Separation Lake Hunting and Rescue - Part 1 of 3 parts

It started as a two man deer hunting trip and grew until there was six of us.

We drove north from Kenora, Ontario up the Jones road about fifty miles to the Grassy Narrows Indian Reserve where we left the vehicles. We put the three boats into the English River and headed west, down stream.

The English River flows in a westward direction through a chain of lakes from the dam at Ear Falls until it joins the Winnipeg River’ close to the Manitoba and Ontario border. Our destination was a large Tourist camp that sits on Separation Lake.

It was late October and the camp had already been closed for the winter. One of the members of our group knew the area well as he had spent many summers as a fishing guide at the camp. His parents managed the camp and he obtained their permission for us to use a couple of the cabins.

During the twenty five mile boat trip down the English river and through the lakes we failed to see another hunting party or anyone else for the matter. It could turn cold very rapidly and freeze the lakes and rivers so you could get trapped by the ice if you were not careful. Our plan was to hunt Saturday after noon and stay overnight. The following day we would continue hunting but quit early enough to make our way back to the landing where the vehicles were parked.

To protect the camp from vandalism during the hunting season, a couple of Indian summer guides were hired to stay at the camp. They came from the Grassy Narrows reserve, where we left our vehicle. They would stay at the camp until the lake had frozen and was safe enough for a plane on skis to land and pick them up. They would finish closing the camp and fly back home the twenty five miles to the reserve.

When we arrived at the camp only one older Indian was there. The rest had gone back to the reserve by boat and into Kenora to pick up enough groceries to last them until freeze up. This was an annual ritual that had been going on for a long time.

Once we had unpacked our gear and settled into a cabin we arranged to spend the rest of the day hunting.
With two hunters to each boat we set off to hunt the many islands on the lake. We had done this before so we had a system. We would go to a medium sized island and look for deer tracks in the snow.

Once we established that there were deer on and island we would go by boat to the opposite end. The first hunter would be let off with just a shotgun. The second hunter would take the boat back to the other end, where we had seen the tracks. The hunter with the shotgun would start to drive the island and he would shoot any Ruff Grouse he flushed. He would walk a zig zag path in order to drive the deer ahead of him. He would shout once in a while so that the posted hunter would know where he was.

The hunter in the boat would go ashore and find a good place to view any deer that were driven his way. This system worked most of the time but some deer were smart enough to leave the island and swim out of danger. Usually a single shot was enough to down your deer. The kill was always close to the boat so it made the recovery of the game easy.

At the end of the first day we had three deer and many grouse. It had been a long day so after a few drinks we made plans for the next days hunting. We were all in bed early, as Sunday was going to be a busy day.

Read parts 2 and 3 that follow.