Dusey Lake Outpost ~ Journey To A Brook Trout Zoo

solopaddler · June 20, 2012

Where To Go?

The winter months are a fun time for me. Beyond the obvious I relish the time spent researching, planning and booking the upcoming seasons trips.

The problem is after so many trips over the years I tend to become jaded. Hate to say it, but it's true. It takes something special to capture my imagination and spark my interest.

Most of my adult life has been spent in search of large native brook trout. If I have a favourite fish this is the one.

In recent years walleye and pike have been at the forefront. Not that I'm complaining, I love fishing for them, but brookies they're not.

So with that in mind I began my search for a quality brook trout destination, with the large brawling rivers in northwestern Ontario being my focus.

Joining me on this trip would be my young son as well as my dad and uncle, so price factored heavily into the equation as well. It simply couldn't be too expensive.

In the summer of 1989 I paddled the Dusey river, a large tributary of the Ogoki. Back then it was largely unknown. There were no portage trails, the location of rapids was mostly guesswork, and best of all it teemed with trout. By all accounts it remains exactly the same way today, an untouched jewel.

Many of my recollections of the river are hazy at best. In my younger days I took few notes and never even carried a camera. Still, the trout stood out in my minds eye: dark of back, blazing orange bellies, and dime sized speckles ringed with enormous blue halos. These were trout worth pursuing.

After a quick search it was determined that 7 Lakes Wilderness Camps based in Nakina operated an outpost camp on Dusey lake.

Oddly enough I had no memory of Dusey lake at all, but digging in and researching it, the location looked promising.

It's a 6km long widening of the Dusey river and seemed to be smack dab in the middle of the best trout water.

Best of all the lake was reported to be abounding with walleye and large pike, an unexpected bonus. The possibility of world class fishing for all three species was too much to resist and I quickly got on the phone to Brad Slagel, owner of 7 Lakes.

Brad is a true salt of the earth character and as I found out a die hard trout fisherman.

After talking with him on the phone the trip sounded almost too good to be true, especially considering the price, and I quickly booked.

What I hadn't realized is Brad also has another camp on Dusey for himself. He maintains the second land use permit for two reasons. First to ensure that another outfitter doesn't encroach on his little piece of eden, and second to use as a base for himself when potential customers feel the need for a guide.

While I certainly don't require a guide, Brad suggested he may fly into the second camp for a couple of days while we were there to show me around.

How could I possibly say no to that? And so the stage was set...

Biblical Floods, High Water And Breaking The Ice

Flying into camp on Saturday June 2, there was a large group of young men waiting at the dock to fly out. They were a bit bedraggled as during their trip they had faced some truly daunting conditions.

Rain of a biblical nature had raised the river several feet. This was followed by a cold front, snow, and then more rain.

As one of the lads said as he boarded the plane, "we were half expecting a swarm of locusts to descend!"

They reported great fishing for walleye and pike, but were a bit more subdued regarding the brook trout. Apparantly the high water was making wading next to impossible, and much if not most of the trout water was buried under 6' of raging water.

Not exactly what we were hoping to hear, but still we'd have a fun time finding out for ourselves.

After unpacking we donned our waders and while I was readying our tackle my 5 year old Brendan began to fish off the mostly flooded dock.

His excited cries brought us all running, the young lad had broken the ice with a chunky pike! As it turned out it would be one of many he'd catch off the dock during our stay.

We all decided to head upstream on the Dusey. My dad and uncle in one boat, my son and I in another.

As we motored upstream the skies began to lift and with it our spirits soared.

The two old boys roared up the main stem making a beeline for Loten falls, a raging neckdown of whitewater that spilled into a large pool.

Enroute upstream I was distracted by a large unnamed tributary of the Dusey that veered off to the left. It looked interesting on the map, so I figured why not give it a shot? The water levels did make for easier than normal navigation. So with Brendan in tow we ventured into the unknown...

My dad and uncle both found success as well, each catching several speckled beauties.

As you can see we did quite well catching a number of beautifully coloured brookies, and after the initial high water scare the relief was palpable. Conditions may not be prime, but I knew we'd catch fish!

