Chapleau Area Trip - Video Slidewhow

[MrSimon]

I posted this over at WalleyeCentral as well, but its a fun slideshow of pics from our trip to Chapleau this past August.

 

I'm not sure if this helps my cabin fever, or makes it worse.

 

 

 

[aplumma]

very nice thanks for sharing this trip it made cabin fever go down by 3 points.

 

 

Art

[Jds63]

Very nice slideshow, looks like a great time,lots of fish and and the cabin looks very comfortable.<br />What was your overall impression of the fishing and the camp ?

[MrSimon]

Very nice slideshow, looks like a great time,lots of fish and and the cabin looks very comfortable.<br />What was your overall impression of the fishing and the camp ?

We were only at the main camp briefly to check in and load the boats before heading out to the outpost. While there though, we found the camp to be clean, well maintained, and run by competent and friendly people. The rental boats worked fine with no issues and the little store had an OK selection of basic stuff. They even had wireless internet you could use for something like a dollar a day. The cabins and other buildings looked quite nice. Nothing fancy, but I'm guessing most guys don't want a fancy fishing camp.

 

The outpost was fantastic. It was incredibly well stocked and quite comfortable. The best part was the outdoor fire pit with built in seating. There was a gas grill outside, clothes line, firewood, fish cleaning table, clean outhouse, and a clean shower house with hot water.

 

The fishing is interesting on Windermere. I've done a ton of research and reading about this lake, but I think I finally found the truth from two people. One guy we ran into out on the lake lives on a tiny island all summer long by himself and has been fishing the lake for 40 years. He was a character to say the least, but sure knows the lake. He even took us out for a few hours to prove he knows his stuff. He does! The second guy we talked to was a really nice young man who guides on the lake and has been fishing the area for a while. He delivered some gas to us at the Outpost and chatted for about 30 minutes. You could just tell he knew his stuff.

 

Both of these guys told us the exact same thing. Windermere has a TON of walleye in it, but they aren't spread out. The lake has a bunch of what they both called "walleye magnets" that hold 95% of all the fish in the lake. These walleye magnets are just your typical strucutres like humps, bumps, and rocks. But, these specific spots are SO good that most of the other decent spots don't hold many fish.

 

The old crusty island dude was bragging to us that he had 98 spots saved in his GPS that he could pull up on at anytime and catch walleye. In a friendly way we told him he was full of it. That's when he took us out to three different spots within a 5 minute boat ride of his little island and he caught two or three nice walleye on each spot in less than five minutes at each spot. He would pull up to each spot, putt around for a few minutes looking at his graph, throw out two anchors, and then drop a jig/half crawler straight down and catch fish. At one spot all the fish were less than 12". At the other two spots they were all between 16 and 18. We were impressed to say the least!

 

So all that to say .... if you can locate these walleye magnets, you can catch all the fish you want. If you can't find these spots, you'll catch fish, but it won't be too many. A good walleye angler who has good electronics will do quite well here.

 

The other interesting thing that the younger guy told us is that when the camp owners had a biologist come out and study the lake, he came to the same conclusion about the fish magnets. The biologist cautioned the camp owners that since these spots aren't really that hard to find, the lake is quite susceptible to over harvesting. You could essentially sit on these spots and catch fish all day everyday. For each fish that you pull off these spots, a new one will move in until eventually they are all gone. Fortunately, the lake doesn't get that much pressure and the camp owners have an excellent approach to conservation. Max size limits and conservation license incentives initiated by the camp owners means the fishing on this lake will just get better and better.

 

The smallmouth bass fishing was excellent! You can just troll the shorelines (the rockier the better) and catch tons of them.

 

Pike are definitely around, but since the lake doesn't have a lot of weeds, its hard to really zero in on them.

 

The bush lakes were straight out of a fishing fairy tale. Mostly for bass and pike, but we did catch our biggest walleye out of one of the bush lakes. One lake in particular was purely idyllic .... filled with big fat aggressive smallies, tons of structure, beautiful, and hardly ever gets fished. I mean seriously, what more could you want.

