Reef Runner Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Every now and then I like to get out leave the buzz of the city, the comforts of home and replace them with a tent, a boat and a rod. It's amazing what landscapes are available to traverse and what dreams can be caught if only one would reach out into our great Ontario wilderness. The "now and then" materialized itself over four days from June 4-7, 2009 as my cousin and made the trek up to the Upper French River for some camping and, more importantly, fishing. If you are not aware of the area, refer to the map below: Map of Nippissing and Upper French River The Upper French flows out of Lake Nippissing southward, twist and hugs countless reefs and islands into the Chaudrie Dam at the south end. [the red boxes below. Sorry for the map, it's tough to get a good copy anywhere. Even the provincial park makes you buy a map, even though you have purchased a permit to camp out there :evil:] We arrived at Riverview Cottages Thursday morning, registered our site and gave Brian from Casa Blanca Lodge a call to drop us off a boat that we rented from him for the duration. Just gotta say quickly; Brian is the man. He is a grass roots type of guy that enjoys the company of his guests at the Lodge and is always the most hospitable. His cabins were booked solid for our trip, but he was glad to have a boat available for us. Haven't seen him in two years, so after catching up and exchanging stories we headed up river to our site behind Hunts Island. View from Camp Our vessel (18 Foot Ceder stip, 20 HP yammy) Set up camp as soon as we landed Then set up a buffett for Pike and Walleye We fished that evening just around our camp to get familiar with our surroundings. The water was really cold, 50F in the main bay and close to 60F in the back waters. As Brian warned us "...them fish are gun shy when the water stays this cold", and did that ever hold true. The first evening, fishing from around 5pm until dark, only a dinky perch was caught on a drop shot rigged with a live worm in 20fow off of Hunts Island. Went back to camp for a steak and roasted potato dinner, listened to the loons compete with the Stanley Cup Finals over the crank radio for a while and hit the sack. Got up early the next morning, the flies buzzing but not biting, a quick sandwhich and black coffee ansd we pushed off shore into our next adventure. Bobbing right infront of our camp tieing our rigs for the day I noticed a conspicous boat approaching our way. The regional CO lined up our boats and after we should him our permits and licenses we were on our way. Started the troll for pike holding tight to shore and passing mid lake humps and reefs. Anywhere we hit weeds, or if the spot looked interesting, we stopped and casted the area. Alas, we forgot to take the skunk out of our boat. Always a good time to take in the wild life. Green giant moths Bald eagle A couple of OOS smallmouth bass and another dinky perch later in the evening caught on small Mepps Syclops spoons we stayed in that night enjoying the nice cool weather, cooler beverages and planned our next attack. Our last night, desperation mode, we headed into Bob's Bay located on the northern shore tucked away through a pair of narrows and a handful of islands. We fished well into dark, washed all of our lures without a sniff. I take out a frog coloured Zara Spook on the chance I may wake up these darn pike disturbing the glass surfaced water. Sitting on a drop from 6 to 18 feet, I launch the first cast close to shore. Twitch, twitch, twitch all the way back to the boat...nothing. Second cast I launch just off shore....nothing. Third cast, I'm figuring man I'm gonna change this lure....twitch, twitch, cousin mutters something, twitch, SPLASH!!!! FISH ON!!! It was dark, with only the moonlight to illuminate the action, as the fish dove for deeper water. Bringing her in I caught a glimpse of a white long belly of what I believed to be a decent pike. Take out the flashlight and shine it on the catch..."GET THE NET" I yell out to my cousin. Bring it in and the forest around us is filled with a chorus of jubilation and high fives for this.... This is my personal best Walleye, measured 25 inches and scaled in at 7lbs even. Didn't get a girth of this beast as we were quick to put her back onto her stomping grounds. Man-o-man. As you may tell from the pics, I was stunned a good half-hour, the fish recuperated before I did for sure, lol. Needless to say, I love my Zara Spook and enshrined it as my "go-to" top water. Stoked, we casted around for another hour and slow trolled back to camp where our lifted spirits took us into a beautiful French River sunrise. C'est fini, Reefrunner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moemoe Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Gotta love top water action...I have never caught an eye by topwater though....nice fish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyb Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Nothin' like one big fish to make the whole trip! Great pics and report...thanks for sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highdrifter Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Nice. Gotta love the French!! cheers HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillM Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Topwater pickerel? That's awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also love the French, but never fish the upper, always the main channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdotfisherman Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Great report, thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rizzo Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 walleye on topwater, never heard of that before. I've caught them on spinnerbaits just under the surface but never on top. Great report, was an interesting read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solopaddler Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 What a great report, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[email protected] Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Top Water!!!!!!! Nice. Well written, enjoyed reading your post. This is a interesting article on Walleye fishing...http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/walleye fishing at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Beauty Pickerel, way to go. Great report and pics. That