solopaddler

Saugeye's Gone Wild just doesn't have the same ring y'know?

Thanks Brad! And no this one isn't being published, but it's possible some of the better photos may be. Cheers

Thanks so much guys, your comments are all very much appreciated! I'm almost at a loss for words with this reply. Thanks Cliff. You better believe it! Yep, took a few tries but he got it eventually. Thanks Will. I believe it's a true testament to the lake and the outfitter that we both reported similar experiences. Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks for the kind words guys, really glad you liked! Regarding my post, and this is mostly directed at TJ, there's a couple of minor spelling things I wanted to edit. The last time I tried to edit a big post last month I lost everything and had to start from scratch. I want to edit it, but I'm terrified to try LOL! Any idea if that glitch has been fixed? Buddy I can only wish. He's only 6, 10 years is a long time...

Recently I was looking to bring my 6 year old son Brendan on a trip, just the two of us. While the kid's already a veteran of these types of trips, never before have we gone alone. I thought it was long overdue as the lad has already fostered a fierce passion for the sport and from experience it's a perfect way to bond. So the question was where to go? Within the last year I've flown twice with Hearst Air. Once to the Sutton river late last August, truly the experience of a lifetime, and again in May when my group flew into their new outpost camp on the Attawapiskat river. Both trips were flawless with the overriding theme being the friendliness and professionalism of Hearst Air Service. What makes Hearst even more of an attractive option, the drive from southern Ontario straight up highway 11 is relatively painless and short. With only 4 nights available for this trip Hearst is at my driving limit. Any further and a shorter trip just isn't worth the long haul. So what constitutes the perfect destination when bringing along a 6 year old boy? In an ideal world a smaller lake that's easy to figure out that teems with fish. Non stop action is what it's all about. Second, the camp has got to be clean and neat and the equipment top notch. Third, and this is many times a stretch even on a fly in, my son LOVES fishing by himself off the dock. Ideally we'd fly to a location where he could do that with success. Talking with Melanie at Hearst Air she suggested their Sunshine lake outpost would fit all the criteria. It's their smallest outpost lake, but as she said is full of fish with the bonus being a surprising number of larger pike. Hearst Air has gained the reputation of being a first class outfitter over the years and for good reason. They never take shortcuts. It was an easy decision for me to book Sunshine for our trip, and the planning and anticipation began! Arriving at the airbase we had a slight weather related delay, but that was short lived. With the word from Melanie that things were a go we quickly unloaded our gear. In no time at all it was weighed and packed in the plane with military precision, these guys are efficient and good! Because it was just the two of us I'd packed a little differently than I normally do, wanting the trip to be extra special for the kid. Stuff I would normally never bring like cases of bottled water and his favorite pop. I know for a fact I was more than a little overweight, but no one blinked an eye, it all went on the plane with no extra charge. One of many reasons why I'm so high on this particular outfitter. My boy was practically vibrating with excitement when the pilot snapped this pic on the plane's pontoon prior to boarding. It's about a 35-40 min flight into Sunshine from the airbase and I shot this cool video of our landing as we approached. As you'll see near the end of the video, regardless of excitement, the drone of a float plane has a soothing quality when it comes to young kids. The second we tied off at the dock Bren scrambled out of the plane asking if he could check out the cabin. The pilot and I quickly unloaded and I took stock of the scene. It really was a pretty spot set back in a grove of cedars with neatly trimmed grass out in front. Best of all the dock looked incredible. A narrow spit of sand led out into the lake with a boardwalk on top. That terminated at a big granite rock with a brand new floating dock tied off in front. It was an obvious piece of structure and one that I'd have fished regardless. The pilot spent a few minutes going over the ins and outs of the camp and was soon gone, leaving us to our own devices (and a whole lot of fish!) Not surprisingly Brendan begged me to rig up a rod for him and while I unpacked he ran down to the dock. It didn't take long.... The dock would quickly become his favorite spot. Beyond the ease of catching fish I think he liked it because he was a little more independent than in the boat with dad. That said it didn't take me long to ready the boat and we began the enslaught. Enslaught truly is the only way to describe the fishing we had. It was non stop action, catching walleye after walleye. None were huge but that didn't matter, Bren was having the time of his life! Yes there were some key spots that produced crazy numbers, but the fact of the matter is we caught fish all over this small lake. Didn't really matter what we used either, the fish weren't fussy. I even caught one or two myself. As mentioned the camp itself was a gem. Once on the water during a rare clear break I snapped a quick pic to show you guys the setting. It was a long but memorable first day. Around 8pm I poured a drink and fired up the barbeque, while Brendan, God bless him, refused to give up. I watched from the deck while the kid continued to fish