HOT SHOTS

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES OF FUN DAYS AFIELD AND ON THE WATER

WE ENJOY SEEING pictures of your fishing and hunting accomplishments—and learning the stories behind them. Please e-mail us your images, along with any relevant details (who, what, where and when), and we’ll post them on Instagram and publish our favourites here.

Avid angler and hunter Julia Albers landed this fine brook trout last May while fishing with her mother, Wenda Gibson, at Quebec’s ZEC Pontiac. Julia, who cut her outdoor teeth at the knee of her Grandpa Merv in Deep River, Ontario, was using her favourite lure, a ¼-ounce silver Mooselook.

Max McCracken was eight years old and 50 inches tall last June when he caught this monster pike while kayaking with his brother and mother on Lake Superior’s Batchawana Bay. After quickly taking this photo to judge the length, they live-released the fish with the help of neighbour Dave Butkovich. Says dad Michael: “It has become the talk of the beach.”

Barrett Driedger, 15, was with his dad and grandpa on Alberta’s McLeod River last September when he caught this beauty brook trout. “He’s always been a super-patient fisherman,” says dad Jake Driedger. “It’s so gratifying watching him grow up to be such an avid outdoorsman and conservationist.”

Days before her ninth birthday last August, Charlotte Matchett followed up her personal-best largemouth with this nice walleye on Ontario’s Big Gull Lake.

“She’s an outdoors girl for sure,” says dad Alvin Matchett.

“She loves to fish with me and her brother, especially when she pulls in a better day’s catch.”

While trolling a black-and-silver Rapala F11 close to shore on Quebec’s Lac McLennan one evening early last July, Alain Chef caught and released this chunky 10.3-pound walleye. He credits photographer and net man Jim Allan with helping him land the “big bruiser.”

Neilburg, Saskatchewan brothers Larry (far left) and Rowdy Flicek recorded some fine catches last summer while fishing with their parents and sister in the north of their province. Larry, 12, tackled this 15-pound northern pike on the Wheeler River, while 13-year-old Rowdy boated this 11-pound laker on Brown Lake.

While vacationing with his family at Laurentian Lodge on northern Ontario’s Mikel Lake last August, seven-year-old Owen Sider won the battle with this 4.75-pound smallmouth bass. “He would be thrilled if his picture was shared,” says mom Marina Sider. “He kept saying no one is going to believe me.” OC