Attawapiskat ~ River Of Trophy Pike

[solopaddler]

First a couple of notes:

 

The last few weeks have been hectic.

This trip occurred June 12-19th.

My wife and I closed on our house June 25th.

I was back for less than a week and then we moved.

Beyond the usual craziness at work and now having to unpack and settle in I havn't had the time to write a truly fitting report for this trip.

 

This report is mostly a photo essay.(I apologise in advance for the obscene number of pic's )

I wish I had the time to write something more in depth, but I don't.

Regardless I hope you all enjoy.

 

On another note I'm not including the outfitters info. (Although many if not most of you already know who it is. )

If anyone wants any detailed info please pm me and I'll respond as quickly as I can.

 

 

 

The Trip

 

 

Last September I had the great fortune of visiting the new camp while it was still under construction and had the best pike angling of my life.

 

It seemed like every current break, backwater, slough, channel and inlet had hungry gators lurking.

With such an incredible trip under my belt the June trip was greatly anticipated.

 

Anticipation tends to get me through the otherwise mundane facets of life.

I firmly believe that having something to look forward to is a necessity.

No matter how bad my day is going all I have to do is calm myself and think Attawapiskat and the stress is magically gone.

 

Joining me on this new quest for Pike were Louis, Bill and Justin (aniceguy, BillM and Justin Elia respectively on the OFC board).

As well, Justin's buddy Dave and my very good, very old friend Dan who now resides in Thunder Bay with his family joined us.

 

It truly was an outstanding group, everyone meshed well and we shared a lot of laughs.

 

Arriving in Nakina the night before our flight we checked into the only motel in town and relaxed a bit after the lengthy drive.

 

 

Only being 3 hours away Dan didn't arrive 'till later on Friday evening (lucky sod!).

After saying our hellos and introducing him to the rest of the group we hit the sack early.

Saturday morning would come fast....

 

Arriving at the Nakina Air Service base the next morning, we quickly weighed then loaded our gear into one of the Otters.

 

 

 

 

For most in my group it was their first time in a float plane and the excitement was palpable as we taxied up the lake.

 

 

It's always a thrill flying above the clouds over thousands of untouched lakes. In my younger days I paddled much of this country alone in my canoe and in many ways it's like coming home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd been told the water level was dramatically lower this year.

 

Here's a shot of the camp from last September:

 

 

Here's the way it looked this year. As you can see there was a tremendous amount of exposed sand beach where last year there was none.

You can also see the large main lodge/lounge area that the outfitter is currently constructing.

When the camp is finally 100% finished it's going to be amazing.

 

 

After landing we quickly unpacked and settled into our new home for the next week.

Dan and I lingered for a bit, unwinding and catching up while the other boys raced for the boats rods in hand.

With our trip falling very close to the summer solstice we had over 19 hours of daylight to play with. Plenty of time to fish ourselves to exhaustion.

 

More on the fishing though in just a bit...

 

It's been said the Attawapiskat river and Beteau lake in particular is a truly magical place.

 

After experiencing it twice I have to say that I agree.

 

Untouched and literally teeming with fish and game, it has an ethereal quality.

 

Here's a bunch of shots that capture the essence of the place and the experience we had:

 

Sunrise At Camp

 

 

Burning A Bucktail Over A Broad Weed Flat

 

 

Sunset Ride Back To Camp

 

 

 

Navigating The Rapids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shorelunch

 

 

 

 

 

Old Native Camp

 

In a very isolated back bay Dan and I saw this old pot hanging from a tree:

 

 

After beaching the boat and walking through some incredibly thick brush we found the remains of an old native camp.

 

 

Bald Eagle

 

 

Medley Of Meat

 

Yes we ate well on this trip,

 

 

Rainbow

 

 

Serenity Defined

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Goes For A Swim

 

On the 2nd day of our trip while navigating upstream my transducer suction cup came unbuttoned and before I could react it pulled my entire finder into the river where it sank in the tea stained water.

 

I figured it was gone for good. Dan insisted he jump in for a look. (You have to remember this water was cold!).

He quickly shed his clothes, hopped into the cold river current and amazingly found the darn thing right away.

