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"Discover the thriving pickerel fishing industry in Manitoba, Canada, as Western Living magazine takes you on a culinary journey through the lakeside town of Gimli and the pristine waters of Lake Winnipeg."
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Western Magazine Awards Foundation The Magazine School TMS 2012 Bringing outstanding writing, design and photography to the classroom westernmagazineawards.ca
Western Magazine Awards Foundation • An annual awards program recognizing excellence in Western Canadian editorial work and design. • The Magazine School TMS 2012 is a project of the Western Magazine Awards Foundation. It provides classroom material to instructors and professors.
Gold Award Best Article Manitoba Sponsored by Government of Manitoba Ministry of Culture, Heritage and Tourism • Finalists: • Border Crossings, Daniel Baird, “The Indecisive Moment: The Photography of Elaine Stocki” • Going Places, Claudine Gervais, “The Little Train That Could” • The Cottager, Judy Owen, “Bonded for Life” • Western Living, Shel Zolkewich, “Hooked”
The Winning Entry Is: Western Living Shel Zolkewich “Hooked”
About Western Living Magazine • “As Canada's largest regional magazine, Western Living invites readers to stretch their imaginations about living in the West.” • Circulation: 165,000 • Publisher: Transcontinental Media • Published 10 times per year Click here for Western Living’s website
About the author: Shel Zolkewich • Writes about travel, outdoors and food • Hunting columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press • Fishing and hunting consultant for Travel Manitoba Click here for author's website
Meet the editor: Neal McLennan • Food and travel editor for Western Living • Food and drink columnist for Vancouver Magazine • Byline as appeared in Cooking Light, enRoute and Seattle magazines Click here for VanMag stories by Neal McLennan
Author also works in public relations • Contractor with Travel Manitoba media relations. • Helped to put together and host a summer media trip called Fish & Folk, centring on Gimli.
Manitoba: The writer’s backyard • Zolkewich is based in Winnipeg. • Gimli, Manitoba, is Shel Zolkewich’s hometown.
About Gimli • Lakeside town approx. 90 km north of Winnipeg on Highway 8 • On western shoreline of Lake Winnipeg • 2011 census population: 5,845 • Home of Crown Royal whisky distillery and the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba • Slogan: The Heart of New Iceland
Lake Winnipeg • Lake Winnipeg is the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world with 800 commercial fishers operating on it – about 100 of them in Gimli. • Large, shallow water body with murky and windy conditions provides favourable habitat for pickerel. • Average income for a Lake Winnipeg licensed fisher: $23,110 – the highest among all Manitoban lakes. • Lake Winnipeg’s largest commercial fishery accounts for 47% of the province's total production. • Pickerel and sauger (a relative) accounted for 80% of summer production during 2008/2009 season. Click here for info on Lake Winnipeg / Manitoba's commercial fisheries / sauger
Manitoba fishing industry • Manitoba fishing a $31-million-per-year industry as of 2008/2009 season • Commercial value for pickerel in 2008/2009 in Manitoba: $21.6 million • Other popular Manitoba catches: whitefish, Northern pike, mullet and carp Click here for info on Lake Winnipeg / Manitoba's commercial fisheries
About pickerel • A freshwater fish, and a member of the perch family • Also known as walleye • Native to Canada and northern U.S. • Can grow up to 80 cm long • Pearlescent eyes allow them to see in low light but make them sensitive to brightness • Popular food and game fish; popular among sport fishers for elusive nature and fighting ability • Dawn and dusk generally best times to catch when they feed in shallower water
About pickerel “Most of the pickerel harvested from Lake Winnipeg makes its way overseas, but a handful of fishermen prefer to do business closer to home. A lot closer to home. They sell their catch at farmers’ markets and to restaurants in Winnipeg. If you opt for a pickerel dinner at an eatery in Gimli, chances are pretty good you’ll be eating fish recently plucked from the lake that day.”
Pickerel as a delicacy • Mild, sweet flavour with flaky white flesh • Can be grilled, baked, pan-seared, broiled, deep-fried or smoked • Rainbow trout considered a freshwater substitute for article's recipes • Comparable saltwater fish substitutes: cod or haddock
Story background • Demonstrated life as a commercial fisherman • Nets with a full catch can weigh 60 to 85 pounds • "I pulled nets for an hour and a half, I couldn't strain my arms the next day. It's grueling work." • – Shel Zolkewich
“As the day went on, and because I wear the other hat of being a travel writer, I thought, ‘Huh, I could write about this.’” – Shel Zolkewich
Local angle, Western Canadian appeal • Editors thought pickerel theme would appeal to all Western Living readers • When covering fish, readers would want to know about eating them as opposed to just fishing for them; Zolkewich agreed to write one part first person, other part service. • "It's going to be very readable to our Victoria (B.C.) reader as well.” • – Neal McLennan
Story approach The author takes the reader on a linear journey, starting at the fishing net and ending at the restaurant plate (with recipes for pickerel sandwich and pickerel cartoccio).
