Gungi Creek...

This weekend Barry took Patti, Christine, Deon and me out on his boat to do some fishing and campfire-ing. We decided to go to Gungi Creek which is very close by, where the fish are known to be plentiful, and a bowhead whale was spotted earlier the same day. It was great to get out on the water, and to head out onto the land.

As soon as we arrived, the fish started biting. Patti and Barry each pulled out some big ones, while Christine pulled out her usual- small fish, the perfect size for Chowder to eat. Deon caught his first fish of the season:



It was a wee one, and Deon was able to get the hooks out fairly easily, so he let it go back into the water. All the while, I spent my time catching log after log, stick after stick. I even managed to cast over to the other side of the river, and have my lure land in a puddle on the land. No fish to be found in there either!

By this time, Deon was convinced that the problem was his lure. Days and days of fishing with the same lure, and pretty bad luck. I found him a shiny new lure in our tackle box, and put it on his line. Not a few casts later, and he pulled in the biggest fish we'd seen yet this season. We later weight it, and it was about 10 pounds. As Deon reeled it in and onto the shore, the beggar broke Deon's spiderwire line and made a run (or shall I say, flop) for the water. Deon nabbed it in time, and was able to secure us our first coney (inconnu) of a good size.



That lure must have been lucky, because a few minutes later, Deon caught another fish, only this time even bigger! The slimy fellow tried the same tricks as the last one- broke the line and made a run for it. This one managed to get away unfortunately, but not without Deon chasing it into the water and trying to grab it by the tail. So alas, Deon's lucky lure went back into Gungi Creek with the fish.

As time wore on, our patience grew thin with the ever-present mosquitoes. When there's a bit of a breeze, they stay away, but as soon as the breeze dies for a second, they swarm. They also don't seem to mind bug spray, but that didn't stop us from spraying every 15 minutes or so. The good thing is, they don't actually seem to bite. I have had only one mosquito bite so far, and it didn't happen while out on the land. The picture below best describes the number of mosquitoes present at any given time- and this is out on the boat, with the boat moving!



So, we decided to relocate to a breezier area to set up our campfire on which to make dinner. Here I am, enjoying the boat ride:



For dinner, we cooked up one of the fish that Patti caught, as well as making some tea from some berries (cranberries and blackberries that we scavenged from the land, leftover from last year). We also indulged in some less traditional snacks- hotdogs on buns, and a cranberry lemon loaf that I made.




The homemade "tea"... or Arctic Kool-Aid by the looks of the colour.


A bald eagle accompanies us on our journey.

We got back to Tuk at around 11pm, thinking it was something more like 9pm. The Arctic sun was enjoyable, as was the relatively warm temperature (maybe 12 degrees).