George Shaw and his wife, Rosemary, shared a near death experience in the summer of 2004 that they'll never forget. During their last visit to Lake Nipigon in Canada the Shaws encountered something scarier than coming face to face with a bear; they experienced a head on collision with Mother Nature. They had traveled up the lake in their 16 foot aluminum boat taking in the sights and scooping up the fish. The water was a little rough, but not anything that really caused them concern until they got sandwiched in a bizarre weather pattern. The wind picked up tremendously from one direction and the rain began pelting them from another. Almost instantaneously the temperature dropped from 60 degrees to 40 degrees. And the rough water became much more turbulent. Three-foot waves crashed in followed by five foot waves. Water poured into the boat and it sank to the bottom of the lake leaving them in cold water up to their necks. They made it to the shore of one of the islands and hid behind two boulders covered in branches. Shaw said he didn't think he would ever get Rosemary in a boat again, but in August 2005 the couple faced their fears and returned to Lake Caribou. "After much pleading, cajoling, begging and bribing I convinced Rosemary to return to Caribou Lake for two weeks in August," Shaw said in a letter. "The fishing was fantastic. We caught our limits of Walleye and Pike each day. As we sport fish, we returned to the water all except what we could eat for dinner." Shaw wrote that Rosemary managed to catch the largest Walleye caught on the lake this year. The fish weighed 12 pounds 8 ounces and was 34" long. After weighing and measuring, the fish was returned to the water unharmed. Shaw said they learned that a Walleye that size would lay approximately 60,000 eggs per year. The couple said they didn't encounter any storms, or even any rain; although forest fires at the north end of the lake were blazing, they were under control by the time the couple left. Editor's note: The Shaws were featured in an article in the February 6, 2005 edition of Suburban News for their experience in the storm. October 9, 2005 |
