solopaddler

Thanks buddy. I miss fishing with you, here's hoping you can join me again next year!

Yeah, as long as she stayed about 20' off shore she'd have been okay. Problem was it was an onshore wind and I think she was worried about the plane blowing around. The little beach where we landed was mostly sheltered. She made the right move.

Thanks a bunch guys, glad I could share the adventure with you! Thanks Wayne, it was definitely an experience to remember. As far as the water in front of the camp goes the original dock was missing when he flew in there this spring. They jerry rigged the one that's there now and in the spring with higher water it was fine. Pretty positive he has plans for a new floating dock next year..

Good God, fish of a lifetime. When you said you were going musky fishing the other night you weren't kidding around LOL!

Thank's gent's, glad you enjoyed! Adam, I purchased the spreaders at Bass Pro. Joe will get a kick out of your description of him as well, thanks LOL! 44" on the pike and I'm honestly not sure about the walleye, 23 or 24 maybe? Actually the jig popped right out, no harm done. It's always easier when you're dealing with a single hook. And yes the Bailey's thing was a bit much LOL! Thanks Chris, and no there's not a chance I can duplicate John Moffatt's technique without a ton of practice.

Poring over maps has always been a favorite pastime of mine, especially when planning trips in Ontario's far north. Looking over a detailed topographic map of Windsor lake, a widening of the fabled Attawapiskat River, the opportunities seemed endless. It encompasses thousands upon thousands of acres of fishable water, and with the obvious potential for trophy fish it's a destination that's long intrigued me. Last year Eddie North acquired an older outpost camp on Windsor lake, his goal being to open it up to anglers in 2014. Life, not unexpectedly, tends to throw us a curve every once in a while, and when a proposed September trip to northern Saskatchewan fell through Eddie stepped up to the plate. "How would you guys feel about fishing Windsor in mid September? The camp isn't completely ready for guests yet, but it's in decent shape and I'd love to see what the fishing is really like before I open it up next year!" Pretty easy decision for me. A call to my friend Joe, and two other board members, Rick and Julian had the cast of characters quickly pinned down. We'd be fishing Windsor on the week of September 13. With the full moon on the 20th and blessed with a favorable weather forecast expectations were running high... An Inauspicious Start As the otter banked and began its descent onto Windsor I was struck by two things: Water, its course convoluted in nature and littered with islands, stretched in every direction as far as the eye could see. Also evident were thousands upon thousands of rocks. The river was obviously low and presented a literal mine field of hazards. The pilot, a capable young woman, circled the camp and merely shook her head. "No way we're landing there!" With nothing else said she dropped the plane onto a rock-free zone and taxied over to a beach a good kilometer east of the camp. With the wind blowing she hopped out barefoot with a rope as we watched. We quickly followed suit shedding our shoes and socks and jumping into the frigid water to help unload the plane. Visions of Castaway popped to mind as in short order our gear was piled high on the beach along with two motors and a drum of gas. Of course we had no boats, they were at the outpost camp. "Good luck gentlemen, hope you have a great week!" And with that she revved the engine and was quickly gone, a tight schedule to maintain. Rick quickly set out along the shoreline heading for the outpost camp, his goal being to get one of the boats and paddle or pole it back to beach. We busied ourselves organizing gear and donning dry socks and boots, and in no time at all it seemed we heard a whoop from Rick as he turned the point with one of the boats. We quickly had one of the outboards clamped onto the transom and began loading our gear. It took a couple of trips to complete the task, but we were soon unloaded at the camp and quickly set about unpacking and settling in. As promised the camp was in decent shape, and with a bit of work it has the potential to be great. Still, there were a few issues that needed attention. First order of business being installing the woodstove. A bit of sweeping and cleaning, some screening tacked up onto a couple of open windows in the screen porch, some dry wood cut and split and we were good to go, we were home for a week. The dock, while in good shape, was left mostly high and dry with the low water so we had to improvise there too. Fortunately for us there were two old log boat ramps set back high on the bank and buried in the weeds. With a bit effort we dragged them both down to the waters edge, one on each side of the dock. They would prove to be an ideal substitute. With our chores out of the way we put our tackle together and readied the boats, it was time to fish. A Plethora Of Pike When I'm fishing a location that has the potential to produce a trophy pike on any given cast I find it difficult to fish for anything else and this trip was no