After 22 memorable summers in Hakai Pass, the bittersweet time has come for me to hang up my hat and step away from what has been central to my life, and my family, for what seems like forever. There are days I forget that there was a time before Ole’s,...
Category: Tales of the Pass
The sun lazily sank below the horizon, taking it’s time as it does in the northern latitudes. The sky was ablaze with orange, ocher and crimson. Red sky at night, he thought, tomorrow would be a good day. The Man with the Hat looked forward to the morning, bottom fishing...
Category: Tales of the Pass
It has been said that finding a fishing partner is harder than finding a wife. The Man with the Hat knew this; he had his way of doing things in the boat--every fisherman does--exactly where you place the knife, the rod, the gaff, etc. Having someone else in the boat,...
Category: Tales of the Pass
Naked Somnambulist Some years ago, early in the season, the work day had come to an end. The day’s haul of fish was vac-packed, checked and boxed; the kitchen was all done, floors washed, etc. For the remaining crew, it was time to put their feet up. Time to relax...
Category: Tales of the Pass
Morning comes early in Hakai during the season, waking before first light; before the world had stirred was the way it was for the Man with the Hat. But today was not an ordinary day, the season was over, it was early September 2001, the last guests departed a week...
Category: Tales of the Pass
It came to pass that the 9th year of coming to Ole’s for the Cromartis and Joneses was a good year, a good year by any measure. That year a radio call came the Hakai Ranger, (as the Man with the Hat was known in those days. He had been...
Category: Tales of the Pass
The Man with the Hat found himself wearing many hats those first few years. The nature of the business demanded it, and small operations like Ole’s were built on it. Most everything would break down eventually, and the mantra became “Adapt-Improvise-Overcome”, it was on the job training in the first...
Category: Tales of the Pass
The day had arrived- the lodge was ready after weeks of labour. The Man with the Hat had spent the last several days turning an old log float into what appeared to be a dock, with stairs to the barge decking. The small crew was standing at the ready, no...
Category: Tales of the Pass
In the beginning there was Irv and JoAnn, and there was Ole’s, and Hakai Pass. The Man with the Hat had been in the Pass for a number of years but he had not been aware of the little barge tucked behind the island, around the corner from Barney Point,...
Category: Tales of the Pass
Drifting in the water and in his mind he seemed an observer of himself, looking down from above on the blackness of the water, reflections of the night sky still visible through recent cloud cover glittering and disappearing and reappearing. The two rectangular reflective patches on his shoulders were still...
Category: Tales of the Pass
He thought about how far he might have drifted by now from where he fell in. It had been high slack late that afternoon, and just at the tail end is when the Hali hit. So it would be ebbing now, he knew it was still early in the change. ...
Category: Tales of the Pass
The boat was further than it sounded. When sound travels across the water it is amplified; as the water cools the air near the surface it slows the sound waves down, bending them allowing more of the sound to reach you. He knew this; he listened intently, trying to discern...
Category: Tales of the Pass
His mind drifted now, where was he exactly? He had been to this spot before, many times, many years before. He thought now…who on his crew had he brought out here lately, and would they think to look at this spot? The spot with no name. One of those spots...
Category: Tales of the Pass
Time seemed to stand still, a calmness overtook the water, the man with the Hat bobbing just a little. Having gotten control of his breathing he turned his attention to time. How long had he been in the water, how long could he be in the water, how long how...
Category: Tales of the Pass
He did not expect to see his boat drifting away from him just before dinner, the radio still clear with the call for anglers to reel up and head back in. It was late August in Hakai and the sun was setting earlier with each passing day. He was always...
Category: Tales of the Pass
