solopaddler

Larry do you have a photo? Can't tell if you're serious or not. Again it was a pleasure meeting you guys at the Valhalla, such a small world!

Wicked report, thanks for taking the time!!

Bill and I are currently in the remote native community of Kasabonika Lake waiting for a plane back to civilization. What a crazy adventure this past week has been! Can't wait to tell you guys the story. We fished a remote section of the Asheweig River, a giant trib of the Winisk with an Oji-Cree native. Perhaps the most memorable and eventful trip I've ever experienced...

No idea! Will find out from Jack though. According to him he's settled on this particular hook after several other failed tries. Not crazy, 5 of diamonds is a killer. I checked and couldn't find what you were referring to. Link? Silver Minnow with a grub or even better a 5" strip of rippled pork rind is my go to lure when fishing weeds. As it is for just about every single pike angler at least in the north. I'll have a dozen or so in my box for this trip. You can rig the grub in two ways as shown in these photos. I always thread the grub on as I like to slip on a brightly coloured spinnerbait skirt first, clip it so it's shorter, then thread on a grub and snug it up against the skirt.

Many of you may know who Jack Penny is, a lot probably don't. Needless to say he's someone who I've looked up to for some time now. Jack is an older gentleman from the States and a fellow outdoor writer who's passion has been chasing giant pike all over the north. I recently had the chance to converse with the man and he sent me a huge bunch of his extremely lethal looking hand painted pike spoons! These look an awful lot like Doctor Spoons which happen to be my favorite spoons. Cannot wait to try them out on my trip next week! The smaller spoons are hand painted Champ Baby's and I have no doubt they'll be deadly too. According to Jack the guy who painted his spoons passed away last year at the age of 94. He does sell these spoons to the general public, but be forewarned, what he has left is the last of them. I feel pretty fortunate that I was able to get some! Best part is, in talking to Jack we might team up together to fish the Taltson River in the NWT next year. That would be a dream trip for me. Just google Jack Penny Outdoors if you're interested.

Thanks that'll be in my head all week now.

When I fish with Bill it's usually wolf down some wonderbread and bologna if we even remember to eat. Hopefully our native guide won't mind eating dinner at 10 o'clock LOL!

I'll admit I'm not much of a shopper. Generally I know exactly what I want and won't quibble over a few dollars if someone has what I need. If the Cabelas in Barrie is stocked in a similar fashion to its U.S counterparts I'll be thrilled.

From someone who lives in the area and fishes both spots that's a very well worded response. Nothing to add here.

I've never used a leader when targeting walleye...ever.

Heavy fluoro most of the time for me. When I'm throwing lighter stickbaits like the largest Husky Jerks it's 20lb titanium. The heavy fluoro sinks too much and impedes the action of the lure. That said 90% of the big pike I catch are never hooked that deep, fact of the matter a leader isn't even necessary. Still need one just in case though.

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed and I appreciate the comments. It's approaching rapidly. Bill and I leave Friday for the remote native community of Kasabonika Lake. We'll be travelling 70km's by boat through the vast expanse of Shibogama Lake which has never been seriously fished for pike before by anyone. Then it's on to the Asheweig River and a remote outpost camp to fish for giant brook trout. The camp was built by the natives in 2003 and hasn't been used since 2005. Only a handful of groups have ever been to it and not in years. This trip will redefine epic.

You don't need fluoro, mono will work fine. It's been mentioned by several others but Trilene XT is a great choice. I like 14lb myself in the clear colour. As far as clevises go I use the plastic quick change ones exclusively as it allows me to swap out blades easily and there's no wear on the line. Knots are easy. Plenty of vid's on youtube how to do it, this one's not bad.

Sweet! Why bother driving all the way to Nakina on Friday? Speaking of which if I don't talk to you before then good luck and safe travels bud.

I hadn't mentioned the fact you guys were there, figured you'd chime in. I put the word out a while back looking for more people to help fill the camp - trying to help out the outfitter. Mark stepped up and him and his group including his dad joined us for the week, they stayed in the smaller cabin off to the side but we enjoyed socializing with you guys immensely. We shared several campfires and a couple of memorable fish fries. Honestly Mark the pleasure was all mine, you guys are a great bunch!

Well done guys, must be nice having that on your doorstep.

Right on dude, nice fish! That boat you fished lakers out of looks like a garbage scow LOL!