exception. The problem was where to find them? With such a vast amount of territory to explore and fish eliminating unproductive water and quickly establishing a pattern was essential. Being familiar with the pike in this system I knew that bays or feeding shelves directly adjacent to main river channel and associated current were key. A large percentage of this waterway is comprised of backwater areas, some kilometers away from the deeper water and current. While I'm sure they'd be hotspots early in the season, it was an easy task eliminating them in September. Still there was a lot of water to cover, and cover it we did exploring every inch both upstream and down from camp. Not unexpectedly we were somewhat constrained by the low water. Many channels which would otherwise be navigable, were high and dry. Still, the navigable water was endless and we enjoyed every minute spent exploring it. Being September and in the midst of a prime moon phase I wasn't anticipating finesse to play a big role and that proved true. Casting spinnerbaits, inline bucktails, a variety of spoons and occasionally 6 inch twister tails along deep weed edges and always adjacent to current we found success. Copious amounts of large, aggressive and willing pike came to play. ​ A Windfall Of Walleye With such phenomenal pike fishing the walleye by and large took a back seat. That however doesn't diminish the quality of the fishery. Elsewhere on the Attawapiskat I've caught trophy sized fish, many in the 7-10lb class. While on Windsor we never did capture any behemoths, but the numbers were unprecedented. Windsor in a nutshell is a bona fide walleye factory. If you strictly concentrated on them you could easily catch 100 a day. Mostly in the 17-21" range, with a handful larger, Windsor's walleye are fat, feisty and will seemingly hit anything. As always I brought a flat of worms with me, but they were completely unnecessary. Ultimately we mostly used 4" Fin S Fish and Northland minnows. Run clean on a 1/4 or 3/8 oz head they inflicted grievous harm on the walleye population. Every single current area, and there were lots of them, held scads of hungry walleye. ​ ​ ​ Breathtaking Vistas And An Unexpected Visitor The terrain at Windsor is something special. Mile upon mile of convoluted twisting water interspersed with countless islands, neck downs and current areas all set in a backdrop of northern taiga. It has a wild feel, a true sense of remoteness and quite easily gets under your skin. It's a special place. ​ Late one evening around 7:30 Joe and I were working a small rock pile not far from camp when we heard the unmistakable drone a float plane drawing closer. With less than an hour of light left and being so far north we were surprised to say the least. It circled it overhead then quickly landed about a kilometer away. I knew it wasn't Nakina Air and honestly didn't quite know what to expect as I fired up the outboard to drive over and greet them. It never dawned on me for a moment that it was the MNR, I honestly would have been less surprised to see a pink unicorn land on the lake. They were on a milk run that day hitting up all the remote outpost camps to check on the occupants. Windsor being the furthest north was their last stop of the day before flying back to Geraldton. With the sun sinking fast they were polite enough gent's, but a bit rushed. When asked if they could check our cabin for fish, I told them sure no problem, but you'll have to hop into my boat if you want to. "Why's that?" asked older guy in charge. "Water's too low, you can't dock your plane at the camp" says I. "Never mind then" says older guy in charge. After checking our boat thoroughly as well as our licenses older guy asks what's in the thermos? I had one beside me in the boat filled with coffee as the day had been cold. He unscrews the lid, smells it, then says "I think we have a problem." "Really, why?" says I. "It appears as though there's Bailey's in your coffee sir!" I explained to him that it was actually French Vanilla flavored Coffeemate. "How sure are you that's Coffeemate sir?" "100% sure, although I wish I had some Bailey's right about now." He looked at me kind of dubiously as he handed the thermos back. My impression was that I had just narrowly escaped some big trouble. Nevertheless we chatted pleasantly for a spell before they went on their way. Tax payers dollars hard at work! The Camp And A Tip Of The Hat To The Boys As I've said the Windsor outpost is nice, but has the potential to be truly great with a small amount of cleaning and fixing. For our purposes it was an ideal venue, and being a single cabin outpost on such an outstanding body of water I'll definitely be back. For those of you interested in a trip to Windsor I shot this short video tour of the camp: The outfitter is Eddie North out of Nakina and his contact info can be found on his website at eddienorth.com Once again a big thank you to Eddie who has always been a pleasure to deal with, especially this time accommodating us at the very last minute. You're a good man my friend and I'm sure we'll do it again! Finally I'd like to thank Joe, Rick and Julian. You guys made this trip extra special and I'm sure there'll be more. Cheers boys! Hope you enjoyed, Mike

