scuro

I love fishing with kids...usually it lasts an hour at best...3 full days for your kid? What are you feeding him?

I fish for carp too. Some of those Ottawa boys don't know how good they have it. Around here I can work real hard to get dink bass and pike or I can fish carp and get a great fight.

Fishing wasn't over for me after Kesagami ( http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...c=9365&st=0 ). My brother in law Chris met up with me in Cochrane for the second leg of my journey. After over 30 years Chris was finally going to meet his birth mother. What a chance to meet his relatives, see that part of the country, and also possibly get some fishing in . Chris hadn't been up north for a few years so he was itching to get some roadside fishing in after we left Cochrane. There are numerous places to fish on the side of road. While many of these places looked promising we had a difficult time raising fish, only small pike would hit our lures. The weather could have been a factor. Chris on our first stop. The blackflies were bothersome. The view from the road was typically flat bush or fields. No postcard views from this corner of our province. The landscape from Cochrane to Nipigon is a relatively unremarkable until you get into the Nipigon area where the landforms are often stunning. It's not uncommon on highway 11 to see abandoned buildings by the side of the road. The whole of northern Ontario has been hit hard by the sharp decline of the logging industry. Here is one part of our national economy that is really hurting due to the dollar's dramatic rise. In town along the way, I overheard some locals speak optimistically because houses were selling again. With the price of metals as high as they are, old mines are being reopened again and there is new exploration. Some of these northern towns will be luckier then others. The most depressing sight on that drive was this abandoned church. This church is set spectacularly on a peninsula of the lake that abuts the town of Longlac. It should be the main jewel in the crown of the town of Longlac, instead windows are broken and the roof is starting to fall in. Surely the church could have been used for weddings or even as a focal point for some sort of tourist attraction. Our journey ended in the town of Redrock which is just a short jaunt west from the town of Nipigon on the north shore of lake Superior. The paper mill in this town recently closed and there is talk of closing the community center because it can no longer be supported. Council states it needs to raise taxes. It's all a crying shame because the town is situated in a very scenic location and has a great little harbour. A house recently at bank auction was bought for less then the average price of a used car. The closed paper mill. A view of lake Superior shore from the harbour. We stayed at Reflection lake resort on the lower arm of lake Nipigon. Out on the main lake water temperatures were in the low 50's. Those who came to the resort came with boats for Lakers. We picked the resort because there was no guarantee that this reunion would go well. At worst if things had gone bad, we would have simply spent a week fishing. The resort is well run in a very scenic location right off of highway 11. The cabins were about as clean as any I have ever seen and suited our needs perfectly. The fishing was unremarkable, typical of Southern Ontario, weather could have been a factor because a lot of rain fell during our stay. Here is the RFL webpage - http://www.mccollumsresort.com/resort.htm The view from our cabin door. And a little more to the left... The dock and lake. This establishment runs weeklong cruises for parties of 6 or less onto lake Nipigon where one can fish for world class Lakers. They have downriggers right off top deck at the back end of the ship. Included in that tour is 14 ft Lunds that they tow along so that guests can fish for other species. This is something I am seriously considering for next year. RFL cruise webpage - http://www.mccollumsresort.com/ Our first meeting was at their church where his birthmother is a minister. We came a few minutes late and they had already started the service. That didn't stop an aunt from peeking out the back door when we arrived. Our first memory is of her and her big warm-hearted smile. After church we had coffee and snacks with everyone. I got a quick pic of the four brothers together, what great guys. From left to right are Chris, Donald, Raymond, and Richard. After lunch we met his grandma. All went very well. We closed out the day with an invitation from Raymond Jr. to go fishing at his camper on the north shore of lake superior. We arrived late in the day and the view was stunning. We walked down to the 12 ft aluminum boat and flipped it on its side to get rid of excess rainwater. Next Raymond brought the 2hp motor from the camper and attached it to the boat. Gas was put in the top of the small motor like you would fill up your lawnmower. We started a slow chug to the point and flung out little cleos that we trolled. Within minutes the first fish was on. ...and within 10 minutes we had our second fish. Raymond admiringly looked at my well stocked tackle tray for trout trolling. I longingly looked at the beauty of this environment and the simplicity of the fishing. The grass is always greener on the other side. Our catch for the evening. Chris's relatives all have status cards. Chris and I got into a routine where we would fish in the morning and then come back to the house and hang out for the afternoon with his birthmom. On the second day we hooked up with his other half-brother ( and his friend John ) and did some backroad walleye fishing. Once on the water we headed to a very unremarkable bay and drift/trolled for walleye. Richard used walleye spinning rigs with a bit of splitshot. We on the other hand fumbled around with tackle until we found something that worked. For a while you just couldn't keep a fish off of Richard's line. Even as we were moving to a different location he had fish on. We had triples a few times and probably would have had a quadruple had I not been tying my line. For an early summers afternoon of walleye fishing in the sun at 6 ft of water, I had never seen better walleye fishing. We got a late start so this wasn't even the lake he wanted to take us to. :shock: :shock: My best for the day John said, that a Laker spit the hook. Lakers in 6 ft of water in July??? 10 minutes later I brought up this silver and blue fish. :shock: We ate that fish. After researching, I now wonder if that blue walleye is be better known as "blue pike" last seen in late 50's. "Stizostedion vitreum glaucum" is now considered extinct!!!! Wikipedia chimes in on the topic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_walleye A closer look. Was I hamming it up with the last of it's kind? After two hours of fishing we called it a day. We kept what looks to be an insane amount of walleye. Up in Nipigon it's just an afternoon's catch on an ordinary backroad lake. Once the catching was done they had to be filleted and later divided amongst the two families and us. We spent a nice afternoon just sitting on the deck watching the filleting and shooting the breeze. I guess Chris was out of practice in the filleting department. After talking to Raymond and Richard we had planned to fish a species a day. They told us about huge carp and thought we were daft to be even interested in fishing for them. We also learned that the Sturgeon are so plentiful that they fish for them with shoelaces. What they do is sneak up behind the smaller ones in shallow water and them lasso their back tail with a shoelace and hold on for dear life. Barehanding can result in major cuts. Where they "stringing" us city folk along? I had my doubts but others talked of the same practice. After those first two nice sunny days the weather was mainly cold, rainy, and windy. All the rivers were swollen and fast flowing. We had to stop the species a day on species #3 bass. That didn't stop me from fishing the harbour looking for Lakers which lurk there. Instead, how about 2 decent pike in 5 casts sound? Here is a pic of Chris's birthmom Betty-Anne and her husband Raymond, two of the warmest and friendliest people you will ever meet. They both loved to laugh and share stories. Chris really warmed up to the family as did I over the week. The week was great with no hitches. Chris and Betty-Anne seemed to have a natural rapport together. It was wonderful to see. He wants to go back and I hope to tag-a-long once again. Hopefully next year we can get his three sisters, parents, and grandkids to come along.