[Jds63]

Thanks for the great summary, will have to keep it in mind when planning our next trip.

[chris.brock]

great pictures, lots of big, healthy smallies

 

I've been to this lake a few times, looks like you guys did alot better than we did, I think the outpost is in the better end of the lake too, it's a long boat ride to the western end from the main camp

[TennesseeGuy]

Enjoyed it. Thanks for posting.

 

Could the "young man" who delivered fuel have been Ethan Zimmerman, son of Bob and Sondra? Dylan's brother? Ethan is the manager/owner of Prairie Bea Camp, almost adjoining Windemere. Ethan is 17 and has been guiding for a few years.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Great spot, great people, good fishing that will become great over the next few years. Heading up twice this summer. By the way, we were the family checking out behind you when you left last summer.

[Tim Mills]

Thanks, I enjoyed the slide show . My sister in law's family has a "camp" in the area. Interesting to see the backpack frame you used to portage the motor.

[MrSimon]

Enjoyed it. Thanks for posting.

 

Could the "young man" who delivered fuel have been Ethan Zimmerman, son of Bob and Sondra? Dylan's brother? Ethan is the manager/owner of Prairie Bea Camp, almost adjoining Windemere. Ethan is 17 and has been guiding for a few years.

I'm not really sure, but that makes a lot of sense. I bet it was him. Super nice guy! Dylan on the other hand was pretty rude to us when we checked in .... we just figured that's the way all adolescent boys act and left it at that. You know, like he was too cool to smile and be nice.

[Marc Thorpe]

Nice video,love Chapleau have family thre and spent several summers when I was young

[TennesseeGuy]

I'm not really sure, but that makes a lot of sense. I bet it was him. Super nice guy! Dylan on the other hand was pretty rude to us when we checked in .... we just figured that's the way all adolescent boys act and left it at that. You know, like he was too cool to smile and be nice.

From being acquainted with the Zimmerman family I'm pretty sure Dylan will perform better when given another chance. Working in the bush from late April to late October can be quite a stretch for a 15 year old. I've seen 30 year men hit the wall around the beginning of August. Dylan may have been expecting a couple of 15-17 year old females to be in your party.

[asdve23rveavwa]

From being acquainted with the Zimmerman family I'm pretty sure Dylan will perform better when given another chance. Working in the bush from late April to late October can be quite a stretch for a 15 year old. I've seen 30 year men hit the wall around the beginning of August. Dylan may have been expecting a couple of 15-17 year old females to be in your party.

 

I agree Dylan is a great kid, probably just caught him at a bad moment. The responsibilities he takes on for someone his age are quite impressive. He is always polite with us, and, is a great friend to Juli's three boys when we are up there.

Boy, this post is making me long for July, lol!!!!!!!

[MrSimon]

Yeah, we figured something like that .... since the rest of the family was so nice we figured he was just having a bad day.

 

Frankie, what week will you be up there in July. I'll be taking my 85 year old Grandfather and my 15 year old cousin from July 14-20. I rented an RV and will be parked at one of their full hook-up campsites.

[TennesseeGuy]

FRANKIE65 & MrSimon, I have May 18 and August 3 trips planned to NW Ontario for 2013, but might slip in on you and have you show me a couple of good walleye spots in July at Happy Day.

 

Haven't fished the Chapleau area since 1969. Keep me posted.

[frogpoint]

Was up at Prairie Bee Camp this past September for a week before they closed up for the season. Ethan took excellent care of me and my buddies and was always available if we had any questions or needed something. I've never seen anyone his age work as hard as he and his buddy Tucker did. They never stopped. I wouldn't hesitate for a second going back to this place and hope to get up there again this year.

[FisherJuli]

MrSimon- definitely, we have always enjoyed Dylan's company ... in fact, on our first visit two years ago, he had the boys packed up in a golf cart and touring the property before we had our stuff unpacked!

 

We found a couple bruiser pike in Windermere (in some rocky back bays if I recall correctly) and enough little guys near the beaver dams anywhere we went!

 

See you with Frankie65 in July!

 

:-)