solopaddler

Yeah that was the same lake I wanted to bring you to, LOL! (next time buddy) No problem on the invite, it was pretty last second for reasons I mentioned on the phone anyhow. Plus I'd forgotten about your Ahmic trip....no biggy.

Great report buddy, looks like a blast. I'll just say what Joey alluded to. You're pinching a loaf in that last group shot .

I love August. The nights are cooler and the days are crisper....there's a bite in the air. Heck, this past week some of the more exposed poplars were already turning yellow. It was a picture perfect week in northern QC, no storms, no wind, no bugs, just beautiful sunshine, sand in our toes, sunburns, happy kids, great fishing, and cold drinks on ice . There were a couple of highlights. First the new back lake which this report covers. My uncle purchased a property in the same general area last fall. He's been busier than a Japanese beaver all season renovating his place and hasn't had time to fish much, but this week we had plans. There's a pretty substantial river flowing in and out of his lake and we've been eyeing a lake a couple portages downstream from his for a while now. Joanne gave me the go ahead to abandon her and the kids for the day, so armed to the teeth I arrived at my uncles place promptly at 6am, loaded his squareback with our gear and strapped on my little Honda. He had a pot of hot coffee brewing and we wasted a few minutes at the dock catching up and surveying the the gorgeous scene in front of us before setting off. The trip down his lake was spectacular in itself. Here's a shot of the waterfall flowing into his lake and a couple of assorted scenery shots along the way: The portage at the end of the lake bypassed a beautiful set of rapids followed by a cascading series of small wterfalls. I paused along the trail and snapped this shot: We launched at the base of the rapids and quicky started heading for the outlet of the small lake we were on. Along the way I snapped a couple pic's of the inflowing waterfalls: In no time at all we reached the outlet, a small rapids maybe 100yds long flowing swiftly into the next lake. It was almost like a tunnel with huge ancient cedar trees bent over and touching on both sides creating an almost surreal passageway. There was a short portage on the right, but I surveyed the situation and decided it would be easily lined leaving all our gear in the boat. My uncle walked the short trail while I hopped in the river... The pool below these rapids was incredible. About 200yds long and deep, up to 25' in spots. We quickly rigged up with my old standby, a 1/4oz jig head and a 3" twister tail tipped with a worm and started drifting the pool. Fish #1 was caught in the first 10 seconds, a chunky pike: After that it was walleye mayhem, nothing big but lots of fun and pefect eating size. We found a spot at the tailout that was teeming with them, anchored up and basically caught them at will 'till we tired of it. We worked our way a couple of km's down the lake eventually being side tracked by this small cluster of islands: Working the shorelines with crankbaits we caught bass after bass after bass with odd pike mixed in. I actually hooked a small bass and almost instantly had a chunky pike attack it. I ended up landing both . Here's a pic of the pike with the bass in it's mouth and a closeup of the damage it inflicted: And a couple more pic's from the same spot... We were soon struck by wanderlust and decided to find the outlet of this lake. What a gorgeous spot and an absolutely perfect place to land the boat at the head of the rapids: A quick little walkover and this is what the other side looked like: We caught a bunch of smallmouth and a few walleye at that spot just tossing jigs from shore.. Soon enough it was time to start heading back but first I had a bit of slicing and dicing to do: After a little break we backtracked all the way to my uncles place stopping to fish at all the best spots and catching a bunch more fish on the way out. My uncles lake has lake trout in it and on the way back to his camp I tried quickly to catch one in a couple of high percentage spots. It was too windy to effectively jig for them in our small canoe (you need to stay as vertical as possible), so I opted to troll a blue/silver Power Dive Minnow. Needless to say I managed to scratch out one nice little laker. Pretty much made my day complete : What a great day! Stay tuned for part two of my week in northwestern QC . Cheers, Mike

Olympus Stylus 790 SW, great little camera. Just point and click, plus it's very compact, waterproof, freezeproof and shockproof. After destroying my first digital I figured I'd best get something idiot proof .

That really was a great read, thanks for taking the time.

Good to see you figured out the walleye! Just got back myself from that neck of the woods, and yeah I agree it was nice to finally have decent weather.

Looks like a great holliday bud! (Keep an open spot in your boat for me later this month )

Hard to beat open water kings, wtg guys!

Nice bass leechman, wtg!

Looks like a fabulous time, thanks for posting.

If it's the same owner the guys name is Beaver Bastien, quite a character. I flew into one of his lakes for brook trout a looong time ago, around 23 years ago roughly. For what it's worth the fishing back then was incredible.

Was up north with the family last week and did a ton of fishing including one awesome new back lake (report later), and thought I'd share this cool underwater shot I took. Almost looks like a painting I think.

Wow what a fish, congratulations!

Have a great trip bud, we're headed north on Saturday for a week as well. Weather looks dicey at the moment, but no matter. My place is about an hour N/E of New Liskeard. Too bad you won't be a bit closer, a day trip and a few cold ones would be fun .

I bought one a couple years ago and never used it. Give me your address and I'll mail you mine.

I agree, bass are oafs.

I do and I have.

Very cool video, but for some reason an image of Marisa Tomei popped into my head when I watched it : (substitute "deer" for moose and "brook" for sprinkler) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7QvrreqU4

Thanks for reminding me, that was a great joke! HAHAHA!

Joey and Stoty my heart goes out to you. There's really nothing worse is there?

I'd like to add, even if a dock was vacant I still wouldn't fish it. I don't like to intrude on other people plain and simple. Tournament anglers have a completely different mind set. Each to their own, as I mentioned earlier it's your right. It's definitely not my mind set though.

Sometimes I'll use large jigging spoons like 11/2oz swedish pimples tipped with a dead minnow. Buckshot jigs in the larger sizes are good as well. My preferred bait is a large predominantly white bucktail jig in the 11/2-3oz range with a stinger hook. I'll cut a strip of belly meat off a small coarse fish, or one that I'm keeping for the table and tip the jig with it. The extra bit of meat works wonders. Here's one of my jigs:

Personally I can't fathom ever doing something like that if I know that I'm bothering or intruding on someone. Conversely I value my own privacy and can't stand fishing amongst others when I have a choice. If someone's on a spot I want to fish, I'll move on to the next spot on the lake. If I'm steelheading and there's a bunch of people encroaching on my spot I'll move on and walk another km if I have to. I don't get peoples mentality sometimes. It's not the fact that you're entitled to fish someones dock. Of course you are. It's the fact that you'd even want to in the first place when it's not necessary in order to catch fish and especially when you're annoying someone and/or intruding on them. It boils down to respect and common sense. You either have it or you don't...

Not a rant IMO, you've said your piece and explained the situation perfectly. I happen to understand your sentiment and agree with you 100%.

I'll guess you managed to aquire a depth map of Booth? Interesting 'cause I clearly remember one basin that was well over 100' deep. In any case the lakers will be deep. Some right on the bottom, some suspended 20-30' up. You can easily target these fish with large jigs, but it's imperative to find them first with a portable fish finder and fish very precisely for them. It's extremely difficult to do that from a canoe when you've got any kind of wind though. If it's too windy then troll for them with a wolf river rig.