Getting there is half the fun. What angler hasn't looked for new water and felt doubly rewarded when it produces?

Not a bad way to spend a mornin' eh?

It's a huge lake and I have fished both ends of it. The walleye are there, eater size. For me the main attraction of Kipawa is Lakers.

I don't have my wife's pics on my computer space. Here are a few experimental shots. (reeling in a fish-( pic of fish by the boat)

I like the "L" on Laverne's sweater better

Best pic of many great pics is of your daughter at the ready with a stern look of determination on her brow. She will turn into a FISHING MACHINE if you keep taking her out, watch out buddy!! You are blessed to have such a great family and awesome place to go.

Nice fish

That one got an audible chuckle out of me!

As much as I enjoyed reading your post and seeing your pics the sentence above gave me just as much pleasure...and I have never fished Simcoe!! It bodes well for our fishing stalk when we have such a fine example to follow.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0501/05010501pentax_optiowp.asp I use a Pentax and it works well. All my posted pics came from that camera. I have taken a few underwater shots as did my wife in Cuba. It worked fine. I like it more for fishing when you never know if it is going to rain, if you take an accidental swim, or your camera gets slimmed. After the last slime I put it in he sink and washed it off.

No one has mentioned price. My black and white Lowerance H20 (waterproof) plus topo map down to the stream level of All of Ontario and most of Quebec and Manitoba cost $300 at my local fishing store. That was a year ago. Could be cheaper now. Also Lowerance is plug in and play. Put the chip in and you are off to the races. I've never used software from a computer.

Set a limit on Christmas presents, make your own coffee, hang out your clothes to dry,...but never skimp on beer and buy Lakeport!

You might want to go to 100 pound floro. Something got about 2/3 the way through my wife's leader. At 80 pounds that wouldn't have held a big fish while at 100 pounds you could still bring it in.

Nice brookie. I post using photobucket. http://photobucket.com/ I downsize first to 600x800 and then upload. Finally I post the img code right on the post page.

It's a bass eat mouse world.

Beer. I've sampled many. It would be a crime not to mention GERMAN beer. With 6 hundred indepedent breweries they have come up some great beers. Virtually any German or Chec beer is good. It's a quality thing. In both countries no ingredient besides hops, water, and barley may be used. It was a law they introduced back in 1516 called the Reinheits Gebot. Germany did not allow any imported beer into Germany that did not follow that law, I'm not sure if they still follow this practice. This law barred out all English beer but not Guinness. All major label US and Canadian beer add adjuncts. Then again so do Belgium beers but they do it increase the quality of the beer, not to produce more profit. My favorite beer is Pilsner Urquel. My favorite domestic beer was Upper Canada when it first came out, then they changed it and ruined it. I will drink most beers as long as they are cold. I will not drink any beer produced by Dave Nichols and generally any beers made in Hamilton which almost always suck.

Thanks for the read! I've flown with Air Cochrane and loved the pics.

I felt the excitement and I could feel my heart rate increase as I read on...I hope too that I can life to the fullest in my retirement years. Loved the pic with outstretched arms, it was the best by far.

You only live once! We broke up the week between one set of grandparents and my brother. Instead of presents for Christmas I always ask for babysitting instead. I'd take four days of babysitting over a bottle of fine scotch anyday.

Always love your reports, you make it look so darn easy.