away happily. Every few minutes he'd come running up excitedly with another fish that he couldn't unhook. Does it get any better than that? It would quickly get redundant if I posted pictures of every single fish we caught over the course of the next few days, so here's the highlights. The easiest and most productive way to catch Sunshine lake walleye is with a simple jig, a 3 or 4 inch twister tail and a chunk of worm. Either sitting on them and vertically jigging, drifting with the wind or slowly trolling, it all worked. When we tired of jigging we'd throw on a crankbait and troll with equal success. There's a large population of perch in this lake and perch colored cranks, especially a #7 Shad Rap was lethal. As mentioned there's lots of pike in Sunshine lake. The south and west shorelines were shallower and reedy in tight, quickly dropping into 10-12' of water just offshore. These areas were rife with smaller pike. Casting weedless spoons as well as smaller sized spinnerbaits and bucktails the action was steady. Here's a few more vids of the action. Crankbaits as noted, were deadly and put a ton of fish in the boat! We used Berkley Gulp minnows at times with great results, although I don't really know whether that's actually relevant or not. I'm pretty sure we could've used shoelaces or beer caps with equal success. In this clip Brendan struggles a bit with the unhooking part, but gets the job done in his own way. As usual anytime we were back at camp Brendan fished relentlessly from the dock. I could have taken a thousand pic's and video clips of his antics, but here's just one. We enjoyed a couple of meals of walleye and for the first time I had him fillet his own fish (with some help). He breaded the fish himslf then helped dad get the fire lit. I honestly think he had more fun doing that than anything else! Nothing beats freshly caught walleye over an open fire. Of all the things he's been bragging about to his mom and sister, catching, cleaning and cooking his own fish was the biggest highlight. Of course it wasn't all about the fishing. Blessed with mostly sunny weather we spent a fair bit of time at the lakes only beach cooling off. Best part was we had a constant breeze which really kept the bugs down. It was as close to paradise on earth as I believe it's possible to get. Another highlight was Brendan's very first time on the tiller by himself with no help from dad. We were trolling at the time and probably caught a dozen fish in the short time he was at the helm. As he said "Daddy, I'm a better fisherman than you I think!" He also loved fishing from shore whenever the opportunity presented itself. As mentioned I think he felt a little more independent when he wasn't in the boat with dad. Pretty much everywhere we tried from shore we caught fish, although none of the spots produced as well as the dock. Twice we had campfires, roasting marshmallows and discussing important things like why fish like to eat leeches. "Even if I was a fish I wouldn't eat them daddy, they're gross!" Whether there's a bear watching him when he goes to the outhouse. He was convinced there was and subsequently refused to go to the bathroom for two straight days. And where does the sun go at night?. That was a big one that he couldn't wrap his head around. HAHA! One morning I awoke early at 6:45 and made coffee. It was the only really peaceful sunrise we had while at Sunshine as most of the time the winds were blowing like crazy. As I sauntered out onto the porch coffee in hand, Brendan burst past me racing down to the dock to begin fishing again. While he didn't catch a fish on cue, it's still a beautiful scene nonetheless. As I've said there's a healthy population of pike in Sunshine lake as well as some larger specimens to boot. We put in our time trying hard for a bigger pike and twice I had high 30's possibly even 40" class fish on. Just before I shot this video clip of Brendan a very large pike came unbuttoned right at boatside, so the big girls are indeed lurking in the weedy fringes. An interesting phenomenon was the abundance of loons. I've seen large concentrations of them before, but usually it's in September as they begin to gather enmasse before migrating south. A couple of times I counted over 20 of them clustered together, and they were really vocal! On our last evening the winds subsided and we were treated to a picture perfect sunset providing a glorious capper to our trip. All in all it was a trip for the ages, and one that I know Brendan will remember for a long time. The amazing fishing aside there were a number of important firsts on this trip and my son did me proud! Speaking of fishing I'm not normally into actual numbers, but in this case I'll make an exception for Brendan. He took it upon himself to try and keep count using paper and pencil, and according to him we landed more than a years worth of fish in 31/2 days of fishing. 368 to be exact. Sunshine more than lived up to its billing! The camp itself was absolutely spotless, clean and fresh. I shot this short video tour and not unexpectedly my kid burst inside halfway through with a jigless rod. A pike had bitten him off while I was filming. Perfect. Finally a big thanks to Melanie Veilleux of Hearst Air. She's been an absolute pleasure to deal with over the last few trips! On a related note if any of you guys do decide to book with Hearst, please remember that Melanie is partial to dark chocolate... I've done a great many fly in trips over the years, and flown with countless outfitters. Some are good, some are bad, some are great, and some are just ugly. Hearst Air falls into the category of great, I honestly can't say enough good things about them! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! Cheers, Mike

