bapthorpe

We're 20+ years Air Cochrane fishermen. This past June we spent a week on Floodwood Lake. We caught a ton of average size walleye and medium sized pike "24-36". There are lots of beaver and loons on the lake making for good wildlife entertainment. The issue of this lake is the state of boats, motors, cabin and outhouse are terrible. Many of Air Cochrane's facilities have been falling apart for years and they're always saying they're gonna fix things and sadly it does not. In Floodwood only one motor worked and if we did not pay for a digital phone we would have been 4 guys with one boat for a week. We were able to call base and the next day a pilot came and fixed them. The main door to the cabin would not shut. The lakeside wall was separated both from the foundation and ceiling. When it rained it leaked all over and there was enough firewood to keep the stove lit for a night. We had to forage for the rest of the week. As with all the Air Cochrane lakes....white jigs for walleye and BIG spinnerbaits for pike always produce. Couple of great places for shore lunch. The map link on their website is fairly accurate. It does have a crazy bottom in a couple places making a depth finder very helpful. Our group will not be returning to Air Cochrane until their facilities are at least respectable for rustic outposts. If you do go, don't let the pilot leave you until you've got your boats running, check to see if there is gas enough for your visit, check to see if there is enough firewood (it was in the 30's several nights when we were there in mid June), bring a ton of duct tape to patch holes in walls and windows (mosquitos) and pay for digital sat phone....unfortunately they'll charge you for the service but not the call if you need something. . Floodwood-Lake-Contour-Map.pdf

I am fond of Air Cochrane and our going to Knight Lake was due to our very late booking. There is an outlet to another even smaller lake, that may be deeper? Once we understood the lake and switched to ultra-light rods with 2 lb test and set the "big fish" at 20" we made it fun. Three days was a day too long, but we had fun. We will plan better next year and get on one of their better lakes. :-)

The following is my fishing report on Knight Lake. I enjoy the reports of others on this forum so I hope readers find this helpful. I know our experience would have been enhanced had I been able to find more background information on this lake. First the outfitter, Air Cochrane, recently bought this lake from an outfit called True North a few years ago. The lake is very small and shallow. The lake is almost 3 miles long, but approximately only two miles of it are fishable. The northern third of the lake is completely overgrown with reeds as it is very shallow…like two feet deep. The rest of the lake is very unremarkable. The deepest point of the lake is 4 feet deep. We had excellent down imaging and sonar finders with us. The lake has absolutely no structure, holes, drop offs, boulders, etc…just flat. The entire shoreline, of the two miles which is fishable, has reeds growing an easy 50 to 100 yards from shore. Pockets of grass weeds and cabbage grow throughout the lake. The fishable part of the lake was so small a slow troll would only take about an hour to do one lap. In terms of the fishing, it would have helped a great deal had we had better information on the lake. I have fished with Air Cochrane on Nettogami, Edgar, Haultain and Mikwam. This lake cannot be compared to these body of waters. Knight Lake holds yellow walleye that average about 14” and can get as big as 18”. Walleye is what this lake is all about. We initially set the bar for 24” as a BIG walleye, but by the end we lowered this to 20” and caught only a couple that big. We did catch a handful of 8-10” perch which are always a nice surprise. The northern pike were the smallest pike I have ever seen in such abundance. 20” was the biggest pike caught, most were 12-14” Information from the outfitter suggested a couple 40+” pike had previously been caught on this lake. I am not buying that after this trip. Our group has enjoyed a lot of success over our 15 trips via Air Cochrane, this lake is too shallow to hold big pike. The best bait proved to be once again the white 3” Mister Twister and small single hook spinner baits. In terms of the cabin, it was fine and very typical of the other Air Cochrane cabins. I thought it was perfect for a fishing trip. We rented a satellite phone which proved critical as a gas hose broke on the first day and there were no spares. They flew one in for us. 2 of the 3 boats leaked. One boat literally leaked a gallon an hour which proved to be a royal pain. Fortunately it was warm so wet feet could be more easily tolerated. So whom might I recommend this lake too…I would recommend Knight Lake to fishing parties who like to use ultra-light fishing equipment and desire 14-18” walleye. People not wanting to have bad weather keeping them off the lake would do better here. The fishing area is so small that nasty weather, which would keep a person off a lakes like Edgar and Nettogami, would be manageable/navigable on Knight Lake. One day the winds were 20 mph and we fished, something we could never do on the bigger lakes. Also, people who cannot swim might feel better fishing in water that is only 2-4 deep.

Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it!!! I will certainly post what I learn/see so that those who follow can be better prepared. If anyone else has anything to share I would appreciate it. :-) Bret

Has anybody heard of Knight Lake in Ontario? Going on a fly in trip via Air Cochrane I cannot find any information on this lake anywhere on the Internet. I have been on Mikwam, Haultain, Nettogami, and Edgar lakes with Air Cochrane. Seem strange that there seems to be no information on this lake. If you or a friend know anything about this lake I would very much appreciate any insight and/or reflections. Many thanks in advance~Bret

I was born and raised in Mayville NY so I know Chautauqua Lake like the back of my hand which is why I enjoy musky fishing there....Finger Lakes for lake trout and jack perch... In terms of Edgar, does anyone have any sort of map of the lake they can share, other than what you can get via Google Maps? Bret

Hi Bob, I live in Honeoye Falls NY. Bret

Wow, what great pics. I cannot thank you enough for sharing them. I really appreciate the first hand perspective of this lake. I love the pictures. I am curios to know what you did with the minnows. Were they live or salted? Were they with bobbers, on jig heads or ???? Did you see any whitefish? Many thanks in advance....Bret

June 15 ought to be a blast.....what can you tell me about Edgar Lake? Many thanks in advance Bret

Haultain for us was where we got into 10 pike 42-45" and have seen bigger there. On Nettogami one year my 14 year old son caught two 42" pike and a 44" pike within 45 minutes...the pics are on my blog....but Haultain for consistent big fish. Jerkbaits did not work well....bucktails work good, but get hung up on the underwater timber. The FIsh Tek MSBs are nice because they have big sppons with the single hook that lets you throw them in the thick of it and you will not get snagged. Black and brown were the best colors. You can get them athttp://www.fishtek.com/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=25 It is fun in the waning hours of the night to bulge the bucktails through the calm waters for a topwater strike. Bret

Hi Dan, Thanks for the note. There are lakes for scenery...lakes for plentiful walleye and 40" pike....and lakes for just trophy pike. I used to go for trophy pike and did very well. Now I bring my son and two godsons so we go lakes with lots of walleye so they can get into the numbers. Plus they taste good too :-) I have gone to two types of pole setups. One is an ultralight with 4lb test and a heavy flurocarbon leader for jigs and small spoons. With the drag set properly it makes it a ton of fun catching 18-24 inch walleyes. The heavy flurocarbon leader saves you from loosing jigs to pike. I actually caught a 36" blue pike three years ago on this set up. The seond setup is generally a small 6'6"-7" musky rod with 40 lb braided line with a heavy fluro carbon leader. The first time I went north I went with more tackle than you can imagine.....crankbaits, tube baits, spinners, spoons, jerk baits....I had it all....fast forward 12+ trips later, now I go with 1 flat of lures...mostly jigs and small spoons for walleyes and Fish-Tek spinner baits for the large pike. Being a musky fisherman I was always eager to catch lots of 40" pike and was frustrated in my initial attempts. I used every crank bait, tube bait, jerk bait, spoon, possible with marginal returns. Then I had a friend catch a 45" pike on a Fish-Tek lure...I did not llike the looks of them because they were different looking, but I tried them and had success...and if you look at my blog you will see we catch 40" pike every year on those things.....I think they work well because everyone else is using the popular baits when they go fishing in Canada and the fish do not like em. I travel alot and cannot believe a night fishing on an Air Cochrane trip is cheaper than a night in a good hotel....i would rather be in Canada :-) Bret

I have enjoyed over 12 years of fishing with Air Cochrane on Lakes Haultain, Mikwam, and Nettogami. This year we are heading to Edgar for the first time. I was hoping folks who have been to Edgar could share their experiences, strategies and pics. For those who are going to the lakes I have frequented and/or who like to know how we have consistently caught 40"-45" pike in all these lakes I would be happy to share. http://apthorpeoutdoors.blogspot.com/2009/07/lake-nettogami-2009.html Many thanks

