At the beginning of June, when the schedule at work rolled out, I couldn’t believe my eyes: I had the Friday and Saturday off on the LAST weekend of the month! A double whammy because not only was it bass opener, but, it also fell on a week that I have my son (one week with me, one week with his mudder). I was so happy, it didn’t even occur to me that it was the same weekend as the Lakair GTG. Not that it mattered terribly, as my little guy had already requested a camping trip with me, and he wanted to go “where no one else is…no campsites, no buildings”. How could I resist?
A couple years back, I pushed the fishing thing a little too hard, and he was starting to lose interest…so I’ve not been pushing it at all…just fishing on his terms, which has been working out nicely. We ended up aiming for Noganosh Lake…which is a relatively secluded, but large, body of water just south of the Pickerel River and Hwy 522. What followed was 3 days of glorious weather, quality father-son time, some fish and good memories
The route was simple – park at the public (and free!) boat launch at Flemming’s Landing, paddle down the Pickerel R. to Smoky Creek, through Smoky Lake, past the fly-in lodge (Tornadoes resort) and into Noganosh. Not a terribly long trek, so even if he was a part-time paddler, I figured we’d be fine.
So away we went…stopping for scenery pics as Caleb deemed necessary
Got to the first portage trail after only 3 or 4 “are we at the creek yet?”s Caleb had his own pack to carry…with some of the dried food and a bedroll. I had the rest of the campsite in my pack
What I knew about the route was that it wasn’t a terribly long paddle in, and was a portage with a couple liftovers. What I didn’t know was that it was through 3 miles of swamps!
The one liftover turned out to be a collapsed beaver dam…which meant we portaged the bags, dragged the canoe over the dry part of the dam, and swatted at bugs instead of taking pics. By the time we reached the 3rd and final portage, I had a hot, tired and somewhat frustrated paddler at the front of my boat. Morale was getting low…I had to do something…good thing I packed his favourite brew! A&W It's amazing what a well-timed sugar rush can do!
Got through the last of the portages, out of the never ending swamps, and on to Smoky Lake. Total distance was approaching 9 or 10 kms…but we had now been at it for about 4 hours. I didn’t have the heart to tell Caleb that we had to paddle all the way though this lake we just got to, and besides…I didn’t want to get to the next lake only to find that campsites had been snapped up, as the trails we’d been following were pretty well worn. We found a nice little island, which Caleb loved, so I set up camp while he tore around the place checking it all out.
We were technically within view of the fly-in lodge, but Caleb didn’t seem to mind, and neither did I…having a place within easy reach should an emergency arise was not a bad thing in my mind. Funny how all that changes when you are wholly responsible for another person’s well being
Soon we had a fire going, and I had a fire bug dancing around it happily
We also found some interesting things at our campsite…most notably this:
May not be so clear in the pic, but they were definitely a pile of hatched eggs, and a large hole had been dug out. I thought turtle, but, the eggs seemed pretty small, and the hole was about 25 feet up from shore, after a fairly steep climb over bald rock. Any ideas???
Watching dragonflies hatch was very cool…
By this point, we’re halfway into day 2, and no fishing line has even gotten wet. I’m very impressed with my own restraint, as I’m dying to fish, but refuse to be the one to suggest it! We pack up some lunch, some trail mix (which Caleb had to get a shot of!)
and head out toward Noganosh for some swimming, paddling, and fishing. Once out on the water, Caleb asked me for his rod, which I was happy to oblige…nothing much happening for the first little bit…I found a nice shoal to work, which yielded a few follows from smallies…but since they wouldn’t commit, Caleb decided to get a few good pics of himself on the shoal
Notice the bug jacket…he put it on as we started portaging, and pretty much didn’t take it off for the next few days Smart kid…I counted 27 bug bites on my left arm alone!
Saturday was truly a gorgeous day…we paddled…we swam…and the first 3 fish I hooked, I kept handing the rod to him…but they kept getting off. Including an 18”+ smallie Apparently, what was supposed to happen, was that Caleb was supposed to land the first bass of the season ALL by himself! Working a crayfish crankbait, he had this nice fella slam it…set the hook and reeled it in like a champ! He was quite pleased…I was glowing...
After that, it was deemed acceptable that I land one as well
Some very healthy largies, considering we were relatively far north. We caught a few more bass over the course of the afternoon…but really just enjoyed each other’s company, and the surroundings. A couple boats went by at one point…just had to take a pic…think they understand the concept of “capacity”?
And so it went…scenery, laughter, good times. Definitely a couple lakes that you could pull a decent amount of quality fish out of…but the little time we spent fishing didn’t even bother me. I had my son all to myself; he learned that putting in some hard work paid off ; we had gorgeous weather and no disasters…what more could I ask for? Thanks for reading
