Pulled over

When the skies began to hint at some clearing yesterday, everyone took to the water. Tal and I were fishing within sight of the lodge and were not having much luck, I might add, when a lovely turbo Otter began circling, a much newer, sleeker plane than anything Blue Water Aviation flies. An attention getter! In fact, I stopped fishing to take pictures.

It lined up for a landing near us, so I began moving our boat to stay out of its way. Then, the pilot opened his door and motioned for us to approach. Yikes. Pulled over ... in the wilderness no less.

Two crisply uniformed men met us on the left float. It was the Manitoba Department of Natural Resources wanting to make sure we had all our papers in order: angling permits on our persons, barbs crimped, a single rod in use by each angler, regulation-sized fish on the stringer and life jackets in use, not just in the boat.

From the air they had spotted all the boats from Shining Falls and once on the water taxied from point to point until they'd consulted with each of us. We all passed and were sent on our ways. Interestingly, after the fact I was physically shaken just as I would have been for a traffic stop.