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Yearly a whole bunch of hundreds of People migrate north for the fishing and the friendship, creating bonds not even politics can put asunder. Listed below are their tales
Printed Might 30, 2025 • Final up to date 1 day in the past • 13 minute learn
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Dawn on Birch Lake in northern Ontario. Picture by Gary Pullen
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Gary Pullen swore that he would retire from farming when he turned 75, so he bought off all his farm tools to uphold his pledge, thereby releasing up the now-77-year-old to do different issues, akin to discuss fishing.
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As a farm child rising up north of Peoria in Illinois corn nation, he usually fished within the creeks when his father didn’t have him doing chores. But it surely was after the solar went down and he tucked into the newest challenge of Sports activities Afield journal that his childhood creativeness was fired by depictions of a fishing paradise to the north penned by Jason Lucas, a pipe-smoking, failed Anglo-Irish novelist who was posthumously remembered as a “bass fishing evangelist.”
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Going fishing is a greater deal than occurring a cruise. Canada is my blissful place
American angler Gary Pullen
Lucas has been lifeless for 50 years, however his sermonizing again then made Pullen a convert about bass in addition to different fish, too. A lot in order that he embarked upon his first journey to northwestern Ontario in 1990 to seek for walleye, a large-mouthed, sharp-toothed, pearly eyed creature prized for its tastiness when freshly pan-fried with a dollop of butter.
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Pullen has journey No. 78 to Canada booked for the tip of June, and he plans to maintain coming again for so long as he stays wholesome, is ready to drive and may persuade his spouse or sufficient buddies who aren’t affected by this-or-that ailment to make the trek to part of Ontario the place the walleye outnumber the folks by a large margin.
“Going fishing is a greater deal than occurring a cruise,” he mentioned. “Canada is my blissful place.”
It’s arguably the walleye — together with the wilderness, friendships and peace and quiet — that continues to lure many People north regardless of Donald Trump’s tariffs, his feedback about Canada being the 51st state annoying the locals and Canadians cancelling or not planning any journeys to the U.S. anytime quickly.
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An angler at Wildewood Lodge on Lake Savant in Ontario holds up a northern pike. The majority of company to the lodge are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. Picture by Andy Kerecman
They arrive in an ideal caravan of pickup vehicles that seems across the Memorial Day weekend in Might and progressively peters out in September, in accordance with Drake Dill, the mayor of Worldwide Falls, Minn.
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“Relying on the place these tariffs will or received’t be, or may or couldn’t be, it’s all a guessing sport, but when Canadians are going to be disincentivized to return and go to us, then they’re not going to return and go to,” he mentioned. “I might say likewise for People going the opposite approach, however the one factor that Canada has an abundance of that People actually, actually take pleasure in is walleye.”
Canadians actually aren’t going to show away their American neighbours; they need our fish, we want their enterprise.
“Leisure fishing is a time-honoured custom and vital financial driver in Ontario, particularly for our northern and distant communities,” Ontario Minister of Pure Assets Mike Harris mentioned. “We encourage everybody from Ontario, and past, to take pleasure in Ontario’s world-class leisure fishing.”
His ministry undertakes an intensive survey each 5 years to evaluate the financial advantages and social significance of leisure fishing on the province’s 250,000 inland lakes. The 2025 survey has but to happen and the 2020 survey didn’t occur as a consequence of COVID-19, so probably the most substantive block of knowledge is from 2015.
That survey’s topline findings have been that 321,684 non-resident anglers, the majority of whom have been American, fished in Ontario waters that yr and shelled out about $250 million on lodging, meals and fishing provides whereas doing so.
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Ninety per cent of the American fisherfolk have been male and so they averaged 60 years of age. Half mentioned they got here to Canada in quest of the ever present and delectable walleye, and 80 per cent mentioned they might not have come north have been it not for the fishing.
Knowledge from 2024 signifies that 312,092 non-resident, largely American anglers visited Ontario, so the fish are clearly nonetheless biting.
