A couple of weeks ago my son brought up an interesting idea about our Manitoba trip this year. Back in our canoe days we'd done the ugly double-portage into Claw Lake off of Elbow Lake in Grass River Provincial Park. It was one of those things you do once in a lifetime and enjoy every minute of but figure you'll never do it again. I'm seventy-two these days and know for sure my swamp portage days are over. However, between Claw and Elbow there's an eighty acre widening in the connecting stream named Centre Lake. Back in '02 it was no more than a ten minute break between the carries. Because of its size we never gave fishing it a thought. However, the egress on Claw was stacked up with big pike and the stream's entrance onto Elbow had even bigger pike with a few fair-sized walleyes in the mix.
While talking with Steve Japp of the Elbow Lake Lodge this winter I learned he's cleared the portage into Centre and a few of his sports have boated some big walleyes on the little lake. When my son heard this he began to daydream and came up with a rip-snorting idea—float tubes. I happen to own one, know their limitations and also know they're a hoot to fish from. Allan's birthday is today; lacking a better idea for a present, I did a little Internet shopping and he now has one of his own. By the time we head north this summer we'll be geared up with waders, flippers and belly boats with the idea of being towed around by a few wall hangers. That's the hope anyway. I don't know if many have belly-boated on lakes that are forty miles, and a mile-long, swamp portage from the nearest road before and don't much care but the thought puts a tingle in an old man's spine.
