They let me back into the US

[Philly 0]

Got back last Sunday from a week long trip to a lodge in NE Ontario.  Much easier getting back into the US, than getting into Canada.  To get in we had to sign up on an app, called ArriveCan.  Asked for all sorts of info, including where you were going to quarantine. One of the pieces of information was where you were going to stay asking for a town, street address.  The lodge is in the middle of a lake.  After three tries, I listed the nearest town, the name of the lodge, and the cabin we were staying which was Dockside East.  The other thing was a negative Covid test done within 72 hours.  I'd made an appointment to get the genetic test at a local pharmacy.  It was cancelled a couple days before the test.  I made another appointment with the same pharmacy at a different location.  It was cancelled an hour before the test.  I had to scramble to get a script from my primary care doctor to get the test at a local hospital.  Which I did.  Test came back negative.   It took about 15 minutes for the guard to go through our paper, and she decided we had an awful lot of stuff for two guys going fishing for a week, so she sent us over to have our car searched which took another half hour.  We got through, fought traffic from Toronto heading up to Cottage Country.  We stayed in North Bay for the night, and drove to the pick up point on Saturday morning in pouring rain which stopped by the time we got to the pick-up point.

This is a fishing report, unfortunately the weather wasn't conducive to fly fishing,  we had wind most of the week, so we spent our time looking for places out of the wind to fish.  A lot of the spots that produced in late July or early August weren't producing, but we found some decent coves, almost out of the wind.  We ended up catching 110 smallmouth for the week.  Most were caught on jigs, with either night crawlers or twister tails on them, or lures.  Of the 69 I caught only four were caught with a fly rod.  I lost another four when they jumped close to the boat and spit the hook.  Top water action wasn't happening.  I caught a 14 inch bass on a top water, and lost another one.  Two came on a crayfish pattern.  My buddy had caught a 16 inch bass and it spit up a recently eaten crayfish which landed in the boat.  After matching the colors with one of my crayfish pattern, I put the crayfish on a jig and  immediately caught a bass on it.  Tied on the crayfish fly, hooked four, landed two both 15 inch fish.  The last was caught on a small bucktail jig which also caught me a small perch.  Overall, a good week.  Most of the bass were in the 14 to 16 inch range.  I caught two 17 inchers.  The biggest for the week that anyone brought in was 18 inches.  I lost one that was close to 20 inches.  I'd caught a small pike, 20 inches, and didn't check the line and the bass broke me off right at the boat.  That was the only pike we caught.  A guy in another group caught a 32 inch pike.   Only 16 walleye.  With the wind it was hard to anchor up on my favorite mid-lake shoal or to drift.  We did catch a few slot fish early in the week, but threw them back, figuring we catch more later in the week.  Wrong.  We did catch the two biggest walleye for the week.  On top of that mid-lake shoal.  My buddy's was 23 1/2 inches and I got one 25 inches.  I do have some pictures, mostly scenery, I'll post when I figure out how to get them out of my new camera.

 

[chugbug27 0]

Nice trip there Philly, added bonus of matching & catching on the crawdad, too 

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Great report Philly… I find myself wondering if the folks in Canada are aware of what their government is up to.

 

This from a guy who’s Mom was born and raised in Ontario…

[Mlandry 0]

I crossed the border into Quebec recently and had no issues whatsoever. Getting back into the US was a 

piece of cake.

[Lesg 0]

4 hours ago, Capt Bob LeMay said:

 I find myself wondering if the folks in Canada are aware of what their government is up to

Without getting into politics I think a lot of us know what the government is up to and it leaves us shaking our collective heads. That being said while I live in a border town the only way I can enter the U.S. is if I fly, I can't drive across a bridge. Makes me wonder if folks in the U.S. know what is going on as well. Not trying to stir up controversy just shaking my head about both sides.

 

Les

[Philly 0]

My guess is that it was more economical than political, though it's often hard to separate the two at times.  I would imagine that there was a lot of pressure by the tourist industry to open the border to Americans.  The lodge I went to, Garden Island on Lady Evelyn Lake operated last year at about 40% capacity.  From talking to the owner he was doing a bit better this year, getting more Canadian customers.  Last week he was supposed to be full, 23 people.  There were going to be four of us going, but two guys dropped out in July for reasons unrelated to Covid.  A party of 8 from Michigan cancelled when either two of the party came down with Covid or tested positive for it.  And a Canadian couple who booked in the last month didn't show up at the pick-up point.  We ended it up with 11 people, and four of them had only booked the 5 day package rather than the 7 day.  He was absolutely ecstatic that he was fully booked for the last two weeks of the season.  On the US side,  the area impacted economically is smaller and probably mainly along the border or areas just south of it.  So there most likely was/is not a lot of pressure to open the border to Canadians.  Just my take on it.  Hopefully this will be over by next year and we'll all be able to cross the border in either direction without a lot of hassle.

[Lesg 0]

3 hours ago, Philly said:

  Hopefully this will be over by next year and we'll all be able to cross the border in either direction without a lot of hassle.

Two thumbs up on that!!!!

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

The effects of that virus are felt everywhere I suppose.  Last year all my phone calls were cancellations.   I was still able to fish (the Ten Thousand Islands part of the Everglades just north of the Park) but hardly a single customer aboard…

So far at least last spring my bookings were almost back to normal.   Summer is actually our slowest time of the year for bookings… 

Like everyone else, can’t wait for things to get back to normal.

 

[Poopdeck 0]

12 hours ago, Lesg said:

Two thumbs up on that!!!!

You guys do know the Black Plague lasted over 500 years. This is not going anywhere. It, or a variant, is here to stay.

[Mlandry 0]

Honestly I don't understand what the reasons are for not allowing Canadians to drive over the border.

From what I experienced while visiting Quebec, they are much more careful in dealing with the virus than we are. 

[Philly 0]

3 hours ago, Poopdeck said:

You guys do know the Black Plague lasted over 500 years. This is not going anywhere. It, or a variant, is here to stay.

True.  At least we're not killing cats to prevent the spread this time, just not getting vaccinated.   Figure next year I'll just have to update the information on the ArriveCan app and maybe get another Covid test. Almost time to get my flu shot.

3 hours ago, Mlandry said:

Honestly I don't understand what the reasons are for not allowing Canadians to drive over the border.

From what I experienced while visiting Quebec, they are much more careful in dealing with the virus than we are. 

I don't either.  I wouldn't be surprised if Canada closed the border to us again. I know some of the European countries are.

I noticed that most Canadians I saw in Ontario were wearing masks.  At the lodge, the tables in the dining area were all 6 feet apart and it was well ventilated.  The staff wore masks when they were serving meals, but masks were optional for guests but all of us were vaccinated.  Even the dock crew was masked when they helped us shove off in the morning and when we came back in the afternoon for dinner and when we came back from fishing after dinner.  Talking with the staff, there are Canadians who are refusing to get the vaccine but it's not anywhere near the scale it is here in the States.

[Lesg 0]

The masks are to cover for any liability. We have to wear masks to grocery shop. Still shaking my head.