Air Ivanhoe - McConnell

[Fishinfool1978]

Good afternoon all,

Looking for first hand experiences with Air Ivanhoe. Specifically McConnell lake. I have a friend celebrating his 70th birthday in 2021. He has taking a fly in on his bucket list. He used to take a cruise every year and being the current situation... that industry has been decimated. I am hopeful that if he has a positive experience. He will want to take fly ins regularly to replace the cruises. He came with me to a drive in lodge in 2018 that is approximately 100 miles west of McConnell. This lodge was advertised as very remote, little fishing pressure and residents can expect to catch 60 to 100 Walleye per day depending on how hard you fish. We were up at 4:00 am everday, on the water by 5:00 and fished until lunch when we returned to camp to eat. We were back on the water shortly after eating and we stayed out until the bugs were intolerable with dark closing in.  All this effort didn't result in numbers of fish. Frankly two of our six people were skunked for the week. There were others in the camp that really laid into the owner. That being said, it was a huge lake and we tried to focus on the west side of the lake and it was still too much water to search in 7 days. If we went back I am sure we would do a little better. Anyway long story short we have tentatively reserved McConnell Lake with air Ivanhoe from July 3-10 2021. We are hoping for some first hand responses. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[BillM]

2 people on a remote lake didn't catch a single fish?   This isn't a lake issue, this is a doing the same thing over and expecting a different result issue.    Gotta switch things up a bit until you figure out a pattern.

[Fishinfool1978]

Thank you for the response. The camp we were in had about 10 cabins. Only one cabin did slightly better than we did. We tried all the suggested tactics and fishing spots. I have continued to watch the facebook page of this outpost. People catch fish there. In our case, I think it was a perfect collection of unfortunate circumstances. Weather was poor, lots of water to search ( we tried the incoming and outgoing river mouths first) most of our party was pretty inexperienced. With that in mind, do you have any insight into Air Ivanhoe?

[410001661]

We went to Little Missinaibi Lake with Air Dale and we slaughtered them.  This was typical of a morning out with two guys.......

 

 

[can u fish]

Let me start by saying this Air Ivanhoe is a good choice i have been going on fly in trips for the last 19 years 7 of those trips were with Air Ivanhoe 4 trips into Shawmere lake outpost camp 1 trip into Lemoine lake outpost camp 1 into Katagi lake and 1 trip into Bonar lake North camp.Out of the 4 trips into Shawmere 3 were the first week of June and the other was mid September the other 3 camps were all fished in mid September in my opinion i consider early June and mid September to be prime time for walleye with that being said all of our trips with Air Ivanhoe were very successful with good numbers of walleye being caught and the Pike fishing as well was very good especially on Shawmere.

The Theriault family have been in the outfitting business for many years they will treat you right good luck on your trip into McConell lake

Cheers Mitch

 

[Fishinfool1978]

Thanks for the response. My friend is a farmer. The first week of July seems to be the only break in the workload. So we go away when he can. I have heard from many others that mid June is the best. If we don't fair well on this trip, I think we will conclude a combination of inexperience and poor timing will be to blame.

Thanks again

[DanD]

1 hour ago, Fishinfool1978 said:

My friend is a farmer

I was raised on a tobacco farm. If there wasn't a frost to take out the first planting; Mid June would be our down time. Between replanting the odd dead plant and hoeing. So I understand, "the the crop comes first" as my Dad would beat into us kids.

I've only been on one fly-in and that was to the Attawapiskat river. Loved every minute of it.

Good luck on your trip. Remember catching is a bonus, if you're there with good people you can't go wrong. Again have a great trip. Looking forward to your report when you get back.

Dan.

[Fishinfool1978]

3 hours ago, DanD said:

I was raised on a tobacco farm. If there wasn't a frost to take out the first planting; Mid June would be our down time. Between replanting the odd dead plant and hoeing. So I understand, "the the crop comes first" as my Dad would beat into us kids.

I've only been on one fly-in and that was to the Attawapiskat river. Loved every minute of it.

Good luck on your trip. Remember catching is a bonus, if you're there with good people you can't go wrong. Again have a great trip. Looking forward to your report when you get back.

Dan.

Thanks Dan,

My 70 year old friend is a beef and crop farmer. Depending on weather, wheat can start coming off by the 2nd or 3rd week in July.  June is a right off. Both of his sons farm as well. I am trying to coordinate this so both of them will come. Fingers crossed. As far as catching fish, I have been bringing the friend to my own cottage in Eastern Ontario twice per year for the last eight years. We catch all the perch and bass that you could ever want. We are both excited to get into some Walleye and Pike. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the comments.