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As a very young child and one already obsessed with fishing I can vividly recall devouring the 1972 edition of the Garcia Fishing Annual. In it was an article documenting the fabulous fishing for trophy northern pike in Whitewater Lake north of Armstrong Station in Ontario. Described as “the best pike fishery on earth”, it planted a seed in my young head that was finally realized in the summer of 1995. As a young man I spent most of my summers paddling solo in Ontario’s far north and that year saw me travel to Wabakimi Park as part of two month expedition encompassing large portions of the Ogoki and Albany river systems. A highlight of that trip was the time spent exploring Whitewater Lake. It’s a vast body of water over 26,000 acres in size and almost 25 miles long. The Ogoki River flows in at the west end, and flows out in the north east corner. In between are hundreds of islands, neck downs with current, steep rocky bluffs, some of the nicest sand beaches I’ve ever seen in the north and just stupid numbers of fish. It was one of the best summers of my life and looking back it changed me profoundly. The freedom to do precisely as I wished, the confidence required to travel alone and the raw beauty of the landscape all had an effect. A lot of water has passed under my boat since that golden summer. I’ve travelled to countless wilderness locales and experienced a lot of amazing fisheries, yet Whitewater still beckoned. It’s a lake that gets under your skin and I knew that one day I’d return again. This past September that dream came to fruition, although in much more lavish fashion than by pack and paddle. Effortless Travel And Dazzling Digs Armstrong Station is a long haul from southern Ontario. In my younger days that never deterred me, I’d just tack on an extra day or three for travel. Nowadays time always seems to be at a premium and a long drive simply isn’t possible. With that in mind my group of four which included good friends Rick Filman, Chris Brock and Eddie Misiak chose a more civilized option flying to Thunder Bay and renting a minivan. The flight itself was surprisingly cheap and even factoring in the vehicle rental it was great value. Especially so once you consider the cost of gas and being able to avoid the mind numbing drive. Our venue for this adventure was Mattice Lake Outfitter’s mini lodge located in the eastern basin of sprawling Whitewater Lake. Mattice Lake has a well earned reputation as being one of the best fly in outfitters in the business, and shockingly I’d never fished with them before. As always I do an enormous amount of research before booking anything and was unable to find a single negative review of the operation. On the contrary speaking directly with several past guests the consensus was the entire operation was first class. This made our decision to book with them pretty easy, and as you’ll see the reality lived up to the expectations. It’s a leisurely 21/2 hour drive from the Thunder Bay airport to the float plane base and once we’d purchased our groceries for the week we were off, arriving at Mattice Lake in early evening. I was told to check the office when we arrived and if no one was there they’d leave a note. Mattice Lake has a series of guest cabins at the airbase for people flying in the next day, an awesome bonus in my books. The guest cabin was incredible and in keeping with the theme Don had left us a couple of perks. Waiting for us were two large coolers for our perishables as well as 4 freshly laundered sleeping bags, no extra charge. Flying into Thunder Bay with a somewhat restrictive weight and baggage limit this was a big help and another example of the attention to detail these guys are known for. Our flight was scheduled for 7:30 the next morning and after a quick meet and greet in the office followed by some much needed coffee we had the van backed down to the dock and quickly transferred our gear into the waiting Otter. Wabakimi Park is a special place and at least in my opinion Whitewater Lake is the crown jewel. The terrain is wildly beautiful and our flight into camp that morning afforded us a birds eye view. The boys were hopping with excitement as we landed and taxied up to the dock. As mentioned earlier Whitewater is known for its spectacular beaches and Mattice Lake’s camp is located on perhaps the best of the bunch. We were there in mid September so really weren’t able to take advantage of it, but it would make an incredible venue for a summer trip with the family. Something I plan on doing in the future. The camp isn’t a big one, with only four guest cabins each one spread out adequately along the beach to ensure privacy. In addition there’s a full time caretaker on site with his own quarters. John is a local native. He’s soft spoken, intimately familiar with the lake and an all around nice guy. His help and input made our trip that much more successful. Our cabin was located off to the side on a rocky point adjacent to the beach. Spotlessly clean with 24 hour electricity, indoor bathroom with toilet and shower and a deck overlooking the lake it was easily the nicest cabin I’ve ever experienced on a fly in trip, and that’s saying a lot! A Sensational Start Whitewater Lake is renowned for its trophy pike fishery and mid September is prime time in Ontario’s far north. No you won’t catch the crazy numbers possible