solopaddler

Next time I go I'm flying in and you're coming! It is super remote bud. It's entirely possible I'm the only one who's fished it in recent years. It was waaaay too cold for blackflies LOL! Temps dipped into the minuses every night.. Closed cel foam is just very dense foam. I had a small chunk in my pocket that was ripped from a camping mattress.

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I'm glad you enjoyed the story! Sorry buddy, Flyers have too much size and skill up front. It's back to reality for your Habs.

No,but I know exactly where it is. I can grab it for you the next time I'm there if you want.

Thanks everyone! Well we sold our house the week before this trip with a June 25th closing. I'm currently trying to find a house for us to live in and packing. Supposed to leave June 12-19 for the Attawapiskat....and I will. If we've purchased a house by then. If not. It's house hunting for me 'till I do. Likely won't have much time to spend up at the camp 'till after we're settled in July. My dad opened it for me last week when I was up north. Hooked up the water, got everything running. Then boom, 1 night of cold weather and all the damn water lines burst. Ah well. When I do get up there the first thing I have to do is replace all the plumbing.

We caught a smattering of fish on a variety of hardware. As mentioned in the report though the most consistent bite was on a simple hook, worm and split shot dragged slowly across the bottom. The fish were definitely neutral and hunkered down on the bottom.

Bill was indeed battling a cold. He's a freakin' trooper though! You're very welcome. Jungle lake eh? Let me write that down. I didn't mention the blown tire, but yeah it was a pita. I'm getting too old for those all night driving marathons with no sleep. Uh...Wayne, think again. The plane would look waaaay better tied up to the dock on the brook trout lake!

Nice to hear it wasn't just us when it came to the tough bite! Not a trace of a bug when we were there bud. Either biting bugs or any sign of life in the water. It was freakin' cold!

Wow that's amazing Gerritt, 1969! Cool.

I believe you're right about the colour of the fish's flesh. Interestingly it always seems to be the males with the whiter flesh. It's usually always the females with tasty pink meat. I realized after my post I had no pic's of Bill in it. Even the last shot in the boat I captured Dave but Billy is cut out. It wasn't a concious effort really, it just worked out that way.

Thanks all! Kinda what I figured. At least 30 years old anyway. I totally agree. I think I'm going to blow that one up and frame it.

