solopaddler

Well, it's the dead of winter and I'm bored, so figured I'd share another trip with you guys. In the spirit of Lew's great thread about fishing with your father, these trip photos depict the one and only time my dad as well as my uncle accompanied me on a canoe trip. They were both in their late sixties at the time and used to their creature comforts. I really wasn't sure how they'd handle it 'cause it's not a cakewalk, but they did just fine! In fact they loved it! We did this trip 3 years ago in May, once again to my secret honeyhole lakes north of Superior.... (sorry again about the poor pic quality, but hey they're better than nothing right? ) If these pictures look familiar, I posted a similar series of shots a while back crossing the same river with my old Suzuki Samurai. This time we beat the crap outta my uncles Jeep There's my dad on the left, uncle on the right (they were pumped after we made it over ) While walking along a portage, my uncle found this little Brookie trapped in a pool of water The old boys walked the shoreline and I donned my waders and lined our boat and gear upstream (the bush is way too thick to portage) My dad taking a break on a beaver dam Eventually you come to this awesome spot where the water flows over the bedrock into a lake. Trout stack up here and it's an easy spot to fish... From that point it's a bushwhack into our final destination. Here's my dad geared up and ready to go This is a tough portage. About 1200m with bush so thick you've got to drag the canoe (no trails either...) Here's our destination. Beautiful beach campsite overlooking the lake Eating around the campfire Here's me along with my uncle cooking up some trout under the tarp. (forgot to mention it was freezing cold the entire time we were there) My dad never goes anywhere without his brandy and cigars My uncle landing one Me with an decent one My uncle with a stringer of small eaters My uncle My dad Landing another My favourite cleaning rock I've posted pic's of this spot before...It's a waterfall you pass on your way in. We usually spend the first night here, but opted to camp here on the way back out. This is one of my favourite pictures.....Absolutely gorgeous spot! My dad and uncle relaxing at the same spot Well, that's about it....hope you enjoyed the pic's!

Sorry to hear about your daughters accident Lew, most important thing is she's going to be okay. Sounds like it could have been a lot worse!

Actually Kennyman, in moving water that thing would hinder your mobility to such an extent it would be dangerous. Pretty doubtful it's being marketed for that use. The way I see it, beyond being a great training aid for young kids it's a pretty useless piece of equipment. If someone needs to put inflatable outriggers on their canoe to be comfortable, then they shouldn't be in a canoe in the first place. They should be in a small tin boat, or perhaps a Zodiac.

Interesting idea, but personally I'd never use them....would be too embarassing. It would be akin to strapping a set of training wheels onto my mountain bike, or going swimming with water wings on.

Fantastic! Thank's for sharing, looks like an incredible trip!

Thank's Smokey, I try

I work at the Hamilton weather office and the final the total for Hamilton is actually 53cm. I'm actually just winding down now....I went into work at 2pm on Tues., and my relief couldn't make it in to work 'cause of the storm. I was stuck there 'till 2pm today! What a day!

I've travelled pretty much throughout the entire park over the years, including 2 separate 40 day solo trips, so I should be able to help you out. First off, aircraft are only allowed to land at the Beaverhouse Lake and Lac la Croix ranger stations. Neither of these locations would benefit anyone as far as trip logistics go as they're both perimeter lakes, and not particularly great access points anyway. The beauty of Quetico though is the incredible ease of travel. You can go from lake, to lake, to lake with little or no portaging. By far the best flatwater canoe country on the planet IMO. Picture postcard shield country, beautiful campsites, tons of waterfalls and world class fishing.....it's one of my favourite places! Based on what you said, I'd highly recommend the Stanton Bay access point on Pickeral Lake. Paddle accross Pickeral Lake, and you've got 2 flat, easy portages to get into Sturgeon lake, one 460m, another 730m. Once in Sturgeon you're set. It's an absolutely mammoth lake with great fishing and tons of campsites. It's got a couple of inflowing rivers, neckdown areas with current, and one major outflow, all of which are fish magnets. One of the coolest campsites I dubbed "Bermuda point". It's a long narrow spit of gorgeous white sand that juts into the lake. There's a nice grove of red pines in the centre where the tent site is. Just a great, great spot. I've got a ton of more specific info regarding fishing spots and campsites that would take me too long to type out at the moment, so feel free to pm me if you've got any questions at all! cheers, Mike

Wow, that story brings back memories! About 4 years back my wife and I were headed north to go on a fly-in trip driving our '98 Blazer. About 10 mins. south of Chelmsford on hwy 144 the right front ball joint failed while doing 80km/hr on the outside of a major bend in the highway. Pretty scary incident, I almost lost control of the vehicle, but managed to get it stopped and pulled over onto the shoulder. The wheel was bent inwards, almost came right off the vehicle. Amazingly, after calling for a tow truck who came within 15 mins., the local garage in town happened to have the parts we needed and went to work immediately. We were back on the road within 11/2 hours.... If I remember correctly we even managed to recoup some of our money from GM as there was a recall on some of the parts...Perhaps you should look into that. Personally, that was the last straw for me as far as domestic trucks go. I've since had a Toyota, and currently a Honda and couldn't be more pleased.

