fish1812 Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 (edited) Since I only write 1 report a year and last years was so well received and we were going to be the first group going into eddies Richter lake camp, I figured I better do it up right. And while last years report was simply about the pics of massive pike, this report is more about the videos and the story itself ( i couldn't figure out how to imbed the videos so just click the youtube links, they are entertaining), Also I feel like ive had about 100 inquiries so far asking about the trip so rather than just post a bunch of pics I decided to go into a little more detail about what actually goes on during an eddie north outpost adventure, Richter is certainly in a class by itself as far as walleye fishing goes. Soo without further a due here we go cast of characters, the pike assassin always ready with the glove to get that 50 Incher into the boat for ya Hoops12 catches more pike on jigs than anyone I know, and managed not to hook me in the head at all this year Alex gordon geco mcdonald, The money man, Has mastered the in pan pancake flip as well, its a sight to be seen Dan sneek e pete some random guy we picked up off the internet, almost drowned himself and burned down the camp within an hour of us getting there, but still a great guy Mr. Ron Bennèt The senior member of the group, Rons turn ons are candle light dinners, long walks on the beach. and his pet peves are trolling and thunder storms and myself Fish1812 self appointed leader of this gang. and the only one that would wade waist deep into a freezing lake to unsink the boats! and yes i am as tough as i look in this photo;) DAY 1 And our quest begins! Last may myself, hoops 12 and the pike assassin had the pleasure of being the first group into Eddie Norths outpost camp on beteau lake for the year,and wow what a trip that turned out to be! So when Eddie floated the idea of us being the first into his new camp on Richter lake, we jumped at the chance. We enlisted our friends Alex and Mr. Ron Bennét, who just to clarify is not bobs dad. We were still short one fisherman, so I opened it up to the OFC board and was quickly contacted by dan (sneek e pete) who informed me that while he loves to fish, his friends are just not hardcore enough to consider a week out in the wilderness as a great holiday, and with that he was in and we had our 6! After about a million emails back and forth planning menus and trash talking about who was going to get into the first fish, Friday rolled around and we were off, starting our journey from Brantford we met Alex at his building in Burlington and Dan was also to meet us there, there were a few nervous minutes waiting to see who this Dan guy was, and I took quite a bit of heat from the others for picking up some random guy on the internet for our yearly fishing trip. But after meeting Dan and having a beer or two in the parking lot of Alexs building (non drivers only of course) we were all fast friends and ready to tackle Richter lake! If only it wasn’t a 15 hour drive to get there!! Another quick stop at Alexs brothers restaurant, (the wonderful sunset grill in Richmond hill) home of the famous all day breakfast, to pick up the food and we were on the road. A pretty uneventful drive had us arriving at the air base in Nakina around 9, our take off was around 11 so we had some time to wait, and all guess just how many hundreds of pounds over weight we were going to be for the plane. jeff got in a little last minute target practice in case we saw any bears up there We actually ran into solopaddler and his group of OFC ers just flying out of Beteau, sounded like they had a good week despite the freezing temps, We actually got the same pilot as last year, Bruce is such a great guy with soo many stories about flying float planes in the summer and ski racing in the winter and the hour long flight flew by. (bruce always pulls out a sandwich just after takeoff which was a little unnerving the first year, but this year i took it as a sign of confidence, i have a hard enough time driving while eating a quater pounder. The plane circled Richter and we would get our first glimpse of what would be our home for the next week. Once we were on the ground we were all quickly rigging rods and trying to get the first cast off the dock and of course that honour went to yours truly and wham!!! A hit within 5 seconds of the bait touching the water, and then snap. In my haste to get the first cast i had to forgo tying on a leader and a pike had bitten off my x rap (more on this later) My 3rd cast yielded a nice 20 inch walleye and by this time the pike assassin had his rod in the water and a walleye on his line as well. 10 or 12 fish later we were ready to get into the boats and see what was what! But the skies were clouding over and it looked like it was going to storm. While hoops and alex and I set up the cabin dan decided to venture out alone. Not 20 minutes later we were sitting at the kitchen table and alex and I hear help, help!! We both run out, while jeff keeps trying to tell us it was only a bird. Alex makes it to the end of the dock first and yells dans in the water!!!, we hop in the boat and race over to help dan out who is clinging to the still running boat in water that can only be described as freezing! Now alex and I are