chris.brock

nice fish, it's good to see winter hardwater reports coming up again, you must be running low on daylight up there?

I trust everyone's opinion on here. Sorry, this isn't fishing related in the least. I'm going to war again with Serta to get a replaced mattress replaced again. It's going to be a tough, long, annoying battle again (the first warranty claim was a nightmare). Like I said, I value everyones insight on OFC, there's a good chance I'll be looking for a new mattress pretty soon (could be tomorrow, my back's crying). I'm looking for peoples input on good or bad mattresses they've bought recently. These Sertas are good for a year or so, then they form trenches on each side of the bed. I've done alot of online research, and it's common for these Sertas. I can't seem to find a company that makes mattresses that get consistently good reviews.

the pictures are from various trips -the bear clawed sign is Algonquin -pictographs are Fairy Point, Missinaibi Lk -my wife with the 200lbs pack was LaVerendre, Que -the wolf was in the Chapleau Game preserve, pretty close, maybe 50 yds -my cut-up legs was an Algonquin solo trip where the route I took seemed to disappear and I was frantically crashing through the bush looking for the portage so I wouldn't have to waste a day backtracking, I ended up having to backtrack -the guitar was a photobucket screw-up, it's not a canoe trip the plastic canoe is for river trips (notice the bottom is all beat up), it's good for bouncing off rocks and grinding through shallows, that canoe no longer exists, but that's another story

yeah, well said the shoes- I'm abit of a minimalist while on a canoe trip, sandals for everything/ everyday!

for those who haven't done it, it's hard, there's no bail-out button, you often ask yourself "why am I spending my vacation like this?", but once you get home, and you have time to digest the trip, you can't wait to do it again

if there's such a thing as reincarnation, I wanna come back as Solopaddler!

X2 we had something similar, we called it the "flag bagger", didn't work worth a pooh, it froze solid when it was cold and not very sensitive there's something about the old wooden tip-ups, when you've got a few set up, you're standing around chatting, and somebody notices one tip-down, you drop your drink and start running like Usain Bolt I actually think the delay in having to run for a tip-up often hooks more fish

It was probably around 1987, I remember snowmobiling on 10"s of clear ice and a foot of powder snow on a lake in Haliburton, the last weekend in November

Rays Camp, 1st week of July, don't remember the year. From Bisco., you grab a barge, sloooooowly make your way down the lake, carry all the gear for the week across a portage, 150m, hop on another barge that takes you to camp. For awhile there, it seemed as soon as I'd take the wheel, I'd blow a tire. The Sultan Industrial Road claims another victim. We stayed the night at Bisco. It's a great place to wander around and take some pictures. I even caught a walleye under the tressle bridge, hopefully a sign of things to come. This is what my foot looked like the next morning after crawling into bed, the night before, with an unknown leech between my toes Bright and early the next morning, loading the barge for the 3 hour trip south down Bisco Lk, it was relaxing and a great chance to meet the others we would be sharing camp with for the next week. All great people, we had alot of laughs. Our usual "tower of beer" on the barge, heavily guarded. We didn't know what to expect fishing wise. The trip the year before was disappointing. At Ramsay, we were pleasantly surprised! The walleye were everywhere. Any spot that looked fishy, almost always held fish. Alot of walleye between 16 and 22. The pike didn't seem worth targeting. We did catch a few while jigging or trolling for eyes. My best day, I caught 25 eyes. Some of the older guys in our party were not used to catching so many walleye. There was some late night "drunken" discussions on the practise of "catch and release" and the theory of harvest limits. After they realized the 1st days catch wasn't a fluke, and that they could catch walleye at will, they got on board and put fish back and selectively kept a few. It was Ricardo's B-day while we were up there. Some other guests at camp gave him a few hours with Annabell, the anatomically correct blow-up doll. Yikes! Here's the owners of the camp, Pete and Re-Pete. Great guys. I love the older camps and the history. There's plenty of fish stories from years past from Ray's Camp A memorable trip. This one comes up in our conversations quite often. I'd recommend Ray's and Ramsay.

thanks Dan, where have you been lately?

I've seen you and Grant at Kesagami (winter too) and Pym from past reports. I know you've got a passion for fishing/ exploring northern Ontario. One report that stands out, was when you went up the Moose and into the French. I haven't been on this site all that much, but I'd consider you and Solo (Mike), living Ontario fishing legends. places I'd like to see next- Van Poele Lake with access to Kagianagami and a portage lake (Beartrap) from Twin Lakes Nakina, we went to Washi this year but were rained/ snowed out, I want another crack at Washi, that would be the top 2, Teabeau and another crack at Esnagami and the Attawapiskat are up there too

good eye Slop, but I bought the shirt used at Value Village (you never know what you'll find in there when you're a cheap bugger like me). post some pictures from your trip, if you get a chance, I'm sure at least me and Moosebunk would love to see them

yeah, I know you love that lake, I've read lots of your reports from Kesagami, we didn't spend enough time on Partridge to find "the grocery store", it was a magical trip, we loved it but we've got lots of other places to see

pretty sure the water would be the same clarity at any depth of the pool, with the constant current the water doesn't get a chance to stratify

