Charlie’s Trout (from a canoe!)

Charlie and Turbo are both avid canoeists. Charlie brought his handmade canoe (called the Freddy Fudpucker) to Aikens last year and spent a lot of time in it during the evening. Last summer, Charlie and Turbo decided to take a day-trip to Bonaventure. That day, they caught a bunch of small walleye and even found a wolf den during their shore-supper!

They had been talking about doing it again all winter. This year, they didn’t waste any time and decided to go in today! After Turbo said goodbye to the Scholtens group, whom he’d guided for the past few days, they packed up the canoe and took off. They spent another great day in Bonaventure catching walleye and slot pike. However, their goal of catching a trophy from the canoe seemed to be a faint hope as they were approaching the main beach. Turbo was paddling hard to make it home, but Charlie was slowing down the canoe and drawing them closer to “Inspiration Point” (the point right off the steps of the main lodge). All of a sudden, Charlie’s rod bent in two. Turbo thought they were snagged, but then he saw a head shake and the drag started screaming! The fish was pulling the canoe into deep water! Turbo was paddling like a mad man to keep up with the trout, but there was little they could do! Finally, the trout slowed down and hunkered on the bottom for several minutes. They were unable to budge it, so Turbo tried to paddle into shore to get it to start moving… start moving it did! Another crazy run and more drag. The battle raged on for over 15 minutes before the tables finally turned. They got it into the net and then paddled into shore quickly for a measurement and some pictures. The trout ended up being 41”, the second monster laker that Turbo has netted in the past four days! They released it right off the beach and thanked it for the fantastic battle! Charlie has now caught a trophy fish out of his handmade canoe… and has a spot on Aikens named after it… Fudpucker’s Folly!