Jds63 Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 OFC is a great community and I have read many amazing trip logs here. Many of you folks are quite talented at putting together your photos and thoughts and I really appreciate you sharing your passion with the rest of us like minded fishing folk. After reading many posts for the last few years and pm’s with some great people here I was able to convince 3 of my friends to commit to a trip. It has always been a dream of mine to do a fly in fishing trip. Due to many factors it always remained a dream until this year. I was fortunate enough to go on my first fly in fishing trip during labour day weekend of 2011. First I’d like to acknowledge (Mike ) SoloPaddler, and publicly send a big thank you for his tips and generosity on making this trip a success. Thanks to Terry as well for some great tips. So onto the trip report …. 4 of us booked 3 nights with Park’s Fly-In Fishing out of Hawk Junction with Hawk Air. We ended up heading into Abbey Lake, yes the same lake that Solopaddler and Terry went to this summer. It wasn’t intentional, it just happened to be the only lake that was available for the 3 night trip so we put in our deposit. As you have already heard from their trip reports, this lake contains plenty of decent eating sized walleye. We didn’t catch many pike. With the deposit paid it was a “GO”, so the 4 of us started gathering different fish recipes to try on the walleye. We emailed each other prior to the trip to make sure we had enough food so we wouldn’t starve …. LOL that wasn’t needed as we would soon find out …. On the way up … overcast Lake Superior We took the Trans Canada and the drive from the Sault to Wawa has some spectacular scenery. We stayed at the Beaver Motel (clean and affordable) in Wawa and had dinner at the Viking restaurant (good food). Wawa seems to be feeling the woes of the US recession as we spoke to a few business owners that said there were fewer US visitors making the trips for hunting and fishing. Our flight with Hawk Air was scheduled for 9:30 am so after a late dinner we headed back to the Beaver. The next morning was extremely foggy as we checked out of the Beaver motel and headed for a quick breakfast in Wawa. Arriving at Hawk Air base, about a 15 min drive from Wawa, we could tell that nobody would be flying for a while with the thick fog blanketing the lake. After our check in we confirmed that things would be delayed, so we started chatting with the other groups of fisherman that were waiting to head out as well. This dog was always looking for attention. Many of the guys we spoke to had been doing these fly in trips for many years and all had great fishing stories to tell. Seems like no one was disappointed with any of the lakes they had been to over the years. One of the other groups had a few extra beverages. After a 3 hour delay we were off to Abbey Lake. With the 1956 Beaver fully loaded it was a quick 30 min flight. What an awesome experience to be riding in this rugged bush plane and knowing its place in the history of the Canadian north. Our gear and weapons of mass destruction !!! Our destination … The young pilot Matti, parked the Beaver at the dock with ease as if it were a 12 ft aluminum boat. All gear unloaded he quickly showed us around the cabin and was headed back to do it all again with another group. What a job !!! I don’t think I even looked around the cabin, but headed straight to unpack my reels and get setup to head out. We were on the water by 2:00 pm and had our lines in the water by 2:10. By 2:11 we had a double header ….. it was that insane !!!! By 2:50 we had caught and released 11 walleye each. With a quick call on the 2 way radio to the other boat we decided to have a late lunch as we still had not eaten. We literally dropped our jigs to the bottom and pulled up a walleye each and headed in for a snack. The cabin had a little area out front to clean the fish and we put the remains into a bucket, which was later dropped into the middle of the lake. We quickly prepared a nice feast of walleye fillets only hours after arriving at this amazing place. After our feast we unpacked the rest of our gear and headed back out for a couple more hours of fishing. That night after another feast of walleye we enjoyed a nice fire, and a couple of refreshments. The next morning the weather took a complete reversal. The temperature had dropped and cold front had moved in. We quickly had breakfast and headed out expecting the fishing to be a lot slower. I need coffee !!!!! It was a little slower but still had no problem putting them in the boat. We changed up a bit and tried drifting with a worm harness as the wind was quite a bit stronger. It started off like this …. Later the same day after trolling for walleye all morning I caught this small pike. This day turned out to be a mixed bag of weather, as systems moved through all day with sun, cloud and rain. We all headed back for the evening meal which surpassed all of our expectations as we each prepared our different recipes for Walleye and accompanied it with steak, chicken and venison. We needed the extra protein….. LOL. We closed out the day with another fire and more refreshments. The final day turned out to be the coldest as temps dropped to 2 degrees overnight. We awoke to a bright but chilly morning. Fishing was a tougher bite but the last day as always passed too quickly and we ate whatever we had left in our coolers. Yeah we ate everything on the fish … The last night again around the fire was spent just enjoying the moment and realizing that life is too short to make excuses to not do this kind of stuff. Our fly out day we were all up at 6:00 am to pack and clean up the cabin and to get all our gear out on the dock for the arrival of the Beaver at 9:00 am. Well it was another foggy morning and we knew we would be delayed. As it turned out the fog delayed our departure to almost 11:30 , however we got picked up by the Otter which was a bonus for us. boats, cleaned and stored …. gear on dock …. waiting …. and waiting … The Otter arrives !!!!! The drive back home was uneventful and long. All in all it was an awesome trip , fishing was excellent and Park’s Outposts and Hawk Air were great to deal with. Hopefully my next fly in adventure will be for Lakers or Specks !!! Thanks for reading.