 

 

 

 

The Fishing

 

Now on to the important stuff!

 

As mentioned the water was incredibly low.

Many of the back bays we fished last September were high and dry.

The pike were still in many of the same spots but instead of fishing for them in 4-5' of water it was now 1-3' of water.

These extreme shallows were already quite weed choked and could only be fished properly with a weedless lure of some type.

The bread and butter lure for most of the group was the venerable old Johnson Silver Minnow, in both the 3/4 and 11/4oz sizes.

Tipping it with a large twister tail or a piece cut from an 8" Reaper slowed the sink rate. This allowed us to crawl the bait slowly over and through the thick slop.

The big gators were lurking and many of the strikes in the extreme shallows were heart stopping.

If a pike saw your bait more often than not it'd hit, sometimes rushing the lure from 10-12' away.

 

As the week wore on and the water temps rose the pattern changed a bit.

Instead of extreme shallows we found them in broad, almost featureless weed flats in water depths of 4-8'.

Anywhere we found an obvious weed clump we found the big pike.

In this type water I used 2 baits. Either a 1oz inline bucktail or smallish bass sized 3/4oz spinnerbait.

The really large musky sized baits didn't work as well.

We did try trolling the deeper river channels with oversized diving baits like the Grandmas, but it didn't really produce for us.

 

I also caught a good number of my larger pike on my follow up bait which was usually an 8" black Reaper rigged on a 1/4oz Esox Cobra head jig.

 

Many times a large fish would follow to the boat but wouldn't commit.

I had a fast action spinning rod and Shimano Sustain 4000 loaded with 30lb Power Pro rigged with the black Reaper.

If a fish refused the flashy stuff a quick flip with the oversized plastic almost guaranteed a hook up.

 

Once again the walleye were mostly incidental catches for me.

I didn't do a whole lot of walleye fishing and many of my fish came on the larger pike lures. They're incredibly aggressive up there!

 

When we actually did concentrate on walleye we caught them hand over fist.

Best bait for us was a 4" white or chartreuse twister tail on a 1/4 or 3/8oz head.

Beyond a few diving plugs that's really all you need up there.

 

 

Fish Porn

 

Between all 6 of us I have well over 600 photos to choose from. There's absolutely no way I could possibly give a blow by blow account of the action so I'm going to post a sampling of everyone's best.

 

I will say this much though.

Both the largest pike (473/4") and the largest walleye (29") were bested by yours truly.

 

Numerous fish over 40" were caught, many in the 42-45" range.

These fish were all amazingly fat and I know that a large number of our fish were well over 20lbs.

 

Now on to the porn starting with.....

 

 

Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next shot is both Dan and myself.

We put two huge pike, one 45", the other 42 in the cradle at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued...

Edited July 4, 2010 by solopaddler

[solopaddler]

Me....continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill managed a couple of whitefish on a dry fly....very cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued....

Edited July 4, 2010 by solopaddler

[solopaddler]

Justin And Dave

 

(I had very few pic's of these guys in my computer...perhaps they'll add a few more)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lou

 

 

 

Sadly these are the only two pictures I have of Lou.

 

At first we thought a bear was marauding the kitchen.

In retrospect perhaps it was a bear if you know what I mean.

 

 

 

 

 

So that's it.

It was a week to remember. First and foremost we had a lot of fun and one heckuva good time.

Fantastic outfitter and world class fishing were just icing on the cake.

 

It's gonna a long wait 'till next year!

 

Cheers, Mike

Edited July 4, 2010 by solopaddler

[Terry]

Damn

[wuchikubo]

Great post Mike, looks like you all had a blast and the pike were co-operative (and big!).

[Musky or Specks]

Classic stuff

[Pigeontroller]

Awesome pics and report as usual Mike!

[DRIFTER_016]

It's ok buddy!!!

Only 305 days to go.

I am looking forward to pounding some giant gators on flies.

[Leecher]

Amazing Mike Gators galore WOW

[TennesseeGuy]

Hey Mike, you really showed your guys a great trip. Thanks for the report.

[msp]

I wouldn't expect anything less from you guys.