The cameras must have been fake, the wire behind the camera led into the wall and couldn't be traced, the only way to transmit stuff up there is via satellite, pretty sure it would be considered illegal to have a camera in a rented cabin the pic with the campfire in the tub, you can see a camera on the upper right side of the cabin

pretty sure it was mid- June Ron was unique

I also know a guy who has caught them from shore on the Upper Niagara. It definately can be done.

on the drive up, here's the standard arctic watershed picture during our stretch break, the Cochrane drive seemed like a piece of cake compared to the Nakina drive. we were flying out of Gardiner, just north of Cochrane, we had to take a short ferry ride across the Abitibi River This is back when Ron Baron owned the outfit. He has since sold it. Ron was a great guy and a unique individual, anyone who has met Ron will know what I'm talking about. We stayed at Ron's guest cabin the night before flying in. We asked Ron if there was any fishing in the small lake we were on, just to pass the time. Ron said just to stay in our cabin. Here's the guys behaving themselves. Kesagami is a big, shallow lake that is very vulnerable to wind and waves. The group at camp the week before us could only fish Kesagami 3 days out of the week because of the waves. We were blessed with hot, calm conditions for the first 6 days. Later in the week, we were swimming often to cool down. With the sunny, calm conditions, one sandy back bay had a water temperature of 90 degrees. Ron had given us a map of the lake with a line down the middle and told us to stay on the west side of the line. We had to do a portage everyday from Partridge to Kesagami. Easy trail, flat, a little soggy. We would be coming back lighter on the return trip. In another trip, we talked to a guy who had been to Kesagami Lodge. He said the lodge owners called beers "units", and charged $5 for a single unit. We have since jokingly, called beers units. There was more units weighing us down heading east over the portage. The fishing was great. Lots of pike between 10 and 19 lbs. Plenty of walleye including a 6.5 lbs fish (no picture) Time for shorelunch. 2 guys start the fire, 2 guys go for some walleye, grabbing a few walleye was an easy task on Kesagami Ron's camp was well kept and very clean and organized. Ron said no campfires so we found an old steel basin and had our evening campfires in there to leave no evidence behind. We are very passionate about having a beer or two around the fire after a day on the water. No damage was done. Ron did comment on how clean we had left the cabin and boats when we were flying out. Hopefully that justifies our bending of the rules. Ron had signs everywhere explaining how to conduct yourself while in camp. He even had web cameras inside and outside of the cabin to keep you guessing. We had a great trip. We keep an accurate fish tally and we caught close to 700 fish total. We were super lucky with the weather but probably wouldn't go back because even a moderate wind can whip up nasty waves and turn the water into chocolate milk. The last day the wind did pick up and we had a bumpy ride, surfing waves back to the boat cache. We hardly fished Partridge. We always said we would take advantage of the good weather and fish Kesagami. Good weather was all we had.

yeah, I've been there, done that, I live close by but have no desire to go there anymore

I'd say definately a channel cat, the bullheads and madtoms (way too big to be a madtom) have a tail closer to a bowfin, that tail looks forked but folded, there's plenty of them on the eastern shore of G Bay, aggresive too I remember my grandfather used to keep channel cats from 12 mile bay to eat, he'd throw them in the trunk of his car in a garbage bag, drive home (about 3.5 hours the speed he drove), put them in his laundry sink with water and they would all revive, pretty tough species

I'm definately not an expert, but I've been with Aaron (the master) Shirley (he might chime in on this one too if he's around), 3 way rig, slinky for a weight, roe bag bait, just follow the others on the Art Park drift or the Pumphouse drift, if it's not chocolate milk (I don't think it will be), you should get some fish

while we're on the topic, I was thinking of going the other way, removing my gas fireplace and going back to wood (I guess the grass is always greener...) I get free firewood from the cottage, I was hoping to save some nat. gas furnace costs by burning some wood any input would be appreciated

I called them just less than a year ago, we were considering going there, the phone # worked, I talked to the owner, so as of then, it was still in business. I think a better website would help them out for finding new customers

I had one stolen, looked like a father and younger kid (his son?) from the tracks around the tree where it was strapped, the $100 for the camera is one thing, all the awesome pics I had on that memory card was the toughest pill to swallow I actually put the word out, into a circle of friends who might know somebody who knows something, if someone can get my memory card back, I would be very gratefull with no questions asked, no luck though

Mike probably mentioned Parks Fly In, Anjigaming or Abbey (can do some canoeing from Abbey into a few other lakes), Mike would know the most about Parks http://www.outpostcamps.com/destinations/ here's one you likely haven't found, check out the chutes outpost, their website sucks and it's hard to find doing a search, really cool spot though, there is some small brookie lakes around that camp too http://reocities.com/yosemite/forest/5502/page4.html if you did the drive to Nakina (it's worth it I think), check out this place http://www.twin-lakes-air.com/vanpoelelakeoutpostcamp.htm private lake, but can boat out to a huge lake (other camps on the big lake, Kag), a private portage lake that's a good size, and access to pike, walleye, lakers and brookies, it's a rocky, deep, oligotrophic lake too (not a shallow dish pan)