bronzeback

Cliff,

Regarding the Garmin Striker 4.  You might want to check out this site.  I think it's the most detailed site out there on the features of the unit.

My report for Hambleton lake is the one on Mike's site. The lake is stuffed with walleye and the average size is bigger than any of the other lakes we have fished in the area. Pike were few and far between but the bragging wall in the cabin shows they are there if you target them. I wouldn't hesitate to go back. PM me with any questions.

Trip of a lifetime for someone for sure. My entry submitted as fast as I could type.

What a timely report Scott! Charlotte and I leave this Friday for our second trip to Abbey. Glad to hear you and your family had a great time. Cheers.

Fantastic Mike. You get my vote for Dad of the year. Thanks for sharing.

Both my daughters just bought new Elantra sedans and love them. A lot of car for the money. As far as I know, the sedans are built in Montgomery Alabama while the coupes and GT are built in Korea.

Back to Abbey Lake for a second visit to this beautiful fly-in spot in the Chapleau area. A north of Nakina trip is on the bucket list for sure though.

Simply amazing Mike. A beautifully written story of an epic trip. Living the dream for sure.

You and Charlotte will certainly remember that trip for a while. It was a great report, thank you.

Thanks Roy. We shot lots of video as well including one clip of a black bear swimming across the lake while we fished. I'm sure we'll relive those memories all winter long.

Thanks to all for taking the time to read and a special thanks to Mike Borger for all your help and advice.

Mike Borger did the definitive report last summer on Abbey Lake in the Chapleau game preserve. It sounded like the perfect spot for my wife, Charlotte, and I to spend some much needed quality time in the solitude and majesty of this beautiful part of the world.

Knowing that many fly-in destinations understandably want a minimum of 3-4 people to make a booking, I didn't have high hopes when I called Warren and Jennifer of Parks Fly-In Fishing in mid winter of actually getting into Abbey. Much to my surprise, Warren said the last week of August was still available and it was ours if we wanted it.

I snapped it up in a heartbeat and we were set to go. 6 months never took so long to pass.

3:00 a:m on Sat. Aug 25th. saw us backing out of the driveway to begin the drive to Wawa where we would overnite before flying out Sunday morning with Hawk Air. This was only our second trip up the Lake Superior shoreline and the scenery was spectacular.

Charlotte and I had only ever done one fly-in trip before this and, as luck would have it, on that trip we hit a week long cold front with nasty weather and predictably bad fishing.

Waking up to grey skies and the threat of rain did not inspire confidence and indeed, by the time we reached Hawk Air, the rain was falling and our 9:30 departure time had changed to noon. Further bad news, upon weigh in, we were overweight and had to decide what could be left behind.

Half of our most precious cargo (my beer) and some other non-essentials (food) was selected and we were soon airborne. The flight was made in a zigzag pattern to avoid the patchy weather and a bumpy 40 minutes later we touched down at Abbey.

Meeting us at the dock was Warren and Jennifer who had flown in the night before and had the beautiful log cabin neat as a pin for our stay. After Warren gave us a quick tour and some helpful tips for greenhorns, he and Jenn departed with our pilot and we settled in.

The rain ended shortly after we unpacked and we never saw another drop all week. In fact the weather was perfect with temps in the low 20's C daytime, cooler at night.

Charlotte and I will never be mistaken for hardcore fisherpeople. Usually one main trip a year with perhaps a trip to a friend's cottage thrown in is the extent of our fishing. I usually have a bucketful of reasons why we didn't catch many fish whether it be the weather, not knowing the lake or whatever.

This time however all the elements seemed to be in our favour so I felt a certain amount of pressure to show some results.

Especially since Mike had been kind enough to provide us a map with many hotspots highlighted.

The fishing was, in a word, astounding. Numbers would be meaningless even if we had been able to keep track. Suffice to say we caught and released more fish on this trip than all our other trips combined.

We are still wearing our "war wounds" with pride as our hands are still a mass of cuts and punctures from sharp fins.

As mentioned in other posts, Abbey is not a lake where you can expect to catch giant walleye. But neither are they the small 12-14 inch cigars you might think. Fully 90% of our catch was between the 16-18 inch range and as scrappy as they come. Pike were few and far between although we didn't target them anyways.

The folks from Hawk Air dropped in for a check on us on Wednesday and God love them, they brought my beer.

Part of breakfast and dinner every day.

The colours on some of the fish were a beautiful blue. Hopefully they show up in this shot.

I'll close by saying that, the fishing aside, a fly-in trip to a lake such as Abbey is something that everyone should experience at least once. I can remember sitting around the campfire after a long day on the water, watching the full moon bathe the lake in light and thinking that it can't get better than this.

You must be getting pretty stoked yourself. It's coming up soon isn't it?

I think I passed "stoked" about the beginning of June. We fly into Abbey Aug 26th for a week. Seems like it will never get here.

