solopaddler

Nice report bud and congrat's on a well earned vacation!

Hehe, yep I know that bay. Right near it's mouth on the west shoreline there's was a marker buoy that always held a fish or 2. I managed a mid 40's fish there myself.

Hey congrat's that's great news!

Well done, nice report!

That is beyond awesome, what a fish!

In my opinion there's only 3 scenarios that justify the purchase of one of these boats. 1.You live in a small apartment or something similar and have no room for storage. 2.You do a lot of fly in camping trips.....the boat can go right inside the plane. 3.You own an atv and fish a lot of back lakes....the boat can be strapped to the machine. Beyond that they're a pain in the and for normal use you'd be better served with either a small cartop aluminum or a squareback canoe.

That's great so glad to hear!

Yeah bud I had one and I hated it, sold it after 1/2 a season LOL!

No the back lake had no cabin. We stayed on our lake and travelled back and forth each day. Not as bad as it sounds as we left the 2 boats and motors in there for the duration of the trip only dragging them back out on the last day we fished. We had a 3rd boat that we walked back to each day to get us back to the cabin.... Thanks again everyone! I think I should be a travel agent. I've fielded quite a few private inquiries LOL!

Use a hosting site. The most common and the one I use is photobucket....

Ummmm...nope. Why do you think we chartered the Otter for the flight in? LOL! Thanks for the comments everyone!

You're right about the next one bud, are you in or what? And yeah work has been tough this week....great trip! Yeah it was trecherous for everyone except Jeremy. I honestly don't know how the lad did it. He skipped through that rock garden like a leprechaun through a rose garden with the motor over his shoulder LOL! (Getting old sucks! ) Thanks for all the great comments everyone, glad you enjoyed!

The enslaught continued unabated. In between walleye Dave managed this larger than average sized esox. (Can you tell he's happy? ) Without trying to get overly redundant here's a few more highlights from our remarkable day: We had numerous doubles. Some were more average sized... Some, well some were ummm... a bit bigger. I was handling so many fish my hands started to cramp up. This one ended up in Bills lap LOL! What can I say except it was totally EPIC! We arrived back at camp super late that day, probably around 9pm, tired but elated. Jeremy, young and full of energy treated us all to a late night fish fry. Having guided in northwestern Ontario the lad has done this before and it was like watching a maestro at work. Actually he treated everyone except Billy. Billy as some of you know is allergic to fish. Here's my dinner next to Bills: After our incredible day in the back lake we had no desire to fish anywhere else and the next 2 days were almost carbon copies of the first. I started things off with another monster: And of course the release.... Once again Davey fluked off another decent pike: At one point I needed to stretch and asked Bill to drop me off an a small island. Not surprisingly I picked off a bunch on foot: It really was non stop insanity: At one point Bill hooked a decent 'eye and as is often the case a large pike chased his fish down and grabbed it. We almost managed to net both, but the big pike finally let go just as we dipped the net: Not long afterwards Bill managed a brute walleye of his own. 30 3/4" long (might as well call it 31" LOL!). (Yes he was a happy camper. ) And the enslaught continued... These fish would hit anything didn't matter what you threw. Bill even managed one on an oversized Grandma: (And I mean the lure not the family member ) Our last day on the lake we once again fished late, getting in as much as we could before the plane picked us up the next morning. We were cut, beat up, tired and sore and couldn't have been happier! It was a perfect evening as we motored back across the lake our fishing over.. We were all in a happy daze. Jeremy was at the tiller of the 2nd boat cruising along when suddenly he jumps up and yells incoherently: Yeah baby what a trip!

We had arrived at the airbase with our spirits running high. Enroute we'd seen a bit of wildlife which was cool and a sure sign we were getting further north. For myself it was the 29th fly in I've done over the years. Old hat you'd think, but the prospect of lots of fish and a lake all to yourself never gets tired. Dave and Jeremy had flown in the bush before as well, but not to an outpost camp. This was a first for Bill and his excitement was contagious. We quickly unloaded our gear on the dock at the float plane base: Then Bill took a few moments to sort through his selection of pike lures. "What'ya think guys?" After a bit of a wait we quickly loaded the Otter and were off: As usual the view from the air was amazing: Although unfinished and a bit basic our cabin was fairly new and served our purposes perfectly: A place to crash after fishing hard all day long: One major bonus was an outdoor shower complete with hot and cold running water. Pure luxury after a long day in the boat! After unloading the plane the pilot quickly walked us through what we needed to know and left us to our own devices: Alone on a fish filled lake for the next 5 days, does it get any better? We quickly unpacked, rigged up our rods and got the boats ready. We had flown in late in the afternoon and had just enough time for a quick fish before nightfall. We all piled into two boats and were off making a beeline for a small island right across from our camp. One rod rigged with a crankbait to troll as we prospected the lake, another rod rigged with a jig to be used when we found the fish... It didn't take long to get into fish. Jeremy managed the largest eye our first evening a long skinny 26"er: What a fantastic start! While overall they weren't huge fish we caught a ridiculous amount in a short period of time and kept a limit of 4 for sandwiches the next day. The next day dawned cloudy, warm and calm, perfect for fishing. There was an adjacent back lake that we all had our eyes on, but today we'd planned on working our lake thouroughly. The action picked up right where we left off the previous evening. Non stop action on smallish to med sized walleyes and hammer handle pike. At one point Dave actually did hook an enormous pike while jigging for walleye. It eventually smoked him and he never did see it but it was huge... We caught fish every which way possible: trolling harnesses and cranks, live bait rigs, drifting and backtrolling with jigs....it all worked. This time we kept a few for dinner with Dave doing the slicing and dicing: Now as mentioned there was a nearby back lake that had us intrigued. The fishing was fine on our lake but the allure of near virgin water and a lust for exploration proved irresistable. The 2 lakes were connected by a swampy log choked creek and the next day we began our ascent into the unknown: Things were going swimmingly up to this point. We had traversed one low beaver dam with zero difficulty and then things started to get tougher.... Very soon we were faced with this : I'm not going to sugar coat it....it was tough slogging! It took all 4 of us to push, pull and drag one boat at a time up and over an enourmous log jam and through a shallow rock garden with almost no water flow.. Finally success! The creek opened up again and we were able to navigate under power. The creek opened out into one of the nicest little lakes I've ever seen. A shoreline ringed with rock, it was extremely deep for its size, structure filled and crystal clear. Initially we began our assault at the south end of the lake. A small creek entered here followed by the only shallow weedy flat in the entire lake. Casting a variety of spoons we caught a bunch of small pike: With the depth of the lake we began to troll the rocky shoreline picking up a fish here and there finally ending up in a huge bay at the north end. The wind was piling into it dead on...a definite walleye chop. Bill started the festivities banging several in row on a yellow 5 of diamonds spoon. The fish were definitely aggressive! I finally managed to get one, a decent little eye: Then followed that up with this hog on the jig. Felt like I set the hook on a finned bowling ball with this one! What was amazing about these walleyes besides their size and numbers was their colouration. They had normal gold body colours but all of their fins were tinged with a bright blue hue. Not sure if you can see it, but I tried to take a couple of closeups: The balance of the day was possibly one of the best walleye days I've ever had. It was impossible to keep count they were too numerous. Continued....