BillM Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Great report!!! The Otter is awesome eh?
spincast Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 - love the North of Superior scenery - looks like a great time.
Terry Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 glad you had a great time I really enjoyed my time at that lake this year
limeyangler Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Amazing report! You summed it all up for me when you wrote.......... "The last night again around the fire was spent just enjoying the moment and realizing that life is too short to make excuses to not do this kind of stuff." :thumbsup_anim: :thumbsup_anim:
fishindevil Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 awesome fly in trip guys !!! lots of fish,good times,,,and the scenery looks amazing !! cheers
mercman Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Great report !! Thanks for sharing.I dream about doing a trip like that. Some day.......sigh.
Moosebunk Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Wawa and Longlac are the only places in Ontario I've seen tumbleweeds. Ghost towns they're becoming. Enjoyed this one. Once you're bitten by the fly-in bug and get the chance to sample great waters, it becomes something to look forward to every year, then experience. You're wallet just got lighter for life.
Joey Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Excellent report, thanks for taking the time to put that together. Felt like I was there
LucG Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Sounds like a blast! But did you really eat those fish heads? lol
corvette1 Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 awesome trip guys congrats mike is the go too guy for these kind of trips.
ccmtcanada Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Fantastic report! I have yet to do a fly in...something I've wanted to do for years. Reading reports like this just gives me the itch! Great story telling and pictures
johnnyb Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 awesome stuff....I also like the "life's too short comment".....thanks for sharing and motivating
Rod Caster Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Great report! How did the walleye- eyes taste?
Jds63 Posted September 28, 2011 Author Report Posted September 28, 2011 (edited) Wawa and Longlac are the only places in Ontario I've seen tumbleweeds. Ghost towns they're becoming. Enjoyed this one. Once you're bitten by the fly-in bug and get the chance to sample great waters, it becomes something to look forward to every year, then experience. You're wallet just got lighter for life. Great way to put it " the wallet got lighter for life " Sounds like a blast! But did you really eat those fish heads? lol yeah , never had them before, but I tried them and the meat was just like the fillets, plus pickeral cheeks ... were great Great report! How did the walleye- eyes taste? we did fillets in different styles : Tempura , butter, blackened spice, fish crisp, bbq, it was all good , walleye are the best to eat in my opinion the eyes were not what i expected Edited September 28, 2011 by jds63
Headhunter Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Great report, thanks for taking the time... but I gotta ask, what with the gloves, when you guys are holding fish? HH
Dontcryformejanhrdina Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Wow great report! Doing something like this has only been something I've talked about, still remains a dream of mine. Congrats.
Jds63 Posted September 28, 2011 Author Report Posted September 28, 2011 (edited) Great report, thanks for taking the time... but I gotta ask, what with the gloves, when you guys are holding fish? HH the yellow glove my buddy was using allows you to lip the walleye and pike, i had never seen one before, it is supposed to have some protective material against the teeth, made for easy releases, so i tried my cheapo work glove and it seemed to work, just held them by the lip and and quick release at the boat, yeah i guess it looks gay but we just didn't want to waste time catching and releasing .... LOL Edited September 28, 2011 by jds63
Headhunter Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 the yellow glove my buddy was using allows you to lip the walleye and pike, i had never seen one before, it is supposed to have some protective material against the teeth, mad for real easy releases, so i tried my cheapo work glove and it seemed to work, just held them by the lip and and quick release at the boat, yeah i guess it looks gay but we just didn't want to waste time catching and releasing .... LOL Gottcha! I can't comment on the manliness, I was just curious, that's all! Again, great report and the pic quality is very good as well! HH
adempsey Posted September 28, 2011 Report Posted September 28, 2011 Looks like it was a really nice trip! Not sure I could handle it being so short though. Thanks for posting the report.
solopaddler Posted October 3, 2011 Report Posted October 3, 2011 Been up in Nakina the last week and missed this. Very glad your trip went well Julian, great recap!
Grimace Posted October 3, 2011 Report Posted October 3, 2011 The gloves are pretty girly but you guys made up for it by eating the fish heads. Well played. Looks like a great trip.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now