Good stuff Rob!

Excellent, I already have a date in mind.

Very glad you guys enjoyed the write up! In a word yes. I leave later this week for the Asheweig where I'm hoping to put the flies you tied for me to good use.

Thanks guys, really glad you liked! I've said this before, but many of my reports this one included aren't masterpieces. They're the literary equivolent of beating someone over the head with a hammer LOL! Still, they do take time, probably more than you might think. Thanks Ron, and yeah, the flying was almost my favourite part. Normally we spend part of our last day on Friday packing, but on this trip I fished 'till 9pm on our last day. Stayed up late and enjoyed some socializing and a few pops around the campfire. Saturday our return flight was scheduled for 10:30am so we had plenty of time to pack and clean things up. So get this. The plane was on time at 10:30. I was sitting in my living room drinking a beer by 6:30pm. It simply doesn't get any better than that! Thanks Doug! It's been a struggle getting this done (you of all people know my schedule). The exciting and scary part is my entire summer will be like this. At least I'm learning how to manage my time. Can I assume you'd be interested in a return trip next year? Glad you liked it Roy. Like I've said it's not a masterpiece, but it still takes some time to put these things together. And you're most welcome.

Walleye Fishing Highlights As I’ve said the walleye fishing was incredible and we rarely targeted them. Fishing close to camp on a beautiful calm evening Brendan and I jig fished for one of the very few times on the entire trip. We made our way over to large sandy saddle between two huge islands. Either side of the saddle was deeper water in the 20’ range while right on top it was 8-12’. It was insanely good fishing, literally one right after another and I filmed this short clip of Brendan fighting several… The rest of my highlights are mostly in the form of photos so I’ll let them do the talking. I mentioned earlier, but the Williams HQ spoon was dynamite. Don’t really know how important that tidbit of info actually is though when a pop can tab would catch fish too. We fished the other two major inflowing rivers the Donnelly and the Nango and both were stuffed with fish. Did I mention these fish were aggressive? The Camp And A Thank You Now a little more detail on the camp. It’s situated on Cemetery Island smack dab in the middle of this sprawling behemoth of a lake. It’s a nice spot as it gives you equal access to all parts of the lake. It was the site of a short lived Hudson’s Bay post in the early 1900’s and is so named because many of its inhabitants were wiped out by a devastating bout of influenza and buried there. The logs along the base of the kitchen cabin are the original ones from those bygone days so there’s a lot of history at this spot. The main camp is comprised of three sleeping cabins with a maximum capacity of 16, as well as a large fully equipped kitchen cabin and a large shower house with flush toilets and hot and cold running water. There’s also a satellite wifi connection, satellite phone, generator with electric lighting and some of the best boats and motors I’ve ever used at a remote fly in. In addition to the main camp, 300 yards down the beach and set back in a grove of trees is a self contained private cabin with its own kitchen, bathroom and dock for smaller groups who’d prefer a bit of privacy. For anyone who’s interested in a trip to the camp I’m more than happy to answer any questions you might have. If you’re interested all of the contact info is on their website at www.northcaribou.com Beyond that as usual I shot this short video clip offering a tour of both the main camp and the private cabin at North Caribou. Finally a very big thank you from myself and my entire family to both Dusty and Rob Brodhagen. You both went the extra mile to make this trip a success and your enthusiasm and good nature was infectious. I’m already looking forward to a return trip and there’s very few camps that would ever entice me to do that! Hope you enjoyed the tale, Cheers, Mike