I've always got my ear to the ground when it comes to sniffing out good brook trout lakes. 25 years ago in the spring of 1985 I unearthed a rumour about a small lake full of wild brook trout north of Terrace Bay on Superiors north shore. A few phone calls later and I was talking to a gent in Burlington who had flown into the lake the previous fall to hunt moose. I drove over to meet him and he showed me a picture of a beautiful 28" speckle in full spawning dress. Just unbelievable, at least 8lb's, and one of the most perfectly proportioned fish I'd ever seen. Needless to say the seed was planted and plans were soon made for a trip to the lake. My father and uncle, partners in crime, subsequently fished the lake 3 times over the ensueing years. Each time chartering various aircraft to fly us in with our camping gear. On the lake was a rough campsite on a point and an old 14' tin boat that someone had flown in there eons ago. We'd bring our 2hp motor and a small can of gas with us, fishing 3 out of the old punt. It was fantastic. Although we never did catch anything aproaching 28" the numbers were staggering. Literally hundreds and hundreds of fish, many in the 18-23" range. After last springs tough fishing in Algonquin I mentioned this lake as a possibility to Bill. Scoping the area on google earth revealed that while it might be tough, accessing the lake via logging road then portaging in was a definite possibility. A mutual friend Dave (Wallacio on the board) was keen to join us, so the cast of characters was set. On this trip we also had the added bonus of an ATV and trailer which Bill's dad Frank was kind enough to loan us. So last week we all met at Frank's place near Coldwater to load our gear. We figured we'd bring along a canoe just to be safe, as there was certainly no guarantee the boat would still be on the lake. It took a little while but we soon had everything packed in the truck, and the trailer loaded with the ATV and canoe: We drove all night and just hit Superiors north shore as it was illuminated in the cold grey light of early morning. With the aid of GPS we soon found our logging road and were heading north deep into the bush. The road started out pretty good: But soon began to deteriorate.... The plan was to drive in as far as we could with the truck then utilize the ATV and small trailer to haul our gear as close to the lake as we could. It appeared as though there was a rough trail that would take us to within 400m and potentially save us a lot of humping. We arrived at our parking spot in cold driving rain. Not the best of conditions, but our spirits were still high. Bill hopped on the ATV to drive ahead and check the trail first. A good plan as we had no idea how rough it would be. About 1/2 an hour later he came back plastered from head to toe in black muck LOL! Apparantly the "trail" had degenerated into a swampy impassable bog and he got himself stuck good a couple of times. Not a huge deal, or so we thought. Plan B was to launch our canoe on the shores of another lake lying directly to the west of our destination. A short paddle would bring us to our chosen overland route: roughly 1km as the crow flies to the trout lake. There was a side trail leading to the jump off point and we soon had our gear and canoe hauled over to a beautiful white sand beach: The vista was gloomy but still spectacular: We shuttled our gear over to the east shorline of the lake and were faced with this : Undaunted we loaded ourselves down with gear and began the arduous trek. Billy and Dave were ahead of me plotting the trail with GPS and flagging it. With about 50 more pounds on my back I lagged behind picking my way through the dense bush, over, under and around countless deadfalls. What can I say? It was absolutely brutal! LOL! Lack of sleep and little food made things tough on my old body. Rising a densely forested ridge my first view of the lake was heavenly: Upon arriving at the lake the boys greeted me with a good news-bad news scenario. The good news was Dave had found an old green Coleman canoe stashed on the shores of the lake. This meant we wouldn't have to haul our canoe over. The bad news was bad indeed. While waiting he had enough time to paddle over to the campsite and the old tin boat was simply not there. Ah well, we'd deal with it. While Bill started making his way back for the second load, Dave and I paddled all of our gear over to the campsite. We unloaded the packs and put everything under a tarp for protection, then headed back to our "trail". We had a ton of smaller loose stuff to haul over on the 2nd trip and the large empty canoe packs would be needed. Before we started back I said to Dave "let's just paddle up the lake a bit, maybe we'll see the boat". With zero hope we rounded a point and about 1/2km up the lake we saw something in the water about 30' from shore. We both weren't sure but thought it could be a boat. From my perspective I didn't have any recollection of such a large rock in that part of the lake. Sure enough it was the damn boat. Sunk to it's gunnels in about 4' of water with what appeared to be an axe slash in the bottom. Dave wavered on getting wet so I hopped into the icy swamp water past my waist and manhandled the boat closer to shore. With an extreme amount of difficulty I managed to flip the boat over and temporarily patch the gash in the hull with a small chunk of closed cell foam I happened to have in my pocket. We tied her to the canoe and began to tow it back to our trailhead. I was more than a little bit happy. Cold, wet and tired the 2nd trip back and forth on the trail was a killer for all of us. I can't speak for the other boys, but my legs were cramping up like crazy on the return trip and every step was excruciating. Still we made it and in short order had both boats and the rest of our gear over to the site. This old campsite actually has an ancient dock and a weathered old picnic table, the source of which I have no clue. It made things a bit more bearable as we quickly set about erecting the tent and organizing our gear. After camp was set up I motored out into the lake to scoop some water and snapped this pic of the site. Small, compact and open to the elements it's a perfect spot in favourable weather. Even with the wind and cold it was still pretty though: An unrelenting heavy N/E wind was blowing right into the site making an already cold spot even colder. After a quick change of clothes a warm fire was an absolute must. The dampish wood we scrounged was aided in lighting with just a wee bit of gas. Finally warm, we soon had some adult beverages poured and a pile of beef grilling over the coals. I don't think anything ever tasted so good! After such a long day we were dead to the world and slept like stones. With no real desire on my part for an early assault on the lake, I watched with amusement as Dave, keener that he is, dragged himself out of bed for a few casts off the dock. From the warmth of the tent Bill and I both watched him break our brook trout cherry: Unfortunately it wasn't an omen of things to come fishing wise. Even on the best of lakes it's possible to be hamstrung by weather. We were faced with an unbelievable cold front and the as mentioned heavy N/E winds. The fish were hunkered down for sure. Still, we did catch more than our share. While it wasn't the crazy numbers of past trips it was certainly more than enough. The second night we feasted on fresh trout. Dusted in flour, a little lemon pepper and fresh dill and sauteed in butter....they were delicious! Actually the second night provided us with the only brief respite from the weather as it cleared up and calmed down. With fire blazing and rum and coke in hand it was a truly wonderful place to be. The next couple of days saw more of the same. The best spot for us was a small round pond connected by a creek to the main lake. In my past trips there it was always a hotspot and this trip proved no different. We followed the creek back up into the tiny pothole and went to work. I knew the fish were there, but like the fish in rest of the lake they weren't interested in hardware or flies. The only way these fish were caught with any consistency was a simple hook, split shot and big lively worm fished right on the bottom. A sure sign they were neutral, but obviously we managed. In the back corner of the small pond while dragging a fat dewie across the bottom in 20 plus feet I felt a tap and managed to best this chunky male: Davey continued to catch fish of all sizes off the dock. Trolling in front of the point bagged us a few as well. Interestingly at the campsite we found this old steel pop top orange crush can, still in perfect shape after all these years. Anyone have any idea how old it is? Also kind of neat I found my dads initials and name carved into the picnic table from 2 of our past forays: I've got a lot of memories from this spot and it was kind of neat to find a small piece of our history there. Heading out was obviously a lot easier for us. On our last day we piled our gear into the boat and towed the canoe behind us enroute to the trail: With all our liquids drunk, perishables eaten, and gas used up, our loads were a lot lighter. Still...it was a task to get out with what we had. Dave was laden down like a sherpa. Finally and with great relief we made it back to the ATV and trailer. Quickly loaded up and sped down the trail back to the truck. Even after such an epic and gruelling marathon the boys were still up for some more fishing. LOL! I really have to hand it to them, they never give up. On the way out we stopped at various spots along the road to wet a line. The last spot was unbelievably beautiful and coughed up a couple of chunky spec's for the boys: Heading back out on the logging road we saw numerous bears including this biggun that showed no fear: Overall it was a truly outstanding trip! Bad weather aside, we caught fish, we ate and drank well, and made a lot of memories. And really that's what it's all about. Cheers, Mike