both pretty strapping, but dan is a big boy and there was no way we were hauling his ass over the side so alex dragged him back to shore while I brought in the other boat. We get dan back to shore and are trying to figure out what happened which is when he explains to us that he was casting, bumped a rock and fell over board. But dan we ask if you where casting, why was the motor on..... which is when he explains that once in the water, he realized that he couldn’t get back into the boat, and then started to motor and attempted to back troll himself into shore!!!! Dan looks pretty cold so we attempt to start a fire in an old drum to heat him up but everything’s wet, so for some reason i decided it was a good idea to throw on a little gas, there was literally 2 ounces of gas in the bottom of a jerry can but i poured it a bit too slow and wham, the fire is blazing in the drum and the can is on fire!!!! I set it down and dan comes out of no where, and boots that flaming can right into the woods!!!!! Alex and i both yell and go and get some shovels to apply dirt to the now flaming underbrush, jeff grabs a pot of water and throws it on (just for reference this is not the way to put out a gas fire), and now there’s twice as much area on fire including my leg and boots! , alex and i are screaming at people to get some dirt, to which jeff replies hang on I’m gonna go get the camera!!!! Dan throws his coat on the fire, which did a good job of snuffing it out, but is not really good for your coat, and with that day one came to a close more that 48 hours after it had started. Day 2 Day 2 was bright and sunny and we were anxious to put the tribulations of day 1 behind us, we were out on the water by 9 and had our first fish on by 902, and our second by 903 and this trend pretty much continued for the rest of the week, richter is a crazy lake with by my estimates, 9 million walleye (i am not basing that on anything other that it seems like a pretty big number and we caught thousands of fish!!!) we started off casting x raps, and killed the walleye, then we found a point and threw jigs, and killed the walleye, then we trolled with those live target crank baits and killed the walleye, there was literally nothing we could do wrong, double headers where almost non stop and we even had a triple header while Mr. Bennèt and i were both bringing in fish and another one jumped out of the water and grabbed a jig that was dangling from my spare rod. These were the goto baits for the week and as you can see they got pretty beat up, my flatrap now has a single hook on the front after i lost the other two and my poor quarter ounce jig and gulp that probably caught 500 walleye finally succumb and lost its hook as well Poor dan was struggling a little though, after his fiasco of a day one, he could not catch a fish on day 2, we were pulling them out from under him left and right but he could not covert, he actually asked alex for some tips on his jigging tempo, which automatically endeared him to alex for life, jeff and i laughed when alex smiled ear to to ear and replied i love it when people ask me how i catch so many fish. Dan must have dipped his jig in the bug spray or the gas can or something because it was literally non-stop for the rest of us. But dan would redeem himself. We ended day 2 in awe of just how many fish are in this lake and how crazy aggressive they are!! The other thing about Richter is being as far north as it is, the sun is out for the majority of the day, its nearly impossible to tell what time it is, you look up and think its 2 in the afternoon only to find out its 9pm. The sun was out till midnight all week and we took full advantage!! before heading home for a late night snack Day 3 I was again paired up with Mr. Bennèt and we hit the weed flats still hoping for a monster pike, but alas, while we caught 35 more modest fish, the gators were no where to be found. (yes there is a pike in there) After quick lunch we all decided to try and get an actual fish count, so it was first to 100 out of the 3 boats, (yes thats right 100!!!!) and this was our afternoon contest. It took Mr. Bennèt and I 4 hours to hit the 100 mark, and we actually stopped at the weed flats again to cast for about 40 minutes. So 100 walleye, 3 hours 20 minutes, now that is some fast action!!! We got back to the cabin for dinner and discovered that alex had actually gotten into a larger pike finally we were estimating around 37-38 inches, not a monster like last year at beteau, but still a good start.!!! And the Pike assassin came in and asked if anyone had lost an x rap around the dock, I described the one I had lost on the first cast and low and behold, bob had caught my fish! A 38 inch pike, 2 days later on an x rap, with my lure still hanging from his mouth! Another great fish dinner and we were off to bed. I have to say that the sky looked a little ominous as we were hitting the hay and we wondered what tomorrow’s weather would bring. Day 4 Wow! So day 3 was mid 20s and sunny, and on day 4 we woke to gale force winds, snow and 4 sunken boats, the wind was so hard the snow was blowing straight sideways. We had some bacon and eggs and started a little poker tourney, I normally dont eat breakfast but thoroughly enjoyed it up there with Alex cooking, did i mention that his family owns the sunset grill