One of the trout was hooked deeply and injured so it was quickly dispatched. I did this with regret as Brad has implemented a no kill policy on the brook trout at camp. They're such a precious resource and so sensitive to overfishing, as caretaker of the resource it's incumbent on him to keep it vibrant and healthy.

Still, I refuse to waste a fish, especially one so delicious, so back to camp it came.

From that point on though it was barbless hooks only.

For a first day on new water it was a smashing success! The mood back at camp was good and we were all pumped about what lay in store for us...

Big Water And Big Brookies

The next morning we were all up early, eager to get back on the water.

Brad Slagel had indeed flown in to fish with me. While my dad, uncle and son all headed off together upstream, we headed down the lake to the outlet with Brad at the helm.

The year before Brad hat cut a 500m long trail around the outlet rapids, caching a boat at the end and opening up many more miles of prime trout water.

None of the lads in the previous group had fished it as we found out upon arrival at the trailhead. The 9.9 motor and tank of gas were still right where Brad had left them earlier in the spring at the start of the trail.

While mulling over this unexpected surprise I scanned the head of the rapids a couple of hundred yards downstream.

From my vantage point it seemed as though there may be some good water accessible by wading on the opposite side.

Of course that would entail parking the boat safely upstream from the violent water and crashing down through dense brush with no trail...

When I suggested this to Brad he stated that he'd never fished the opposite side on foot before and was all for it!

At that point I knew we'd get along just fine.

After a sketchy landing as close to the whitewater as we dared we hopped out of the boat and bulled our way through the bush downstream.

The views of the river as we fished our way downstream were breathtaking!

We had both brought fly rods but quickly realized they were more or less useless. With zero room for backcasts and monster casts required it wasn't worth the effort.

We turned to spinning rods and hardware and it didn't take long before we were into trout. What really amazed me was the heavy water many of the trout were holding in. I'm talking stuff that was literally torrential. With the water being so high it made reading the water and finding the seams a bit more difficult, but still, they existed and the trout were there!

I shot this short clip of Brad as he both caught then lost brook trout on consecutive casts. The second one was of course a dandy.

The rest of the day was remarkable. Suffice it to say we never did get around to carrying the motor to the end of the portage.

The numbers of brook trout were staggering, and considering the utterly horrid conditions I was amazed.

Heading back to camp in the late afternoon towering cumulus clouds rose in the distance and a brief shower could be seen pelting down. We zipped up our jackets expecting we'd get hit, then suddenly it dissipated.

Moments later we were greeted with this sight. If you believe in omens it was a good one.

Back at camp it seemed the lads had done well too, with everyone including Brendan catching lots of fish.

A truly memorable day all around!

On The Trail For Trout

The next day dawned clear and cloudless, utter perfection. Up early with coffee in hand I was greeted with a most spectacular sight.

This was my last day with Brad as he had to fly out and attend to some business. We planned to make the best of it of course, heading back down to the outlet rapids and carrying the motor across the trail to access the water far downstream.

With my second cup of coffee in hand and not a ripple on the lake, the drive to the outlet was a small slice of heaven.

The river from the trail side was pretty tempting as well and we stopped in several spots enroute to wet a line. How could we not?

Arriving at the end of the trail we readied the boat and were about to push off when I suggested we fish a bit wading along the shore. It was flooded grass and quite deep, but it looked doable to me.

Brad as usual agreed with my assessment (did I mention I really like Brad?), so fish on foot we did.

Finally after catching 30 or so trout we hopped in the boat and proceeded to travel about 8km's downstream.

Most of the prime spots were, according to Brad, deep underwater. The trout were spread out everywhere, not concentrated in obvious spots like normal.

Still we caught stupid numbers of fish on this day. Almost every riffle, current break and seam held hungry brook trout, without a doubt one of my most memorable days ever.

The only downside to the day, not long in I dropped my camera in the water destroying it.

Without having a back up on hand most of this great day will live on in memory only, a true shame.

Still....we did manage to capture some of the action.