Pickerel: From net to plate “I think there's really been this renewed interest in where our food comes from and I thought, ‘Oh, we can sort of tie this together; start at the beginning. Where did this food come from? How did it get to the table?’” – Shel Zolkewich
Nice days write themselves "The weather co-operated spectacularly, had a gorgeous, gorgeous pink sunrise, light breeze, seagulls, fresh air. You couldn't have written the script any better. And Arni's a character, he's one of those subjects that you wish were in every one of the stories that you had to write.” – Shel Zolkewich
Editing: Trusting your writer "I knew it was a place she was going to know very well so I was happy to give her enough space to write it in a first-person sort of narrative form – knowing that she would sort of nail it, knowing that she would go out with these pickerel fishermen in the morning and be able to get some nice little moments that would hopefully resonate with the reader." – Neal McLennan
Editor reflects "It's a sort of classic Manitoba story. It is a story that immediately conjures a sense of place. That's the main thing. I read this and I feel like I'm in Manitoba, and not in any sort of boostery or PR sort of way, I think it's just a straightforward story about someone who knows her subject matter very well and executes it quite well.” – Neal McLennan
Advice for aspiring travel writers “I'll pass on some really great advice that I got when I was getting started. There's a novelist in Manitoba by the name of Jake MacDonald. We were having lunch one day and sitting there, I was contemplating leaving my full-time job and setting out on my own. And he said, ‘Shel, just go out there and have some adventures and then write about them.’” – Shel Zolkewich
Advice for aspiring travel writers Join local associations and/or the Travel Media Association of Canada. Click here for the Travel Media Association of Canada website
What makes a good culinary tourism article? Pitches on food trends and hip restaurants are good but come in a lot. McLennan wants pitches offering a unique angle and knowledge – a story only that writer can tell. "This is a perfect example of not overreaching with a pitch or with an idea." – Neal McLennan
Technical aspects • Cover spread: Photography by Clinton Hussey; styling by Murray Bancroft • Uncredited photos of Gimli viking statue, fishing dock and Crown Royal bottle – “The trinity that rules Gimli.” • 2 pickerel recipes • 865 words (main copy) • Service, such as recipes or restaurant listings, standard with food features (normally 750 to 1,000 words) for Western Living Click here for Western Living’s Guidelines for Writers
Shooting the cover spread • A pretty basic shoot, shot in studio with a digital back for the camera body. Seeing previews displayed in the back helped get confirmation and approval of shots quicker. • Sandwich was made from scratch and placed on top of crumpled parchment paper.
Shooting the cover spread Photo shoots typically start with a dummy while working out lighting before the final shoot. "Then when you go to shoot your final, it's a little quicker and [it] doesn't have to sit as long . . . they can look a little tired after a short time.” – Clinton Hussey
Gear • Medium-format Mimiya RZ film body • Phase One P45+ digital back • 110-mm f/2.8 lens • Profoto strobe packs • Mirrors for bouncing light back into the detail
Advice for aspiring food photographers • Work with different styles you like, play with different light settings and locations, be creative and unique. • Know the foodie culture and keep meeting people.
[Headline] Hooked [Deck] Beneath the choppy waters of Lake Winnipeg lurks one of the West’s great delicacies. SHEL ZOLKEWICH heads to Gimli, Manitoba, to catch some pickerel (and land one great sandwich).
Headline and deck Author-suggested headline was “A Pickerel Tale,” which McLennan changed to “Hooked” for design reasons.
Lead “Evening. We’re aboard Gimme Shelter, a 23-foot fishing skiff, and headed for a couple of white flags flapping in the wind on Lake Winnipeg. They mark Arni Matheson’s nets. After a lifetime of living among the fishermen of Gimli, Manitoba, I still have no idea how these old codgers decipher one man’s flag from another’s, but the fishermen seem to know.”
Nut graf “I’m parked on the rail, facing into the wind as we speed along, and there’s a steady stream coming from my watering eyes. A nearby distillery is pumping out the sweet mash aroma of that iconic Canadian whisky, Crown Royal, which runs neck and neck with the pickerel we’re after today for the title of Gimli’s favourite export. It’s vast and impossibly peaceful out here, like some guidebook’s idea of Canada.”
Descriptive passages “And in winter, when Lake Winnipeg boasts four feet of ice, he’ll do it with the help of an ancient contraption made by Bombardier that resembles a rounded-off school bus on skis, a massive auger and a bucket of warm water to thaw his icy hands.”
Descriptive passages “Get chef Stephane Thierry talking about food and he’s not likely to stop until an order comes in to his tiny kitchen. His French- Italian blood runs hot with tales of crafting his first paté at the age of eight (his uncle was a butcher) and making the rounds at Italian food markets.”
Numbers: Describing a fisherman’s day “In the fall season, he pulls his nets daily, sometimes collecting 800pounds of prized pickerel, taking each fish out of the mesh by hand. In summer, he’ll do it two or three times a day to prevent the fish from going bad. His thousand-mile stare over the lake lets you know he wouldn’t have it any other way.”
