The Annual Spring Fishing Trip!

The phone calls and e-mails are zipping back and forth and plans are hastily being made....all part of the frenzy of The Boys' Spring Fishing Trip! Menus are madly being scratched out on paper! Questions like, "Are scalloped potatoes hard to make?" are being asked! Trips to the tackle shops to buy that perfect trout lure are looming! Yikes! You'd think they were actually getting organized!

The trout await.

Went to my dad's for dinner last night to "PLAN"! He is 86 and is so excited. Ever since he was twelve, my dad has been going up to this Hunting and Fishing Camp on the Dumoine River in Quebec. It is an absolutely magical place for him and still captivates him today. This week, he just has to get those Panther Martins that Bob, the always successful local fisherman, says is THE LURE to use!

My husband, his brother, a friend and my nephew are the young guys in the group now. This whole camp trip deal is definitely an exercise in male bonding! My poor father had three daughters and I think we might have fallen short of his expectations in regards to the enthusiasm we showed towards the camp. It is after all, an all male club, so to be fair, we were legitimately limited!

The under eighty men carry all the canoes, boats, motors and heavy packs to help the grandfather generation make just one more trip a lot easier. This is a right of passage. Everyone pitches in to make the meals. It is a model lesson in community living for sure; living in simple abundance and in harmony with the outdoors. And they all cherish it immensely.

It is so funny, yet touching to watch all these preparations. It is a flurry of excitement. Why, this must be half the fun! Soon, the departure date will be upon us and they will load up the SUV's and take turns driving the long seven hour trip, the last hour taking them on logging roads in the bush. The cool nights have them building roaring fires in the Franklin Stove. They will rise early, make fresh perked coffee and savour bacon and eggs over at the log cook camp. Searching for trout will take them to a few different lakes. There will be much discussion about rods, reels and tackle. And yes, there will be the odd fish tale told in the evening of fighting and landing the BIG ONE!

Spirits will be high as they pack and leave the camp at week's end, and as the vehicles climb and rattle up the rocky hill up out of the clearing, I know that each one will already be silently contemplating the next trip!


Mother of Invention, kinda wishing I'd been a boy!