Hi Dan, You are going to be in for a great time. I have fished Nettogami three times and will be going out on my 4th trip the end of June. We have the fish dialed in pretty good on this lake.My link is my blog posting from last year's trip. For the walleye any type of plastic jig works great....For the 40+" pike, the only lure that consistently produces them up there are the dark colored MSB-125 made by Fishtek My link I have also caught whitefish in this lake, but they are very hard to catch and I only caught them at dusk with the mayfly hatch. I do not believe you need live bait....leave the crank baits and rubber worms in the tackle box. Throw metal for the pike and jigs for the walleye. I have been on lots of Canadian fly-in trips and I can share the list of items we bring. Life vest foil rain gear paper towels towel firestarters sleeping bag/pillow deck of cards flashlight first aid kit ID for border (Passport) two-way radios camera extra-battery toilet paper bug spray gallon zip lock bags sunblock quart ziplock bags bed/head bug net SOS Pads prescriptions duct tape ipod super glue lighter dish soap fillet knives sponge/scrubbie personal beverage garbage bags camera extra-battery mosquito coil batteries mosquito head nets knit hat/gloves paper plates ? beverage container plastic forks GPS Fish FInder Claymores Walleye Rods (lt-med) Pike Rods (med-hvy) jigs leaders Post some pictures when you get back and let us know how you did. :-) Bret

A followup to the fishing reports of Nettogami....last year on our trip my 14 year old son caught 2 42" and 1 44" northern pike. For pictures check out http://apthorpeoutdoors.blogspot.com/2009/...ogami-2009.html Once again the lures of choice were the dark Fish tek MSBs.

I was looking in my notes on the our trip last year to Nettogami and the bay I referred to earlier as "Moose Bay" is actually called "Caribou Bay". I also recalled that the other party on the lake was a great group of fishermen, coal miners, from Kentucky....led by a gentleman called "Linc" (Sp?) who had been going to Nettogami for over 20+ years. He shared stories related to the Indian trapping camp at the north end of the lake, the history of Lindberg's ownership of the properties before Air Cochrane came into ownership and I remember he said the small adjacent lake produced larger walleye, but total quantities were a lot less than Nettogami. I believe there is a boat already at this lake, but you have to portage a motor.

That is great about making it twice to that lake...did you snap any pictures? I bet the bugs were glad too see you In terms of the south end, we had 20-30 mph winds, I had my 12 year old son and it was a little too dicey for me on a couple of occasions to venture down to the south end. I had a similar experience in that there was plenty of walleye in the north end, and in fact I believe all the blue pike we caught were in the north end.

Wow, interesting stuff Mike...I was told that Piyagoskogau lake was only 2-4 feet deep.....vast in size, but extremely shallow...you have my curiosity peaked....the stream was too shallow for us to get a boat very far up that stream towards Piyagoskogau lake...does it get deeper? Were the walleye similar in size to those on Nettogami?

The tricky part about fishing this water is using relatively small jigs on the walleye/perch, hooking a pike, and having the line break. Another group on the lake when we were there had steel leaders hooked directly to their jigs...but I was thinking there might be a better solution....maybe fluorocarbon leaders on braided line? Any thoughts or experiences to share on that? The large pike were in the deeper water and walleye were in 6'-8' when we were at Nettogami. The north river was very shallow and did not seem to contain much fish...the southern river was much deeper and had fish, but it was not as navigable as the Mikwam River..

Good info on the grubs....I would not have thought of them. I went to Mikwam a few years ago and the weather was the wildest of my 6 trips with Air Cochrane....50 degree swing in temperature in 24hrs?!? The walleye seemed to be smaller than at Nettogami, but the river fishing on Mikwam was a blast and the sturgeon at dusk were fun. Nettogami has some pretty serious water. Two of the six days on the peninsula was too rough to get the boats to the south end....3 foot+ rollers...the cabin was pretty typical with a great view of the lake as it sits atop a hill/bank.

I was there last year in the same camp with my son. My memory card crapped out so none of my pictures turned out, but for pictures to Air Cochrane trips of the past you can check out my blog at http://springcrappie.blogspot.com/ In terms of the fish on the lake....lots of walleye on white Mister Twister jigs and Fish Tek AfterShocks There are lots of Blue Pike...kinda cool as I had never seen one till I fished this lake. Whitefish in the evening can be caught on poppers or weightless jigs. There are two deep holes, one on the north end and the south end....but the walleye tend to be a ridiculously easy catch in "Moose Bay" where all the reeds are. If this is your first fly-in trip to Canada I can offer more insight....bring lots of breadcrumbs as you will eat walleye morning noon and night.