I’ll cut right to the chase. This was easily the best fly in fishing trip I’ve ever been on, bar none. The size and beauty of the lake, the quality of the fishing, the accommodations, the boats and motors, the ease of getting there, all combined to make it as good as it gets. I’ll get into the details shortly, but according to camp owner Rob Brodhagen I set a record for the number of 40” plus pike caught by one angler in a week. Walleye fishing, if possible, was even better. Honestly in all my years I’ve never experienced anything quite like the fishery on this lake! The lake in question was North Caribou located in far northwestern Ontario. It’s a sprawling island studded gem over 81,000 acres in size. It’s difficult to fathom an 81,000 acre lake unless you actually experience it, but speaking as someone who loves big water it’s literally breathtaking. The amount of fishable water is endless with countless bays, inflowing creeks and rivers, islands, points, saddles and neck downs. Joining me on this trip of a lifetime was my family, wife Joanne and two young kids Brendan and Riley. What made this trip even more attractive to them was the logistics involved in getting there. North Caribou has been on my radar as a possible destination for years. Problem was in the past they flew from the small town of Pickle Lake. Getting to the jump off point at Pickle Lake was never an option for me living in southern Ontario. It’s simply too far away and I don’t have the time to make that trek. Happily I found out that North Caribou Camp would be flying direct out of Thunder Bay starting this year and with Air Miles accumulated the flight to Thunder Bay was cheap. That made the decision to book a no brainer and we quickly snapped up the last full week in June, the 21-28. The package is inclusive from Thunder Bay and includes a free nights stay at the Valhalla Inn the night before you fly into camp. It was a thoroughly civilized process that we enjoyed immensely. North Caribou supplies you with an extensive list of staple food items as part of the package but we still had to shop for perishables (meat, cheese, bread, eggs, etc..) after we arrived in Thunder Bay. We brought a large soft cooler with us on the flight to Thunder Bay and once it was packed with our food the Valhalla put it in a gigantic walk in cooler/freezer for us. Honestly the entire process was so seamless, stress free and easy it left me wondering why I haven’t flown to my jump off point more often. Every Friday evening the camp owner, Rob Brodhagen is there in Thunder Bay to greet his newly arriving guests. In our case we enjoyed a good bit of conversation over dinner Friday night with Rob going on at length about the lake and the fishery, extolling its virtues and explaining his thoughts on how we should target the fish. Our anticipation was rising… Early the next morning we met in the lobby and were shuttled over to the Wasaya Airlines base next to the Thunder Bay airport.The next leg of our journey would be in a 16 seat prop plane to the remote native community of Weagamow Lake. Spirits were running high as our cargo was weighed and then loaded onto the plane. We soon followed and by 9am we were onboard and ready for take off. It was roughly a 1 hour flight to Weagamow. To me it seemed we just reached cruising speed and we started to descend. This part of Ontario has almost more water than land and the view enroute was amazing. Arriving in Weagamow Lake (formerly known as Round Lake) we were greeted by several friendly natives who quickly piled our gear into pick up trucks and shuttled us over to the float plane base and the final leg of our journey to North Caribou. There were all kinds of scruffy looking dogs trotting around everywhere and while we waited for the float plane to get loaded my two kids acquainted themselves with one particularly friendly young pup. As I said the terrain up there is inspiring and as we approached the lake I shot this short video clip. Bear in mind you’re only seeing a tiny fraction of the available water. Vast is an understatement! The camp itself is extremely nice for such a remote place. The main facility has three sleep cabins with a maximum capacity of 16, a central kitchen cabin and a large central shower house with hot and cold running water and flush toilets. 300 yards down the beach is another smaller cabin with both kitchen and indoor bathroom for smaller groups that would like some privacy. Rob’s son Dusty Brodhagen is at the camp all season long. He keeps the boats gassed, everything clean and neat, and is there to guide and assist guests in any way that’s needed. He’s a perfect man for the job and his easy going nature is hard not to like. After unpacking and settling in we sat down and chatted for a bit as I picked his brain about various spots on the lake. I filmed this short clip where he talks about the history of the lake and the camp as well as its amazing fishery. Very interesting. It didn’t long and I soon had our full arsenal rigged and ready. (And no, I actually don’t have enough rods so don’t ask). While we were greeted with perfect weather upon arrival at camp, we stuck close the first afternoon simply trying to get a feel for the lake and a few fish under our belts. A trend soon emerged though as we boated walleye after walleye while casting for pike with large spinnerbaits and spoons. These were some of the most unsophisticated and aggressive walleyes I’ve ever seen! Mixed in between were dozens of small to medium sized pike and a great start to our adventure was had. I simply cannot give a blow by blow recap of the trip, I would have to write a