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Gary Pullen, a retired Illinois corn and soybean farmer, poses with a bunch of buddies at Wildewood on Lake Savant, an American-owned fishing lodge that caters to largely American purchasers in northwestern Ontario. Gary is fourth from the left. Picture by Gary Pullen
The People catching them are spending greater than they did a decade in the past to remain in lodges that publicize “American Plan” packages priced solely in bucks that embody all meals, a motorized boat, gasoline, a fish finder, entry to fishing guides, dwell bait and a roof over their head for about US$2,000 per particular person per week — all inside a couple of hours drive of the border crossing between Fort Frances, Ont., and Worldwide Falls.
Walleye season opened mid-Might, so it’s nonetheless early fishing days but, however outfitters on this facet of the border say People are nonetheless coming north and are sometimes calling forward to ensure that they’re welcome and to ask whether or not something has modified on the border.
The whole variety of American vacationers — anglers and in any other case — making the trek to northwestern Ontario has but to totally rebound to pre-pandemic numbers, however the total variety of People coming to Canada was down 10 per cent in March from February.
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The true “significant numbers” in fishing nation, nonetheless, come from Might to September, Gerry Cariou, govt director of the Sundown Nation Journey Affiliation, mentioned.
The variety of Canadian border crossings by automobile into the U.S. decreased 32 per cent in March alone, in accordance with Statistics Canada, a pointy drop that has the U.S. Journey Affiliation sounding alarm bells that it may put 140,000 jobs in danger and end in US$6 billion in American tourism industry-related losses by yr’s finish.
Custom dies onerous
Getting along with a bunch of buddies who’ve identified each other without end and relish retelling the identical outdated tales and maybe producing a couple of new ones is a cherished ceremony amongst American anglers, and the enduring narrative behind the fishing buddy journey to Canada has a historical past stretching again 100-plus years.
The journeys are a key financial driver in an space of Ontario that has been battered by 20 years’ value of pulp and paper mill closures in single-industry small cities, together with Fort Frances, which misplaced its mill greater than a decade in the past and the 200-plus unionized jobs that got here with it.
“We have now been struggling to reinvent ourselves ever since, and tourism is an enormous a part of that reinvention,” Andrew Hallikas, the mayor of Fort Frances, mentioned. “We rely closely on People developing right here to fish and hunt.”
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Dill in Worldwide Falls can communicate firsthand to Canada’s attractiveness amongst People as the previous proprietor of a Canadian fly-in fishing operation he ran together with his dad and mom. The bottom camp was Armstrong, Ont., northwest of Lake Nipigon, and scattered past it was a group of cabins the household owned on lakes with out street entry.
He earned his industrial pilot’s licence at 18 and he would ship purchasers, 90 per cent of whom have been American, dockside in a single-engine, Canadian-made de Havilland Otter. His private favorite fishing floor was north of the Albany River.
“I used to be lucky as a result of it is part of Canada most individuals by no means get to see,” he mentioned. “There are many walleye and pike, however the massive secret up there’s the brook trout.”
The folks of Worldwide Falls are our mates and that is not going to alter, no matter what comes out of Trump’s mouth
Andrew Hallikas, the mayor of Fort Frances, Ont.
Dill bought the household enterprise six years in the past after his father, a Minnesota state legislator, handed away, and this previous November he did what he swore he would by no means do and ran for mayor of Worldwide Falls and wound up successful the election by a landslide.
His entry into politics has led to a friendship with Hallikas, whose household has lived in “The Fort” for 3 generations. He’s identified round city amongst residents of a sure age for being the retired physics trainer who really made physics enjoyable for his college students.
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There’s a 40-year age hole between the 2 politicians, however when the 75-year-old Canadian sits down with the 35-year-old American to speak concerning the variations between their border cities, that are tethered collectively by a 100-year-old-plus, 300-metre-long bridge spanning the Wet River, the one distinction they reliably provide you with is that their cities occur to be in two totally different international locations.
The “Pull for Peace” trophy. The pleasant annual tug of conflict between the border communities of Fort Frances, Ont., and Worldwide Falls, Minn., that span the Wet River was sadly suspended as a consequence of some severe circumstances of rope burn. Picture by Andrew Hallikas
In any other case, their most urgent mutual considerations pre-Trump weren’t dissimilar from quite a lot of different North American small cities, mainly, how one can stimulate financial growth, pay for infrastructure, present new housing inventory, stem inhabitants losses and persuade extra newcomers to maneuver to The Fort and The Falls.
