Eye of Quebec trip

[muskymatt]

Was invited to go on a trip up to northern Quebec with 4 other guys to do some sledding and ice fishing. The trip started in Ottawa and I went to rendezvous with a buddy and another one of the guys on the way to Montreal. Now, I only knew one of the guys going and the age group range was from 26 to 52 so I thought this could be interesting lol.

After meeting up with the guys and loading sleds and gear we proceeded to Montreal to meet the last two of the group. Some more shifting around gear and loading sleds and we were on our way.

We left Montreal around 6pm Friday and the plan was to drive through the night to Baie-Comeau to pick up another sled. This drive was 10 hrs long and pretty exhausting after having worked all day but we made it. Man was there ever a lot of snow, we were getting the itch to be on the sleds!!

After loading up the last sled we drove the 4 hrs north on the 389 to Manic-Cinq where we stopped and had some dinner. Next morning we drove north to an access point to lac Manicouagan where we unpacked ans hooked up the gear for the 1.5 hr sled ride into the cottage on the island. 

At this time we were in -37 weather with 5' of snow on the flats and 7 feet in the bush.

Not a trail to be seen anywhere, it was bushwacking all the way. Each sled had a trailer and some of the gear we brought in was a 6500 series Honda generator, 25 jerry cans of gas, food, fishing gear, clothing. Everything you need to survive in a cabin on an island in the north with no power or running water. Oh, and beer!

We arrived at the cabin and then proceeded to cut the trail up to it in order to get the gear up. Then dinner and some laughs looking forward to the next day doing some riding.

The fog was what happened when the door opened when it was -51 out lol, it filled the bottom 2 feet of the cabin.

Next day, riding, so awesome.

And some fishing, no fish caught lol. I think they had gone south for the winter lol

We spent 4 days in an absolutely amazing place. 

Some more pics.

[muskymatt]

[Terry]

No fish. Lol

looks like a great trip anyways 

[muskymatt]

2 minutes ago, Terry said:

No fish. Lol

looks like a great trip anyways 

Yeah, no fish lol. It's a huge place and the lake has lakers and brookies and we didn't find either. We did some fishing in 135, 80 and 40 fow but not even a blip on the Hummingbird. 

I think we should have been right at a creek entrance into the lake instead of out in open water off points. We did only fish 2 days and about 5 hrs each time. 

The owner of the cottage has never iced fished it before but showed some pics of some pretty amazing fish caught trolling.

 

[chris.brock]

That's an awesome adventure! No fish, no problem, looks like lots of fun regardless.

[Pigeontroller]

Cool pix Matt

[Joeytier]

My kinda trip!  Looks like an amazing place, holy snow! 

Just googled where you were, the big crater lake! 

[Chuck Enwinde]

Eye of Quebec indeed.   Cool trip to a cool lake.

[scuro2]

-51 eh? Sure looks scenic, not sure if that is my cup of tea.

[the spirit of fishing]

Great adventure even if there were no fish caught, glad you shared it with us.

I've been thinking of taking my family to Labrador using Highway 389 for a summer vacation. One of my concerns was the condition of the road through that remote area.

From your pictures it looks not too bad in winter so perhaps I'll pack up the clan and head there this summer.

Thanks again.

[LeXXington]

wow, looks like an excellent adventure

[muskymatt]

5 hours ago, the spirit of fishing said:

Great adventure even if there were no fish caught, glad you shared it with us.

I've been thinking of taking my family to Labrador using Highway 389 for a summer vacation. One of my concerns was the condition of the road through that remote area.

From your pictures it looks not too bad in winter so perhaps I'll pack up the clan and head there this summer.

Thanks again.

Roads are fine and well maintained. They are basically hill after hill and lots of curves but otherwise great. Very scenic!

 

[floater]

That is a great trip. We drove the entire Labrador Highway about 5 years ago. Road conditions were better than most roads in Ontario! Fantastic fishing along the  way as well. Heading up there in the winter would be amazing!