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After much discussion and planning, and with some excellent advice and help from members of this board, our group of 5 headed up to Chaudière Lodge on the French River this past long weekend. We arrived Friday at around 5:30pm, and immediately were treated very well by the staff, who wouldn't allow us to do anything but walk up to our cabin and settle in. Actually, even before we arrived I had a great time dealing with Cole, their office manager, and knew exactly what to expect at each step of our holiday. How Cole explained things would be -- they were. Once we had our boats all docked and were settled in we went for dinner, and WHAT A DINNER!! Huge cuts of prime rib, all the fixings -- the food was definitely one of the highlights of our weekend! At each meal you would have multiple options to choose from, and everything we tried was very, very good! Steve, the owner, would stop by your table at most meals and provide advice or just ask about how things were going. The dock staff led by Peter were friendly and very helpful. On Saturday we had arranged a guided walleye outing with Billy, one of their walleye specialists! The fish were not aggressive, as the water was very cold, only 49-50...however, we still managed nearly 25 fish that morning. We had just a fantastic shore lunch, and Billy was a real wizard -- he had our fish cleaned in about 15 minutes (12 fish), and the combination of fries, beans, salad and fish was honestly one of the best tasting meals I've ever had! We also had the pleasure of watching a couple of very large musky in the shallows right beside the rock we were eating on, which was very interesting! The pictures we tried to get didn't work out very well however... Sat afternoon we tried to target pike, and although we fished many great looking bays, we only managed 5 fish. With the weather being behind and the temperatures so low it seemed the fish were deeper than normal and often suspended...not easy to catch! Sat night we went out again and caught maybe 20 fish -- not aggressive, but steady. Sunday was rainy...very rainy . We fished pretty hard, going out before breakfast, after breakfast, and tried to target pike in the afternoon, but it was raining so hard we were quite soaked and decided to watch hockey and baseball instead . Sunday night we went back out though, and that was likely our best session, catching 30 fish or so, including our largest pike of the weekend at just over 8 lbs and 36 inches. Monday we fished the morning before going, and as luck would have it near the end of the morning we did find some larger walleye -- which meant we had fish to bring home, so my family was happy! Walleye have to be over 18 inches to keep there -- I asked why it was different than most places and the answer was they were trying to protect a couple of VERY large year classes and give them a chance to spawn a few times...those fish are all 14-17 inches right now -- and man did we catch a lot of them at that size . No one knows exactly what'll happen but the idea was to allow those fish in those 2 year classes to spawn a few times, and perhaps they'll change the slot back so people can keep more "eater size" fish after that...we'll see. Anyways, overall, the lodge was fantastic -- food was great, accommodations were good, the staff was very helpful and talkative -- they really did most things for you so you could just relax and fish! Having a guide on day one was a very good idea, as we then had several spots to fish and knew our techniques would fit the current fishing. The fishing was a bit slow, and if I were to go again I might attempt to go slightly later in the season to allow the water to warm a bit more. Anyways, here's a few pictures...I should've taken more but was mostly just enjoying the time fishing...