Best news I've heard in a while!

These guys rebuilt a skeg for me based on Dave's recommendation and they did great work, very reasonable too.

Really sorry to hear that Chris. I can relate, I threw my back out two weeks before the Attawapiskat trip, but it healed in time. Did you ever end up working something out with Martin? It's a heavy wind gust Albert, not a tornado LOL! A bit touchy don't you think?

I wouldn't be so quick to rule out Armstrong. You might be surprised how inexpensive a return flight to Thunder Bay is. Once you factor in gas savings by not driving, plus the shortness and convenience of it, it starts to sound pretty good. Especially if an outfitter like MLO is willing to shuttle you back and forth. In these tough times most outfitters, at least the good ones, will go the extra mile to ensure a booking. It never hurts to ask!

A truly heart warming story. All the best to you and yours.

I'm familiar with all of the outfitters on that list. Just my opinion obviously, but an informed one nonetheless.

Just a few random thoughts. It's a good idea, but you should get more specific. Have a category for each specific destination which includes price for each trip plus estimated travel costs and travel time. Right now it's maybe too ambiguous. Second, I hadn't realized you were considering Quetico. I'm intimately familiar with that park and can help you out a lot if that's a serious option. Third you had a few different outfitters on your list for outpost trips. Hands down the best is Mattice Lake Outfitters. Wilderness Air is good too but much more involved getting to the jump off point. True North for your information is currently not in business. So unless things change if you want to fish Kesagami you have to do it through the lodge on Kesagami lake. As much as I love some of the other outfitters on your list the experience they offer isn't even close to what MLO does. If you fly to Thunder Bay and rent a car for the week the trip to Armstrong isn't really all that daunting. Bear in mind many of these outfitters will offer to shuttle their guests from Thunder Bay to the jump off point and back. It's definitely worth inquiring about. So you can do all that, make a new spreadsheet and go over the possible options with your group. OR just ask me LOL!

I've fished pike many times over the years in clear skinny water and they can be frustrating. My go-to technique, stumbled upon by accident, is a 3 or 4" black Berkley Power Leech on a light jighead. Light line and no leader either. Most times these fish are hooked in the corner of the mouth. It just seems like they can't refuse it, the angling equivalent of an after dinner mint.

That makes a lot more sense.

Nice bunch of fish man! I have to ask though, is your sons name really Sinker? LOL!

Dougie you're on fire this summer! Glad to see you're getting out on the water and having fun.

I've never used a Cabelas rod before, but earlier this year I picked up two of their Fish Eagle 50 rods on sale for hacking around and for my kids to use. DAMN fine rods for the money!! I got the two piece versions since I do so many fly in trips and these rods have already caught a ton of fish. Love them to death, would buy another in a heartbeat.

Wow tough break Chris! Don't you guys leave for Nakina soon?

I've been to Kag with Leuenberger's and enjoyed it immensely. Big lake, tons of structure, and good fishing. I went with my wife and we went with the modified American plan. We took care of breakfast and lunch and had dinner in the lodge. It was really nice.

Sweet, you made out like a bandit!

What a great trip Frank! Windermere does look like a gem.

Yeah but I drive right by your house to get to work. Anyhow I know what you mean. My petunias were snapped off clean like toothpicks, in the opposite direction of lean.

Outstanding report! As far as the tan colored specks go I'll hazzard a guess the lake was very clear without any tannin stain. I've seen trout like that before on a number of small spring fed lakes.

Meh, I live in Mount Hope and some of my petunias were snapped off. Took the dog for a walk at Binbrook lake yesterday morning. A few branches here and there but nothing major. The deer flies were brutal though, worst I've ever seen.