early in the season, but the fish are thick, fat and putting on the feedbag in anticipation of the cold months ahead. Typically in mid September I have my best luck casting reaction type baits like spinnerbaits and bucktails on structure directly adjacent to deeper water and current. When the water cools in the early fall the big girls will make constant forays onto these feeding shelves then slip back into the deeper water to rest and digest their meal. Happily Whitewater Lake has an abundance of structure exactly like that. Conferring with the boys the decision was made to make the long run to the Ogoki River outlet, there we’d find the deep water and current we were looking for. While we caught an endless amount of small to mid sized pike the giants were eluding us and there was almost no green weed as the water was surprisingly cold. Most was already browning and rotting in the shallows and I was beginning to suspect turnover had already occurred. This would explain the dearth of larger fish in the shallows. Typically under post turnover conditions the fish will hang out in deeper water, especially with a lack of green weed. Still, we persisted and in mid afternoon on our very first day Chris Brock landed an absolute brute of a pike casting a 3/4oz gold Johnson Silver Minnow. An unbelievable fish that renewed our confidence and frankly couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy! I shot this short video of the event after Chris called me over on the two-way radio, his only words being “I got a big one”. Indeed. Chaotic Weather And Flukey Pike Sometimes I need to be bonked on the head with a two by four to drive a point home. Spurred on by Chris’s huge fish we continued to ignore the obvious concentrating most of our efforts in the largely fishless shallows. It didn’t help our cause that we experienced the most wildly fluctuating weather I’ve ever encountered on a fly in trip. Each and every day saw wind blowing from a different direction, sometimes with force. Whipped into a cauldron of ice whitecaps, as John loved to say, “there’s a reason they call this lake Whitewater!” Stability is the key when it comes to establishing a pattern in the fall and at least initially we were confounded. On the eve of our second day Rick and I were headed back to camp when we spied the boys standing on a sand bar with their backs to the wind. While we had caught fish almost to the point of physical exhaustion we still hadn’t captured any giants. Motoring over they informed us that they’d caught a number of nice fish, all within sight of the camp. Go figure. Simply looking for a relaxing evening of fishing they’d stumbled onto something special. The sand bar extended like a spine all the way from the camp across a huge expanse of open water to the south end of Best Island. With gale force winds whipping across the bar almost like current, there was a huge calm back eddy behind the point they were standing on that was filled with fish. We hopped out on the point joining the boys not really expecting much and almost instantly Rick hooked into a goliath pike casting a jig on light spinning tackle. I managed to shoot this short video of the action… Spirits were high that night as we enjoyed a fantastic meal and with drinks in hand a raging bonfire after dinner. The bonfire was Chris’s nightly ritual the entire week and regardless of how cold and blustery it was he persevered. The man is a champ. Cracking The Code To this point the weather had been cool and blustery, but not what I’d call cold. That was about to change. The next morning we awoke early and were shocked to see a blanket of white covering everything. Mid September is far too early for snow even in Wabakimi! This was just the bonk on head required for a complete change in tactics. The water was already cold before the snow and this would drop the temperature even more. Talking about the situation over coffee we all agreed that the big fish would head for deep water. In my experience deep structure, usually rock directly adjacent to the deepest basins in the lake will sometimes hold fish under these conditions. I abhor trolling, but in this instance it’s the only way to approach things. You cover far more ground and give the mostly inactive fish more time to inspect your offering. Slightly larger baits are also key as the bigger fish usually won’t waste their time chasing down a small meal. It’s a tactic that’s produced both large pike and musky for me in the past once a cold front has hit in late fall. Before embarking I clipped a sucker patterned Depth Raider onto my heavy baitcaster. That bait typically runs at around 20’ for me on a long line with 30lb braid and has caught a lot of fish over the years. I didn’t take it off for the rest of the trip. I had a particular spot in mind to start that morning, a rock pile in front of a small bay. On the lake side it dropped quickly into 20 feet then even faster into a deep 50’ basin. The day before I’d marked enormous clouds of baitfish in this area and made a note. It was perfect structure, exactly what I was looking for. Sliding up to the spot we both fired out our baits and began a slow zig zag troll. I think we’d covered maybe 100’ when the rod was almost yanked out of my hand. You gotta love it when a plan comes together! As you’ll see in this video we had a near disaster with the cradle, but ultimately persevered. The balance