Miminiska Lodge Trip

[gordy28]

This is going to end up being a banner year for me when it comes to fishing trips

My group goes every other year and we leave in 16 days to fish Shekak Lake with White River Air was all that was on tap until an invite from my father in law changed that

Every year my FIL takes a group of guys up to either Strikers Point Lodge or Miminiska Lode through Wilderness North - its a work thing. In late May he asked if I could join them

A quick check on the home and work fronts and hell yes, I am in

Mim is a widening of the Albany river and to get there we would take a flight to Thunder Bay from Toronto and then we would fly on a Pilatus PC 12 to the lodge. Over time the group had come to prefer Mim as it didnt require the drive from T Bay to Armstrong like Strikers Point does. Its about a 50 minute flight in the wheeled plane

The Lodge

Mim is a very nice lodge, nestled on a sandy beach not far from where the Keezhzik river flows into Miminiska

Its a full service lodge and I mean full service - made to order breakfast, choose your own sandwiches and if you wanted it the lodge will meet you every day on the lake to cook your shore lunch for you (we did this one day) or pack all you need to do it on your own

The lodge runs 16 foot lunds with 25 horse 4 stroke Yammys. Each boat was equipped with a Humminbird Helix 5 depth finder/gps combo which was great - its a big lake and easy to get turned around in with all its various bays and inlets

The Lake

Mim is an interesting lake - lots of structure, lots of bays and inlets, rocky in parts, weedy in parts and sandy in parts

When we got there part of the orientation was to be mindful when running the boats - the water levels were down almost 5 feet and that meant many rocks and shoals which normally wouldn't be an issue were now a hazard. Trust me - we found them, thankfully boat insurance was paid and the engines have rock guards on the prop.

The Fishing

What can I say - best expression I can come up with is "shooting fish in a barrel" Here's an example - on our first day my bro in law and I were the first guys in the boat and were circling around the dock waiting for everyone and to get a feel for the boat. Rather than waste time we put on Berkley Flicker shads and just started to troll - well we found a nice little hump in 15 feet of water about 400 yards from the dock and proceeded to catch about 10 walleye and 5 pike in 20 minutes

That set the tone - basically the walleye and pike are everywhere - and what surprised me the most was in spots that I would only expect to catch pike (3 feet of water in lily pads) you would hook walleye or trolling in 9 feet of water on a rock shoal one of our crew caught the biggest pike of the trip a fat 37 incher

I was also impressed with the average size of walleye we caught - the lodge has its own slot, only 2 fish under 18 inches in your possession and a few days we struggled to get fish under the slot - avg size was about 20 inches and fat

If there was a key it seemed to be finding sharp breaks - one day we circled a big rock in the North Arm that was surrounded by 17 feet of water but had small shoal around it that was 1 foot deep - the three boats pulled in easily 35 walleye and a few pike in about 45 minutes

I love gear and I love to fish and I can honestly say I caught fish (both species) on just about everything in my tackle box - spoons, cranks, jigs, harnesses on bouncers, spinner baits - it didn't matter but if I had to pick my top 3 I would say Rapala Minnow Rap in Bleeding Olive, Blue and Silver Hot n Tot and any bright harness on a 2 ounce BB

Biggest pike was 37 inches (but my FIL lost what was a solid 40 + incher right at the boat...) biggest walleye was a 22 and 3/4 incher caught by yours truly. There was another group in camp and they did qualify for 2 master angler pins - a 26.5 inch walleye and a 41 inch pike

You can fish parts of the Keezhik or the Albany for Brook Trout - but with the water levels you could only get there with a very long portage or pay premium $$$ to get a flight past the low water to the better pools. Bryan the lodge manager gave us directions to go up the Keezhik but about halfway to the portage a lightning storm rolled in and we werent keen in getting stuck on the water. Bryan mentioned that the week before Mark Melnyk from the Real Fly Fisher was there doing a brookie show and got 14 fish including 2 5 pounders on the afternoon the filmed

The Experience

I have never been that far North in my life and loved every second of it - the scenery was astounding and we made long runs in the morning typically to see it all - we ran up the Keezhik one day but could get to far as a lightning storm interrupted us. We headed all the way to Snake Falls down the Albany river - that was a butt clenching run as the water levels were so low. We went and visited the church which was set up by Missionaries years ago, we visited the old abandoned mine in Wottam Bay and we had shore lunch at an abandoned native hunting camp near Caribou Island

One of the coolest things was started by a not so good omen. Fishing w my father and law we hit a shoal pretty hard and knocked a wire loose on the engine - anytime he tried to rev the engine out of trolling speed it died on us. So after many false starts (and some foul foul language) we decided since we were close the our shore lunch spot we would just troll in the area. As we got set my FIL said - whoa check out the beach over there - out came a large white Timber Wolf - he jogged up the beach and watched us - we tried to get close to get a good photo but every time we moved closer he would start to trot away, when we slowed he would stand still and watch us - I swear he was saying"this is my house - who the f are you!"

Bryan and Kate the camp managers along with the rest of the crew were amazing - friendly, helpful and just great all around

Meals were very nice, accommodations all of that was top notch.

Overall it was an incredible trip - its not a cheap lodge by any means - normally way out of my groups budget but it was amazing experience that I was so glad to be a part of

I have had no luck uploading images so here is a link to a small folder of pics

http://s1056.photobucket.com/user/gordy28ca/library/Miminiska?sort=3&page=1

Thanks for reading

Gordy

[misfish]

Great report Gordy. Thanks for taking the time.

 

I hope this link helps

 

Slide show

 

http://s1056.photobucket.com/user/gordy28ca/slideshow/Miminiska

 

 

 

[Moosebunk]

Thanks for that write up. Always enjoying reading people's experiences from the ole stomping grounds. Of the big rivers emptying into James I've been lucky enough to fish and see most, but never the Albany. It interests more for it's specks more than anything... and to some degree it's exceptional walleye fishing. Seems you got a great taste of it.

[gordy28]

Brian = thanks for the edit and feedback

MB - thanks was a great trip and I definitely found it to be a walleye factory. Farthest north I have even been which was maybe the best part of the trip

Not going to lie - little intrigued that I have fished somewhere you havent as I tend to think you and Mike B have fished everywhere lol

Cheers

Gordy