solopaddler

Great report bud, beauty spot and it looks like your daughter had a blast! Very inspiring 'cause mines about the same age and I'm hoping she has the same enthusiasm when I bring her north in a couple weeks....

cheers

Do you like the Sportspal better then the one you were using?

 

Entropy

They're both about the same as far as stability goes. The other one had more comfortable seats and is virtually indestructable, but the Sportspal is 50lb's lighter.

Beyond spending 2-3K on a kevlar squareback of some kind, it's the lightest squareback canoe available. So yeah, I like the Sportspal better. You've just got to be careful with it as it's not quite as tough as other boats.

Save me a spot Louis

 

Tony

Hey Tony, didn't realise you and Louis knew each other....small world!

If the opportunity presents itself you're more than welcome to come up for a fishin' trip!

Amazing, fish of a lifetime for most!

What a trip! Is it just me or did anyone else also notice Bill Clinton in the pictures?

??? (I don't think so)

Nice Mike all I can say very nice indeed. Sorry I missed it......I was thinking the same. It would have been worth the trip just to see Andrew in a canoe...Eh Dave.....always a great report

Next time let's try and get on the same page, plan something well in advance, and all head up together. It would be a blast!

Great pics Mike - I wish that I could have gone! I'll definitely get up there with you sometime soon. How did you ever convince Andrew to get into a canoe???

Hey Dave, nice to see you chime in bud, hope things are going well with you!

Actually, that Sportspal is pretty stable. If it wasn't for the high wind everything would have been fine.

In any case if you ever get a free pass for 4 days off let me know and we'll plan something.

Great report and great shots with your son!

Headed north last Wednesday with a buddy for a few days of fishin'. Most of these trips it's nothing but work, so I was really looking forward to this one!

On the way up I stopped in at the Sportspal factory in North Bay and picked up a 16' transom model for fishing the back lakes around my place.

They installed a carrying yoke for me while I waited, (free of charge!)

Managed to get it on the Honda with no problems and we were off!

After arriving late Wed. afternoon, we downed a few drinks, had dinner and managed to get out fishing right at dusk. I managed 1 decent walleye before fatigue set in...

The next day we decided to take it easy and fish my lake. It was a good choice, we hammered the walleye!

That night we had a huge fish fry, decided to try beer batter and it was really good!

The next day we headed to one of my favourite back lakes for the day. You actually have to navigate up a little creek to access the lake...

Once we arrived we were somewhat hampered by the high winds. My bud Andrew is a massive guy, and he wasn't overly comfortable in the canoe especially with the high winds so we were pretty much stuck fishing sheltered spots like the backside of islands in the lee of the wind. We did okay anyway

Andrew had this very nice walleye in the 5lb class right up to the canoe and ended up losing it, it spit the hooks.

At one point the wind became too much so we beached the canoe and walked around one of the islands casting from shore. That was a blast actually as we caught a pile of decent sized smallmouth. Here's Andrew fighting one..

We weren't really targeting pike, but man, you wouldn't believe the numbers we caught! None were huge (3-5lb's), but they were hitting like crazy! Numerous multiple double headers were had, so it was definitely a lot of fun. Here's Andrew with the only pike shot I took, typical size of the maybe 60 we landed (although he's trying real hard to make it look bigger LOL!)

That evening while relaxing on the deck I snapped a pic of this floatplane landing right in front of my place. Thought it was kinda cool...

The next day we fished my lake again, we just didn't have it in us to possibly battle the high winds again in the canoe. Anyhow, it was a great day with a bunch of quality fish caught.

Had a great bbq Sat night to cap off a perfect day.

Sunday we packed up early to head home as we were both anxious to spend some time with our families, so no fishing.

It was a fantastic trip, although the weather was extremely unstable and cool (actually had frost Friday night!).

Next up is the family vacation up there in 2 weeks, can't wait!

cheers, Mike

Incredible, gotta love Simcoe!

Hey you guys did great, some nice fish there!

You're a lucky man, looks like a great little spot!

Great report!

Unreal, nice fish, even better report, thank's!

WTG Cliff, congrat's on the SM amd Musky, looks like a great trip!

Headed north for 5 days to fish some back lakes, hope to have a decent report for you next week .

To those of you heading up to Lakair, have a great time and stay safe! I'm thinking next year I'll try to join you...

cheers, Mike

Pretty cool pictures, congrat's!

I used to fish Lake Opasitaca up near Rouyn-Noranda ... some big pike and eyes up tha tway!!

Hey cool!. that's pretty darn close to my lake. Yes, it's great fishing up there!

WTG Steve, nice fish! Good luck in July...

Great report TG, thanks!

Nice read Mike, another great trip with your son! That really is a bizarre little aluminum boat, I've never seen one like it either....

Great report, love the smile on your daughters face .

Have fun at Lakair!

Gorgeous fish, cograt's!

Hey solopaddler, it's me again...we're supposed to be going next weekend...how far is the Bad river delta from the Hartley Bay access road? I think I mentioned we'll be in a 14' fiberglass boat.. I don;t want to take a chance with a nasty rapids and puttimg s hole in my haul..

 

thanks

Off the top of my head, I think it's around 22km's. As far as navigating it blind for the first time it can be done, but you better make darn sure you have really good maps and you have the guys at Hartley Bay go over in detail exactly how to get down.

In the past I've seen guys with big console boats navigate up and down those narrow chutes, but you're much better off with a tiller...Much more direct and instant response when sharp turns are required.

Would also mention that going back upstream, slowly and under control is MUCH easier than hurltling downstream....

If you can make it down to the Cross Channel you're golden....

Bear in mind as mentioned you don't have to go down there to catch lots of fish and have a great trip...It's pretty nice upstream as well.

BTW, if you do make it down to the delta of the Bad and camp there, there's a really interesting phenomenon that occurs down there in late June to early July. Every evening at dusk millions of shad move in from Georgian Bay (I guess to spawn?), and the entire river comes alive with fish of every species going on a frenzy. It's really cool...

Ask 20 different anglers that question and you'll get 20 different answers.

I like power pro for certain applications like deep (30' plus) vertical jigging, and also have it spooled on all my musky/pike baitcasters..

But for all around light tackle spin fishing I'm a big fan of 6 and 8lb Stren Magnathin. Just love that line...