. The one I got in was 1 to 2 pounds. Also brought in a nice pike, nothing trophy yet.....need to use my bigger lures perhaps....the MRS got her hands on a mit full of red eyes and some pumpkin seeds....she likes to catch a lot of fish regardless of size. I caught none of what she did, but less fish that are larger.
Here is the pics from last night, the rest of what I got anyways. All cooks done on the Jumbo Joe with jealous devil.
The ribs were tender, a tad bit more fall off the bone than I was hoping........
I have no temp gauges here......we go by eye and time and holding my hand over the bbq to see how hot it is.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Most people would probably be a tad bit concerned.
This is the third time this has happened to me. I must be kind of dumb because it took me 3 times to figure out how to avoid it. It looks terrible, feels okay if you elevate it.....as soon as you stand up though it’s a lot of pressure on that foot and then it feels uncomfortable......takes a lot to walk down to the boat and go fishing for 5 hours.....which is a lot of standing in the boat.
Was going to go tonight, but might just save it for morning again.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Going for another steak and potato dinner tonight.
The last one was great.
We have a triple A black angus rib and a couple russets. This I think is choice in the USA.
The steak seems to be marbled nicely

 

[ChuckO]

Some good eats Darryl. Do you have any bug spray? Those bites look miserable

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Some good eats Darryl. Do you have any bug spray? Those bites look miserable

I do have good bug spray, I generally choose not to use it.
I should know better.......if there are 4 of us outside I am the guy getting eaten alive.
This is what happened with these bites......every other day I was either covered ( socks ect ) or had spray on.
So sandals and no spray equals this.
Thanks for looking Chuck, I would say the meals are fairly standard, nothing like Brett’s regular weekday meals
But for being stuck in the woods with minimals they are turning out to be tasty dishes. The MRS has been mostly happy so we are winnin.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Oh yeah it’s miller time again.
That is one guarantee, the tasty beverages go down good on holidays.
These OV’s are great, nice creamy head.....