The salesman at Lebaron is flat out wrong. Strictly talking floatfishing in a river environment with moving current a centrepin reel is a much more effective and efficient tool to use, it's not even close. It's most definitely not vastly overrated. Spinning reels have their place, as do baitcasters and fly rods. I fish with all of these for steelhead. However nothing will top a cenrepin reel when it comes to floatfishing in the hands of someone who knows how to use it properly. A baitcaster comes close, but still falls short in some situations.

Nice fish. Was that one from your trip to QC Jim?

The issue almost certainly is you're not applying drag correctly. There's several different ways of doing this, but the bottom line is it takes a delicate touch learning when to give and take and precisely when to clamp down and lock the spool when you're talking big strong fish. It's a big part of the learning curve and success only comes with experience. What you really need is a demonstration from someone who knows how to handle a reel properly.

Way to go Adam and Doug! You boys did very well up there.

Ironically you actually might get salmonella poisoning if you ate one of those things. Glad to see you boys had fun.

Some of you guys may know this, I'm sure many of you don't, but Fidel (Highdrifter on the board) makes and sells some really nice fluoro pike and musky leaders. What's different about his, instead of simply tying or crimping the hardware on he actually takes the time to tie a nail knot then coats the knot with something (not sure what?). I have another big trip coming up really soon and placed a rush order with him. He had them all made to my spec's and shipped to my door within 3 days and for an incredibly good price. Just wanted to say thanks my friend, you really came through for me! Here's hoping I can put them to good use.

Was just thinking about you, I havn't heard from you in a while. Obviously you're doing well, nice to see! Congrat's on the fish dude, pretty incredible!

Great story Randy, I'm sure your daughter will never forget that! A number of years ago while steelheading I hooked a nice chrome fish in the 10lb class. While fighting it a mallard flying low over the water got caught in my mainline which amazingly didn't break. Even more amazing the fish stayed hooked. As I battled both fish and bird an older guy came walking down to the river walking his black lab. The dog immediately bounded into the river to grab the duck which by this time was floundering on the surface about 20' from shore. Amazingly the fish still didn't break off. The dog dragged the bird to shore and in the process more or less beached my fish. I landed all three.

Wow Chris, that's cool for sure! The possibilities are endless.

Thanks once again guys! Not yet, we leave Thursday morning. How about you, did you manage to get away somewhere?

WTG, nice fish Trev!

Thank's again guys! Fishing is life Art. You're a funny guy. Looking forward to seeing you on the 20th!

Thanks guys, it's always gratifying to hear a positive response after you've put so much effort into a post. Glad you liked! I agree 100% Brad, and imo this trip was maybe the perfect family vacation. Thanks! I'm actually headed to Nakina next Thursday, new water on the Attawapiskat awaits!

You still praising Alfie Matt?

Thanks Adam!

