In January 2003, we decided to try a different lake and when calling Marg at Sudbury Aviation, she suggested
Lake Coonie which had Small Mouth Bass, Walleye and Pike. We mailed her a deposit check and began our long 6 month wait since again we were going during the last week in July, 2003.
We had our packing down to a science, learning a few mistakes in 2002 such as not packing our duffle bag too heavy and using some smaller canvas suitcase type bags. This time and all our future trips, I took along a low power (QRP 4 watt) amateur radio transceiver and some wire to string up as an antenna since the transceiver had a built-in auto tuner. The transceiver was made by
Elecraft (KX1) and can operate on 6 to 12 volts. By using 8 AA cells wich gave me 12 volts, I had enough power to last a week by operating perhaps an hour each day using a straight telegraph key (military J-38). I was never able to work back into Baltimore on the 40 meter band since some club members were listening for me at a certain time each evening but I did work many Canadian and midwestern USA stations.
Instead of entering Canada via Niagara Falls, we took a different route going straight up Interstate 81 north of Baltimore all the way to Watertown, NY. It was perhaps a longer drive but the wife and I hated the traffic when getting around Toronto and the somewhat unscenic drive north through Ontario. Driving through Customs was faster and with the Canadian system of logging all vehicles no matter where they entered, we were seen as a visitor in 2002 and merely showed our passports and our dog's rabie shot certificate and were on our way. Seeing the Thousand Island area was new to us and stopped just after entering Canada to exchange some American money into Canadian. We prefer using Canadian funds when buying gas (by the litre) and other necessary things including the motel in Azilda on Friday night since if using American money, they have to figure out the going exchange rate. Canada doesn't use any paper money under a five dollar bill and use coins in 1 and 2 dollar denominations. The dollar piece has a picture of a loon and is called a "Loonie". The 2 dollar piece is appropiately called a "Toonie". The American dollar was only $1.35 to their dollar in 2003 compared to $1.47 in 2002.
Lake Coonie turned out to be somewhat like Lake MacSmith but a little smaller perhaps. There were plenty of Bass and Walleye and sometimes just for the sport, we would use artificial lures for some fun with Pike. As we did at Lake MacSmith, we only used earthworms.
