Longlac and Fushimi fishing weekend

[Acountdeleted]

(Just a heads up, on this trip I was by myself so a lot of the pictures of fish are less then high quality)

 

This trip had been in the works for me for about 3 years now. Ever since I saw Longlac I always wanted to fish it as, every time I drove over I could just see hundreds of primo fishing spots around the lake and conjoining river, but in the past, having no time and having a clunker of a car that I wasn't sure was able to make it I always had to say 'maybe next year.'

 

The past weekend I was able to take Thursday and Friday off and finally set off to fish my holy grail of lakes.

 

After arriving in Hearst Wednesday night after a long drive and getting a hotel room I arrived early morning Thursday at Fushimi, based on the distance and the information of other board members this seemed like the logical choice of parks to camp in. I set up my tent as quickly as possible to get on the water as fast as I could. Much to my disapointment, when I got down to the water I saw thousands upon thousands of dead mayflies scattered along the beach, between that and the cold damp weather I knew this was going to be a bit of work to bring in fish.

 

Looking out on to the lake I quickly decided my first fishing spot.

 

 

See that island off in the distance? It was a bit of a paddle but I decided it probabally had a good drop off. As I came up on one of the windswept bays I saw a dropoff that went from 5 feet to about 16 that had a decent patch of vegitation in the 5 foot areas. I figured if anything was going to hit it was going to be here.

 

After a couple of hours I had 6 or 7 of these guys.

 

 

nothing big mind you but a fish is a fish is a fish. Eventually the weather got so bad I decided to head into town and get a bite. The weather continued to be miserable throughout the day and I decided to pack it in early to get a jumpstart on the next day and the true reason I had come up here.

 

I woke up early on friday morning and decided to have another look at Fushimi lake, the wind was coming in pretty strong from the south and a quickly decided to take a pass against fighting the waves (I'm in a 12 foot kayak with no motor so any place on the water I go to fish I have to earn by doing a workout first).

 

As I drove to longlac a thought occured to me. Similar to watching your favourite Boxer/UFC fighter or seeing your favourite band for the first time in concert, what if this was going to be a letdown? What if for one reason or another this lake wasn't going to yeild the bounty of fish I had hyped myself up for? I quickly decided I wasn't going to doom myself to getting skunked before I had even wet a single line and was soon in the town of Longlac.

 

What I hadn't thought about was that strong southern wind that was whipping up waves on Fushimi was doing the same on Longlac. Now Longlac (or long lake) is appropriatly named because it is a very long lake..... of north to south orient. Which caused this southern wind to be blowing up great whitecaps across the water. I grumbled to myself as no fish is really worth risking my life as I decided what to do.

 

My backup plan, Longlac river, however, looked even more bountiful a spot then the lake.

 

 

I mean, check it out, doesn't that just scream tons of hiding spots for fish? Plus the strong south wind was pushing tons of water under those open areas in the bridge which I could only imagine had tons of waiting walleye, plus I saw two boats covering a 500m area over and over, obviously trolling for walleye.

 

As I got to my spot in the water I asked one of the gentlemen driving one of the boats how the fishing was. He responded 'fantastic. And you are in a prime spot.' I started getting excited.

 

2 hours later, after trying various areas and everything in my tacklebox, I hadn't had a single bite. Not a nibble, nothing. I'd watch the one boat go by (The man I talked to, his son and his father) and it seemed like they were pulling out a fish every 5 minutes. I tried to mimic what I could see of their lures, I saw a flash of orange, so I used an orange grub, nothing. I thought maybe it was trolling, so I tried trolling with my kayak which is very hard to do (by the way, did you know when you lose a paddle its possible to paddle with a bass net? Its not fun but its possible.)

 

After the 3rd hour I was feeling pretty dejected and decided to head in for a bite and to regain my thoughts. As I got on shore there was a local man giving his dogs some exercise by throwing decoys into the water. He complimented me on my kayak setup and asked if I was just going out or coming in. I explained my story and he asked what I was using. I said my bait of choice was a chartruse grub and he said that should work and then quickly added 'And tipped with a minnow right?' As my heart sunk and I glumly replied 'uhh... no.' To which he told me that live bait was the only way to go and that I was in walleye heaven if I did that. He pointed me in the direction of the nearest baitshop and I headed off with a newfound sense of enthousiasam. This walleye thing wasn't over.

 

 

It turns out that was the big difference maker. In the next 5 hours I landed probabally 15 or so walleye and probabally lost another 20 more.

 

A lot of these guys

 

 

 

Lots of these

 

 

 

and a few really really nice ones.

 

 

Now I was having tons of fun, I was using the drift of the river to drop my bait right on top of the walleye, I was trying all sorts of various spots and techniques with tons of success, there was once when I even thought I had caught bottom, paddled over to get my jig unstuck and then felt the bottom of the lake start taking out line. It was a nice, I'm guessing, 4 pound walleye that shook my hook right at the side of the boat.

 

All in all it was a fantastic trip. Really, just getting out of the city was what I really needed. Getting to go fishing for 3 days was a bonus, and getting to catch a bunch of walleye and pike make the experiance that much more enjoyable.

[Joey]

Very enjoyable read, thanks for the report.

 

Love the paddling with the bass net part

 

Great that the local gave you the info you needed to make your trip a success

[Roy]

It's a wonder you got any at all with that Banana. Great report thanks.

[adempsey]

Nice report! I can't believe you brought a banana on board !!

[Acountdeleted]

Haha had to bring some snacks. I wasn't getting off the water for anything. I honestly can't say enough nice things about the locals in Hearst and Longlac. People on the streets talk to you as if you are family, they don't mind telling you where the fish are or what to use to get them. The woman running the bait shop and I had a nice long chat about life in Northern Ontario. It was quite the experiance.

[solopaddler]

Totally hardcore. I can't believe you went all that way with 4 days off, by yourself to fish Longlac in a kayak LOL!

 

Seriously man HAHA!

 

I agree with your assessment of Longlac, but you REALLY need a boat, some camping gear and some time to tap its potential.

 

I've driven by that spot you fished probably a dozen times in the last 3 years, and yeah there's always a few boats fishing that spot. Figured it had to be decent.

 

But then really good walleye fishing is easy to find up there. And in a setting that's much more isolated than right in Longlac.

 

Drop me a line next time you're thinking of heading up there. I can recommend a few really good spots that are a lot more kayak friendly.

[spincast]

cool report and a few nice walters well done - of course you were half way to Nipigon you know?

[Musky or Specks]

Bigger water is kinda tough in a yak but you persevered. The walters are in abundance at Fusmimi as well.

[corvette1]

awesome trip great read congrats

[Joeytier]

Awesome report. Probably learned a whole lot about northern walleye fishing in those couple of hours eh!

[Rod Caster]

The banana certainly did not bring you bad luck. Great report!