N/E Ont. Back Lake Adventure (tons of pic's)

[solopaddler]

First some background. There's a small, hard to access lake in N/E Ont. just west of my cabin in Quebec that I've been interested in fishing for a couple of years now. Deep, clear and spring fed, it supposedly has a good population of lake trout and pike with some of the pike being trophy sized.
2 summers ago with vague directions and armed with a crude map I spent a couple of fruitless hours driving the backroads trying to find it in vain.
Last summer I tried again, this time with a buddy, and armed with a topo map and (I thought) better directions, we spent half a day driving down a bunch of rough atv trails with my vehicle again not finding it.
So, last Wednesday night at 11pm I picked up my buddy Dan for a 3rd attempt. He's an old canoeing partner of mine and is as hardcore as I am when it comes to this kind of stuff. This time we were prepared with a gps unit and an iron clad determination to succeed so I was confident we'd make it in.
We drove through the night arriving at my lake around 6:30am. First order of business was a quick trip to the cabin to drop some stuff off and pick up my canoe and motor for our back lake trip.
Dan looks a little tired on the drive over. Hey, sleep is overrated anyway

Quick pit stop at the cabin to unload, relax for a bit, then off we went.

Using the topo map and gps we made good progress on the trip in. Some of the vistas on the logging road were amazing.


At one point we came to a small river with a washed out bridge. For just a second I thought we were done for, but a quick look and we decided I could drive through it. Dan got out and took a few shots of the action.



A few km's further down the main gravel road the gps was telling us "turn right!", LOL, so we started to look for a side road. Without too much trouble we found the road and it was considerably narrower and rougher! Dan had to get out countless times to push trees out of the way as well.



At one point I crossed a ditch with this very cool looking ancient wooden drainage pipe. Wonder how old that thing would be?

Anyhoo, the gps was telling us we were a little more than 2km from the lake when we came upon this lovely bridge.

Dan still swears we could have crossed it in the CRV,( but then it wasn't his vehicle and he's basically a lazy person by nature ). This is where we stopped.
By this time it was around 1pm and incredibly hot and humid. Swarms of deerflies attacked us as we prepared for the portage and downed a cold beverage.

We both decided to leave the canoe on the vehicle for the time being. If at the end of the trail there was no boat stashed there, then we'd flip to see who went back to get the canoe....
We look pretty happy in these pic's, but the reality was the deerflies were killing us, LOL!


Along the trail, basically in the middle of nowhere we came upon this old dilapitated outhouse.
Must have been a logging camp there a long time ago...

So anyway, we finally make it to the lake and lo and behold there's a gorgeous little clearing with a campsite and most importantly to us, A BOAT, yee-haw! It was a garbage scow though . The thing was home made and welded together out of thick, heavy steel. It took the 2 of us just to flip the thing over, and was next to impossible to drag down into the lake, but eventually we managed.
Here's Dan surveying our craft and the lake.

One very cool thing was our "kitchen table". We used an old rotting overturned rowboat that was also there. Probably the neatest camping table I've ever used .


After a quick bite to eat we threw the 2hp Honda on the garbage scow and went out for a quick fish.
Right off the bat we started catching pike, nothing super huge, but tons of fun!




I did very briefly have a VERY large pike on. Never saw it, but there was some serious weight to it. Beyond that we caught an unreal number of smaller fish.....wouldn't even want to guess what the count was.
That night we had a huge meal, downed a few pops and enjoyed a nice campfire. Pretty much a perfect evening!



The next morning we decided to try jigging for lakers. I had brought a portable finder with me and we proceeded to scour the lake trying to find a deep basin. My finder was acting up and after a quick inspection realized the wires connecting the transducer were pulled out . It worked, but only sporadically, and not very well.
We did manage to locate a 95' basin though and before the unit crapped out we marked a slew of fish suspended at around 50-60'.
So, armed with stiff baitcasters loaded with braid we tied on some heavy jigs and proceeded to drift and jig.

I connected first, in roughly 70' feet of water I had a solid hit and carefully reeled it in. We were both shocked when it turned out to be a 6lb pike! Who knew? I've long ago stopped trying to figure out fish. We might read the books, but that doesn't mean the fish follow the script .
Shortly after that the fishfinder died for good, and try as we might fishing for lakers was next to impossible without it. For that kind of fishing you need to graph the fish and jig very precisely for them.
We both decided it was a waste of time, so back to the pike it was.




After a while Dan was getting a little giddy catching so many fish

Again, we caught a huge amount, but nothing trophy sized. No dissapointment though, the lake definitely has potential and now I know how to get in there.
We fished hard 'till about 3pm then after talking it over, we both decided to beat it back to the cabin and the comforts of fishing from the big boat.
We made it back around 7pm, threw some burgers on the bbq, cracked open a beer and just relaxed for the evening. It was nice .
The next day was our last full day to fish and I really wanted to try something different.
I've been on the lake for 5 years now, but it's so big there's still a lot of water I havn't seen or fished. After looking at the topo map it showed a small river feeding into the lake about 6km away. I had fished in front of it before, but had never navigated it upstream. About 11/2 km's up it appeared to open up into a small lake about 1km in diameter. We decided to check it out.


The river was shallow but navigable and sure enough after travelling upstream for 10 minutes we came to a beautiful little lake. No cottages or any other signs of use, it looked great!
I turned on the graph and did a quick tour of the lake. It was like a shallow dishpan: 6-8' deep all over with sporadic heavy weed growth. I figured we'd get a bunch of little snot rockets, but it wasn't looking to good for walleye. Man was I wrong, LOL! We started trolling worm harnesses with a very light 1/8oz bullet sinker (better for shallow water and slipping through weeds) and began to slam the walleye!