of the week saw us catch many more big fish employing the exact same tactics. The lake is vast and loaded with deep water and structure. We’d simply cruise around until we found what we were looking for then begin our hunt anew. In between the larger pike we caught untold numbers of small to mid sized fish and at some point I actually began to appreciate the act of trolling. Troll, catch, rinse and repeat, it was some of the most enjoyable fishing I’ve ever experienced on a fly in. I managed to capture a couple of more videos of the action. The second fish was an absolute pig of a fish, have a look! Mucho Walleye And A Downstream Tour With our focus squarely on the pursuit of trophy pike the incredible walleye fishing was somewhat overlooked. Still, among the four of us we caught hundreds during our week long stay and I can safely say the lake is a walleye factory! Both the Ogoki River inlet and the outlet are walleye hotspots, not surprising considering the amount of current in both spots. However the middle portion of the lake was the most interesting at least to me. There’s a major neck down here separating the large western and eastern basins. With countless small islands congested into this confined area there’s a myriad of narrow braided channels all with current and all teeming with walleye. A diehard walleye angler could spend an entire week fishing that water and still not cover it thoroughly. Normally I like to jig for walleye, especially when I’m targeting unsophisticated fish on a fly in trip. On a number of occasions in certain key spots we did just that, catching fish as fast as we could lower our jigs to the bottom. Much like the pike though, the bulk of our fish were caught trolling. Either incidentally on oversized pike baits, or scaling things down and catching them on more typical walleye sized lures. To be honest everything works up there, but we crushed fish using a variety of #7 deep diving Shad Raps as well as a Live Target smelt that ran at about 17’. One of the very best spots was the same sandbar close to camp where Rick caught his big pike. It runs like a spine directly across a vast area of open water connecting the mainland where the camp sits to a large island directly north. The top of the bar is clearly visible along its entire length ranging anywhere from 2 to 4 feet deep and on one side quickly drops into 12 feet. Trolling shallow running stickbaits along the edge of this bar produced fish after fish for us. It honestly became boring and the nice part was it was right in front of camp! Most evenings we’d head out after dinner for a relaxing fish and had a riot. The bar always held fish but they really moved onto it en masse as the sun began to set. We generally fished within sight of each other and numerous times we all had fish on at the same time. Truly a killer spot! Here’s a short video highlighting some of the great walleye action we experienced on our trip including the amazing sandbar: If you navigate the Ogoki river’s outlet downstream from Whitewater you come to a point where you can’t go any further as the rapids simply become too rough. Back in 1995 when I paddled this system I had an amazing experience below these rapids. Portaging my canoe around them the river widens again and long lines of reeds border a deeper channel dug out by the current. Downstream even further another heavy set of rapids blocks access from Whiteclay Lake the next big lake in the system. Unless a serious amount of effort is taken this effectively cuts off access on both ends making this short section of river virtually untouched. While paddling this water all those years ago I caught 5 pike over 40 inches and it was easily one of the highlights of my trip. Chris and Eddie both enjoy a bit of adventure and after telling them this tale they both decided they’d check it out. The trail around the rapids is over a kilometre long and full of blowdowns. Beyond that they had no clue whether there was a boat on the other end. I told them it was pretty unlikely but they were undeterred. Troopers that they are, early one day they made the long trek to the end of the river’s outlet and found the trail. Packing a couple of rods, a bit of tackle and some food they embarked on their quest. Surprisingly they found scads of blueberries along the way, untouched by frost or animals. It’s been said that fortune favours the bold and astonishingly at the end of the trail they found boats! Unfortunately the aluminum boat was unusable, however the canoe was intact and shockingly there were even a couple of paddles! I don’t have a lot of photos from their odyssey, however fishing from shore initially they caught gross numbers of walleye below the rapids. According to the boys they took the aluminum canoe downstream to sample the water where I had the bonanza all those years ago. While they didn’t catch 5 pike over 40 inches Chris tied into a behemoth that towed the canoe around in circles before finally breaking his line boat side. Gotta tip my hat to both of those guys, they took the risk and with a bit of effort experienced something very special. In Chris’s words “That day made the whole trip for me!” Continued....

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.....

