Chapleau Fly-In

[bronzeback]

Mike Borger did the definitive report last summer on Abbey Lake in the Chapleau game preserve. It sounded like the perfect spot for my wife, Charlotte, and I to spend some much needed quality time in the solitude and majesty of this beautiful part of the world.

 

Knowing that many fly-in destinations understandably want a minimum of 3-4 people to make a booking, I didn't have high hopes when I called Warren and Jennifer of Parks Fly-In Fishing in mid winter of actually getting into Abbey. Much to my surprise, Warren said the last week of August was still available and it was ours if we wanted it.

 

I snapped it up in a heartbeat and we were set to go. 6 months never took so long to pass.

 

3:00 a:m on Sat. Aug 25th. saw us backing out of the driveway to begin the drive to Wawa where we would overnite before flying out Sunday morning with Hawk Air. This was only our second trip up the Lake Superior shoreline and the scenery was spectacular.

 

 

Charlotte and I had only ever done one fly-in trip before this and, as luck would have it, on that trip we hit a week long cold front with nasty weather and predictably bad fishing.

 

Waking up to grey skies and the threat of rain did not inspire confidence and indeed, by the time we reached Hawk Air, the rain was falling and our 9:30 departure time had changed to noon. Further bad news, upon weigh in, we were overweight and had to decide what could be left behind.

 

Half of our most precious cargo (my beer) and some other non-essentials (food) was selected and we were soon airborne. The flight was made in a zigzag pattern to avoid the patchy weather and a bumpy 40 minutes later we touched down at Abbey.

 

Meeting us at the dock was Warren and Jennifer who had flown in the night before and had the beautiful log cabin neat as a pin for our stay. After Warren gave us a quick tour and some helpful tips for greenhorns, he and Jenn departed with our pilot and we settled in.

 

The rain ended shortly after we unpacked and we never saw another drop all week. In fact the weather was perfect with temps in the low 20's C daytime, cooler at night.

 

 

Charlotte and I will never be mistaken for hardcore fisherpeople. Usually one main trip a year with perhaps a trip to a friend's cottage thrown in is the extent of our fishing. I usually have a bucketful of reasons why we didn't catch many fish whether it be the weather, not knowing the lake or whatever.

This time however all the elements seemed to be in our favour so I felt a certain amount of pressure to show some results.

 

Especially since Mike had been kind enough to provide us a map with many hotspots highlighted.

 

The fishing was, in a word, astounding. Numbers would be meaningless even if we had been able to keep track. Suffice to say we caught and released more fish on this trip than all our other trips combined.

 

We are still wearing our "war wounds" with pride as our hands are still a mass of cuts and punctures from sharp fins.

 

As mentioned in other posts, Abbey is not a lake where you can expect to catch giant walleye. But neither are they the small 12-14 inch cigars you might think. Fully 90% of our catch was between the 16-18 inch range and as scrappy as they come. Pike were few and far between although we didn't target them anyways.

 

 

 

 

 

The folks from Hawk Air dropped in for a check on us on Wednesday and God love them, they brought my beer.

 

 

 

Part of breakfast and dinner every day.

 

 

The colours on some of the fish were a beautiful blue. Hopefully they show up in this shot.

 

 

I'll close by saying that, the fishing aside, a fly-in trip to a lake such as Abbey is something that everyone should experience at least once. I can remember sitting around the campfire after a long day on the water, watching the full moon bathe the lake in light and thinking that it can't get better than this.

 

[4x4bassin]

Nice report , looks like a great place ! Betcha those walleye dinners tasted good

[solopaddler]

Was just going to message you Al, was wondering how you guys made out.

So glad things went well for you! Abbey is a special place as far as I'm concerned.

 

Most of the deeper lakes in that region that I've fished have those blue tinged walleye. It's not in their slime coat either, but part of their colouration. Never seen anything like it anywhere else.

 

Glad you got to meet Martin and Jennifer, they're two of my favourite people.

 

 

Cheers

[asdve23rveavwa]

Sounds like a fantastic time. Nothing wrong with a boatload of 16-18" walleyes combined with some much needed relaxation!!

[Musky or Specks]

Looks like a great time. Thanks for the report

[davey buoy]

Another piece of heaven!!!!,great holiday I'm sure.Thanks for the report!

[Jds63]

Great report .... that place looks familiar

[Rod Caster]

I can certainly see the blue in those fish! Great report and everything.

[FisherJuli]

It looks like a beautiful lake to be on, and the fish were surely a blast to catch. The moonlit nights and campfires were a highlight for us, too! I can appreciate the stab holes- those fish can be pretty scrappy! Nice report!

[wormdunker]

Thanx for the story & pix. I encountered blue walleye in that area several times just a little south of where U were. Chapleau is definitely a place I want to fish.

[corvette1]

awesome trip sounds like you two had a great time congrats

 

 

[Roy]

You and Charlotte will certainly remember that trip for a while. It was a great report, thank you.

[Rich Clemens]

THat would be nice to do someday - you're own private piece of paradise. Nice report man.

[bronzeback]

You and Charlotte will certainly remember that trip for a while. It was a great report, thank you.

 

 

Thanks Roy. We shot lots of video as well including one clip of a black bear swimming across the lake while we fished. I'm sure we'll relive those memories all winter long.

 

Thanks to all for taking the time to read and a special thanks to Mike Borger for all your help and advice.