Even caught a few pike


It was crazy numbers once again, nothing huge, but for mid summer on my lake it was unreal.
I think I've found another little spot to file away when the going gets tough elsewhere!
Dan was catching so many walleyes he was getting giddy again.

We capped off the trip with a wicked fish fry Sat. night, then proceeded to fish one more time after dinner right in front of the cabin. Fishing was slow, only managed one pike and a handful of dink walleye, but it was a gorgeous calm evening and the sunset was amazing.





All in all it was a great trip with a good friend who I just don't get to see too
much of anymore.
We've been friends for 15 years, but with both of us having busy schedules
and young families it's next to impossible to do stuff like this anymore.
The last trip we did was over 3 years ago, so this one was extra special.
Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the report!

cheers, Mike

Edited January 10, 2014 by Mike Borger

[Rich Clemens]

That is onew awesome report solopaddler .... Very nice to take the time and post it all for us.

[Dano]

Fantastic stuff, just fantastic. It's like I'm there, thanks.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Dano

[steverowbotham]

looks like a great trip. good job!

[glen]

I am glad you didn't try to drive over that old bed cause you would still be there stuck.

 

Very nice trip report. Thanks.

[tbayboy]

Great report. I love the whole idea of exploring unknown places for fish. Glad to see you made it there and back

[mattyk]

amazing report, looks like a lot of fun!

[fatherof3]

wow,great report and looks like you had a blast

[FinS]

awesome report Mike

i havent been on here for awhile no time to fish too busy with the kids

 

the lake where you ventured out to looks very familiar u should have brought some big herring with you

i am happy you didnt drive all the way down with the crv

ive got stuck there about 10 years ago with a little ford ranger mind you the road was alot better 10 years ago it wasnt fun either and i remember that old garbage scow boat lol i cant believe its still there

wtg keep em coming

hopefully ill beable to get out for some river steel this fall

[solopaddler]

awesome report Mike

i havent been on here for awhile no time to fish too busy with the kids

 

the lake where you ventured out to looks very familiar u should have brought some big herring with you

i am happy you didnt drive all the way down with the crv

ive got stuck there about 10 years ago with a little ford ranger mind you the road was alot better 10 years ago it wasnt fun either and i remember that old garbage scow boat lol i cant believe its still there

wtg keep em coming

hopefully ill beable to get out for some river steel this fall

 

Hey Rene, I figured if you saw this report you'd recognize the spot , that's cool. Not surprised

that boat's been there awhile...it looked ancient. As fas the herring thing goes, funny you

mentioned that, but another local friend of mine who ice fishes that lake said the same thing.

Maybe locals do know a thing or two . I know he landed a 47" pike through the ice there

a couple winters back.

Stay in touch,

 

cheers, Mike

[fishindevil]

AMAZING !!!!!! thats what i call a backwoods fishing/camping trip....and well your hard work sure did pay off....man you guys did a number on those fish,they prob have never even seen a lure before... ..thats a very good secret spot you guys found...and im sure you will be back to fish some more....thanks for sharing cheers

[Musky or Specks]

Absolutely awesome report. New water is always such a thrill. One thing I find handy doing old logging roads/snowmobile trails with a 4x4 is one of those portable hunting saws. They are great for sawing threw logs that cant be thrown off the trail.

[Smokey]

Very nice Mike. Always great to see one of your reports. Thanks

[dustink]

WOW. Talk about getting a guy all geeked up....less than 3 weeks until I spend 5 days up at Fushimi Lake PP, and now there's no way I'm going to sleep tonight.

 

What an amazing trip! Thanks for sharing!

 

dk

[camillj]

As always, great report Mike, thanks for sharing !

[MJL]

Great report. Glad all your hard-work paid off. You certainly deserved it. Loving the pics.

[Whopper]

Amazing report Mike and great pics!

 

Thanks!

 

Whopper

[lunkerbasshunter]

very very impressive report! i loved the back lake adventure. thanks for sharing!

 

Cheers!

[Roy]

Such a great report Mike. The work getting up there sure seems trivial once you get up there. You both have some beauty fish. Y'know, lotsa folks would pay large to have a table such as yours in their living room.

[1leggedangler]

Great back lakes report. Looked like two good buddies having a great time to say the least. Nice Pics!

 

Cheers,

1leg

[Moosebunk]

Mike, ya got your own little piece of paradise up there man. Get's me aching to sit in that big steel tub catch some pike, then hoof it back to the cabin for pops and eyes. lol. Next time your up that road take some wood and make a wee bridge.

 

Super report.

[Tomcat]

A great read with great pics. Thanks for sharing.

[TJQ]

Now thats a report!!!! Awesome!

[mcallister.grant]

Hey Mike,

 

Awesome report. Thanks for taking the time to be so in depth and posting some amazing pics. It's really appreciated!!

[solopaddler]

Mike, ya got your own little piece of paradise up there man. Get's me aching to sit in that big steel tub catch some pike, then hoof it back to the cabin for pops and eyes. lol. Next time your up that road take some wood and make a wee bridge.

 

Super report.

 

You're welcome anytime 'bunk (I'll see what I can do about the bridge ).

 

And thanks to everyone for the kind remarks!

 

(on a side note, Dan read my report. He's not a member here, but insisted I log on and tell everyone

he's not really "lazy by nature". So okay, YOU'RE NOT LAZY. Happy now? )