Wildfires force Iowa anglers on Canadian fishing trip to make sudden evacuation

The Canadian wildfires whose smoke bedeviled millions in late June posed more than a respiratory threat to four Manchester anglers and a Wisconsin friend who fled a remote wilderness lake shortly before flames blackened its entire shoreline.

The anglers — John Zietlow, Joe Wiewel, Jerry Burke and Pat Dolan, all of Manchester, and Paul Searles of Madison, Wis. — flew into 1,557-acre Tew Lake in Ontario’s Wabakimi Provincial Park on June 15.

They stayed in the only cabin on the lake, which is accessible only by air. The cabin, operated by Northern Wilderness Outfitters of Fort Frances, was protected by a sprinkler system installed as a precaution a week earlier by the Canadian government. The men were equipped with a satellite texting device that could connect them with their outfitter, either to request help or to be warned of danger.

Zietlow said their first day on the water was “nice and sunny with a north wind taking the smoke away.” On their second day, he said, ashes and burnt pine needles fell from the sky, signaling an expansion of the fire. They later learned that the fire threatening Tew Lake expanded from about 2,500 acres to more than 100,000 acres while they were there.

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On their third day, Saturday, June 17, the five of them in three 14-foot boats motored south toward the fire, where they encountered thick smoke, which sent them back the way they’d come. “I could feel it in my throat,” Dolan said.

That afternoon a yellow helicopter approached and hovered about 40 feet above their boats, its downdraft riling the surface of the lake.

Dolan, who feared the wash from the chopper would blow them out of their boats, said he felt like the pilot’s eyes were locked on his as he waved them toward the cabin on shore. He said two firefighters met them at the camp where five big sprinklers were pumping lake water on the cabin. One of the firefighters advised the anglers to immediately contact their outfitter, who said a plane would arrive at 3 p.m. to evacuate them, leaving them 90 minutes to pack their gear and be waiting on the dock.

With the sprinkler system engaged, they donned rain gear while clearing out the cabin. They’d moved their gear to the dock, cleaned the day’s catch and were enjoying a beer when the rescue plane arrived at 3:15 p.m.

The pilot, who had been delayed by thick smoke and feared he would soon be flying blind, told them they needed to hurry, Zietlow said.

“If the plane had come an hour later, they might not have been able to find us,” said Dolan, who was on his 55th Canadian fly-in fishing trip since 1983.

“We thought we were done,” Zietlow said, “but the outfitter gave us the option of going home or finishing our trip at Shikag Lake,” another excellent fishing outpost with bigger boats and motors at a safer distance from the flames and smoke.

Of course the anglers chose to continue fishing at Shikag, where the outfitter told them the sprinkler system had saved the cabin on Lake Tew, which he described as a green island in a charred landscape.

The anglers, who said they were more worried than scared during the ordeal, praised the competent and conscientious service provided by Northern Wilderness Outfitters.

“They could have sent us home, but they helped us keep fishing. I don’t think they made any money on us,” Zietlow said.