The first pic of your buddy Dan is my favorite !

A trip of a lifetime, thanks

[Gerritt]

awesome report and pictures Mike, I have been waiting for this report for awhile!

 

Bill looks awfully familiar, I just cannot put my finger on where I know him from!

 

G

[solopaddler]

It's ok buddy!!!

Only 305 days to go.

I am looking forward to pounding some giant gators on flies.

 

304 days now buddy.

 

awesome report and pictures Mike, I have been waiting for this report for awhile!

 

Bill looks awfully familiar, I just cannot put my finger on where I know him from!

 

G

 

In the very first pic I posted (in front of the motel) I think he looks like Belushi.

He's kind of got a little Blues Brother thing going on.

[Roy]

Thanks for that Mike. These are the kinds of reports to be saved and re-read all winter long.....

What a classic. I'm sorry Mike, that sonar would have stayed down there.

[TC1OZ]

Wow that's an amazing report. I wonder if I can email the company and ask him to message me if a group is short or something... I doubt any of the fishermen I know can afford this, but I'd be willing to let the mortgage payment slide for a month

 

Thanks for sharing the adventure

[Rich Clemens]

Geart repot Mike. Probably the envy of many on here.

[Joey]

Well I finally go the whole thread to load, just had to leave it overnight

 

Most excellent report and pics. Unbelievable how low that water is compared to last year.

 

Really like the "bear" pics

 

Joey

[gozwob]

stunning pics and some amazing fish......that one's on my "bucket list"!!

[aniceguy]

Mike it truely was an amazing trip, I ll sort of Chime in on the social aspects first. Always a variable getting together in a remote setting with friends both new and old sometimes can be a challange, not this trip it was without a doubt the best experience I have ever had with a bunch of guys, and I really fell as if I made some brother connections on this trip

 

We all have bucket list trips, I certainly know I have them, some I have completed but some are still a long lazy day dream away. The ones that do remain are monster brook trout Alaskan Wild Steelhead, Mexican Bass and giant snakes, or for most monster Pike which this trip certainly satisfied

 

 

A while back I saw a post on an internet forum by moose bunk of giant pike on the Attawapiskat and the pym, then I saw Krupa do a show on the Pym and it was a location that got added to the bucket list with the I gotta do that for sure

 

Last June my good friend Mike came with this proposal about a new camp on virgin waters teaming with monster snakes and more walleyes then both your shore lunch appitite or arms could handle, on the Attawapiskat with a strong feeling it could have true monster potential I committed to book. I didn’t care if the camp was new, old, or beyond all I focused on was un fished waters not touched by man in years and thats exactly what I got.

 

Well a lot of planning and a few posts and conversations on how Mike fished it in September my plans turned into extreme anxiety akin to are we there yet syndrome, you know the sort of gut wrenching '' is it time to go already'' anticipation.

 

Finally the planning the packing and the journey to Nakina was ahead. After an arduous drive we arrive at Nakina and base, now anyone that has passed trough would know that Nakina isn’t the ideal location for a gourmet meal happily the outfitter was from New Brunswick and was a seafood distributor and brought in some goodies.

 

Go figure we all get treated to a great meal of surf and turf it looked fantastic

 

 

Well with a satisfied tummy, coors light sleeping pills and after the 13 hour drive it was time to sleep so off we went.

 

We woke in the morning to confirm our flight out was for 11, a quick breakfeast and off we went to weigh our gear and board the plane, I really believe our entire group was on pins and needles to get going, so much so that the theme of Borat ran amuck for a bit, more on that one later.......

 

One of the only group shots of our group

 

 

Happily we board our vintage otter and off we go, the scenery is unique in the lowlands with many thousands of small pothole lakes and a few larger ones that we all felt would hold the odd snake or walleye some how an excersion would be neat but I dont think doable.

 

 

ahh the sensation of the plane on the dock and knowing that the bucket list trip is about to come full throttle, little did I know that I was about to begin an adventure with friends that would leave me sitting here as I type this smiling from ear to ear about all the little adventures and laughs of the trip.