in Richmond hill, home of the famous all day breakfast alexs brother Fraser actually provided alot of our food for the trip and the home made burgers were incredible, next time im in that area ill be stopping in for one for sure!!! around 3 i decided to see if i could un-sink the boats, I did not plan on spending an hour waist deep in the freezing lake, but when there’s fishing to be done you do what you gotta do! We got the boats ready headed out grabbed a quick 20 fish for dinner and called it a day. P.s. the walleye seem to taste exceptionally good up there for some reason, and having eaten at least 40 in the last week, I consider myself somewhat of a Richter lake walleye coinsurer. The pike assasin on the other hand likes his burgers Day 5 Day 5 was back to sunny and the temps in the high 20s this time i was paired with alex for the day and we wanted to target some of the mid lake humps, to see if we could find a few larger fish, and just like everywhere else in the lake we caught just tons of fish, and even managed a few bigger fish, and we heard a bunch of screaming from dans boat (again) jeff and bob had a faster boat so they headed over and it turned out that this time dan had a big fish on rather than having fallen out of the boat or set the camp on fire, with a little help from jeff they had our first 40+ inch pike in the boat. Dan had gotten a little of his honor back!! The sun actually took a little bit of a toll on me so i sat out afternoon session and the boys went out and killed the walleye as usual. Day 6 Our last full day at Richter was tournament day for us, we drew teams and jeff and i were paired up bob and alex where together and dan and Mr. Bennèt rounded out the field. Jeff and i already had our spots picked so we chose to do our pre-fishing in the other guys spots and see how many of their fish we could catch. I actually managed my biggest pike of the week, which would have been a nice one had it not been so anorexic The tourney started with our own little blast off and jeff and i hit the shoreline right beside the camp and already had 9 fish in the boat within 10 minutes, Then the wind picked up out of no where, the biggest waves of the week pounded the rocky shore just like we had hoped so jeff and i cast a jig right into shore and we absolutely dominated the fish, meanwhile dan and Mr Bennèt took shelter up on shore (kind of a girly move if you ask me) while bob and alex hid out in a weedy bay trying to get their 20 pike quota for the tournament. It was over before it started and jeff and I took it down and enjoyed a nice dinner on the way home courtesy of the other teams. With Day 6 wrapping up we grabbed a few walleye for my famous pickerel alfredo ( I don’t actually do the cooking nor did i come up with the recipe, but for the purpose of this post i will take the credit) and once dinner was done we finished off the rest of the booze and hit the hay, The cup in the middle of the booze is reserved for he who catches the smallest fish of the day, or if you fall out of your boat and then set the woods on fire that works as well. not looking forward to the 18 hour trip home. Day 7 We awoke to bright calm skies which quickly turned into a rain storm, and then just crazy wind, which did not stop us from catching countless walleye off the dock while waiting for the plane. i felt bad for the pilot he had to make 5 approaches to the water, and it took him about 40 minutes to back into the dock in the whitecaps. But we got the plane in, loaded and took off for the hour and a bit flight back to nakina, it was not a smooth ride, but not terrible and with that our adventure was done for another year. I have had hundred fish days in the past, catching smallmouth in gowganda, and fishing beteau last year was crazy simply because of the veracity of the fish, but Richter is in a league of its own. The last person to fish the lake prior to us was in 1991, and in the last 20 years the walleye certainly been busy. There are just an infinite number of fish in the lake, they have no fear of boats, no aversion to fisherman or lures, alot of the time we would actually see them swimming around our boats to investigate. While I would not sell Richter as a trophy pike lake, we did catch 2 40 inchers and a few others in the high 30s and jeff and i saw a fish that jeff actually hooked that we estimated at 45 inches so the gators are def there its just a matter of finding them. I am not a really a walleye fisherman so i will refrain from making statements stacking richter up against other great walleye lakes, the pics and the videos speak for themselves. Eddie north has come through again. This is a pristine virgin fishery that will enable even a novice to catch more fish than they know what to do with. Until next year Edited June 8, 2011 by fish1812
Joey Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 Well that was a stellar report, and very funny too. You tell a great tale and I enjoyed the entire thing. Thanks for sharing your trip, felt like I was there. I am very glad nobody drowned or burned while you were there You were all very lucky on that part, but it worked out in the end so that is a good thing. Joey
lookinforwalleye Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 holy crap!!! I cant wait till september! Ditto Gerritt it`s gonna be a blast!!!
