solopaddler

Outstanding Will, and a very similar experience to what we had. As you said I can't say enough about Hearst Air. Thanks for the report, mine is coming soon LOL!

Awesome! Aaron mentioned your fish to me a couple weeks back and I was keeping my fingers crossed for you. Congrat's man, you must be ecstatic!

Gordy I know at least one OFC member fished it last year, I suggested this as an option and I'm positive they went there. For the life of me I can't remember who it was (apologies to the member in question). Hopefully he'll chime in. PM sent btw.

Great stuff Adam, thanks!

No doubt you will Rob.

I'm not going to deny it, the last couple of days have been brutal. On the plus side I've lost 10lb's just sitting in my office doing nothing LOL!

Nick if walleye are your number one choice then I'd look at booking something in the north channel for sure.

3 weeks off? Good for you Roy, enjoy yourself!

Exactly! Here's some Yellowknife eye candy.

Well done Mike, it's always good to diversify.

That was great, mesmerizing in fact.

Wow Doug, that's some good fishing!

One of my favorite pieces of water Chris, I love it down there! The spot where you were catching the cats we've always called it (not surprisingly) the catfish hole. There's tons of them in there. Gonna have to make it a point to get back there....

What a great read Drew, thanks! Glad to see you guys had a successful trip, and yes, that pic of Leah and the big pike is a keeper!

No doubt. He's grown quite a bit since the last time you saw him. Zoey's a great dog! She whined the entire drive up in the truck though, I was losing my mind LOL! Thankfully she didn't make a peep on the drive home. I figure she was clued in to what was going on.

What a beautiful stretch of water Brian! Nice report!

Thanks guys it was a fun trip for sure! Yep, water is still high up at our place too, that beach is actually much larger normally. Brendan is fanatical for sure. I'm bringing him on a fly in leaving tomorrow. First time ever just him and me and he's bouncing off the walls right now LOL! The shed is solid thanks to you bud. We need to try and sneak away again for another short trip when you have the time!

We have a water access camp in N/W Quebec. A much neglected place these last couple of years as the bulk of our vacation time has been spent elsewhere. It's a bit of a haul from southern Ontario, 7 hours on a good day, so it's never easy to make it up there even at the best of times. Still, my dad who's now mostly retired has been dragging my mother up there regularly and they love it, so it's been getting a lot of use. Best part is the old man likes to putter and he's constantly working on stuff up there (doing my chores LOL!). That said it was definitely time to bring the family back up, including the dog this time. She was a sight for sore eyes let me tell you! After fishing this lake for 12 years now I've learned a few seasonal patterns and spots. Traditionally the first couple weeks of July have always proven to be excellent, so hopes were high as we set out on our first full day. Later in the summer, usually August on my lake, bottom bouncers and worm harnesses really shine. The fishes metabolism is at its peak then and they'll smash a fast moving harness. It's an incredibly productive and efficient way of covering water. This early in the summer the fish require just a bit more finesse. Crawling slowly along mid lake structure with the electric pulling a simple live bait rig with a long lead and a single nose hooked worm is LETHAL. I call it "force feeding" the fish HAHA! My 6 year old son Brendan was practically foaming at the mouth to get out on the lake. My 9 year old girl Riley not "quite" as much although she still loves it. For anyone else with a young daughter can you please explain to me the attraction of "One Direction"? LOL! Anyhow the young lad put on quite a show with some help from dad. This was his largest walleye and he was actually scared to hold it, needing help from mom. In fact he had his bb gun in the boat and he wanted me to shoot the fish when he got it close. Swamp People is his favorite show and he was yelling at me "shoot it!, shoot it!" when he reeled it up to the boat LOL! What would a trip to the cottage be without a big batch of crispy beer battered fish? Mmmmm.........good! We've got a nice beach on the lake about 6km's away. With the weather so hot and sunny we spent a ton of time up there, loading the boat with drinks, snacks, chairs and sunscreen. Everyone including the dog loved it, and the best part was the breeze kept most of the bugs away. It was glorious. We burned a lot of gas tubing as well. I bought a larger tube this year and it's great. This one you actually feel safe on, unlike our previous tube which induced me to pray before climbing aboard. The dog would whine and cry anytime one of us climbed onto the tube. I figured she felt left out and attempted to coax her on with me, but she would have none of it. I did manage to get her on it once.....I figured we'd go nice and slow, but she immediately jumped off and swam half a km straight back to the cottage. That's more or less the gist of the entire trip, so not a super extensive report. All in all it was great time spent with the family and we're definitely hoping to get up for a more extended trip sometime next month! Cheers, Mike

Great report Chris, love the back lakes!

Sweet bunch of fish, well done!

Glad to see your trip went well dude. You're making me regret not making it up there!

I'm a huge fan of the lower French downstream from hwy 69. Tons of water to explore and fish and beautiful scenery. In that area I'd probably recommend Attwood Island Lodge. Great place in a prime location and about $60 a night per person. http://atwoodisland.com/index.html You launch at Hartley Bay and it's roughly a 20-30 min run downstream to the lodge. You pass through Ox bay (junction of the Pickeral and French) enroute then head down the western channel of the French to the lodge. You're very close to the Bad river delta at that point, just a fantastic area to fish. Probably not a good idea for a first timer to attempt to navigate down there as there's rapids involved, but you might want to consider having a guide bring you down for the day. Well worth it. Cheers

Very cool report, thanks for taking the time! For your first time jigging lakers you guys did great.

Lots of fun Chris, love it!!

Thanks for the correction.