Thanks guys, a lot of effort went into this one, really glad you enjoyed. I'm still struggling with some of the picture codes, hopefully I can get it sorted out. Oh I do work, but I'm very fortunate to have the time to do what I love and most importantly an understanding wife.

Last winter while researching possible destinations for a summer family fly in trip, my wife Joanne had only one request. “I don't care where we go, but it has to have indoor plumbing and actual beds...no bunk beds!” In general I'm more partial to the outpost camp experience, but it's hard to find a camp with those kinds of amenities. In addition my very good friend Joe expressed an interest in joining us with his own little clan; wife Nancy, and two young kids Cameron and Kathleen. Obviously with two families involved this would not be the normal kind of fly in trip, so I expanded my search to include lodges. Key factors for me in choosing a lodge was the quality of the accomodations, a large and varied lake with good fishing, and most importantly price. It simply couldn't be over the top expensive when bringing the whole family along. Even with those criteria there's an almost overwhelming number of camps to choose from in northern Ontario. Price quickly became the key element. With that in mind I soon zeroed in on Buck and Bingwood Lodge, located a 10 minute flight west of the jump off point in Hornepayne on sprawling Obakamiga lake. It's an impressive body of water, well over 7000 acres in size. In addition there's direct access to Granitehill lake which is almost as big via a short connecting river. Talking with the owners John and Shannon Moffat, a young couple from the Midland area, it was clear they truly love what they're doing. Since acquiring the lodge 4 years ago they've poured their heart and soul into it completing numerous renovations and improvements. The cabins are now finished to a never before seen standard. They've also acquired an impressive new fleet of boats. Large, wide Mirrocraft's with full vinyl floors, casting decks, live wells, rod lockers, graphs, and brand new 4 stroke Nissan outboards. The clincher for me was price. Trust me, you can do your own research, but considering what you're getting and the level of comfort involved, their prices are a bargain. They are in fact substantially cheaper than most remote outpost camps I've been to. The coup de grace however was yet to come. Talking to John he mentioned that they'd recently acquired four new outpost camps which had been vacant and unused for a number of years. “Would you be interested in flying into our outpost camp on White Owl lake for a night while you're up here?” “We can only accommodate 4 people, but we should be able to squeeze you in at the end of the week.” Would I? In some instances you actually can have your cake and eat it too! It was an easy decision for both myself and Joe to book with them. John and Shannon operate two separate housekeeping locations on Obakamiga, Bingwood which sits at the mouth of the Buck river where it enters the big lake, and Buck located on a wooded peninsula several kilometers away. We were penciled into the Buck location, 2 large cabins side by side for late August. White Owl was scheduled for the last night of our stay. The anticipation was killing all of us... To say that Hornepayne is off the beaten track is an understatement. It's a rail town carved out of the bush located precisely in the middle of nowhere. Highway 631 is a small secondary route that connects hwy 17 to the south and 11 to the north and Hornepayne lies smack dab in the middle. There's virtually no traffic on this sleepy little two lane road. Once you turn off the busy Trans Canada it's like entering another world. The trees seem denser and push closer to the road , the route winds it's way through the landscape around lakes and crossing numerous rivers. It's a scenic last leg to the jump off point and we enjoyed every minute of it. We were slated to fly into camp with Forde Lake Air Service located just outside town. Having never flown with them before I was curious as to how they'd stack up against some of the others I've used and I came away impressed. They were incredibly friendly, fast and efficient and in no time at all they had our gear weighed and packed into the plane. Our group of eight would fly in two separate Beaver aircraft, flights being just minutes apart. Joanne, myself and our kids Riley and Brendan were up first... It's a short flight, maybe 15 minutes, and once in the air I was amazed at the terrain, it seemed much more pristine. Very little logging activity mars the landscape and the terrain is dotted with sparkling lakes and rolling forested hills. I shot this short video of our landing as we arrived at Buck cabins. Upon