For most, Ontario’s Asheweig River is an enigma. Little known and fished even less it’s truly one of the provinces hidden gems. A massive tributary of the legendary Winisk the Asheweig flows in a northeasterly direction through countless kilometres of unbroken forest before finally spilling into the big river. The landscape is dominated by large glacially carved lakes, an area that’s almost more water than land. The upper half of the river being a cartographers nightmare with chaotic jumbles of violent current separated by a myriad of vast windswept bodies of water. It’s a cold water river and its rushing tannin stained waters teem with overgrown wild brook trout. In the slacker water areas walleye and pike live to a ripe old age without ever seeing a lure. From an anglers perspective it’s paradise. In stark contrast to other brook trout rivers like the Sutton, the Asheweig flows through classic shield country. It’s a wild river with a steep gradient and churning waters and its river bred trout have adapted perfectly. Thick and muscular with dark backs and flaming orange bellies they are the symbol of this rugged landscape. It’s primitive country, untouched by man, untamed and beautiful. The remote native community of Kasabonika Lake lies in the heart of this colossal watershed on a widening of the Asheweig. Back in 2002 the Oji-Cree natives built a sport fishing camp on a small widening of the river called Straight Lake, located roughly 70 kilometres east of the village. They put a handful of groups through the camp then it fell to the wayside and hadn’t been used since 2006 - until this year. With thoughts of reopening the camp to the public in 2015 Bill Marzana and myself were invited up to explore the river and sample its bounty. We recently spent a week in what I consider to be brook trout paradise, here’s what happened… Day One Under normal circumstances anglers visiting the Asheweig will enjoy a much more seamless journey. In the case of Bill and myself it was more fly by the seat of your pants and hope for the best. We flew to Thunder Bay the day before our scheduled departure with our first priority upon arrival being shopping for food and provisions. We were slated to fly into Kasabonika on a regularly scheduled flight with Wasaya Airlines the next morning. I was previously told to simply bring our stuff to the cargo hangar where it would be tagged and expedited, no problem. Life has a way of throwing curves though and the young man at the cargo terminal had no idea who we were and wasn’t expecting us at all. After a series of phone calls and several hours of waiting we finally received the go ahead to have our cargo shipped. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things and we hustled back to the Valhalla Inn to relax over beers and dinner. Saturday morning dawned clear and bright and with no weather delays the flight to Kas was on time. There weren’t a lot of other passengers heading up there and in no time at all the cargo was loaded and we were boarding the plane. It wasn’t a direct flight as we had to fly to Sioux Lookout first, but with only a 15 minute stop we were back in the air in no time enroute to Kas. After a 1 hour flight over some of this provinces most awe inspiring terrain we landed on a dusty airstrip at the community of Kasabonika Lake. We were greeted by Mitch Diabo who’s acting as general manager of the community development corporation in Kasabonika and Leon Beardy who would be guiding us for the week. It was a warm welcome and any doubts I may have had about the entire enterprise were immediately erased. The plan we’d discussed in advance was to have Leon shuttle us by boat across the vast expanse of Shibogama Lake to the Asheweig River’s outlet and ultimately the outpost camp at Straight Lake. This intrigued me as I’m always up for an adventure especially when giant pike lurking in back bays is part of the equation. Unexpectedly we were told we’d be flown into camp with a Beaver floatplane. The band had chartered a plane from Wilderness Air in Armstrong the previous week and since they had it they decided we’d utilize it. Quickly rolling with the punches the advantage was clear - we’d be at the outpost camp and fishing much sooner than we’d thought. Mitch loaded all of our gear into a pick up truck and shuttled us over to the plane dock where we unloaded. Bill and I would go first with our gear and food, and Leon would come on the next flight joining us later with gas for the boat and other supplies. It was super windy as we taxied for our takeoff - probably 40km winds at least. Noting the giant rollers and whitecaps on the lake gave us another reason to be glad we were flying. I’m pretty sure it would have been a bone jarring ride! The current site of the community is a gigantic island on Kasabonika Lake. Once we were airborne the pilot pointed out the original site, a forlorn looking point with a handful of derelict buildings. There’s lots of history here… I shot this short video of the flight which I believe captures the majesty of the countryside. As I’ve said the camp hasn’t been used in years however we weren’t the first arrivals. There was a group of youths from town waiting at camp when we arrived. They’d spent the previous week there on a bit of a retreat with Leon and several other guides fishing and having fun. That was the primary reason the float plane was in town much to our good fortune. We quickly unloaded, made our acquaintance with the departing youths and surveyed the scene. There are 4 cabins on site. Three of them are smaller