You've got the right idea but not the right size. 6 is extremely small. Most guys finish off their rods with 7's, to avoid ice 8's are a bit bigger...

Bill's been asking as well LOL! I've been working non stop since I've been back, I'll likely start tomorrow....

Ported backplates have never been a hindrance. In fact their lighter weight is a big plus. As far as sand and grit go...the reels are meant to be fished not babied. If any debris does get in via the backplate a quick shake and spin underwater takes care of the problem. It's only an issue when the temps dip below freezing. If you dunk your reel in minus temps it'll freeze solid so you've got to be extra careful...

They did for you that's for sure buddy! (Dave had a stellar afternoon on our fly in last week trolling a large Williams Whitefish for pike. )

Very nice guys, what a perfect weekend! And you're right the cottage looked great, nice spot.

Okay now that you've identified the lake I'll chime in. I'm somewhat familiar with Ogascanan as I know someone who has fished it. More importantly to you, in general terms Ogascanan is a deep, clear, oligotrophic lake trout lake. At this time of year if you want bigger pike, troll. Look for fast breaking rocky shorelines that drop quickly into deep water. Obvious main lake points that drop quickly into deep water and mid lake shoals, humps and rock piles that are adjacent to deep water. Troll these areas thoroughly starting shallow in 10-12' of water then working your way out deeper to 20-30' depths. I'd recommend large deep diving crankbaits in natural finishes with a narrower "minnow" profile. Large flashy spoons like a 6" Williams Whitefish can also be good. (although moreso on bright sunny days). Bright flashy chartreuse and citrus coloured baits are not usually my first choice unless the water is heavily tannin stained....which Ogascanan is not. If you want to catch lots of smaller pike then by all means cast the shallower weedy areas of the lake with spinnerbaits, spoons, etc...

Pure luck bro.

Totally agree! I'm headed up the 14th-22nd bud. If you can make it up for some fishing that'd be great! Inside joke. Thanks for the laugh buddy! Yep this board rocks. (Someone else will be enjoying the new/used Honda though, not me )

I just returned from my fly in trip late last night, it was absolutely amazing and I'll try and post something as soon as I can... Anyhow while I was away Dave had been working overtime on my behalf... It's funny how life works. Some of you may remember I was recently in the market for a newer 40hp 4 stroke motor. I ultimately bought an '07 Yamaha and beyond the fast idle speed which I'll get corrected, it's a great motor. Dave emailed me about a week and 1/2 ago about another motor. He had found an '06 40hp Honda for sale up in Yellowknife for a ridiculously cheap price. It was so cheap that I just had to buy it. Couldn't have done it without Dave. First off he went and checked it out thoroughly for me, then after I bought it he spent almost 2 days building a crate to ship it in for me. Here's the motor and Daves handiwork: It's going to cost me roughly $350 to have it shipped from Yellowknife to my front door in Grimsby in 6 business days. There's a bit of very minor repair work needed on the cavitation plate which won't cost much, and beyond that it's mint. This has worked out incredibly well for me and it would have been impossible without Daves help. Thanks buddy, I owe you huge!! (You're the best. )

Amazing lake, I fished it a couple of times. The Opeepeesway river used to be awesome for walleye.. There's a couple of different routes in. When I was there it was very rough and you definitely needed a 4wd. We accessed the river at the south end and motored into the lake... I believe there's a road that swings up the west side of the lake and accesses the north west corner.. I have heard that the mnr ditched the roads making travel impossible. So you may or may not have some problems. I'd be very interested in hearing how you made out! Mike

HEHE! Didn't know if anyone would get that. I think we'd get along just fine LOL!