solopaddler

Beautiful fish, congrat's!

Now that's funny! Music to "play crib" by.

Good luck closing on your own Wayne. Honestly if I had the time I'd be happy to offer my assistance.. As far as the name thing goes why don't we switch: You can be "solofield", and I'll be "irishpaddler"

Headed up to the cabin last Thursday with my dad in tow to close it up for the season and do a bit of fishing. It was just amazing to me how many parties were headed north for the moose hunt starting on Saturday. Seemed like every vehicle on the hwy. was filled with hunters... Anyhow, Thursday was a perfect day: sunny, warm, light s/w wind and the boat ride over to the cabin was beautiful. We figured we had the full day on Friday to fish and Saturday to get all the chores done so after arriving we just relaxed and chilled out on the deck. Friday morning bright and early we took the squareback into a nearby back lake hoping for some walleyes, it was another picture perfect day... Well perhaps a better man than me could figure out where the walleyes were. On the other hand we had absolutely no problem catching hammer handle pike at will . It was seriously crazy fun, in fact I lost count of the number of doubles. Amidst all the frenzy of catching and releasing snotrockets, I had a "wee" bit of an accident. First time this has ever happened to me actually....I guess the law of averages finally caught up.... The hook was burried right to the bend in the top of my finger. I tried to wiggle it out past the barb, but it was impossible. Finally I was getting tired of the whole ordeal so just ripped it out with my pliers. If there were any moose in the immediate area I'm fairly sure my blood curdling shriek sent them packing . Shortly after that episode, getting hungry and tiring of the search for the ellusive walleye, we roped a couple of small pike and headed over to an island to fillet them up and have a shore lunch. Here's the final product. Believe me when I tell you pike is just as tasty as walleye if filleted properly... My dad contemplating the mysteries of life. After lunch we were back at it Honestly I wouldn't even want to hazzard a guess how many of those things we caught, but it was basically non stop action the entire day we were in there. It's definitely a great lake for kids as there's lots of action. That'll be on the agenda sometime next year with my little ones for sure. It was a faubulous day spent with my dad though, something we definitely don't do enough of. For those that are interested I was quite surprised to see a veritable armada of ministry personel including 2 C.O.'s set up on the gravel road out of the bush. They had a roadside checkpoint set up, checking hunters as they accessed the area north of there for the moose hunt. The fellow I spoke with was a very decent guy, in fact we chatted about some of the back lakes that I havn't fished yet and apparantly a couple are very good. Something to look forward to next year for sure! That's about it, Saturday was close up day, no fishing. Good thing too 'cause the weather went from sunny, calm and a high of 22 on Friday, to a high of 6 with wind and driving rain on Saturday. Not a pleasant day, and pretty much the mother of all cold fronts . That's it for the cottage trips this year, next trip up will be in May. Damn I hate closing! cheers, Mike

Wow, that sounded flippin' incredible, what a report!

It's been a tough couple of weeks to say the least. Headed north with my dad for 4 days to close the cottage and do some fishing. Don't get a chance to fish with him much anymore so I'm looking forward to it. Really need to clear my head... I'll be back next week, stay safe everyone. cheers, Mike

Started typing this then stopped myself. Started again...I'm impelled. Just curious Dave are you affiliated with AWO or getting a break by sending business their way? You've been posting this exact same message every single time this question comes up on multiple message boards for YEARS now. Don't you think people notice? It's becoming more than a bit redundant and is basically spam. For what it's worth, if you're willing to drive that far, I've flown out of Nakina several times myself and any of the outfitters up there will put you onto good fishing. I've flown with Leuenberger's, Timberidge and Twin Lakes, all have been good trips. I'm sure AWO is good as well....

My God, that's horrible! Deepest condolences from both myself and my wife Joanne. Hang tough bud... Mike

Nice fish!

Yep, me too. I installed a trolling plate on mine as well, works great.

Glad to hear you avoided that one Cliff! Sounds like it might have been a desperate Sir Sandford student and probable Christmas graduate. (that's just pure speculation and idle gossip on my part )

Yes that's how my friends do it, but it's a loooong haul though. Driving the James Bay/Trans Taiga road from Matagami north to Radisson and beyond is well over 22 hours of driving on a gravel road. Here's a picture my buddy took a couple years back on the road You'd definitely need spare tires, extra gas and survival equipment to drive that road. If you have an adventurous spirit and the time, it IS a great way to experience world class fishing on a shoestring budget though.

Interesting that you mention Mirage as I've been looking at them myself. My cottage is 15 mins. from Rouyn Noranda so flying from there would be pretty convenient... I've got a couple of friends who're employees of Quebec hydro and they rave about the pike fishing on LG-4, which is what interested me in the first place. I think you're pretty much bang on with the price and if that's not too steep for fishnsled's group (it's quite a bit more than your run of the mill fly-in) then I'd definitely consider it. You're talking about true world class fishing up there.

One location in particular springs to mind because of your party size. Little Missinaibi Lake flying with Hawk Air out of Hawk Junction. I flew in there years ago before they made it a minimum of 6 to book this lake and havn't been back since because of it. Awesome camp on an island just 10' from the water. Huge, huge lake with great fishing. There's a substantial outflowing river that you can walk and fish just teeming with walleye, plus there's an adjacent back lake with lake trout in it. I fished for lake trout one day and caught a ton.. Also, for what it's worth we caught a bunch of whitefish over 5lb's right off the dock. I've flown out of Cochrane several times myself. What I personally like about the Wawa/Hawk Junction area in comparison is the terrain and the type of lake. North of Cochrane you're pretty much in that flat, featureless James Bay lowland terrain, with most lakes being shallow, weedy, featureless dishpans. On the north shore of Superior you're still in shield country and the terrain is generally hillier and the lakes are usually deeper, clearer and rockier with much more interesting structure. Here's Hawk Air's description of the camp: http://www.hawkair.com/littlemisslake.html Any other questions or alternative reccomendations fire away, I've been on a bunch of these trips. cheers, Mike

Cool pic's! Which outfitter did you guys use?

Wow, that's a pretty inflamatory statement. Can't say that I agree... By chance do you reside in Sutton?

No kidding eh? I was skeptical right off the bat, but for the reasons you mentioned last night wasn't "totally" sure. No doubt ebay missed one there...

Was just thinking the exact same thing.

Nice bucket! You're right about the spiderwire mono, it's garbage...

Nice fish Steve (as usual )

Great fish! What's even more impressive, it was your first time out on Simcoe. WTG kid!

Unbelievable! You did the right thing though, glad to hear these people will be held accountable.

Seems like every single report of yours there's a new personal best, LOL! Nice fish, congrat's!

Nice fish Lew!