and predate the larger guest cabin. They’re primary use is for the native guides who will be on site to assist visiting anglers. As you will see later in the report it’s a potentially dangerous river to navigate and having a guide, especially one who’s grown up on these waters, is essential! Because the camp hadn’t been used in years there were some minor deficiencies (water system not hooked up, window screens torn, a lack of pots and pans…) however for our needs it was perfect. There’s no doubt in my mind that things will be rectified before any potential guests fly in next year. After unpacking and settling in we had some time before Leon showed up and Bill couldn’t take it any longer. Quickly donning his waders he grabbed a spinning rod, tied on a spoon and waded out in the current right in front of camp. Almost instantly I heard a wild whoop as he connected with a large trout that had him stumbling over the slick boulders in pursuit. What a great start! After snapping the pic’s I put my own waders on and eased into the river above Bill. It didn’t me long either, and I shot this short video of some of the action. We each caught several more, then packed it in when Leon flew in to help him unload. The afternoon was getting late, but we still wanted to fish and asked Leon “What about pike?” We mutually agreed to head for a large bay on Straight Lake with a creek filtering in. We had ascertained the presence of brook trout, now we were curious to see if there were any large gators. It didn’t take long to find out! To get to this spot we had to navigate another set of mild rapids at another neck down on Straight Lake. On the way back we stopped to cast for brook trout in the current and landed half a dozen thick backed beauties! I think it was 9pm by the time we packed it in and we were bagged after such a long and eventful day. We made a beeline back to the cabin where we fired up the bbq and enjoyed a late dinner and some conversation with Leon before finally hitting the sack. Day two I guess we both needed sleep as we finally awoke around 8am bleary eyed and groggy. You can clearly hear the murmur of the river from within the cabin and it tends to have a soothing quality when you’re trying to sleep. Apparently it worked its magic. I got up and made coffee then stepped outside on the porch to survey the scene. There was a light breeze from the north and a bit of a nip in the air. Low dark clouds scudded across the sky threatening rain, you could almost smell it on the air. Just as I was thinking about lighting a fire in the stove a large trout swirled and rose in the seam right in front of me, making a sound like a toilet bowl flushing. Startled I scanned the river and another one rolled and splashed further out in the run. These fish were on the prod. Putting down my coffee I rushed inside to grab my waders. “Let’s go Billy, the fish are going crazy in front of the camp!” Bill mumbled something incoherent, downed his coffee in one gulp and made for the hook rack where our boots were hanging. Fly fishing is an elegant sport, often just as much artistry and grace as angling technique. Not here on the Asheweig though, it’s back room bare knuckle brawling. We were primarily throwing meaty oversized streamers on heavy fast sink tips. Not much to it, simply heave it out there and strip as fast as you can. The fish themselves required zero finesse and belted our flies with malice in their hearts. Nothing tentative about these trout, they were bent on inflicting serious harm. Easing into the water we were both into thick bodied brookies almost immediately. As good as the fishing was the seams on the far side were beckoning us. Grabbing our stuff we checked in with Leon and told him we were going to grab the boat to ferry ourselves over to the other side of the run and fish for a while. No problem, as I think we may have wore him out a bit the day before and some extra rest was welcomed. It was an easy enough procedure navigating through the run to the other side where we beached the boat and hopped out. There was a gorgeous flat shelf easily wadable that ran almost the entire length of the neck down and we spent a good couple of hours working it thoroughly from top to bottom. We caught an indecent number of trout including several doubles. Some were on the fly but many of the seams were still unreachable so we used the spinning rods. I’m far from a purist when it comes to fly fishing anyway, I mostly just like catching fish. When things began to slow down a bit we motored back to camp where Leon took the helm. His plan was to head downstream and fish another set of fast water between Straight Lake and Round Lake, the next widening of the river just north of us. Sounded good to us and off we went. Here’s a short clip of the rapids and some of the action: We caught a bunch of nice trout down there and lost just as many in the heavy current. I had one giant that hammered a spoon far out in the raging water, rolled at the surface then streaked down through the rapids breaking my 8lb braid. I hate to make guesses, but it was over 5 anyway, perhaps even bigger. Bill lost a behemoth as well. Standing on a large rock below me drifting his streamer into a small churning pool he hooked a large male that took him for a ride downstream around the bend and out of sight. By the time I caught up with the camera the battle was lost. It’s all part of the