landing we were greeted at the dock like old friends, and with military precision our gear was packed into a small trailer and hauled with an ATV to our cabin. Joe and his family arrived less than 10 minutes after us and we soon began the task of unpacking and settling in. The nice thing about the cabins at Buck is they're well spaced out and private each having their own dock. Even better the perfectly manicured grounds offered plenty of room for the kids to run and play. Joe and his family were directly behind us on the other side of the point, their cabin located in a shady grove of cedars. John and Shannon's youngest boy Joseph (everyone calls him Jofish) is the same age as my little guy Brendan and they instantly hit it off. The two of them along with Cameron, Joe's young son, raced around camp in a fever pitch playing like long lost friends. I could tell right away this was going to be a special family vacation... Visions of Lord Of The Flies sprang to mind as they scrambled about camp mostly barefoot, poking sticks at various different creatures trying to capture them. Sometimes they even succeeded... Fishing was the top priority and it didn't take long to establish a pattern. Surprisingly at least to me was the amount of finesse it took to catch the walleye. Normally my go to lure on a fly in is a 1/4oz jig tipped with a twister and worm, but those Obakamiga walleye weren't interested. Top producer was a simple live bait rig. Lindy sinker, long 3-4' leader and a floating jig head with either and a nose hooked crawler or minnow. John traps minnows on the lake and has a huge supply on hand for his guests to use. Utilizing the wind and drifting slowly across likely structure we put plenty of fat walleye in the boat. I'm also partial to pulling bottom bouncers and worm harnesses, especially when prospecting for concentrations of fish. This proved deadly at times as well and I was able to find pods of aggressive fish all over this vast watershed. Pretty much every rocky point and windblown shoreline held active fish. There were also several notable mid lake humps and saddles between islands that produced large numbers of fish. All textbook walleye spots. Even fishing there for a week I barely scratched the surface though, there's just so much water to cover it would take several seasons to learn it all. One item that's an absolute must in my opinion and one that helped put a lot of fish in the boat was a drift sock. Used either to slow the boat down while drifting, or to slow the boat's trolling speed, it proved invaluable! One of the truly nice things about the Buck location was that the point right out in front was a walleye hotspot. Almost every morning I'd head out by myself super early, coffee in hand for an hour or two of bliss. That spot never failed to produce fish. Here's a short video I shot of my daughter Riley landing a nice fish right in front of the camp in that same spot: Blessed with almost perfect weather, no bugs and a full moon, most evenings were spent around the campfire. Lots of laughter and a whole lot of roasted marshmallows. There was a bit of a twist though. With the kids in mind Joe had brought along a massive screen and some kind of new fangled gizmo that hooked up to his ipad to play movies. I think he had 30 movies downloaded for the trip and most every night he'd set it up for the kids. A northern Ontario version of a drive-in! I shot a short video of the proceedings. The kids LOVED it, and best of all it allowed the adults to relax in peace, enjoy a few drinks and socialize kid free for a couple of hours. I'm nominating Joe for a Nobel prize, the man is a genius. Most nights the camp dog Marshall, an affable old Saint Bernard, would trundle over to our campfire to sniff out treats and lounge around. A noble beast to be sure although at times he showed no modesty. I've titled this picture “Even when we're asleep we're still available” Twice during our stay we took the trip over to explore Granitehill lake navigating the placid Buck river to get there. It was a fun trip and the Granitehill walleye proved to be cooperative as well... Of course we ate a lot of walleye, on a trip like this that's one of the highlights. Sometimes wrapped in bacon on the bbq... Other times deep fried to crispy perfection... Both John and Shannon went out of their way throughout the week to make our trip extra special. Little touches like freshly baked bread delivered to our cabin one morning. Drinking water in a large jug delivered every day, and best of all the community shore lunch. Once during the week they host a massive get together at nearby Loon island for anyone who'd like to partake. It's not very often I get catered to like that so it was an absolute treat. Here's a short video