I seem to recall a Lynx Lake reserve, or preserve somewhere in N.Kawartha's or Haliburton. They managed several small, natural lakes with some pretty big stocked brook trout.

That is truly funny! H2whoa, you're definitely a gamer!

Great report! FYI, back in the day when I lived in Port Carling Armstrong point was always a good spot for lakers, fishing in roughly 40' of water....

I've got a couple, but I'm afraid to use them! They're so expensive . Really slick looking baits though for sure.

One tip: If you build a wood handle and you want a nice glossy finish on it don't use urethane, varathane, or pretty much any other normal wood finish. Over time it will crack and wear away, possibly even yellow. What you have to do is soak your finished grip in rubbing alcohol overnight to remove as much of the wood's natural oils then apply multiple (7-10) coats of gunstock oil to the wood allowing each layer to penetrate and dry before the next layer is applied. When I do this I use a small folded over coffee filter soaked in the oil and rub it on...Removing the wood's natural oil allows the gun oil to penetrate deeply and the multiple coats give it a nice, hard, glossy finish.

I understand exactly what you're saying! As far as wood handles go, for sure some guys do it....check out http://merricktackle.com/prodpages/grips/woodhandles.htm for some good examples.... cheers

RiverRat makes some good points. In this day and age it's really unneccesary to build a custom rod unless you simply want something that'll stand out (nothing wrong with that!). Personally it's all about function over form though...why bother to build one yourself when you can buy one of equal quality off the rack? The only exception for me is floatrods and flyrods simply because I have such specific needs that it's impossible to find what I want ready built. Case in point: I'm currently building 2 different spey rod blanks into floatrods. As far as where to buy components, he's already been mentioned, but John Collina in Caledonia is the man to talk to. He's got a website you can check out: jccustomtackle.com

They're good rods, not a thing wrong with them, but they're not true Loomis rods. They are in fact Rainshadow RX7 blanks made by Batson for Loomis Canada.

Worked okay for me as well, although I found the balloon icons to be bunched a little too close together in spots. Not sure how you'd do it differently, but I found it mildly annoying. Also, is the purpose of the site to, as you say, "promote your clients businesses", or is it to assist the average joe in trip planning? If it's the latter I'd recommend some kind of feedback forum where people could leave positive or negative criticism for any of the lodges, camps or outposts they've been to. A direct reference from someone who's actually been to a location you're considering is priceless and is without a doubt the best means of making an educated choice....Over time I'm sure you'd be able to accumulate a pretty large data bank of useful feedback.... Anyhow, it's just a thought. cheers, Mike

Thanks guys.....Gerritt, Armstrong is about an 18 hour drive from where I live in S. Ontario. It's a whistle stop on the CNR tracks about 2 hours n/e of Thunder Bay, long haul for sure, but worth it. I've paddled most of the lakes and rivers north of Armstrong, and they're pretty much all teeming with fish.

Who would have thought that there'd be enough interest to build an indoor ski hill in Dubai of all places? That really is incredible

Trophy Fish Outposts, Kenozha Lake. The reason we chose this particular outfitter was that unlike most of the outpost camps in the north these ones are relatively new. The land is leased from the natives up there. Most camps are on crown land use permits and the government isn't issueing any new ones. When I was soloing up there I did a side trip into Keezik Lake (another one of their outpost lakes) close to Kenozha. The fishing was incredible so I filed away the info...

My buddies and I did a week long fly in trip out of Armstrong last summer. I had forgotten about these pic's as they were saved, not in my computer, but in my hotmail account. Just stumbled across them yesterday, so in keeping with some of my recent posts, here's some more pic's from the archives! Flying in Our accomodations for the week Sunset Johnny with an average sized pike and walleye. No trophies were caught on this trip, but the numbers of walleye were astonishing... We were actually able to wade the beach in front of our cabin and catch fish! Here's Dave getting a little ambitious! Me landing a walleye... Enroute to our shorelunch site on the adjacent portage lake... Wading for walleye Johnny at the helm in the portage lake One to many wobbly pops The obligatory stringer shot (these were some of our take home fish) It was a perfect trip: great weather, tons of fish, and a lot of laughs

Look's like my kinda water. Time to grab the kayak

Yep, those are the ones Woodsman! The obvious difference about these bucktails and most others is the fact that they're a weight-forward spinner. They were a great lure to troll, tracked real well.

When I was a young kid in the early seventies my dad would take me to Scotsman's Point on Buckhorn Lake to go musky fishing.... I've got a lot of vivid memories of those trips, but the one thing that sticks out in my mind is the lure we used. I say "the" lure, 'cause my dad insisted on using only ONE lure! LOL! It was a killer though, we always caught muskies, sometimes a lot of muskies. He revered this lure, actually spoke of it in hushed tones....don't know if it was widely used or not, it likely was, but I always liked to think of it as our secret! Unfortunately his old metal tackle box with all his lures was lost during a move a few years back so they're all gone. Anyhow, I havn't seen one in years..... I was feeling nostalgic tonight and managed to unearth a pic on the net, here it is: Good old Paul Bunyan spinner!