novel. Suffice it say my son and I fished most hard every day covering as much of this vast body of water as we could. On the pike end of things a simple pattern quickly emerged where we keyed specifically on bays with creeks flowing into them. The water temp’s were shockingly warm reaching 70 degrees each afternoon, yet the pike were still in the shallows in fishable numbers! We used primarily two lures to catch our pike: A brown/orange Northland Magnum Reed Runner spinnerbait and a variety of Doctor spoons. Another lethal spoon was the Williams HQ. It was equally effective on both pike and walleye and some of the colour patterns seemed irresistible. Ultimately I set a camp record for the most northerns over 40” caught by one angler, 17. My son caught 4 more and my wife caught 2 more, so our family total for the week was 23! That number doesn’t include the crazy numbers of pike in the 34-36” range either. There were tons of them. My wife and daughter were not nearly as intense as us boys and quite often they’d sleep in late then fish close to camp for walleye. They’d go out off a point 200 yards from the dock, catch 30 odd fish, get bored then head back for a break. Rinse and repeat. It’s as a good a walleye fishery as I’ve ever encountered. First off the walleyes are EVEYWHERE in this lake - literally. Doesn’t matter if it’s 30’ off a rocky point or in 3’ of shallow sandy, featureless water. With water clarity being so good you’d constantly see schools of fish swimming around in a big packs in the most unlikely of spots. It was exactly like fishing in a giant aquarium! Even more amazing than the numbers was the average size. Numbers walleye lakes are quite common, but normally they’re 15-16” fish. These fish were all thick and fat and were an honest 20-22” average size! Sounds crazy but it’s true. Scads and scads of larger walleyes in the 24-28” range were caught, I honestly couldn't tell you how many. We jig fished for walleyes “maybe” an hour out of the entire trip as my primary focus was casting for pike. That said we caught hundreds of incidental walleye. I truly believe that if you focussed solely on walleye and fished hard there is virtually no limit on the number you might catch in one day. 100? 200? 500? Anything is possible on this lake. Pike Fishing Highlights As usual even though we spent on average 12 hours a day in the boat my 7 year old son Brendan simply couldn’t stop fishing. Most evenings he’d grab a rod and race down to the dock with the wonderful camp dog Brin in tow and fish until we called him in. The water in front of the dock was sandy and shallow but he still caught plenty of fish! On a glorious bluebird day everyone in camp made the long trek down to where the Thurston River feeds into the lake to fish and enjoy a shore lunch. The Thurston is one of 3 major rivers that feed the lake, the other two being the Donnelly and the Nango and all of them teem with walleye. This is nice as the rivers are more sheltered than the big lake if you happen to have rough weather. In any case the mouth of the Thurston was a hotspot and numerous quality fish were caught. Midday Brendan and I motored up to the rapids to join the others for lunch. It was spectualarly beautiful, and as we ate our lunch both kids hopped in a boat and fished for walleye… After lunch the great fishing continued. Brendan and I found a small saddle between an island and the mainland with 20’ of water. Adjacent to the saddle was a weedy bay on the mainland that had good expanse of 6-8’ water with emerging weeds. The bay was loaded with nice fish!! There was so much amazing pike water to be fished on this lake, and it all held quality fish! Another good spot was Stewart Bay, according to Dusty no one had fished it yet this year and that was all I needed to hear. Brendan and I got up early one morning and made the 2 hour run over there. It was a glorious morning. I sipped my coffee with a light hand on the tiller while my little guy crept up into the nose of the boat to escape the wind and nap. Stewart Bay is a huge area, almost a lake unto itself, but we quickly figured things out and Brendan got on a roll! I managed a few myself too. On a couple of mornings I got up extra early, too early for even Brendan and headed out by myself close to camp to fish for an hour or so until the others awoke. As I’ve already said the fish are everywhere in this lake. You could put a blindfold on and stick a pin anywhere on a map of the lake and say “that’s the best spot!” I filmed this short clip one morning no more than 2km’s from camp. I really think it illustrates just how easy the fishing is. A few times the four of us went out together in one boat. My wife enjoyed that as it allowed to her to fully relax. It’s not ideal fishing 4 out of a boat, but man did we have fun! Perhaps the most fun we had on the entire trip. Continued.....

Wish I had time I'd love to! (huge CFL fan) Very nice offer Mike.

Occasionally I am presented with some pretty great opportunities for last minute trips, especially now since I'm acting as a booking agent for numerous camps in the north. I don't have to tell anyone about the quality of the fishery at Beteau, it's well known. Anyhow the week of July 26 to August 2 is available. There will be no one else in camp that week, you'll be their entirely by yourselves. That said whoever does jump on this must be able to fend for themselves. Because it's last minute (there was a cancellation) the price is pretty killer. If anyone's interested and has either a group of two or four give me a call or shoot me an email. Contact info is on my website (it's in my signature) Cheers