Wading With The Old Man And The Kid

The balance of the week was spent with my son and we had a blast, catching fish almost at will.

The one thing he was just dying to do though was wade the river. I'd been avoiding it for obvious reasons, but one evening after dinner I took my uncle and son to the outlet rapids to fish on foot.

In the golden light of early evening my uncle waded in and worked a favoured pool.

My little guy managed two, one he held up himself:

The other was too big and dad had to hold it up for him.

Nice fish kid!

I got into a few myself and my uncle managed to capture this short clip.

The quality is very poor, but still...

More Brookies With The Kid

My son and I also spent some time fishing in the boat downstream from Dusey lake.

Each time we went it was amazing and the lad got quite good at taking pictures and filming!

Check this out:

The scenery and the fishing were equally "speck"tacular!

Brendan caught his fair share as well!

Continued...

solopaddler · June 20, 2012

Did I Mention Walleye And Pike?

Until now I've been avoiding the warmwater species. In all honesty though the walleye and pike fishing was just as good as the trout fishing. Maybe even better!

The camp is located at the west end of the lake within sight of the inflow.

The delta where the Dusey flowed into the lake was crawling with walleyes. Seriously it was one double header after another, some of which were quite chunky.

My kid loved this and we'd zoom over there at least a couple of times each day to get our fill.

In this clip that Brendan shot we had a surprise visitor interupt the proceedings!

These walleyes would hit almost anything!

The walleye were found in the river proper in good numbers too:

We kept our fair share to eat too. There's not much better than fresh walleye in the pan, and we enjoyed several feasts on this trip.

The amount of fishable water at this camp is endless. Between the river upstream and down from camp plus the lake itself, there's a lot to cover.

In addition to that there's a small windy trib of the Dusey that enters the river just upstream from camp. It flows out of a large body of water called Balson lake several km's upstream which appeared to be accessable.

One day we figured we'd all head up there together for some exploring...

Balson also teemed with walleye and pike and we kept our quota for lunch.

An utterly perfect day trip!

As far as the pike goes I didn't spend a ton of time targeting them, the trout were just too tempting.

BUT I did work hard for them for maybe half a day.

The lower end of the river flowing into the lake is very similar to the Attawapiskat with countless backwater sloughs and bays adjacent to the main river channel.

The lake itself, especially several of the back bays looked amazing too.

There were zillions of smaller pike like this, they were pretty much a nuisance.

However in the brief time I targeted them I proved the existence of goliaths.

In one perfect little bay adjacent to the main river I raised a brute easily in the mid 40's 3 times but it wouldn't commit.

Ultimately I threw an unweighted black reaper right in front of his nose. He grabbed it, let go, then sank out of sight with an angry look in eyes.

A couple of hours later I bested this skinny 42"er at the other end of the lake.

I really thought my son was going to have a heart attack, especially when I handed him the rod to reel in the fish.

Pretty sure this was the highlight for him!

(Not a great pic, but hey he's 5 years old!)

There's no doubt in my mind that if one really concentrated on the pike the results would be outstanding.

The Camp

As mentioned Brad operates 7 Lakes Wilderness Camps out of Nakina Ontario.

He has several other fly in camps besides the Dusey, all stuffed with fish. In addition he has a drive to camp, Walleye Cove Lodge on Lower Twin Lakes just outside of town.

Walleye Cove was a fantastic venue for our overnight stay before flying into camp!

Flying as usual is with Nakina Air Services located on Cordingly Lake in Nakina.

I've flown with these guys a lot over the last few years and have always been impressed.

A scenic 50 minute flight gets you into the camp on Dusey.

The camp itself has been recently renovated and was clean and comfortable.

There's a second smaller cabin on site that serves as a combination shower house and storeroom.

The shower was a huge hit with everyone and worked amazingly well!

Brad has installed a Bosch on demand propane hot water heater at the camp. It works in conjunction with an electric water pump, so the generator must be running, but man it was great. Boiling hot water in both the shower, and the kitchen sink in the main cabin.

There are two separate bedrooms with two sets of bunks in each at the camp. Mattresses were newer and very comfy!