What amazes me is so many of you thought this was legit. The second I read the first couple of paragraphs it was obvious OFC had been inserted into the message. My personal guess was that it was replacing "CNN". The reply to Splashopper was particularly inventive I'll give him that much. Needless to say I'm surprised at you Mykester, overall that was quite lame.

The treaties were signed in a time and place where they made sense. In this day and age they don't. No one can possibly deny the fact that injustices were served up to the natives. But...they continue to be our countries largest social problem. Until they fully integrate with the rest of our society it'll never end. Unfortunately I can't see any politician with enough stones to make such a controversial decision, so it'll probably never happen.

I finally rid myself completely of Bell a couple months ago. When we moved to Grimsby we had a bundle package with Bell for all of our services. Never again will I EVER use Bell for anything. I'd rather resort to using smoke signals. The litany of grief they caused our family, well let's just say I could write a book. Bell is a joke.

Thanks. And now I'm oficially outta here. See you next week everyone!

Probably. You don't even know how to quote someone properly.

Thanks Roy. And scuro is just misunderstood that's all.

I'll say. I once caught a spec with 3 frogs and a baby mouse in it's stomach. You know that scene in Jaws where they slit open the sharks belly and all kinds of weird crap spills out including a license plate? That's what it was like when I put the knife to it. They definitely strap on the feed bag now and again.

Ironically we are passing through Chelmsford. Billy is insisting on taking the Sultan Rd across to 101 to save time. It's definitely not my choice. Over the years I've blown tires on 4 separate occasions on that road.

Thanks boys! Actually Terry they did cut a road to within 1500m of the lake. Bill's joining and bringing the ATV so we'll see how she goes.

This is one of those times when I'm basically useless at work. LOL! 25 years ago I discovered a true gem of a brook trout lake. Unfished and teeming with big wild brookies. I'm leaving in about an hour for the long trek north. It's been about 6 years since I've been, so to say I'm stoked is an understatement. C'mon 6 O'Clock!!!

I'm not necessarily agreeing, but that's funny!

I bought this one a little over a year ago at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=909224&Ntt=909224&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=172417&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber Love it, it's great!

Beauty boat. You and Miloman should team up.

Bad timing for me otherwise I'd love to join.