Mike, you are creating memories that will only get sweeter as time passes. A week spent with one of your children in that unspoiled paradise is more precious than gold.

Thanks to you, Riley, Dan and "The Rifleman" for taking us along for the ride.

Excellent report... My wife and I are heading up there ourselves the last week of August and I'm in count down mode already. Mike's advice and recommendations are sure sending a bunch of us Park's way. Can't wait.

I'd like to echo the comments most have made about how helpful Mike has been when asked for advice. My wife and I did our first fly-in trip last year to a lake in the Wawa area. I sent Mike a message asking for a couple of tips on what might work best up there. I wasn't sure if he would even have the time to respond as he seemed very busy at the time. Much to my surprise, he replied with a detailed report of what should work and what to try if it didn't, as well as a host of other tips that we found invaluable.

I happen to be Canadian but I'm sure his response would of have been the same whatever my nationality. I don't want to keep this post going any longer than it should but I believe Mike to be one of the most helpful guys on this board and it's obvious most feel the same.

Looking at going to Dog Lake in Missinabie this summer. Have got a connection to a free place to stay so I don't think I can pass it up. I think it is right in the town of Missinabie which I believe is the north part of the lake. Can anyone give me some advice? I haven't been fishing long and I am pretty much a novice. Last year we went to Temagami and did ok catching mostly small mouth. Would like to get into more walleye and northern but will certainly try for small mouth also. Is there a place to get a good map? Not a cheap one but a good one that shows shoals and all that. Feel free to PM me if you would.

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I'm booked into a lodge on Dog Lake the last week of June. Also my first time there. Hopefully I can help a little more when I get back, assuming of course your trip is after that.

I have the Ice Cube 4 man hut Cliff and like it very much. My understanding is that it is identical to the Sub Zero one which I believe is a Canadian Tire house brand. Sets up in about 5 minutes and weighs about 23 pounds making it very portable.

One drawback is no floor. Not a problem for me but might be a deal breaker for some. As far as it being it suitable for 4 adults however, maybe 4 very close friends. More realistic is, comfortable for two and snug for 3. Combine it with a good portable heater and you are good to go.

Done. Very nice read.

Once again Mike, you have put all of us in the boat, around the campfire, and yes, slogging through the bush with you guys. As you know, the wife and I are heading up that way for a fly-in in a few weeks and you can't believe how much the anticipation has intensified since reading your latest adventure. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

$225.00 US at reelfishingdeals.com. Looks like free shipping to Canada if the order is over $100.00.

I contacted Humminbird regarding the support cable issue as I had read about it not allowing the transducer to hang straight and give a true bottom reading. This was their reply:

Thank you for contacting Humminbird for your fish finding needs. We greatly appreciate you purchasing one of our units and will strive to assist in any questions you have on our products.

The support cable that comes with this system will not hold the transducer at an angle if installed properly. Several customers that have experienced a tilt to the transducer are those that have pulled too much slack out of the cable when securing it and will cause the transducer to tilt. Please let us know if further assistance is needed.

For further information on this or other Humminbird products please feel free to contact our Customer Resource Center at 1-800-633-1468 to speak with a Customer Service Representative. Our hours are Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Kindest Regards,

Dawn Turner-crc

Techsonic Industries

Customer Service Department

678 Humminbird Lane

Eufaula AL 36027

1-800-633-1468

8:00-4:30pm - Central Time - Mon-Fri

I had never owned a flasher before but after some research I settled on the Ice 45. No doubt there will be a learning curve using it but it seems to have all the features I need and is a little cheaper than the Ice 55. I came across this article after buying the unit and it points out what I consider to be some fairly serious shortcomings of the 55 which would also apply to the 45. I know that Humminbird did make some changes over the summer, the most obvious being that the gain now goes from 0-50 instead of 0-25. Keep in mind that the article refers to the 2008 model and hopefully whatever tweaks Humminbird made addresses the problems. Also, the reviewer makes it clear that he is an unabashed Marcum fan so take it for what it's worth.http://www.idofishing.com/forum/showflat.php/Number/730757/humminbird-ice-55-review

Just an amazing report Mike. You have the ability, both in words and pictures, of making the rest of us feel like we were there too. I'm sure the kids will talk about that trip for years. Thanks for taking the time.

I would also recommend the 4 man Eastman Ice Cube. It is fast and easy to set up and travels well on your back. The sub-zero model is identical to the cube but re-named with Canadian Tires house brand. They are not easy to find as they sell out fast every year. Stay away from the 2 man unless you are fishing alone or with a very close friend. The only negative I can see so far is the lack of a floor. Not a big deal for me but might make a difference to some. Hope the picture I attached shows up. I don't have any of the interior but it is quite roomy.

108

Stella would be my first pick closely followed by Guinness. Some of the cheap domestics are surprisingly good. Lakeport Lager is my current choice when pennies count.