The kitchen has a full sized fridge and range as well as a very cool little alcove trimmed in birch logs housing the kitchen table.

The view of the lake from the picture window was spectacular.

I've been to a lot of outpost camps over the years and this one stood out as one of the most comfortable.

(I still can't get past the shower LOL!)

Boats were 16' Nadens with comfy swivel seats and 2 stroke Yamaha 9.9's that ran great. No complaints there at all.

Synopsis

This trip was in many ways the best ever. Beyond the fantastic trout fishing and great accomodations, it was a joy to fish in a setting like that with my son, my dad and my uncle.

It may never happen again and I enjoyed every minute.

Considering the super high water the trout fishing was fantastic. I would dearly love to go back under normal water conditions as I suspect it would be off the charts.

As Brad said most of the water we fished is easily wadeable when the water is lower.

If anyone's interested in a trip Brads website with his contact info can be found at nakinaoutpostcamps.com

Or alternatively do a google search for 7 Lakes Wilderness Camps and it'll pop right up.

Overall the trip is highly recommended!

Hope you enjoyed,

Cheers, Mike

Edited June 20, 2012 by Mike Borger

young_one · June 20, 2012

Thanks for sharing! Excellent pictures and great write-up. :thumbsup_anim:

I didn't know OFC members can change their profile name.

Live2fish85 · June 20, 2012

Wow Mike. I am lost for words after that report. Those are some amazing pictures and some breath taking scenery forsure.

Your little guy looks happier then any kid I have seen. I am sure he will be one hell of a fisherman like his dad.

Thanks for sharing.

Kingsalmon · June 20, 2012

As always, awesome report. My dad hunted on Dusey back in the early eighties and said that the lake was full of weeds, but nothing about the brookies. Probably because they close on the 15th of September. Thanks for getting the blood to boil again after one of your reports.

Mike G.

adempsey · June 20, 2012

Thanks for taking the time putting that report together. As always, it was very enjoyable to read and the videos are a nice bonus.

Those brook trout were amazing. Who wouldn't love a trip like that?? Truly EPIC!!

Edited June 20, 2012 by FishLogic

addy79 · June 20, 2012

Solo, that was awesome! Must feel like going back in time hitting endless untouched waters like that.

I envy you...

You ROCK!!

Musky or Specks · June 20, 2012

Wow Mike! you have me convinced Im going to have to go. Despite the high water I can see the potential for that being a flyfishing paradise. I going to see about a late June booking, week before bass opens Water should be right levels and the temps will probably still be good that far north.

Moosebunk · June 20, 2012

Who the hizneckle is this Borger guy and what did he do with the beloved Solopaddler???

That was a killer report!!! Doing that trip with Brendan too... dare we say again... E..E...E....Epic! Specks are so colorful there too. Gotta love the river halos like them.

corvette1 · June 20, 2012

what a trip mike congrats,video and pictures were awesome to bad about the camera glad it all worked out for you guy's.

Terry · June 20, 2012

wow

I will have to finish reading it later

work can't wait

chris.brock · June 20, 2012

another awesome report Solo, looks like brookie city up there on the Dusey

he looks like a great outfitter, I like the no kill policy on the BTs, and plenty of water to explore

I'm guessing you're going to be visiting Brad's Teabeau camp in the near future

solopaddler · June 20, 2012

Thanks everyone, glad you enjoyed!

I didn't know OFC members can change their profile name.

Yep, you can do it yourself as well.

This is something I've been contemplating for a long time.

Wow Mike. I am lost for words after that report. Those are some amazing pictures and some breath taking scenery forsure.

Your little guy looks happier then any kid I have seen. I am sure he will be one hell of a fisherman like his dad.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Chris!

Wow Mike! you have me convinced Im going to have to go. Despite the high water I can see the potential for that being a flyfishing paradise. I going to see about a late June booking, week before bass opens Water should be right levels and the temps will probably still be good that far north.

Don't think you can go wrong Brad, I'm sure it would fish well in late June. I'd probably still go earlier though. The high water was a freak thing.

Who the hizneckle is this Borger guy and what did he do with the beloved Solopaddler???