However these main challenges, the cities, which have a mixed inhabitants of roughly 13,000, have at all times possessed a superpower as compared, say, to some remoted burgh in the midst of Manitoba, which is their cross-border relationship.
For instance, a child in Fort Frances who needs to play baseball can join in Worldwide Falls since there is no such thing as a Little League on the Canadian facet of the bridge. Aspiring younger soccer gamers in Worldwide Falls play their group soccer in Fort Frances. The 2 native excessive colleges share a fierce hockey rivalry, and previous to an unlucky incident involving some unhealthy circumstances of rope burn, the neighbours held a pleasant annual worldwide tug of conflict referred to as the Pull for Peace.
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“The folks of Worldwide Falls are our mates and that’s not going to alter, no matter what comes out of Trump’s mouth,” Hallikas mentioned. “We’ve been mates for over 100 years.”
However what has been tugging at Canadians since Trump’s election is how one can categorical their displeasure with the president with out damaging relationships with their neighbours on the opposite facet of the bridge.
Residents of The Fort have traditionally popped over to The Falls to gasoline up their vehicles and choose up groceries, whereas People head the opposite approach for the walleye and Thursday evening wing evening at La Place Rendez-Vous, a household owned resort/restaurant.
Sarah Noonan, the resort’s proprietor and a former scholar of the mayor, has three youngsters who take part in extracurriculars in Worldwide Falls. Like many Canadians, she is ticked off at Trump, and she or he mentioned that whereas she has not stopped going to the U.S. for her youngsters’s actions, she has develop into extra “intentional” in her spending whereas there.
As an alternative of grabbing lunch, getting gasoline and throwing a couple of luggage of groceries within the trunk, she cheers on the Little Leaguers after which heads straight house.
“I’ve to navigate the problem sensitively and have a look at it by our personal enterprise’s lens, however I additionally want to take a look at it personally, and typically these two viewpoints are going to be in battle,” she mentioned.
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St. Louis resident Mark Scheipeter drives 16 hours straight to get from his house to a lodge close to Atikokan, Ont. “Once you go fishing, you’re in nature, and you’re within the second,” he mentioned. Picture by Mark Scheipeter
However there was no discernible hint of inside turmoil gnawing at Mark Scheipeter’s conscience as he spoke of his upcoming fishing journey to Ontario. The longtime customized homebuilder in St. Louis, who wound down his personal enterprise final summer season and now works for a couple of different outfits, spent a great chunk of his grownup life dreaming about going north.
He was at all times too busy working and too strapped for money elevating youngsters to splurge on the journey, not less than till a couple of years in the past. This July will mark his third journey to Canada and with the youngsters not “on the payroll” and pricey outdated dad not working 65 hours per week, he plans on a prolonged streak of visits.
Scheipeter mentioned he doesn’t pay a lot consideration to politics since life is aggravating sufficient as is, however mentioned Trump’s nice contribution to society has been to supply the late-night “comedians” with a gradual stream of contemporary materials.
The trucker’s son likes to drive and he’ll do the 16.5-hour slog to a lodge close to Atikokan, Ont., in a straight shot working up U.S. Freeway 53 to the border crossing at Worldwide Falls. He additionally fishes nearer to house, however a crowded fishing gap in the midst of Missouri isn’t the identical as being in the midst of a Canadian nowhere.
You guys love your hockey. You guys love your fishing. You guys put up with some fairly loopy climate, and I like going north to be part of all of it
American angler Mark Scheipeter
“With fishing, you’re within the second, and it’s so onerous to dwell life nowadays within the second as a result of every thing is about social media and what you understand, what you’ll do subsequent and the way you measure up,” he mentioned.
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“However if you go fishing, you’re in nature, and you’re within the second, and there’s simply one thing about being within the second in Canada. You guys love your hockey. You guys love your fishing. You guys put up with some fairly loopy climate, and I like going north to be part of all of it.”
In different phrases, he’s not overly fussed by Canadians slicing again on journeys to the U.S., neither is he planning any retaliatory measures, not when there’s walleye for the taking.
