Elk Lake adventure

[oxcowboy]

we headed out of southern ohio on the evening of july 23, loaded down and ready for our yearly adventure. i picked up the other 2 guys and was to meet the 3rd at the mcdonalds in north bay early thursday morning. we blew a trailer tire outside of lima ohio, not a problem slapped on the spare and off we go. customs was pretty easy, just the normal deal and off we head. met up with rob around 9 am. a little late but the tires had just about had it. way too much wait on them. jumped up to some 5 70 x8tires but had very little room with the fenders. headed on to elk lake, but blew out big time about 6 miles shy of town. the trailer was junked the coil springs were done and the axle bent up. put the little tire back on and limped on into town. i then called kerrie at the golden eagle camp and told her our problem and she graciously lent us a trailer to get on into our camping area. the next day we headed back to the camp to get our fishing permits and then me and rob headed back towards new liskeard to try to find either another trailer or axle and springs. after searching till about 2 o'clock all we could find was 1 flatbed trailer that might have worked, but they were asking 500 dollars for it, so we headed back and was thinking of other ways to fix the old one. on our way through elk lake, i said we might as well try matachewan since it wasnt far away. sure enough we found a decent enough one there for 300 and was on our way. hit the lake and caught several fish that evening, the other two fellas had fished most of the day and we fished till dark and got a total of 80 fish for our group on the day. everything was finally starting to look up for us. another bright spot for the day was that i got to meet my first fellow ofner. wendel and his family was staying at the golden eagle.

 

Saturday we got up early and hit the lake for an all day trip to the end of the lake and back. we had a short storm and it really had the fish turned on. put up some decent numbers that day and had a nice shore lunch as well. we got 36 fish on the day including a walleye over 4 lbs. we then packed up all of our camping gear and headed into the cabin we had rented for the week. had way to many brown pops and goldslager that night.

 

 

Sun, we hit one of my favorite lakes up there and it produced really good. we caught 69 fish between 3 of us since one guy took a muligan from fishing that day to recoup from the night before. we also caught our personal best pike of the trip at 33.25 inches and a little over 9 lbs.

 

mon- we hit a couple of smaller lakes, didnt catch any major size, but we did manage to land another 88 fish, with alot of 1-2 lb smallies which was still alot of fun to catch.

 

tues- we hit the same lake that we hit on sunday and slammed them again, 119 fish total with some really nice eater pike up to 30 inches and several pretty nice smallies above and around the 3 lb range. we also missed some really nice fish. one smallie had to be pushing 5lb that spit the hook out. it was a great day of fishing and was the only day it didnt rain on us while out on the water.

 

wed- we hit another small lake close to the camp and i had my best day of walleye fishing i have ever had. i caught a limit in about 20 minutes of fishing once we located them. they were really on while it was raining. i was using an orange worm harness tipped with a crawler and it was on fire. in total we only caught 35 fish but several of them were really nice walleye.

 

Now things got ugly again for me. we used the camps boats and just took our motors to use at this lake. their was another couple and their teenage son on the same little lake. we talked a bit to them and headed on our way. when we got back to our camp and was unloading everything i started looking for my camera which was in a dry box with my cell phone. it was nowhere to be found. so rob and i imediately headed back to the lake, but it was dark and raining and nowhere to be found. got up early the next morning and jumped on the atv and began searching the trail again. back close to the landing area was the empty box. i am 100 % sure of who has it, but what can you do. i know that the other family was the only other people back on this lake. the man had a truck with his name and buisness on the side, and is from the toronto area and told us he had a cottage in elk lake. so we head to elk lake in search of his truck and finally find it, i walk up to the door with my dry box and say "hey we were the guys on the lake with you yesterday and you didnt happen to find the camera and cell phone in this box did ya?" the story he told was that his son had found the empty box at the landing and he just tossed it back down. i kind of believe the dad, but im sure the teenage kid probably pocketed the phone and camera before he even showed his dad, or dad knew about it as well and was peeeed off that we were on his secrete back lake, cause he was saying something about the fishing not being as good as it used to be. So anyways i have no pictures of my own to post. plus it had my sons little league baseball pictures on it which were priceless to me. This really put a damper on the entire trip for me.

 

thur- after dealing with the camera theft we went to a nice bass lake again and did well till dark that evening, the senkos really worked well on the smallies that night rigged wacky, we also got into some decent perch and a 28 inch pike. total for the day was 106.

I also got to meet my 2nd ofner of the trip. TJ was going into his camp that day and gave me directions to his paradise and try for a get together.

 

Fri- headed to a far back lake on the atv, had a little trouble on the trail but managed to get in there. scored another 117 fish and finished out our pike limit for home. had another wicked storm that sidlined us for a bit, but the fishing was crazy. most came on inline spinners.