danbouck Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 An awesome report, i just read it to the kids and they hung on to every word!
tooski Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 Mucho thanks 1812- as you know we are heading to Richter this Saturday so your post was certainly appreciated. I agree with Joey- your description of the first day near drowning-fire made it seem as though I was right there. Hilarious story of Dan trying to backtroll to land. I'm still smiling. I'll post something on our return but I doubt it compares with your efforts. Thanks again.......
Moosebunk Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 I thought these photos to be really great and the report your best to date. A day one man overboard and forest fire had me thinking the rest of the report would be full of other gongs within the group, but ya got it together and made out like walleye bandits free of arrest. The day four nearly sunken boats reminded me of last year at Kesagami for us. It happens. Eddie I'm sure will lengthen the dock in time so the boats can have enough water to be turned facing out into the lake to ride any big waves shorebound. A helpful hint for trips to come. Aberlour is a favorite. So are walleye. No shortage of scotch or fish for your group... awesome good numbers and must have felt real cool to know you were the first in a long, long time to fish that lake. God love that area of the north... I wanted to ask though what the total fishable area is? On the map the lake measures smallish but with the potential to be big if able to travel to the other nearby lakes or even reach the Skat. Was this the case or is Richter the week long playground?
lookinforwalleye Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 Just a tip, pull the boats a little higher out of the water!!! Great report on the walleye fishing, I am hoping we can figure out the pike as well!!!
tooski Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Moose- Eddie has asked us to take a boat and smaller motor to the lake above Richter if possible. I haven't been in touch with 1812 since his return to see if he tried that route.Obviously if a portage is required it will be a bit rough since there should be 20 years of growth over it. We definitely plan on getting to the lake above and from there we'll see how difficult it might be to get to the Skat. Satellite views are deceiving and much depends on water level but I will report on our return around the 20th if it looks possible. Long journey for sure though.
DRIFTER_016 Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Great Report!!!! It was nice running into y'all in Nakina. I still can't believe you didn't beleive me when I said it was a dry camp and you were to leave your adult libations behind.
kickingfrog Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 holy crap!!! I cant wait till september! Ditto Gerritt it`s gonna be a blast!!! Hmmmmmm? Who is going to swim and who is going to immolate himself?
irishfield Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Always someone on a trip that has to be the center of attention! A great recount of the events. Thanks for taking the time and posting the porn!
rufus Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 I enjoyed your report and your videos - looks like you had a great time!
solopaddler Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Outstanding report, thanks for taking the time to post! I had heard from Eddie you guys caught a lot of walleye but that takes the cake, just awesome. Was nice meeting you guys at the airbase, I'm really glad everything went well for you! (more or less )
fishnsled Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Quite the report. Glad all ended well and that the fishing was just awesome!! Thanks for taking the time to put that together.
adempsey Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Great report. I love the lure "roadkill"! That alone testifies to the success of your trip. I liked those videos, some were quite humorous.
spincast Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 awesome report, thanks. What a fanatastic get away!
lakerguy Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Thanks for sharing that Cant wait for Aug. now
manitoubass2 Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Simply amazing, looks like one heck of a trip! I'm very jealous
johnnyb Posted June 8, 2011 Report Posted June 8, 2011 Great report...lots of laughs...what an amazing trip!!!! I sure would hate to be drinking from the smallest-fish cup though!
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