Thanks Drew. I'm keeping solo chained in the basement. He gives me what I need.

what a trip mike congrats,video and pictures were awesome to bad about the camera glad it all worked out for you guy's.

Thanks a bunch Doug. You must be excited about your upcoming trip as well.

another awesome report Solo, looks like brookie city up there on the Dusey

he looks like a great outfitter, I like the no kill policy on the BTs, and plenty of water to explore

I'm guessing you're going to be visiting Brad's Teabeau camp in the near future

Thanks Chris, and yeah I'd love to fish Teabeau in the future!

Edited June 20, 2012 by Mike Borger

danbouck · June 20, 2012

Mike, I came into work this morning grumpy as usual :lol: After reading this report I can't stop smiling. It's one of your best. Makes me want to go up there with my kids.

:thumbsup_anim:

HTHM · June 20, 2012

That was a Dusey of a trip! (Sorry, someone had to say it...) :thumbsup_anim:

Thanks for sharing!

4x4bassin · June 20, 2012

Once again Mike , great report. I'm sure i'm not the only one that looks forward to these reports , thanks ! That is great that you

could share this epic trip with some of your family , memories that will last forever :thumbsup_anim:

Thanks again "Solo"

Fish4Eyes · June 20, 2012

Awesome report Mike, thanks for sharing :good: . What makes the trip most memorable is the look on your little guys face in the pictures. Bet ya can't wait till he gets a little older to take him on your epic portages. I'm sure he is already asking.

SirCranksalot · June 20, 2012

Wow, and wow! One quick question, Mike: Are you booking again for the first week of June next year or will I? Pls advise ASAP!

ccmtcanada · June 20, 2012

Hearing your son laughing with you on the video where the pike took the walleye is simply priceless Mike! He'll always remember these fishing trips with you...and one day he'll realize just how lucky he was to have you show him the ropes! Amazing scenery and fish Mike...another fantastic report! :thumbsup_anim:

johnnyb · June 20, 2012

WWWWOOOOWWWW. This one was amazing! I mean, they always are, but, wow! This one grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you around a bit :lol:

Great work on putting the trip and report together....I'm super impressed.

Also....shower. That means the wife will be quite happy to come. Dilemma....do I tell her about the shower or not....

solopaddler · June 20, 2012

It's always great to hear positive feedback, glad you guys enjoyed!

Wow, and wow! One quick question, Mike: Are you booking again for the first week of June next year or will I? Pls advise ASAP!

HAHA! I figured this would pique your interest Harold. On a side note I'm dying to find out how you guys made out. Give me a call when you have a minute.

Hearing your son laughing with you on the video where the pike took the walleye is simply priceless Mike!

I know eh? :lol: He was beside himself. I wish I'd have filmed him reeling in the large pike. He was equal parts super excited and terrified. I thought he was going to pee his pants LOL!

Thanks bud

WWWWOOOOWWWW. This one was amazing! I mean, they always are, but, wow! This one grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you around a bit

Great work on putting the trip and report together....I'm super impressed.

Also....shower. That means the wife will be quite happy to come. Dilemma....do I tell her about the shower or not....

No dilemma at all, book the trip and surprise her with it. She'll love you even more for it trust me.

:lol:

johnnyb · June 20, 2012

Truth be told, she would absolutely love it. If there's no shower, she just washes her hair in lake water. It's really quite fun, being the rinse boy, when the lake is 55F :lol:

dave524 · June 20, 2012

Georgeous brookies :thumbsup_anim: why is it that except in fall, brookies from moving water seem so much brighter coloured than their rather anemic lake bound cousins ?

JoshS · June 20, 2012

Incredible trip!!! Thanks a lot for posting that awesome report, couldn't help but read the whole thing in Awww. Sounds like heaven.

fishnsled · June 20, 2012

INCREDIBLE MIKE!!!! Started the emails to convince our group to go there in the next year or 2. Just amazing and thanks for the report!! :thumbsup_anim:

Dusey Lake Outpost ~ Journey To A Brook Trout Zoo

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