Cochrane Air, Polar Bear Outfitters or True North Outfitters

[fisherman7]

Hi All, does anyone have any experience with the above outfitters? I'm looking to do a fly-in with my son before he heads off to university. Our primary interest is big pike with walleye for lunch. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

[solopaddler]

Between the 3 outfitters True North for sure and only because you can fish Kesagami via their Partridge lake camp.

The fishery on Kesagami is good (not great) and 1. You will see other anglers and be competing for prime spots. and 2.The season is very much seasonal being only truly worthwhile spring to early summer.

I would only consider June if I was fishing Kesagami.

And I would only consider the Cochrane area and Kesagami in particular if my schedule was short. (It's an easy drive from southern ON).

All of the other smaller outpost lakes in the Cochrane area are pretty much shallow featureless dishpans.

Yes the walleye fishing can be fast and furious. Pike fishing is good in most of those smaller lakes for snakes into the high 30's range. You might get lucky and crack a couple of 40" plus pike but I wouldn't bank on it.

The outpost camps themselves are also sub standard imo, old and tired.

This is what you get in the James Bay lowlands of northeastern Ontario, very typical.

 

 

If big pike is truly what you want you should consider other outfitters on larger more varied bodies of water in N/W Ontario, northern Quebec, Manitoba or Saskatchewan.

[cram]

Between the 3 outfitters True North for sure and only because you can fish Kesagami via their Partridge lake camp.

The fishery on Kesagami is good (not great) and 1. You will see other anglers and be competing for prime spots. and 2.The season is very much seasonal being only truly worthwhile spring to early summer.

I would only consider June if I was fishing Kesagami.

And I would only consider the Cochrane area and Kesagami in particular if my schedule was short. (It's an easy drive from southern ON).

All of the other smaller outpost lakes in the Cochrane area are pretty much shallow featureless dishpans.

Yes the walleye fishing can be fast and furious. Pike fishing is good in most of those smaller lakes for snakes into the high 30's range. You might get lucky and crack a couple of 40" plus pike but I wouldn't bank on it.

The outpost camps themselves are also sub standard imo, old and tired.

This is what you get in the James Bay lowlands of northeastern Ontario, very typical.

 

 

If big pike is truly what you want you should consider other outfitters on larger more varied bodies of water in N/W Ontario, northern Quebec, Manitoba or Saskatchewan.

 

This guy knows his stuff. Great advice.

[Terry]

I just booked Cochrane air, fly-in to Today Lake

 

never been there but I am excited about going, looks like big pike and big walleye rather then large numbers of fish smaller fish

[solopaddler]

I just booked Cochrane air, fly-in to Today Lake

 

never been there but I am excited about going, looks like big pike and big walleye rather then large numbers of fish smaller fish

 

I fished Yesterday with Cochrane Air, but not today.

 

You'll do well with the walleyes no doubt about that.

[Terry]

I was booking yesterday when they told me today had a much bigger average size but less numbers

I decided bigger was better then large numbers.....

 

solopaddler, did you just boil the lake water to drink or did you take drinking water

Edited February 11, 2010 by Terry

[solopaddler]

I was booking yesterday when they told me today had a much bigger average size but less numbers

I decided bigger was better then large numbers.....

 

solopaddler, did you just boil the lake water to drink or did you take drinking water

 

 

Terry I wish you luck man. I've flown with Cochrane air a few times for short trips over the years.

The walleye fishing has always been consistently good, the camps have been consistently sub standard.(Bring duct tape to plug holes and fix window screens, tons of mosquito coils and a couple cans of household bug spray).

I always take claims of trophy fish like that with a grain of salt. Yeah Today was closed for a few years but it's still a shallow dishpan, there's no deep basins.

For what it's worth I actually fluked off a huge 32" walleye when we were in Yesterday. Very, very, very rare for that region to say the least. Numbers were great as well.

In any case if I was booking with those guys Today would be the one I'd choose as well.

I'll be looking forward to hearing how you make out.

 

Anyhow regarding water, I've never brought drinking water on a fly in trip ( Think about it man, that cuts into beer weight! ).

Most of the time I just dip it from the middle of the lake. The water is very shallow and tannin stained in the cochrane region though. Up there we always filtered it with one of these:

 

http://www.rei.com/product/695265

 

They weigh nothing and screw directly onto a standard Nalgene camping bottle.

The filter actually clears the water right up as well as removing bacteria etc.

Tastes exactly like bottled spring water.

 

That's the way to go for sure.

 

(douG's apparantly a big fan of these filters as well)

[Terry]

great info thanks

[yakpiker]

I did a fly-in trip on Cochrane Air to Edgar Lake during the first week of July two years ago with a couple of friends. We were very excited about our first fly-in trip. The cabin was big and clean...very basic and kept the bugs out. The boats and motors were reliable. The weather changed several times a day every day we were there.

 

Overall, the fishing was okay with lots of action when the bite was on and some real quiet periods when the low pressure fronts drove though bringing rain and sleet. Biggest pike landed was mid-30's with a couple of bigger ones breaking lines and biting through leaders (sorry Bassive). Most of the walleye were 15-18" with a few in the mid-20's.

 

We thought about doing another trip with Cochrane Air this year to a different lake. Then the report and pics for Attawapiskat were posted so we're heading there instead.

[solopaddler]

We thought about doing another trip with Cochrane Air this year to a different lake. Then the report and pics for Attawapiskat were posted so we're heading there instead.

 

 

Wise choice.

 

(Although Eddies cabins aren't the ritz either, the trophy pike fishing is pretty hard to beat)