Wabakimi Canadian Fishing Trip 2018

I have gone fishing in NW Ontario almost annually since 1966. It’s a tradition that connects me to my late father, many other fine men – both living and deceased, family members, and the yearning in my soul for the wilderness, where it finds rest and rejuvenation.

This was an unusual trip in many respects: first the participants. Usually, the early June trip is a family trip. This year, however, many of my family members are experiencing the joys of parenthood, with my nephew John Dolan and his wife Angie just giving birth to their new daughter Anna Margaret in April and another nephew – Bob Dolan, along with wife Blair – expecting their first any day now. My brother-in-law, Pat Dolan, was too busy being a proud grandfather to miss the birth of his grandbabies, so he couldn’t go, either.

So, we had my brother Bill Bennett, his son Brett (but his other son Bradley couldn’t make it), and me. We invited some of the other usual suspects, but no one bit the worm. Finally, Bill made known on the website Walleye Central that we were looking for a fourth – the equivalent of a blind date. A couple of guys responded, and Brother Bill made arrangements for Rob Bruesewitz (the Bruiser) to join us.

If bringing on the Bruiser was a fishing blind date, it was like a blind date with Miss America. Rob was wonderful! He was witty, hard-working (an excellent fish-filleter), experienced (we all picked up some valuable pointers from him) and vastly interesting. He also played some pretty good Pitch – the card game we play up there.

Another thing that made this trip unusual was the sense of the remote wilderness, a wilderness inaccessible by car or cellphone, only by floatplane. What do you do when something goes terribly wrong?

A long number of years ago my Dad and a group of other men including Dr. Paul Searles of Madison, WI were fishing on Wabakimi when a frantic canoeist paddled to their camp pleading for help. His mate, another canoeist, had an accident resulting in a compound fracture of his leg and was teetering in and out of shock. Dad and Paul set out on their boat on a rescue mission. Fortunately, Dr. Paul had brought medical supplies with him. He treated the injured canoeist for pain, then set his leg. Paul fashioned a splint for his leg and treated him with powerful antibiotics. There is no doubt that Paul Searles saved the man’s life. Dad contacted the outfitter, and a rescue plane was dispatched. Paul never heard from the man again – the man probably was afraid of receiving a bill for services rendered.

This year we experienced another such emergency.

First, a little backstory. My brother, Bill, has been Facebook friends with David Campbell of Oklahoma for a number of years, and then I, too, became his friend. The three of us share a love of Lake Wabakimi and fishing, amateur wrestling (David is a recently retired successful high-school wrestling coach and Bill and I were both HS and, in my case, college wrestlers), and a shared faith in Jesus Christ.

David relies on a different outfitter – Pipestone Fly-in Outfitters – than we use. We have developed a great deal of respect for Pipestone and its proprietor, Mike Henry. If we didn’t have such a long and successful relationship with our outfitter, Northern Wilderness Outfitters (NWO), we wouldn’t hesitate to do business with Pipestone.

Last year, David’s daughter, Laura, died shortly before his trip, which corresponded time-wise with our own. David made the gut-wrenching decision to grieve in the solitude and beauty of Wabakimi Lake. Bill and I had the opportunity to meet David in person on the lake, and were able to minister to him.

Fast forward to this year. Again, David and his party of four were at the lake at the same time as our party. Weather was poor the first few days of the trip with wind, rain and cold and we invited David Campbell and his friend, David Klaus, to our cabin for a big bowl of Bill’s famous Walleye Chowder

which warmed us all up. It was great being with our old friend and making a new one.

A few nights later, I was awakened with a full bladder about 3:00 AM. I was outside on the boardwalk between our dock when I heard the faint sound of a motor running. What could it be at that time of night? Then I saw the flash of light on the lake through the trees. Friend or foe?

For the only time that week, I had ventured into the night with my own flashlight and decided it was more likely a friend than foe. I switched on my light and shouted, “What’s going on?” My light and voice pointed the intruder to our dock. It turned out to be a very shaken David Klaus who informed me that David Campbell had suffered a heart attack and was in real trouble. Did we have a satellite phone, he asked.

We did, but one that only was programmed to dial into the NWO’s office, but at three in the morning no one was there to take my call. I tried to leave a message, but I didn’t think it went through. David set out in the dark for the Pipestone cabin, and by now there was at least a little moonlight to help him navigate.

At 5:30 AM when I expected NWO’s office was manned, I called again and told one of the bush pilots that there was an emergency at Pipestone. The pilot said he would relay the information to Pipestone’s Mike Henry. After Bill made coffee, he and I boated over to the Pipestone lodge. A Pipestone float plane was at the dock, and we were relieved to see David Campbell on his feet – though greatly aided – and loaded onto the plane. The plane was to take David about 45 nautical miles to the nearest community, Armstrong, where he would be air-lifted from there to Thunder Bay.

Apparently, it was quite a night in the Pipestone camp. When David had his episode, he fell and bashed his face. The other three guys laid him on a mattress on the floor and several times thought they were about to lose him. David was incoherent and bleeding from his face and even his ears. They fought to keep him conscious.

After the plane left along with one other in the party, Bill and I invited the remaining two, the aforementioned David Klaus and another likable Oklahoman, Larry Burchfield, to fish with us in a remote part of the lake they hadn’t fished before. They also joined us for an epic fish fry.
We later found that David did not suffer a heart attack after all, but had a blood clot in his chest with similar symptoms. He was released from the Thunder Bay hospital the same day! Joyous news.

The second half of the trip the weather turned nice and the fish found their appetites. Brett landed a 43 inch Pike and Rob caught the largest walleye at almost 26 inches. All in all, a most memorable trip.