back to my favorite playground - Kesagami

[scuro2]

Middle aged men like to dream and play. I liked this sandbox!

 

Of course silly men do stupid things, notice the orange hands and red face! The face is a natural colour, the orange hands come courtesy of yellow food dye put into Yum bait products. I wanted yellow bait. I'm left scratching my head wondering if there is some sort of adhesive ingredient added to their products. That dye didn't come off easy.

 

Sure was nice to live the dream.

 

Some people think grown men are nuts about fishing. Well then, how about this newly wed couple? What woman would want to go 50 miles south of James bay for their honeymoon? How about a girl from Cochrane.

 

I took along a cute girl. She likes to fish!

 

We got up early most everyday...

 

...and fished late some nights.

 

The weather sure was crazy. There was a cold front that took four days to move in.

 

Sometimes you could out race a storm.

 

...and sometimes you couldn't and had to put to shore. Look closely you should see lotsa skeeters all around us.

 

It was harder fishing this time around. We came on the busiest week, with 20 boats on the water.

 

Some of the choice bays were like a Tim Horton's drive threw with 5 boats in them at a time. You had to wait your turn to fish spots. If you are thinking of going, avoid the week after school's out. Lots of dad's with their sons were up.

 

Our favorite area was too warm to fish. The water was 73 degrees on the main lake. So we got right out of our comfort zone and trolled points and open water. Leslie who had never caught anything trolling liked trolling Kesagami. Two minutes of fishing and bang you have a double header and three fish for shore lunch.

 

She loved shore lunch.

 

She even caught a 31 inch pike trolling.

 

This skinny 38" came off the same structure. It was day four and we were very happy to finally find a pike pattern that produced.

 

We took some time to look around.

 

Sure was purdy up there.

 

As the cold front finally settled in, we found another pattern. Water temps dropped over 15 degrees in 4 days.

 

Leslie with a fat healthy 38 incher on our last day.

 

As luck would have it, we were grounded for an extra day because of weather. Some people were disappointed. Charlie let us fish in the afternoon, boy was I sure happy.

 

All of our stuff was packed at the camp so we went out with the bare minimum. We could only find the cheap tape measure, that stopped at 40". So we guessed that this one was 41".

 

Never got to lift this one. Leslie thinks it was 44-45 inches long. It wrapped itself around our windsock line. I had to twirl my rod around the lines several times which created slack. Still, the fish was on and she made some spectacular runs and leaped out of the water twice. Finally she came to the boat. Leslie was looking for the proper tape measure in our only bag with many pockets. I played a tired fish and had good pressure, and then she flung her head...pop she was off. Shouldawouldacoulda. If I had only put her in net as soon she was tired. Oh well.

 

We fished some more and Leslie caught this beautiful 26" walleye. Had to go back or we would have missed dinner. Our best day was this short afternoon of fishing. So it goes!

Edited July 7, 2009 by scuro2

[BillM]

Great report!!!! Good find on the woman My gf would laugh in my face if I asked her to go there, lol

[johnnyb]

Super report...looks like a great time...too bad about all the other boats...thanks for sharing Was there a bait of choice?

[Leecher]

Great report and pics scuro2

Congratulations to both of you on those big gators

Looks like paradise up there!!!

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[gino]

really nice trip ..beautifull pictures, good job guys!

[Victor]

Great report!!!! Good find on the woman My gf would laugh in my face if I asked her to go there, lol

 

Ha, I can relate to that.

 

Thanks for the report.

[Cudz]

Dave (Ramble On) is a guide up there. I know another guide named Stewart who works there as well. Did you meet either of them. Dave has been in a few magazine articles and he was also the guide for Pete Bowman when they filmed their show up there.

Congrats on the nice fish. Sorry about the weather. COngrats on a wife who likes to fish.

Women who fish always look loads better than those who don't!

[TJQ]

Awesome report, Kesagami is a great place!

[scuro2]

Dave (Ramble On) is a guide up there. I know another guide named Stewart who works there as well.

 

 

Dave saved us on our first Kesagami trip. Our motor conked out on a wickedly cold and windy day, and he spotted us from 2 miles away. Leslie was never happier then when she knew were not going to spend the night out there! We hired Dave for our first day, in memory of his heroics, and to also give us a leg up. After that we like to fish alone. We have a busy household and don't have much personal time together, one major plus on a trip like this is being alone together.

 

It was warm and muggy when we arrived. Luckily we got into camp before the cold front. Large bands of rain were only a few hours behind us in Cochrane but that weather took the day to make it up there. And then the cold front sat still nearby so we had this really weird mix of weather for about 4 days with some powerful storms moving through. One day we had 5 hours of the heaviest rain. Another day it was on and off with the wetsuit all day long. Before we came they had just had 4 days of over 30 degree weather. Dave tried his best to put us on big fish but we only got a few dinks that day. It was really weird. Water temp at 72 but not the weed development you would expect at 72. Fish feeding on a summer pattern but the mayfly hatch was just starting.

Edited July 8, 2009 by scuro2

[fishnsled]

Great report Scuro2. Sounds like you were up there the same time that we were at Mikwam. Similar weather with similar results, report to come, just waiting on some pictures from the other guys. I'd have to say the pike were feeding on the mayflies but also on our lake the dragonflies were hatching. One night we had hundreds come out at dusk, the sky was just black with them. We also saw dozens of pike jumping out of the water, straight up like a missile being launched. Some really big fish as well. I'm assuming they were after the hatches. Very cool to watch. Thanks for the report.

[scuro2]

We also saw dozens of pike jumping out of the water, straight up like a missile being launched. Some really big fish as well. I'm assuming they were after the hatches. Very cool to watch. Thanks for the report.

What you may have seen is Sturgeon. I've been on that river system.

[gino]

those are some nice pikes. good job guys!!!

[corvette1]

allways on a fly-in crap weather you made the best of it nice gators congrats

[solopaddler]

Some pretty fantastic photos there. Your better half looks happy in all of them, that's a huge bonus.

Lucky man.

[b2kptbo]

Cool report, thanks...

[Fish4Eyes]

Nice report! The best days of fishing are the last days always. Makes you want to come back every year though, thats for sure.

[fishnsled]

What you may have seen is Sturgeon. I've been on that river system.

 

 

Definitely pike. We also saw sturgeon rolling as well.

[Jonny]

Great report, Scuro. I enjoyed the non-fishing photos as well.

 

The weather's always a mixed bag when you're that far north. It can get pretty cold at times. You always have to bring cold-weather gear, shorts and sunscreen. You never know what you're gonna get!

 

One time we were tenting on Little Abitibi for the May Run and it was so cold the first two days that we woke to snow on the ground and had to motor back to the campsite every hour or two to warm up at a blazing fire. The third day, by contrast, was hot and sunny.

 

You lucked out with a great fishing partner. I did too, and thank my lucky stars.