 

I knew one thing though, as I planned the trip I established

''goals'' akin to a spot on spot type of deal, I knew I wanted to see a monster pike chase a fish and eat it, sight fish a monster fish in the shallow warm bays, a 50 inch pike was a stretch so I really settled on a 40 plus as the true goal and some personal reflection with a bunch of guys I consider brothers, little did I know what was coming...

 

Back to some scenery, the Attawapiskat I truely thought would be a pristine untouched wilderness, and without any photo manipulation I hope you can capture the surreal scenery that followed me on every single turn and on every single bank even in extreme low water it was a biblical excersion daily to uncharted waters and as a devout Cristian I felt a connection that I believe will draw me back here again and again.

 

 

 

with the sun setting around 11 30 nightly I had real pleasure sitting and watching the vista's while enjoying some finely crafted beers a friend brought in

 

 

 

Not being overly concerned with the cabins, as long as they were bug proof, while they were rustic and needed some work they were perfectly fine and would more then suffice for the week I was here, as you see the new owner of the camp did spend time and resources to make then clean and comfortable and he has ambitious plans underway to make it a great outpost camp, but again with surreal fishing does anyone really care

 

 

With the cooking being done in another kitchen cabin I knew that lucky the mouse wasnt visiting me nor was the juvinile bear from the woods so to say I slept like a baby was an understatement

 

Suffice to say my pallette was satisfied daily here, as a group we brought in divergent meals ranging from Butter Chicken to pasta to wagoo steaks, we ate well thats for sure and as you see the kitchen cabin was a great place to just hang from a day of bruisers, share stories about our lives and just bond as friends, somewhere along the line we all began to speak in an extreme borat accent it made for lots of laughs especially when Dan with his heavy french accent tried to speak in the asbeckastien accent killer laughs is an understatement

 

 

While the camp was recently re opened and by my calculation it was closed for at least 20 years with some walks into the bush we could find the true origins of the camp, we estimated the cabin to be 50 years old at the minimum It was good to see that someone other then us thought it was a great spot.

 

 

Justin and Dave had the right plan, camp shore lunch consiting of many things but the main course battered walleye fillets, they were dead on the deal and I wished I caught on to it earlier. We did plan at least one shore lunch as a group and with the plan under foot we made good.

 

The beauty of this place is that lunch can be on the deck of the boat in mere minutes in the right location, while they were not 30 inch walleye many were perfect eating size, I remember looking at the fish and thinking how god creates things perfect

 

So with a few stops we had lunch

 

 

 

The beach resembled a drive tru with the boats parked I chuckled at it a few times

 

 

Now Justin has a few gifts ( a borat imitation is certainly one of them as is pitching empty pringle containers ) but so is his ability to batter a fish to perfection and good it just right, it was one of the lunches I ll remember for decades it was that good and that enjoyable

 

 

 

Enough of my typing here, you have seen the flights the scenery and the food, but really why did I drive thirteen hrs, fly one and drive a boat for another 40 minutes, I wanted snakes.

 

I saw the earlier reports on the camp and I knew the giants were there, but conditions change, what lure, what pattern and what tactics woudl work to find and tie into the giant snakes, that was the million dollar question. Initially we found hundreds of hammer handles pike, and a few larger ones but the elusive giants just were not there the first few days, at least for me anyhow.

 

 

Dont get me wrong here, I enjoyed the massive quantity of hammers and the odd 30 plus fish but snakes were on my mind, my other friends found success not as much with pattern initially but with location, but my partner for the week and I once we found the right lure, patterned them quick and the snakes started to appear

 

 

With some changing conditions namely 35 degree weather the pattern changed quick and the good ole Johnston spoon and the developing patterns started to find bigger fish, quickly the reepers body baits and spinners got abandoned and as Mike said we all moved to one primary bait

 

 

Well with some cabin talks we all started to as a group tighten the pattern window and collectively started to pick up consistant fish on consistant patterns and we started to dial in the fish, while we all knew the potential of a 50 inch pike existed on every cast, our measurment of success was a fish over 40 inches

 

Sticking to a pattern started to reap rewards

 

 

 

Prior to the trip I really thought I would have severe shoulder pain from casting beefy rods and big baits, I really spent time thinking on the right rods for this trip I decided to bring my loomis frog rod with a curado 100 up as one of the primary rods I would use, I honestly can say that I made hundreds upon hundreds of casts and I felt like a spring chicken every night what a great stick!

