Elk Lake Trip

[DanD]

Just got back from a week on the Montreal River; Elk Lake to be exact. Even the drive up and back was fun this year, as I took my 1950 Chevy on her first real road trip; since changing the drive train.

 

 

I knew it was going to be a warm drive up; because there’s no AC in the Chev (yet); so I made up a swamp cooler; that kept us comfortable.

 

 

All it is is a styrofoam cooler with a 12volt fan and a 90degree PCV elbow. Fill the cooler with block ice and plug it in to the cig lighter. Nice cool air that lasted for the 7 plus hour drive. By the way a cig lighter and ashtray were standard equipment back then on Chevys; signal lights and the heater/defroster were options. LOL

I was planning on using the cooler to cool the bed room off for sleeping; but with the cooled days we had I didn’t need it.

 

When we got too Elk Cabins we were greeted by Linda & Herman the new owners of the camp and they showed us our cottage and the boats for the week. I didn't realize the camp had changed hands from last year and it was a good change. They are great hosts, always easily found and ready to help with anything you needed; but they were never in your face, making you feel like you’re being watched.

The camp is well organized, cabin more then large enough of the six of us; well equipped with a bonus of sat TV; sorry I like my movies. LOL

 

The boats were decent, we had a 12’ Lund with a 9hp, 14’ Lund with a 15hp and a 16’ Legend side console with 50hp.

 

 

The 14 & 16 had fish finders and I had my portable for the 12’. We switched boats around among us, depending on where we were going to fish that day. Never had to worry about fuel, Herman kept them topped up.

The fishing itself was pretty good, even with the few days of heavy wind/rain and cold temps the water was always safe to go out on and the fish didn't seem to care.

 

The average pike were around 16-24”, with lots of hammer handles to keep you interested. The largest of the week was 34”

 

 

My son Andy with the pike of the week.

 

A lot of the walleye were in slot; but we did manage to get a good feed for our fish fry, without having to toss too many back; there’s a good mix. The largest for the week was a 23”

 

That's me with the weeks walleye.

 

We really didn't target bass or perch but they were there and I think if we did go after them we would have had a lot more then the couple of dozen we did get in the boats.

Mountain Lake which is down river of Elk is where most of the pike and walleye were holding. About a mile down the river’s outlet of Mountain Lake heading toward mountain cutes, had what looked like some great spots for walleye. 12-15’deep shelves, that had saddles all around dropping to 20-25’ and with waters as deep as 50+ in the center of the river. Didn’t get a chance to try them; as we were trying to beat the lightening storm that was coming in when we found them and it was our last turn in the “big” boat; they’ll be there for next year.

That whole section of river and the two lakes, (I believe) are good for numbers; but I don’t think you’ll be taking any trophies home with you. Then again a couple of the guys got spooled and or bit off by something they felt was pretty big?

All in all a good week, with family and a drive to camp that's actually has decent fishing in their waters.

 

Dan

Edited August 6, 2014 by DanD

[Joeytier]

Looks like a great place to spend a week in a great area. And that Chevy is an absolute beauty

[chris.brock]

you just need an old cedar strip boat with a Viking outboard being towed behind the Chevy

 

that's a great area, nice report Dan

[akaShag]

BRILLIANT cooler!!! You could run that off an inverter in a cottage with 110 v service but no AC, and it would be just the ticket to cool off a bedroom. Wish I had seen that fifteen years ago!!!

 

Doug

[Skud]

Sweet ride. Thanks for posting that AC cooler idea.

[DanD]

The cooler works fine; but its no air conditioner; it just made the ride up there comfortable enough that we could run with the windows up.

Better then nothing I guess?

 

Dan