big moth is called a Luna Moth. Joey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonny Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 I really enjoyed this report. Congratulations on the hawg! Those green moths are called Luna Moths. Large and beautiful. I used to shore fish the fast water below the Horwood Dam west of Timmins and there, at times, the pickerel would actually JUMP for the bait - right out of the water. Never seen that anywhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reef Runner Posted June 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Thanks for the kind words folks! Indeed this was my first topwater walleye, what a surprise I tell ya. Thanks for identifying that Luna moth - they are absolutely beautiful creatures. I'm glad you all enjoyed the report - haven't been on the OFC in sometime mostly because of the off season. Expect many reports to come, I look forward to more outings like this and others. Tight lines all, reefrunner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob v Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 Great report and nice fish. Walleye after dark on a top water is amazing. I look forward to doing it every opportunity I get. Floating rapala type baits work great also. question: your camping location - you mention that you registered your site at riverview cottages. do they have remote caming sites of is there a park of some sort there that you rented your spot through. I would be very interested in doing a similar trip and I would appreciate some details. Thanks very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pike slayer Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 i've caught alot of walleye as the sun is going down and at dark casting to shore and around logs and structure like i would with smallmouth fishing. they really love #8 x-raps and they only go about 1-2feet below the surface and also i've done well doing the same on the #6 x-rap shad, it doesnt surprise me at all that the fish took the topwater bait. shining a light into the shallows you can see flashes of their eyes and see them darting around after minnows and such. fishing camps link is bang on in the walleye at night section, i was to lazy to read the whole article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunkerbasshunter Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 awesome scenery and what a great fish!!! cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TroutnMuskieHunter Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 Great report and pic!!...congrats on your PB and thanks for the read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
addy79 Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 . question: your camping location - you mention that you registered your site at riverview cottages. do they have remote caming sites of is there a park of some sort there that you rented your spot through. I would be very interested in doing a similar trip and I would appreciate some details. Thanks very much. Hi Rob, I was with Mike on the French last weekend. Its a great spot, beautiful scenery, lots of wildlife. Riverview Cottages is located in Dokis (East of 69 off HWY 64) about 420km from T.O. Riverview is registered with Ontario Parks, so when reserving backcountry spots on that section of the French you've got to see them first. Problem is you cannot reserve a spot in advance, first come first serve only. Makes for quite a gamble when coming from the city! Depends on the time of year your going, if you call they will give you an idea of availability. If your renting a boat OR considering cottaging up thataways i HIGHLY reccomend that you visit our freind Brian at CasaBlanca lodge. He will pick you up from the riverview marina and take you to his island for cottaging or boat rentals. The fishing was slow this time around but the water was COOOLLLLDDDD, the fish are there though! one of the americans staying at Casablanca landed a 53"er and a 40" let me know if you have more Q's tight lines! Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob v Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 Hey thanks Adam - that's great info. I assume they have no problem with people who want to use their own boat ? Is there a site somewhere I can go to figure out where these sites are, how many etc ? I think I'd really like to try a trip like that - would be a great way to get away from it all without having to go to the other side of nowhere !! thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
addy79 Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 no problem at all, most the people up there were lucky enough to have their own boats! actually, its a real pain trying to find the site map for french River P.P. you have to buy the map from the park for $15 OR do what i did and go to the Mountain Equipment Co-op store downtown and take a look at the map there. all you need to do is reference the site numbers with the bays/inlets you want to stay at and then reference them with the folks you register with....yeah i know, im CHEAP lolol beautiful country up that way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistyriver1 Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 Excellent report Reefrunner. Congrats on the PB !! She's a beaut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetofish Posted June 12, 2009 Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 nice scenery and a beauti top water walley!!! lovetofish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Clemens Posted June 12, 2009 Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 Sweet report ReefRunner and yes, congrats on your PB. A real beauty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trapshooter Posted June 12, 2009 Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 Beautiful Walleye!! Congrats on your PB. All the better that you released her too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setomonkey Posted June 12, 2009 Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 Congrats on the PB, and thanks for telling a great story. Beautiful part of the world up there... Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshS Posted June 12, 2009 Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 topwater walleye!! nice fish! haven't seen that YET, very neat. nice report too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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