I handled fish like a champ and made me really start thinking more on loomis products in the future, now back to a few more fish pictures

 

 

One thing I always like to do is take macro's of fish I find the characteristics of fish face as I call it very appealing it also makes me feel connected to the fish in a quasi fashion I really feel like I connected with the animal on a different plane

 

 

 

This particular snake really had me under some sort of ancient charm as I was mesmerized by it when I have some time and catch up on sleep I ll take some time to Manipulate the picture and see how majestic the animal really was

 

 

As the week was going by we saw the pattern slightly change and with some manipulation fish could still go, we found many in a small bay, and we can only assume they were in there resting from current and recovering from the spawn as they were agressive as agressive any fish can get and once hooked it was insane, it was just another glimpse on the pattern, but it sure was neat to see a gator run 10 feet in a wake to chase your lure

 

Dont get me wrong even though its remote extreme wilderness these big fish needed to be patterned and figured out, happily I was with a really experienced bunch and we could all get them dialed in a bit quicker

 

 

also amungst the facial pictures of fish I enjoy the under water still shot, nothing rivals a top predator though as he rests in current and regains it strength

 

 

Well as the week was closing I was starting to question things I had a pike chase both a walleye and Pike, I had some great meals and some even greater times with men I consider brothers, I sight fished for monster pike and broke the 40 barrier, but just.

 

I still had to break a bigger hurdle. I finally got the chance to fish with a friend Dave, I respect him greatly and wanted to fish with him so I was happy it worked out, we hatched a plan that was a zero or hero plan, we both knew it and we both echoed the go big or go home god was I glad we did we fished milk runs collectively we bought found over the week. Dave is quite the musky guy so Im pretty excited to get out with him sooner then later to fish for those fish also

 

I finally was able to breach the 43 barrier 2 times while not the trip record of 47 it was more then enough to make me smile as I put my head on a pillow at night

 

FINALLY

 

 

As we turned the corner I was able to find this behemith hiding at the perfect ambush point

 

 

Just to put these fish into a classificaion these are larger then average hands on the mouth of a recovering pike

 

 

Well thats it lots of pike lots of giggles and an adventure on a bucket list with guys I hope Im friends with for many decades to come

 

Thats it I completed a bucket list trip, I have wanted to do since I was a teen I made some new friends and renewed some old ones.

 

Finally I just wanted to chill with a beer and reflect before the thirteen hour drive, but I crossed one off the list but more importantly I spent time with some of the greatest guys one can hope for

 

 

the next trip .................is in the plan!!

[BillM]

 

Bill looks awfully familiar, I just cannot put my finger on where I know him from!

 

G

 

I don't think I've ever known someone named Gerritt (well except for you, lol)..

 

I lived in St.Catharines for 28 years, 2 years in Hamilton for college, been up in Barrie ever since

 

Maybe we scrapped it out in minor hockey when I was younger? lol

[tibbs]

Fantastic Report and Great Pics!

 

Looked like an absolute blast!

Edited July 4, 2010 by Tibbs

[fishnsled]

That is just simply incredible!! We just got back from our trip to Yesterday Lake and had a heck of a time putting anything together. Winds constantly blowing from the north, temps were in the mid 20's and went to waking up to -2 Oddly enough we had the same thing happen to one of our fishfinders. It still sits at the bottom of Yesterday Lake. Good on ya Dan for taking the plunge! Thanks for the report!

Edited July 5, 2010 by fishnsled

[ehg]

Thanks for sharing this and making this adventure possible for others!

[Moosebunk]

Well done Mike and Co. Good thing I checked this report out at work cause there'd be no getting that whad of photages to load on this crap connection at home.

 

It is certainly a special river with a definite amazement about it. It's fishing sure treated you all as well. Nicely done Bateau Warriors, and thanks Mike for putting that together.

 

[danbouck]

I have no idea what I can say to that so... lol