Story originally printed in the Coulee News or online at www.couleenews.com
Published - Wednesday, July 09, 2008
AN OUTDOORSMAN’S JOURNAL: The Canada Gang rides again in annual trip up north
 Ross Moll, left, and Joey Dushek have been sharing outdoor adventures together most of their lives. This walleye was released. Photo by Mark Walters |
Hello, friends,
I recently returned from what is probably my best annual outdoor adventure.
Six of us headed north of the Canadian border for our annual journey to Shultz Lake, which is a fly-in located 56 air miles northwest of Red Lake.
Harold “The Wildman” Moll his grandsons, Ryan and Ross Moll, my nephew, Riley Schuster, and my stepson, Joey Dushek made up our extremely fun gang.
Sunday, June 15
High 55, Low 42
The Canada Gang, as we have called ourselves since 1982 when we first came to Shultz Lake, fished in cold, wet conditions today, just like yesterday.
I fished with Joey, The Wildman fished with his 13-year-old grandson Ross and 20-year-old Ryan Moll spent the day with 19-year-old Riley Schuster.
Riley Schuster and Ryan Moll are close to the same age that I was when I first came to Shultz Lake, and this pair is full of energy, mischief and love the outdoors.
Today, Joey and I trolled with planer boards that were trailing large spoons and had a blast doing it. Our goal was to catch a big northern pike, and though we did not succeed, I had a really cool experience when I saw a solid 15-pounder clear the water chasing my blaze orange board. We caught over 50 gator and walleye with this technique and a couple really good laughs.
The first one came when we trolled right up to Riley and Ryan and caught a double 30 yards from their boat.
We had our second laugh when I trolled a board within 3 feet of the their boat and Joey caught another gator that hit his spoon that close to their boat.
This gang thrives on giving each other a hard time and the practical jokes did not end until long after we had returned home.
Each day a different member does all of the chores including cooking, dishes and mopping the floor. Today was Riley’s turn and he could not have cooked a nastier breakfast if he tried.
After a day of getting a hard time by everyone, he made up for it when he did an excellent job cooking a ham dinner.
Monday, June 16
High 73, Low 48
I used to spend six months a year in the Canadian bush, and for a couple years I was the camp manager at Chimo Lodge, which is owned by my very good friends Pete and Elizabeth Hagedorn who also own the outpost here on Shultz Lake.
The cabin we are staying at is home for seven days a year for this gang, and today being day four of a seven-day trip, everyone is well rested.
Riley and I headed over to a nearby portage lake where after a short walk we began what I think was the best day of walleye fishing of my life.
I was using a homemade night crawler harness and Riley was dragging a floating jig.
We caught a boatload of fish between 20 and 25 inches and had a great adventure.
Tonight, after the traditional victory circle in front of camp where everyone in the boat coming back to camp howls like a wolf, we had an awesome fish dinner and stayed up until the sun said “Go to bed.”
Every once in a while someone would go out on the porch and howl at the moon and the laughter did not end until the last of us went to bed.
We come here to have a good time and we never fail. Sunset.
All stories copyright 2006 Coulee News and other attributed sources.