solopaddler

It's impossible to strap a motor directly to the side of the canoe and spin it around. Unless it's got a really long shaft your going to knick the boat with the prop. As mentioned I used a side bracket. It was bolted on directly aft of the stern seat. They work great the only thing being you've got to pack your boat properly as far as weight distribution goes. With an evenly balanced load and the heavy motor hanging off the side it can be somewhat unbalanced and tippy. You've got to compensate for the motor.... Not sure about the mushrooms which was why I asked, but the concensus seems to be false morels.

Remove the bearings and soak them overnight in kerosene. Reinstall with a couple drops of sewing machine oil. Try that first, my guess is you'll be good to go.

Great stuff Tony. Nice job on getting in the money your first day after salmon!

I think I'm beginning to hate you.

I've had great success jigging for lakers in the summer when they're concentrated in the deeper parts of the lake. You must use a graph to find the fish, many times they're suspended over deep water. No wind is the best. If there is wind you really need a bow mount electric to stay right on top of the fish. You want to jig as precisely as possible which means as verticle as possible. If the fish are suspended I'll oftentimes still drop the jig right to the bottom then sweep it up quickly through the zone where the fish are. Most times I'm using the graph to pinpoint the fish then jigging very precisely at the depth they're holding. With the sensitivity pumped up on your graph you can see your lure clearly and where it's at. Most times I use a fairly aggresive jigging motion, dropping the rod tip to the water, sweeping it up quickly to about the 10 oclock position then dropping it on a tight line....always a controlled drop. Many times fish will hit on the downswing, if it's not a controlled drop you'll miss fish. As far as tackle goes I like a med/heavy baitcaster with 30lb Power Pro. It's gotta be braid of some kind or you won't feel the hits and setting the hook is near impossible as well. As far as jigs go I only use one. 1-3oz mostly white bucktail jigs with a stinger hook. The jig is tipped with a thin piece of belly meat from usually a sucker or perhaps a small pike.. Here's my personal favourite jig: I prefer to fish aggresively and precisely and the lighter tubes and such just don't cut it (at least for me). Good luck

More memorable? What'd you have in mind? Perhaps cliff jumping into a hidden back lake in the Mealy mountains of Labrador? We'll figure something out.

Thanks Joey. We did see a couple moose along the highway. Beyond that the only other wildlife was early morning pre-coffee Bill. Very scary. False morels eh? Thank gawd I didn't eat them with my real butter and real steak. It would've been another Flaming Homer incident.

You know comments like "it's not always about the fish" and "at least the scenery was great" is true...... But it's akin to saying "well at least she's got a great personality!" LOL! Very satisfying in it's own way but there's just something missing. (And yeah you'd better start training asap. If you ever actually carry that pig on your back I'll give you a medal. )

Thanks John. The new boat is great I love it. As mentioned she's got more than her share of rocker so very responsive and turns on a dime. It's not true flatwater boat though, not quite as stable. It's like driving a Ferrari though, once you get a feel for it she's a joy.

Thanks for the kind words all. Dan I'll bet you a dollar you'll be good to go. I know the ice west of you is starting to break.... Thanks, I felt extra good paddling it considering how it was aquired. You got that right Jay. Here's hoping your trip is a success bud!

