solopaddler

As the boys mentioned what you're looking for doesn't exist that close to T.O., especially a river. The closest thing to what you want would either be the Upper Ottawa river, or the lower French, specifically the Bad River where it spills into Georgian Bay. Lakes are a different story. There's literally countless opportunities if you're willing to drive further. I'll agree with Ramsey/Bisco as well, great fisheries. There's a couple of really wicked lakes north of the Sultan Road as well .

That was my uncle behind the camera actually, but they're like 2 peas in a pod. I had completely forgotten that he'd called the bigger walleye humpbacks 'till I saw the video clip last week LOL! They were born in a small town near Darmstadt.

Nope. The only way I'm dragging that behemoth of yours is if I juice myself up. I just saw "The Man Who's Arms Exploded" last night on A&E. Anything's possible I guess . If you were on my turf we'd use the behemoth to drag my more normal sized boat.

Fantastic, what an amazing trip! Didn't realize Big Sand was such a large body of water, 70 miles? Wow!

Check your pm's bud.

Only cost is gas and food .

That is correct sir! (On a side note you're more than welcome to join me in Nakina late July, tentatively have a quickee trip on tap...)

You gotta understand both of those guys were pushing 70 at the time, and even if they wanted to help I wouldn't have let them anyway... I've done stuff like that a million times, and 20 years from now it won't be the fishing I remember, it'll be dragging that bloody boat 1KM upstream by myself while being swarmed by blackflies LOL! (On a side note we absolutely SLAYED the fish above those rapids, so it was definitely worth it. My dad caught a 29" walleye which is a remarkable fish for that watershed)

Great report Cliff, looks like you guys are really getting the walleye jigging thing down pat .

Great way to shorten the learning curve for sure, sounds like a great time!

Kinda lame fish porn, but nonetheless here ya go LOL!

Excellent report, thanks for taking the time!

Good job dad!

Fabulous! One of these years I'll make it up there...

Beautiful fish and an excellent start to your season, congrat's!

That's a very decent pike in your first photo! Nice pic's, looks like fun (as usual )

Outstanding pictures!

Okay I "think" they're working now. I checked before I posted and they worked for me (but then they worked for me last night as well ). Hey Dan, nope it's not worth the cost at all if your criteria is only catching fish. Plenty of amazing fishing to be had without flying in...

Okay I think I've got it now (youtube seems to be the way to go ) This was a trip I did with my dad and uncle in June 2006. Hadn't even seen these clips 'till last week when my uncle found them on his camera and forwarded them to me. Taken with his digital camera they're very crude, but kind of interesting and a little funny at times . No talking on this one. My uncle's filming me dragging our boat up through a heavy set of rapids while my dad swats flies in the background: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0bHgIcSfSI Please excuse the inane banter and the seemingly ridiculous amount of fish on the stringer (it was our 3 man limit): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yx-pwy1Ecs My dad the comedian : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awzVWadnFgw Cheers, Mike

One the more interesting members of the board in my estimation, I'd be happy to fish with you anytime John.

Jason, I pulled up Ara lake on Toporama and (very crudely ) marked 3 very good spots for walleye. Here's the map: As you enter Ara from Meta there's 2 obvious main lake points, one on the south and one on the north that have shoal areas extending out from them. I've marked this spot #2. This spot is marked with jugs by the lodge and is a known hotspot. Spot #1 is a little harder to find, but it's there. It's a mid lake shoal surrounded by deeper water. This was a very good spot that no one else was fishing. I'll guess that Meta Lake lodge will have depth maps of all the lakes (I'd call ahead to confirm). This shoal is shown on that map...that's how I found it. Spot #3 was also amazing. As you can see there's a small island just above the area I circled. In actuality there's a couple of small islands side by side. The times I fished that spot there was a N/W wind. I'd start our drift close to the western most island and drift S/E past the 2 islands towards another small rockpile which also isn't shown. This was a very long, very productive drift. We had a couple of huge # days at this spot. All we used was 3" twister tails and 1/4 oz heads tipped with half a worm. Because the water was so clear in Ara, white twister tails with a hot pink jig head worked best for us. Pumpkin/Orange was also good. Cheers, Mike

Never fished Meta, but stayed at an outpost camp on Ara lake in July of /06. Most of the guys from Meta were travelling through the narrows to Ara to fish while I was there. Ara is much deeper and clearer in comparison to Meta, it's a very beautiful lake. Pike fishing wasn't the greatest (lots of small stuff), but walleye fishing was phenominal. If I can find it I've got a map of the lake somewhere marked with the spots I found, I'll see if I can dig it up. (Might be tough though, I'm moving next week and everything's packed in boxes already )

Very sorry to hear Gary, keep your chin up.

That's great news Dan, congrat's to you and your wife!

Unless you're going to drive it into the ground and don't care, resale value is terrible. Go with an import if you want value for your dollar.