First of two parts. Part 2 will appear next Sunday.

By Dick Herfindahl, Tribune Outdoors Writer

It all started with a phone call. Someone had a story about a big fish.

I guess being a fisherman at heart, I always am intrigued by a good fish tale. On the other hand, when I was told it was &uot;A big fish story,&uot; my other fisherman instincts reminded me that many big fish stories are exactly that.

Later that night the guy with the fish story called. It was Roger Nelson. After talking on the phone for a while I thought it would be interesting to see what it was all about.

He said that when his granddaughter, Rikki, was 8 they were on one of their trips and she caught a 22-pound northern. After watching the video I can truly say it was quite an adventure and this young girl did indeed catch the fish. An article written by Paul Richie was published in the Tribune at the time.

It was apparent this was one of Roger’s proudest moments. He told her he would mount the fish for her and hang it in his office until she graduated, at which time he would give it to her.

This was the year he had to relinquish the prized fish. He jokingly was told he would have to find a replacement for it.

Roger did indeed get the replacement. This year, he caught a 44-1/2-inch northern, a 37-inch northern and another measuring 33 inches. He was repaid more than once for giving Rikki her fish.

Roger, being a fisherman and a Norwegian, knew a story like this required evidence. He had video tapes of the fish and also some pictures. They were impressive.

Roger and his family have been going on this annual fishing trip since 1958. That was the year he started going into Canada and camping in the Canadian wilderness.

The area the go is 100 miles west of Thunder Bay and 70 miles north on Graham Road.

His first time up there was with Norvell Nelson and they were fishing on Lake Nippigon. They had ran their canoe on a rock and poked a hole in it. He said they didn’t know what they were going to do when a couple of other fishermen appeared and offered help.

One of the men was Glenn Citurs from Glenville. He asked Roger if he had a round piece of metal. He then took the bottom of a tin can and another piece of metal, poked holes in the edges of each piece and put one inside and one on the bottom, put some stove bolts on the holes and tightened them down. It never leaked the rest of the trip.

Roger has fished many lakes in the area. Most of the lakes had no names so they have given names to some of them. Sparkling Lake is the one they seem to have fished a lot. Another of the lakes they named was Surprise Lake because when they decided to go to it they had no idea what the trip to it or the lake itself would be like when they got there.

Roger said there was one year they made a big loop through all these lakes and ended back at the camp. At times the river between the lakes wasn’t much wider that 4 or 5 feet but was fairly deep. He said that was one adventure he probably wouldn’t want to try again.

Roger is an adventurer. At one time he took 5 of his grandchildren under the age of 14 up there. Another year he took his 5-year-old grandson on a portage. The family thought he was asking for trouble, but the grandson handled the trip like a real outdoorsman.

They would make live boxes to keep their catch until the day they left. That’s when they would clean the fish and pack them for the trip home.

Fifteen years ago Roger and his wife, Marilyn, bought an old school bus that was converted into a camper, and this is what they would use for their trips north. It has all the conveniences of home.

It also has a generator mounted on the back.

This generator serves more than one purpose. It is not only for convenience but also an energy source for the electric fence Roger puts up around the camp to ward off intruders (namely black bears).

One year while camping with his whole family, some of the grandchildren were sleeping in tents.

After dark, strange noises always sound like bears to youngsters with good imaginations. Soon they were pounding on the door of the bus and telling Roger there was a bear out there. After a little smooth talking Roger finally convinced them that no bear could possibly penetrate that fence and they went back to sleep in the tent.

Roger and his family do all their fishing from canoes. Fishing out of canoes might sound kind of risky when there are so many people but they have a unique way of doing this. They link two canoes together with pine poles lashed to the canoes with old fashioned baling twine forming a sort of catamaran. Roger says this actually makes it more stable than a regular fishing boat.

On the back pole, positioned between the two canoes, is a 3 hp Evinrude motor. This is just enough to move the canoes easily through the water. The poles being lashed to the boats make separating the canoes easy in case of an emergency.

This year Roger didn’t do the family event, but went with another group of fishermen that has also been doing this for many years. Roger refers to this group as the Levisen Gang.