Anticipation They say nothing triggers your memory better than smell. As I stood on the shores of our access lake in the pre dawn light breathing in the clean sharp smells of cedar mixed with wet sand, a million memories came flooding into my brain. So many trips over the years.....so many lakes and rivers. With marriage, kids and commitments I've slowed down a bit over the years, but still it's in my blood. It felt good to be back. BillM was my companion on this trip and his enthusiasm was infectious. He's a good lad that Bill. Quickly loading the canoe and donning life jackets we were anxious to be off. In a move planned to save us some time we strapped my small 2hp motor to the side of the canoe with a bracket. Our access lake was one of the few which allows small powerboats so we figured we'd take advantage. We couldn't have asked for better conditions as we pushed off and fired up the motor, quickly skimming across the glass smooth surface of the lake.... Thundering Waters As we approached the end of the lake there was a small chute of whitewater with a short liftover on the right. This was where we cached the motor and the real work of paddling and portaging began. In the calm morning stillness we could hear whitewater pounding the rocks up ahead and a plume of mist could be seen rising into the air. The next few portages were nothing short of spectacular.... The first portage of substance was a chance to suss out our abilities and see what we were able to carry.. I had the light pack and canoe, Billy had everything else. He looks happy in this picture, that wouldn't last. The portage traversed, we had a fairly long paddle upstream through a meadow on a gorgeous little river. Overhung with alders, deeply undercut and tea stained, it literally screamed TROUT!. We were on a mission to reach our destination though, so the fishing would have to wait. We had several liftovers over low beaver dams enroute and the small river gradually shrank 'till it was no wider than the canoe. It was still incredibly deep and flowing swiftly though when we finally spied our portage and pulled the canoe up onto a grassy hummock. The Death March Ensues Now this, this was where the fun really started. Our longest portage of the trip, well over 2km, and worse it was unmaintained. Unmaintained means just that: a trail so lightly used that it's overlooked by the park maintenance crews. What that means in reality is tons of deadfalls, and virtually no trail to follow. It was so completely overgrown it wasn't really there. You've got to have a good eye to follow that type of trail. "Bush eyes" is the term I use. Needless to say both Bill and I decided we'd have to double up on this one. We were ahead of schedule and in no mood to punish ourselves. Perhaps if we had packed a bit lighter we could have done it, but on this trip we were toting along a few extra luxuries. (Damn Heineken and their delicious plastic mini kegs of beer. ) I don't have too many shots of the trail, I was too busy trying to breathe at the time. I do have a couple though... At one point I threw down the canoe and collapsed on my back with the pack pinning me to the ground. In my delirious state I snapped this cool pic of the canopy: (Pretty sure Bill has a similar shot on his camera. ) When we finally reached our destination we were greeted by this sight at the landing: Tons and tons of minnows! Definitely a good sign. On the way back to collect our second load I was able to notice a few more things. The forest floor was covered with these: Does anyone know if they're edible? I was tempted let me tell ya! Hi Honey I'm Home! We were both pretty ecstatic when we finally loaded the canoe and pushed off on our lake: The first priority was of course to set up camp. There was only 1 designated campsite on this lake so we made a beeline for it. It was, unfortunately, a truly terrible spot. It was on an exposed point with almost no trees and no flat spot for the tent. Not a chance I was going to set up there. While wondering what we should do Bill spies this on a point across from us: Sweeeet! We paddled over to check it out and were pleasantly surprised. It was a very old abandoned park ranger cabin. Back in the early days of the park these cabins were sprinkled all over Algonquin and manned May-Oct by full time rangers. They'd use the cabins as a base to explore and patrol their region of the park. It's safe to say this was an old cabin, likely built in the 20's perhaps even earlier. It had a couple of broken windows and one big hole in the roof but was otherwise very solid. We took stock of the situation and decided to clean it up and use it, we had found our home. The first thing on the agenda was to sweep and clean it as best we could. Then I scampered up onto to the roof with a chunk of tarp to patch it up: Billy got a fire going: While I cut up my tarp to patch the windows and fashion a tablecloth and groundsheet: Shortly afterwards we cracked open a keg and threw these beauties down on the grill: Can't tell you how good that felt. Are there any fish in this lake? That was the question we were asking ourselves the next morning after working the lake fruitlessly for an hour or so. Cast after cast into the most perfect cover imaginable, and nothing. Things were looking grim until we approached the only cliff on the entire lake: Suddenly we had a mini frenzy catching a dozen or so one right after the other. On the downside they were all tiny. On the upside I now had dinner on the stringer. It's a good thing Bill is allergic to fish otherwise we'd have been fighting over them. Not a lot of fish pictures were snapped, I guess we both figured there'd be bigger and better specimens down the road... But alas it just wasn't meant to be. Here's one of 2 I cooked up for dinner. Dusted in flour, lightly seasoned with lemon pepper and fresh dill and sauteed in butter they were delicious: Bill had to make do with this : Onward We Pushed After working our lake hard with limited results for a couple of days we decided to portage into a nearby lake that looked interesting. With only the canoe and fishing tackle to carry the 1km of portages would be easy... I started off on the trail carrying the canoe: Billy followed behind. Enroute we passed a marsh and saw this deer off in the distance. (It's there if you look hard) The lake was an emerald gem. Deep green water, huge boulders and fallen trees everywhere....it looked perfect. Unfortunately we fished the entire lake with absolutely nothing to show for our efforts. Kind of a bummer but not overly. At one point we stopped and got out at on a gorgeous rock point. Bill drowned an air injected nightcrawler while I stretched my back and basked in the sun. It was nice. Return To Civilization After one more day in our new found home it was time to pack up and head out. A bittersweet feeling as even though the fishing was sub par the trip itself was excellent. With so much less weight for the carry out we actually made it in one trip. I was pretty happy with that....it was nice to see I've still got it in me. I actually did the entire 2km with canoe and pack not stopping once. Billy did damn good as well, with both of us already stronger and tougher after only a few days in the bush. For those that have never done it it's a great feeling of accomplishment. As we retraced our steps we took the time to fish the meadow creek and waterfalls enroute. All were teeming with tiny perfect brook trout. Not big enough to keep, but absolutely beautiful and fun to catch. It was a great way to cap the trip off. I mean how could you not love fishing in surroundings like that? The trip back accross our access lake with the motor was a bit scary... The lake had huge whitecaps on it and we had to go broadside to them to reach the landing. Fortunately there's enough rocker on my canoe that we were able to ride them out. A couple of times though waves washed entirely over the motor and my arm gripping the throttle was completely underwater. Billy was totally oblivious to what was going on facing forward in the front of the boat. When we arrived at the landing he actually said "that was fun dude!" Then I collapsed in a heap on the sand and kissed the ground. All in all a trip to remember. Next time though there will many more large brook trout. (We've paid our dues! ) I know Bill has some fantastic photos from his camera that he'll add to this post. I'm looking forward to seeing them myself bud, especially the ones of me in the waterfall. Cheers all, hope you enjoyed the tale!