of the gathering: I've yet to mention pike, but there are some brutes in Obakamiga. It stands to reason as it's such a huge structure filled lake with tons of feed... While most of our efforts were spent chasing walleye, the pike were, if anything, even more cooperative. With Joe and Nancy relaxing at camp one afternoon they graciously offered to watch the kids for us. Joanne and I seized the opportunity and raced to a large bay at the north end of the lake to cast for pike. There's a vast 10-12' flat up there loaded with vegetation, and as we quickly found out, pike. Problem was they were all small to middling. Fun as it was catching them I was more interested in targeting larger fish. At the entrance to the bay there was a well defined drop off, almost like a wall into 20' of water. I threw out a handful of markers and began to troll this edge in a crisscross fashion with oversized spinnerbaits. I struck first with a fat 38” fish that hammered a Northland Magnum Reed Runner. I was pretty happy with that, because honestly I wasn't really expecting big fish. It was a bit of a surprise. Not long after I landed my fish, just as I turned the boat and our baits sped up, Joanne says “Oops, I think I'm snagged!” We were trolling in 20' of water so not too likely. Almost immediately her line started ripping diagonally through the water away from the boat. “That”, I said, “Is definitely not a snag!” Excited as she was she played that fish like a pro and we soon had it in the cradle. 43” long and easily the largest fish she's ever caught. She was incredibly proud catching this fish, and I have to say I was pretty proud too. We fished for a bit longer just enjoying the afternoon. I knew we weren't likely to top that catch, but it was still fun nonetheless. With the success we had pike fishing in such a brief amount of time I'm curious to know just how good that fishery is. I suspect if you timed your trip accordingly and put your time in the results would be pretty good. For that reason alone I'd return to Buck and Bingwood. There was also a pronounced evening bite on this lake. I havn't mentioned it yet because frankly I never took advantage of it. Evenings were spent relaxing, barbequing, playing with the kids and stoking the camp fire. However a couple of other groups did fish the witching hour with huge success. I shot this short clip of one evenings haul in the fish cleaning shack, what a great bunch of guys! I had heard rumors that John Moffat is an absolute master at cleaning walleye. With a little bit of prodding we dragged him over to the cleaning shack for a demonstration. He was definitely impressive, no doubt about that! With our flight into White Owl scheduled for the next morning my time at Buck cabins was quickly coming to an end. For those that are interested I shot this short video tour of the Buck camp: As I mentioned John is constantly busy renovating and working on the camp. His current project is a brand new 4 bedroom cabin that he just started constructing. I'm sure it'll be spectacular when it's finished! While at Buck I was curious to check out the Bingwood location as well, just in case a future trip is ever on tap. It's honestly stunning, just an absolutely gorgeous camp! Since I could only bring 4 into White Owl a decision had to be made. After much discussion it was finally decided that I would bring Brendan and joining us would be my friend Joe and his lovely daughter Kathleen. Kathleen as you'll see is a natural and the camera just loves her... The wives, God love them, would stay behind with the other two kids and relax for a day. The whole lot of us gathered on the dock early the next morning, gear for white Owl piled high and ready. Right on cue the Beaver arrived and before loading Shannon snapped this picture of the entire crew: It was just a short hop over to White Owl and spirits were soaring as we approached the lake. As we'd been told the lake hadn't been fished in a number of years... With less than one full day to fish and explore the lake we quickly scrambled to ready our tackle and get the boats in the water. With most of the work done I took the time to shoot this short video tour of the camp. And a darned nice camp it is! Once on the water it didn't take us long to get into fish. Right away we managed a few little pike and walleye to break the ice and start things off properly. Then we hit the mother lode. In a neck down area right around the corner from camp the walleyes were stacked like cord wood, fat, sassy and hungry! It didn't really matter what we used either, we caught fish on everything we tried. </p> <p><strong>allowfullscreen> At one point Brendan and I pulled ourselves away from the fast action to explore for a bit and found a log choked creek entering