Stormy Days At The Massasauga

When your summer vacation is coming up and you’re going to spend five days camping, you check the weather forecast a lot. As the days to departure got shorter, the weather continued to look nice and sunny. Then a few days out a day of rain crept into the forecast. One day of rain? No problem! By the time we loaded up the boat and headed out with the dogs, the forecast had changed again. In fact, it changed constantly throughout the trip and thunderstorms, torrential rain, and a flooded campsite were all in store for us. But the fishing was FANTASTIC!

Back in March we booked our site at The Massasauga Provincial Park, our favourite place to get away. It doesn’t involve a full day of travelling to get there, the campsites are pretty awesome (and accessible only by boat/canoe/kayak/etc), and the fishing can be amazing. Both of us realized how different this trip was going to be. It would be our fist camping trip since we said goodbye to Jack earlier this year. Jack…well, he was the best fishing and adventuring buddy we ever could have asked for. If you’ve read this blog for years, you’ll know the joy that dog brought to our lives. Honestly, neither of us can really bring ourselves to talk about all that is missing without him. I’m crying just typing this. Jack wasn’t able to go camping with us last fall. The cold weather and rain wasn’t going to be good for him, so he and Molly stayed home with Grandma. We had spent so much of that weekend looking forward to coming home to him and telling him about our trip while he gave us The Look for not taking him. It would be hard not to have that this time.

However, we did have Molly, Panda, and Erza in tow for this trip. When we arrived the park, with storm clouds gathering overhead, the dogs were beyond excited to be there. As usual, the staff at the park was awesome for check-in and I picked up a bag of firewood on my way back to the boat. It was nice to see the parking lot full of people getting outside and enjoying all that The Massasauga has to offer. In short order we launched the boat and all of us piled into it, ready for the ride to our site. We don’t pack light when we come here. The boat can carry a lot of gear and we’ve found that having a few extras, like the canopy tent for preparing food under, and a regular size propane tank, make a big difference.

Thunder rumbled but the storm appeared to be passing north of us. The wind had picked up and there was a chop on the water, but not enough to prevent any watercraft from getting around easily. As we headed across Blackstone Harbour I looked around at the campsites and was surprised to find a few of them empty, though many others were full and well-prepared for whatever the weather may bring. I find all the rock to be breathtaking, no matter how many times we visit, and it amazes me how many cottages and campsites fill such a landscape.

Before long we arrived at site 313, our home for the week. We hadn’t stayed at this site before so had the task of finding the best spot to park the boat. You always have to watch the rocks when you’re in Georgian Bay, and this site was no exception. After finding a good spot, the dogs leapt out of the boat and Molly immediately went for a swim. I couldn’t blame her. It was well over 30C with the humidex and we were all feeling the heat. She stayed in the water for the next half hour, standing on a rock ledge when she was tired of paddling, then jumping back in.

With thunderstorms in the forecast we got to work setting up camp. A wood platform for the tent was at the top of the rock in an open area. It was our first time using one of these platforms and I was thankful for the extra rope we had to get everything tied down properly. Our canopy tent went up to serve as our food prep/eating area and eventual rain shelter. Once everything was in place at camp we got back in the boat and headed around the corner to a little bay to try our luck at catching some fish. It only took minutes for the first fish to be caught. After that we pulled in pike, bass, and rock bass every few minutes. For the most part the fish didn’t have much size, but it was felt great to catch them and get the skunk out of the boat. We were both smiling and having fun, the dogs snoozing at our feet, when Darrell hooked into a big bass. I saw that fish come to the surface and ran for the net, but that bass wanted nothing to do with the boat, gave a flip, and was gone. Uggggh!

That night the thunder and lightning and rain came as predicted, lasting hours and hours, but I found it surprisingly comforting to listen to it while I fell asleep.

Our second day started overcast and foggy, but after a quick breakfast we headed out in the boat again. When we go on vacation it’s really about spending as much time as possible fishing, so if you want to nap during the day, it will be on the boat. Want to read? Bring the book in the boat.

One reason we like to return to the Massasauga is that there is a ton of water to fish, but we have a few spots that act as starting points for us and usually allow us to catch something. We were in one of those spots that morning and we’d each caught some small bass and pike, when a big bass hit my curly-tailed grub. I fought that fish for few moments, feeling that excitement you can only get by having a lot of weight on your line, before it took me into the weeds and managed to throw the hook. It just wasn’t the right rod for horsing it out of there. What a bummer to lose that bass!

I was still feeling that loss as we headed for a new bay and started fishing again. And then it happened. Something I haven’t been able to do much of in the last few years. I CAUGHT A CRAPPIE! That was it. As far as I was concerned the trip could end now and it would be a success because I finally hooked into my favourite fish. It wasn’t even a big one, but I was thrilled. After a quick picture I released it and then caught another one. And another. It was one of those days when the school was biting and I couldn’t stop smiling. I love fishing for crappie. Erza checked out the first few I caught but didn’t seem to share my excitement.

The rest of that day was full of beautiful weather, plenty of fish, and a broken skeg (but we won’t get into that).

On Day 3 we woke up to rain, as expected. We spent a lot of time under the canopy tent that day, talking, reading on our phones (thank you Shonen Jump for providing me with plenty of manga), and playing with the dogs. It rained most of the day, torrential at times, so when it lightened up a bit we donned our rain gear, put the top up on the boat, and headed out to do some trolling. It was a pike hitting the spinnerbait while trolling kind of day. I got a quite a few of them before some absolute tank of a fish hit the line. I had trouble moving that fish. I reeled and reeled and was slowly getting it into the boat and I couldn’t wait to see what was on the line. Then I felt the hook slip and the fish was gone. I may have sworn. It felt like the story of the trip though. We lost so many nice fish.

By the time we got back to the campsite we realized that we had a problem. We were starting to have flooding problems around the food bin and the privy (bathroom) area, as well as a lot of water pooling all around the tent platform. A look at the forecast showed the rain would stop overnight but start again the next day. We had two more nights on this trip but began to wonder if we would have to call it early. The dogs were tired of being wet, as were we.

We woke to rain on Day 4. Snuggled in the tent with Erza at our heads and Panda and Molly on either side of us, it was actually a cozy way to start the day. I pulled out my phone to check the forecast and did a double take. We were now under a rainfall warning, expecting to get twice what the forecast showed the day before, and it was going to rain all day long and overnight. I put on my shoes and raincoat and headed for the food bin to get the dog food, only to find that I would be over ankle deep in water no matter what I tried. Shoutout to my Vasque hiking boots that kept my feet dry all trip! They were awesome. Our site was flooded wherever there was a dip, there was no denying that.

Darrell got to work making breakfast and we talked about what to do. Even with the cover on the boat it was taking on a lot of water. The bilge pump had no problem handling that, but how wet did we want the compartments to get? Panda wasn’t happy about the rain and Molly, in her senior years, was a little grumpy. There was going to be a little break in the rain before the deluge returned and we decided it was time to call the trip and leave a day early. Considering the fishing had been so good, I wasn’t as upset as I might be at other times to call the trip. When you haven’t managed to catch a fish all trip you try to stretch it out just to get one bite.

On our way back to the launch I noticed that many of our neighbours had also packed up, though some had clearly decided to stick it out. If we didn’t have the dogs and there hadn’t been flooding at our site, we probably would have stuck it out the final day, but I wasn’t sad to be back in the car when the sky opened up again. We drove home through a deluge of rain, with the dogs snoring in the back, and talked about all the memories we made over the past few days. There’s nothing like camping to create great memories.