What beautiful clean looking fish, you must've been beside yourself!

Amazing fish! You guys definitely have a gem there, keep it inder your hat.

I can't believe I'm about to say this.......but that kind of looks fun. Throw in a couple of adult beverages and I might actually be convinced.

Nice recap Sil, you had yourself a great season!

Very nice, gotta love that country up there.

Looks like things will be good for a while yet you lucky dude.

The aerial shot of the pike is very cool. Nice shootin' bro!

Well there was a thought process that occurred before I started sucking.

Great read bud, and an even nicer fish!

Nicely done Paul. Steelheading may be over but y'know you're always welcome to join me at the camp for some back lake smallies.

All the trains mentioned offer this service. The best in my opinion hasn't been mentioned, that's the VIA train that travels across the top of northern Ontario. Twice I've portaged my gear and canoe through downtown Toronto and piled it into the trains boxcar. Quite a sight. Another couple of times I drove to Armstrong on the tracks N/E of Thunder Bay and got on there. They'll let you off anywhere you want then pick you up anywhere along the tracks. (you've got to flag down the train). The number of possible routes are endless and the fishing (especially north of Armstrong and Nakina) is spectacular. It's definitely a fun trip to do, however it's not exactly cheap if you depart from southern Ontario. If you drive to Armstrong for example then it's cheap. I know that area like the back of my hand and if anyone's interested in route info I'd be happy to share. Cheers

I've got a smaller motor, a 2hp Honda that was always hard to start at the beginning of each season. Strangely it has no primer bulb. I twisted the throttle, choked it, did everything right and it still wouldn't start. There's a small clear overflow hose hanging out the back of the motor coming from the carb. Each spring I have to twist it upwards and suck 'till I'm spitting gas. Only then will it start. Says nothing in the manual about that, had to figure it out myself...

Algonquin here we come, see y'all in a week.

Going upstream in a powerboat is safer in any rapids not just the Bad river.