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An aerial view of Wildewood Lodge on Lake Savant in Ontario, which was initially based by a bunch of Wisconsinites as a wilderness and non secular retreat. Picture by Andy Kerecman
Escape from loopy
A number of hours northeast of Scheipeter’s finish vacation spot is Wildewood Lodge on Lake Savant in Ontario. The exact historical past of the lodge is a bit fuzzy, however as soon as upon a time it was based by a bunch of Wisconsinites as a wilderness and non secular retreat. A man from Ohio finally purchased out the church group and later bought the lodge to a different Wisconsinite, who finally bought it to the Kerecman household from, you guessed it, Wisconsin.
Andy Kerecman runs the place now, and he was taking a noon breather after a busy Might opening weekend that concerned having to tell his 16 company — 14 People and two Canadians — to not arrive early as a result of the lodge was underneath an evacuation order as a consequence of a close-by forest hearth.
“There was an enormous plume of smoke coming our approach and burnt spruce needles falling on us,” he mentioned.
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Happily, the wind finally shifted, the roads reopened and the company arrived, albeit a day or two late, after which it snowed simply to maintain issues attention-grabbing. However what was predictable was that the fish have been biting and the (largely) American company have been blissful.
“It is a actually particular place,” Kerecman mentioned. “Look, I’m from northern Wisconsin; there are over 1,300 lakes and it’s stunning there, however Canada gives a real wilderness expertise and I don’t assume there’s many locations nonetheless like that within the U.S.”
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Wildewood on Lake Savant proprietor Andy Kerecman is a Wisconsinite who acquired hooked on the Canadian wilderness as a young person. He’s pictured right here, with a lake trout in hand, along with a smiling American visitor. Picture by Andy Kerecman
Moreover, he mentioned, the fishing in Canada is unbelievable, which impressed him to inform a narrative about how he fell in love with Wildewood.
He and his father had come north to go bear searching, however have been sensible sufficient to pack fishing nets for the journey. Whereas bushwhacking alongside the lake’s border, they caught sight of a “fish again” close to the water’s floor. They scooped it up with a internet and there it was: a 48-inch northern pike with a 22-inch lake trout in its mouth. A number of years later they purchased the lodge.
“The fishing right here is spectacular,” he mentioned.
The economics of proudly owning a lodge in northwestern Ontario are rather less dazzling. An proprietor/clothes shop has about 5 months of the yr to generate income. Kerecman doesn’t have a sufficiently big pattern dimension to attract any onerous and quick conclusions — and the pandemic was a wrench within the plan of a very totally different variety — however what he can say is that enterprise has been a bit unpredictable.
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Rising from the pandemic, 2022 was a banner yr, 2023 was quieter and 2024 was their finest yr but, however bookings for 2025 have been down by comparability. Kerecman doesn’t assume that the ups and downs have something to do with politics, however are extra consistent with American considerations round inflation, sagging client confidence and uncertainty over what Trump might or might not do, particularly with regards to the fallout results on their jobs.
“Most of our company have a generational connection to fishing in Canada and so they aren’t going to let political tensions between the 2 international locations cease them from developing north,” he mentioned.
The majority of Kerecman’s company are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois, although he’ll get some outlier bookings, akin to a current couple from Toronto, in addition to teams from as distant as California and Texas.
Down in Illinois, Gary Pullen was speaking concerning the good outdated days, and never in fishing, however typically. The subdivisions of Peoria proceed to creep nearer to the farm and the annual fishing buddy journeys to Ontario have been present process a pure means of attrition because the individuals get older.
However what troubles him most is the change in his nation’s politics and character. He’s a lifelong Republican. A part of being a Republican, by his definition, means working with folks you may in any other case disagree with to discover a answer, however there doesn’t seem like any frequent floor nowadays.
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“Trump is a man-child,” he mentioned. “He’s disrespectful to all people.”
Canada is totally different, he mentioned. He feels as if he’s being transported again to a less complicated time with a slower tempo, pleasant folks and loads of walleye when he crosses the border at Worldwide Falls/Fort Frances.
“It’s not at all times about catching fish,” he mentioned. “It’s about getting away from the loopy, as a result of there’s quite a lot of loopy nowadays.”
• E-mail: joconnor@postmedia.com
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