Fred Elder, A Labor Day Family Adventure

Fred Elder and a Big Catch

Labor Day, 2023, found me, my sons Jason and Drew, their friend Marcello (who is from Paraguay, though he became a friend at KU) and three of Jason’s friends from the Chicago area gathering at the Milwaukee airport for the start of our adventure to the north woods.  First a flight to Thunder Bay to check in with Canadian border security and refuel.  Then a short flight to Armstrong Station, Ontario.  At Armstrong station, we transferred to vehicles and took a twenty-minute ride to the float plane base.  All of us, with our gear, then transferred to the DeHavilland float plane and started across the lake.  Thirty minutes later we were landing on Whitewater Lake and “taxiing” to the float plane dock serving Striker Lodge.  A short walk took us to our homes for the next few days, cabins set in the Canadian north woods.

The next morning began our pattern for the next three days.  First was breakfast, then we headed for the boats.  Mornings were mostly spent catching walleyes, which became lunch.  Lunch was cooked and served somewhere on the lake shore, except for Wednesday, which was rainy and overcast and found us back at the main lodge for lunch.  Lunch was walleye, fried potatoes, cole slaw and cookies, washed down with lemonade, iced tea and some sort of purplish fruit drink.  Following lunch was normally time spent hunting for large northern pike.  We caught several.  Fred found his 43” fish on the final day of fishing, though it was caught before lunch.

A highlight of the trip was a birthday celebration for Drew on Wednesday evening.  It was complete with the traditional birthday song, cake, candles, a gift, and many decorative balloons. 

After breakfast on Friday, we again walked to the float plane base and began our return journey to Milwaukee airport, though this time we did not stop in Thunder Bay.  We were able to clear US customs in Milwaukee.

It was a great adventure marked by good fishing, quality conversation, one bad and one decent movie, and some people continuing to get some work done, thanks to Starlink.