game though, and in my experience it’s the ones you lose that you remember the most. After fishing that water for several hours we headed back upstream to camp and once again stopped to fish the water right in front this time by boat. Every time we fished it it produced! We each caught several before finally packing it in for a pit stop at camp. I brewed up some of my wildly popular 454 horsepower coffee and Leon joined us for a cup while we stretched our weary muscles. After a short nap and dinner we hopped in the boat with Leon and headed down to Round Lake to cast for pike. It’s a small widening of the river, mostly shallow and weedy, but with a well defined channel snaking its way through the center of the lake. The delta area where the river flowed in was literally crawling with walleyes and if that’s your game I believe you could catch them non stop all day long. Leon told us that there’s some big fish as well, some in the 8-10lb class. As much as I love walleye fishing when there’s brook trout and potentially large pike I don’t bother with them too much… Working the well defined weedy edges of the channel running through the lake we caught oodles of small to medium sized pike. No big ones, but it was a nice relaxing way to spend the evening and I thoroughly enjoyed it. With darkness beginning to set in we headed back to camp and called it a day. I think I was asleep before my head even touched the pillow. Day Three The sound of rain pelting down on the cabin roof woke me up around 6am. Took a quick peek outside and inwardly shuddered. Heavy south winds, whitecaps on the water, low ceiling, fog and darned cold! We definitely wouldn’t be heading out early on this morning. With the cabin damp and chilly I lit a fire in the stove and made coffee. Eventually Bill finally roused from his stupor and Leon wandered over to join us and we chatted over coffee. As I’d mentioned earlier there were a few things missing from the camp and the day before Leon called a friend in Kasabonika on his radio phone. The plan was that his bud Rodney would travel to camp today by boat bringing the gear we needed. He’d also be there to take us out if we tired out Leon too much. Upstream from camp right at Shibogama Lake there’s a portage around a waterfall. Our plan was to head up to the portage and fish there while waiting for Rodney as he’d require some help hauling his boat and gear around the portage. Around 9:30 things started to clear. It was still windy but the rain stopped, the ceiling lifted and even a few patches of blue sky poked through - it was time to go. We hopped in the boat and made a straight run upstream to the falls, as you get closer the nature of the river grew even more spectacular with numerous granite outcroppings and some pretty enticing rapids. We fished it very briefly catching one or two content knowing we’d work it hard on the way back. The falls were spectacular! Off to the side was a ramp built from logs that the natives had constructed to drag their boats around the obstruction. Still a lot of work, especially going uphill to Shibogama Lake, but far easier than the alternative! We hopped out and fished on foot, catching fish after fish. The slower waters were jammed with walleye and smallish pike, while the trout were sitting in the heaviest of whitewater. I shot this short video of some of the action. We walked around the falls to fish the fast water just above it and found numerous large trout holding in the fast current right at the brink. Even Leon got in on the action catching several beauties! We waited until 3pm and when Rodney still hadn’t shown up we hopped in the boat and took off back downriver. We all figured that perhaps Shibogama was too fought to cross. Regardless we weren’t able to reach anyone on the radio phone and we couldn’t wait there all day. Working our way back downstream we stopped to fish a bunch of wicked looking pockets. Not surprisingly they were loaded with fish. With the trout literally on fire we were itching to get out and fish on foot. There was a massive granite outcropping with moving water on both sides that looked absolutely perfect so we beached the boat and went at it. I shot this short video of some of the action - what an amazing spot! Around 7pm we packed it in and headed back to camp completing another incredible day on the Asheweig. Noteworthy was the winds were still insanely strong and we were battling them head on. Leon had that motor pinned when we hit the open expanse of Straight Lake. Easily 3’ rollers with whitecaps! Was a fun ride back, although a bit wet and bumpy. Upon arrival back at camp we finally received a message from Rodney, once again Murphy’s Law prevailed. He would be arriving at the portage in 15 minutes. Leon headed out by himself in an empty boat…as he said “I’ll make better time without your fat butts weighing me down!” That was fine with both of us as we were whipped. While Leon was gone Bill and I whipped up a huge dinner for everyone. Fresh pasta with a wonderful sauce loaded with sausage and ground beef. Leon and Rodney were back at camp less than an hour later and after we made our introductions we sat down together and shared a meal. We talked at Length that evening, and I can tell you listening to these guys tell their stories of life in the bush, large fish, hunting tales and navigating wild rapids is worth the price of admission alone! Continued...