 

this was our last day of fishing, packed everything up and headed to haliburton to spend the night and then headed home in the morning. customs was backed up, so we had to wait about 2 hours to get through but all was fine. detroit sucked since 75 south was closed and we got a little turned around but made it out without getting shot or robbed. lol After dropping the other 2 guys off i finally got home to my wife and 2 boys who i missed a bunch. its always good to get away, but great to be home as well.

 

All in all it was a great fishing trip, the camp was wonderful as always, and the host was very kind to us to let us use the trailer untill we could get something else. our fish totals for the week were 650 fish landed and about 7 cases of beer drank along with rum and goldslager.

 

 

Now my question is do i go ahead and slam the guy and name him and his company or just let it be? How would you guys have handled it?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this, i know its long and no pics yet, i will try to post some after my buddy gets his done.

 

jason

[solopaddler]

Great read Jason, sounds like your trip was a success despite the setbacks.

As far as the situation with the camera goes, it really sucks but personally I'd take the high road and let the matter drop, at least publicly.

It's too bad you didn't do this right away in Elk Lake, but a report filed with the OPP wouldn't hurt.

It's highly probable that at the very least the guilty party will get a phone call from a detective.

If nothing else it'd shake 'em up a bit .

[Whopper]

Jason good report bud, sounds like the fishing and company made up for the bad things that happened. The camera deal is a killer.

Thanks for sharing your experience

Edited August 5, 2008 by Whopper

[Greencoachdog]

Good report and sounds like a great trip except for the Bull!

 

As for the camera and cell phone, you don't really have any proof so just chalk it up to a lesson learned.

 

Keep all of your valuables either on your person or under lock and key... always!!!

[Headhunter]

Great report and now I must say that I am really Jonesin as my family and I are heading up there this Saturday! Thanks again for the info Jason, as far as the phone is concerned... live and learn!

HH

[oxcowboy]

thanks guys for the insight. it was a fun trip, i just hate that i lost the pics that were on the camera, the phone and camera itself is easy enough to replace. i cant believe that i left it at the landing, it is usually the 1st thing that gets in the truck, but life goes on. verizon has put a trace on the phone in case it is ever tried to be used, so maybe something will still come of it.

 

HH i think you will enjoy your time their, i hope the weather turns better for ya.

 

jason

[ccmtcanada]

Wow...

 

What an adventure....with all the problems with the trailer and then the camera, and you still managed to have a good time out there.

 

Truthfully, I think you guys caught more fish on this trip than I have in total over the last 2 years!! Sounds like everything you threw out there caught fish!

 

It really sucks about the camera....very sorry to hear about that, but if it was me, I wouldn't take it any further.

[Leecher]

Great report oxcowboy and thanks for the good read.

Sorry about the camera thing but on the fishing side, you guys did extremely well

 

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[Wendel]

Hi Jason,

 

It was nice meeting you! Too bad we couldn't have gone back for some fishing.

I'm really glad the fishing turned on for you guys(or atleast you were in the right spots!!)

We had a pretty tough week there until the last couple of days. We managed about 55 pike in the last two days, but only 40 before then.

My daughter also caught a really nice bass which was the highlight of her trip.

You guys deserved good fishing when you take into account the trouble you had getting there lol

Did you fish the around the camp at all? In sydney creek or the montreal river, or did you spend all your time at back lakes?

[TennesseeGuy]

I was wondering how your trip went and found your thread by doing some back tracktracking.

 

Your group had a good trip in spite of the problems. Nobody can steal the experience from you.

 

Your tire story reminds me of the time back in 1976 when my two sons, my brother and I were 50 miles up Nungesser Road when we blew out two tires and had only one spare. Yep, we were overloaded. We volunteered for the mishap.

[oxcowboy]

yeah i guess you have that when you pack a month's worth of gear for a 10 day trip. lol we still had a blast, lots of good times with good friends. gonna cut way down for next years adventure, i should get a few pics this weekend from one of my buddys that went,so i will try to get them up soon.

 

 

wendel, we never even put the boat in at the camp, mainly back lakes and a few trips on sidney creek. we were doing so well, figured we shouldnt change anything. great to meet ya, maybe we can spend a day together next year.

 

jason

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Great report. Sounds like there were a lot of ups and downs but the fishing was phenomenal.

 

Sucks about the camera and especially the cell phone..... I would have called the cops for sure on those people.

 

More than likely the kid or parent kept it. If it was the kid? He may have been dumb enough to make phone calls from the cell and easy to investigate. Not sure if the cops would go threw all that trouble though. Still, they may have went and applied some pressure to the family and kid and made them sweat it out a bit.

 

Anyways,I would chalk it up as a loss. No use posting the company name without any proof.

[b2kptbo]

Thanks for the report. Some good times, some bad luck...

[Dozer]

Wow, this lake sounds spectacular. Awesome report!