Spring/Winter Fishing Adventure North Of Cochrane

[Basskicker]

Well after a very long winter it was time for our annual trip up north of Cochrane for some rather large pike. This year was a little different as a good friend of mine decided to join us from B.C. After a long day at work, I picked up my buddy Mike from the airport with boat in tow.....for a very long 12 hour drive into the remote wilderness of Northeastern Ontario. The anticipation of this trip was overwhelming yet exhausting....38 hours without sleep is not good for the body. The drive up was rather uneventful until we reached Cochrane after buying our groceries and gas $135.9/L we embarked on out last 2 hour drive to the lake. Once you leave Cochrane, there are no services period, not a place to go unprepared.

 

Once you leave Cochrane......you are in bear country.....and I mean bear country. This year would be no different....9 bears in total. They are very hard to photograph at 80km/h...but I managed to get a couple of shots.

 

 

 

Finally after reaching the lake absolutely exhausted we loaded up the boat for the 1 hour boat ride to the campsite

 

Once we reached the campsite.....things turned ugly....our campsite was flooded with 12" of water and tree's fallen over from the harsh winter's winds.

 

This was where we were supposed to camp for the next 8 days.....so plan B....my tent is rather large...not knowing if the tent could take the punishment of the strong north winds and being up for over 30 hours at this point we decided the hell with with it and set it up on the beach directly in the path of those harsh north winds.

 

Finally after cleaning the camp site up and putting up the tent/vestibule/wood stove and shower and organizing everything we decided to go fishing for a while.

 

The fishing this year was difficult due to the high water and fluctuating water temperatures, but we still managed to catch 200-300 fish. The pickeral fishing was absolutely amazing at the mouth of the rivers.....literally every cast in the evening...double, triple headers. The pike fishing was very slow due to cold front conditions and cold water temperatures (42'C). This was my view of the lake all week from inside the tent.

 

The second day was beautiful ......warm (15'C) and sunny. ....we managed a few like every day but the pike fishing was slow compared to last year.

 

I managed to catch my personal best pike....simply amazing fish at 47" and weighing in at 24.5lbs. It was kind of scary when I realized how big it was.

 

The third day was a day to remember for the rest of my life. Extreme weather. The day started off very dull looking with grey skies and cold winds from the north. We figured the rain was coming.....were we ever wrong!!!! I couldn't believe it SNOW!!!!

 

 

At first we were like cool......snow.....but after a few hours I was shocked with the amount of snow we received.

 

 

Here's a couple of video's of the snow storm (Thanks CLIFF)

 

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The extreme weather shut down the pike for the rest of the week.....we still managed to catch 30-50 pike a day....but most were on the smaller size 3-4lb. The water temperature dropped 10'C in 48 hours.

 

It was an amazing trip once again....between the great company, fishing, wildlife and food, extreme weather. Here's a few more shots from the week.

 

It's Gods country up there.....364 days left until next year.....going to be a long year.

[Sandbag]

Absolutely wonderful report....thanks for sharing.

 

That it quite the tent you haul in there...

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Rich Clemens]

Now that was a great report and love the pics.

[Moosebunk]

YES MAN. AWESOME!!!.

 

That tent is great. I've looked at them through Cabelas. Maybe in the future.

 

I'm guessing off the 652. Couple big lakes up there could hold monsters like your awesome PB. Congrats.

[danc]

Beauty report. Love the Spruce Hen close up.

[mepps]

Awesome report, great photos, and that 47 incher was a beauty!

[forrest]

Cool stuff....excellent trip story and pics. thanks

[bucktail]

Incredible fish man!

Congrtas fish of a lifetime!

[tibbs]

Fantastic Report!

 

Congrats on your PB pike !

[jediangler]

Nice pike man, and some fantastic photography. Great read, thanks.

[tbayboy]

Great report, thats one pike I'm sure you'll never forget -what a beauty.

[Tarzan's Jane]

Excellent report...thanks for sharing. Pics are excellent...the bears are huge...congrats on your PB.... nice sunsets too...but I don't miss that white stuff.

[sturgman]

That Pike is a brute and I know you will never forget the feeling of holding it up for a few pics!! And releasing a trophy like that? PRICELESS!! Congrats

[danbouck]

Fantastic Report!

[Smokey]

Looks like an awesome trip. Congrats and thanks for the report.

 

Mike

[scuro]

Very much enjoyed reading your report. Nicely done!

[lunkerbasshunter]

awesome report!!!

[johnnyb]

super fantastic report! Massive pike, tons of 'eyes, and pitting yourselves in a life and death struggle against nature! Love the tent-palace, love the photography Very well done

[ccmtcanada]

Wow Jason! Even though the weather was tough, and the fishing was tough, you guys managed to have another banner year!! Congrats on that PB....a real monster for sure!

 

So....are we still going catfishing?? Just let me know.....

[Sinker]

If that's not hardcore, I don't know what is!

 

Thanks for the report!

 

Sinker

[Mike the Pike]

Absolutely beautiful fishin report

 

You guys are true diehards man it looked really cold and you stuck it out.

 

Love the shots of the sunsets

[huntervasili]

Awesome job fishing and great report. Some really nice fish and equally good pics, Thanks for sharing

[JoshS]

Ahh, that was a great report to come home too. Congrats on the 47"er!

Edited June 2, 2008 by JoshS

[Musky or Specks]

47" is a lot of pike. That was a great report. Thanks for taking us all along.

[solopaddler]

Wow, talk about extreme weather, bet you guys were glad you had that huge tent with the woodstove!

Fantastic report and even better pictures bud. Would have loved to have seen some pic's of the launch and the take-out (I'll assume it went a bit better this year?).

Quite the load of gear you guys hauled in there, you definitely don't suffer on these trips!