A Tribute To Uncle Clancy

The Old Man asked if I would take a picture of this fish that hangs proudly out on our back porch wall, and I felt compelled to share the picture and the story behind it.

The fish is a Muskie, that was caught on Lake Kishkutena in Nestor Falls, Ontario.  That's about an hour northwest of International Falls, Minnesota. The fish was caught back in 1970 by our neighbor and dear friend Clarence.  We called him Uncle Clancy.

Uncle Clancy made a yearly pilgramage to Lake Kishkutena from the early 70's until his untimely death in 1989.  This trip was not for the faint of heart.  It was a twenty-four hour drive from Louisville to Nestor Falls, and the trip was usually made without stopping.  Once you arrived at Nestor Falls, a plane would fly in your gear and drop it off on a little island, and everybody would travel to the island by boat.  This was about a three hour trip.  At 3 points during the boat trip to the island, everybody would have to get out and actually lift and carry the boats over portages.  Once on the island, you would set up tents and the cooking area and that would be your home for a week until time for the plane to come back and load up your gear, and then you would once again make the three hour boat ride (including going over the portages) back to the dock.  While on the island, you had no electricity, running water, nor most importantly, a bathroom. But you made do.  I made this trip once when I was 12 years old, and even for a teenage girl, it was kinda cool.

But I digress.  Clarence caught this huge Muskie during a trip to Lake Kishkutena in the summer of 1970.  He didn't have any ice to spare to keep the fish cold until he could get back to Louisville, but he improvised.  He carefully skinned the fish, and put it in a big can of salt water, and when he got back home, he stuffed and mounted it hisself.

One of Uncle Clancy's grandsons inherited the fish, and earlier this week, he gave it to my Old Man. He had went with Uncle Clancy on probably 20 of his trips up north, and the grandson knew that Dad would be just about the only person that would appreciate the big muskie.  The Old Man had to do a little repair work on a fin, but Gorilla Glue fixed it back on and you can't even notice it was broken off.

So the big muskie hangs proudly on our back porch, as a tribute to Uncle Clancy.