the lake. Looking at the map it seemed as though it was only a short distance to another large lake of substance, this one unnamed. I live for this kind of stuff! With a little bit of difficulty we made it to the lake, and it was a beauty. Almost 2km in diameter and surprisingly deep. There were a couple of basins that hit 60' and overall it probably averaged 20-30. I knew it wasn't true, but it felt like we were the first persons to fish this lake. After poking around for a bit with the finder I stumbled onto a small hump and it was game on. Literally one fish after another... Wanting to get back to Joe and Kathleen we didn't devote nearly enough time to this amazing little body of water. It wasn't easy but we tore ourselves away from our hotspot and began our descent down the little creek back to White Owl. This time I shot a complete video of the journey: Back on White Owl, Joe and especially Kathleen were doing just fine! Before calling it a night we sped over to a large, very obvious back bay to cast for pike, it just looked too good! The bay was loaded with smaller fish, but it was one of those times when you almost expect a big fish at any time... Brendan was hooking fish left and right on a Williams Wabler and I turned on the camera for this one. It turned out to be a pretty decent fish, way bigger than I initially thought. I'm guessing 35-36” range anyway. I think if I'd have been more on the ball helping him he might have actually landed it, but alas she got unbuttoned. Great story though, the kid's now telling his mom that the fish he lost was waaay bigger than hers, 44” at LEAST! He's evolving into an angler right before my eyes. Back at camp we'd planned on fish for dinner and had kept a few. While I busied myself with the chore of cleaning them, Joe and the kids relaxed savoring our great day. It was fully dark by the time I fired up the fish cooker. Drink in hand I marveled at the scene in front of me and the end of a truly fantastic fly in trip. The next morning our plane came right on time to whisk us back to Hornepayne and civilization. The rest of our families were already at the dock waiting and we soon had the vehicles packed and were on the road home. This trip was a benchmark a number of reasons. First off it was an incredibly fun venture, with just as much socializing as fishing. The kids had a blast playing together and we all enjoyed exploring the lake. Fishing wise it was consistently good at Buck, and Joanne DID catch her largest fish ever. The camp itself exceeded all of our expectations, and the most telling evidence was that everyone wants to go back next year. In my daughters words “This was the best trip ever daddy, even better than Cuba!” The capper was White Owl. There's no doubt I'll be fishing this lake again! I can't even begin to imagine what a full week would be like at this location. About the only thing the White Owl camp needs to make it perfect is running water a large deck to lounge on and according to John Moffat both will be done soon. A big thanks to both John and Shannon Moffat, their two great kids, and all of the staff. You guys made the trip a memorable one and for that I thank you. http://www.fishbucklake.com/contact.php https://www.facebook.com/fishbucklake I'll definitely be back! Hope you enjoyed, Cheers, Mike

You make most fish look small when you hold them, not that one. Beast is right, wow!

Based on the type of watershed you're fishing, you need to target prominent back bays, but only the ones directly adjecent to deeper water or current. Sounds as though that's what you were doing with success earlier. The reason I believe this pattern isn't producing now is water temperature. For most of the day it's too warm in the back bays. There will generally be a relatively short window of opportunity in these back bays in both the very early morning and again at dusk. I actually prefer early morning as the water temps will usually drop overnight to their coolest point of the day. If it means getting up super early and travelling to a spot in the dark if it's a long run, then do it. Alternatively you may end up driving back to camp in the dark after the evening bite. During the day, especially sunny bluebird days the best I can suggest is you troll deeper water with diving crankbaits directly adjacent or as close as possible to these back bays or feeding shelves. Because you say the current in that part of the river is murky, it's almost certain that fishing deep won't be a consistently good pattern as pike are primarily sight feeders. I'm a big big fan of the moon phases and their effect on large pike. With the full moon on the 20th the week of Sept 14 should be rocking. I'll be chasing big gators in NW Ontario myself that week. Good luck in your quest.