Whiteclay Lake Trip Report(s)

[walleye wanderer]

Getting lazy in my old age I guess because I haven't posted anything in quite some time and this report spans two trips to the beautiful Whiteclay Lake, part of the Ogoki River system north of Nakina ON. The Walleye Wanderers first visited this lake in 2021 with Boreal Forest Outfitter and returned in spring of 2022 for a second great week of Walleye & Pike fishing.

Whiteclay is a large lake with approx 230 miles of shoreline, many bays and rivers systems to explore. Our 2021 trip was June 26-July 3rd and the 2022 trip was an early spring trip from May 28-June 4th and there was a noticeable difference in the water levels. 

Our 2021 trip to Whiteclay Lake

The Boreal Forest Outfitters camp at Whiteclay is sprawling with 4 buildings in total, consisting of two fully equipped cabins, a log outbuilding with spare motors, parts and a fish cleaning station complete with running water. There is also a shower building at the base of a water tower, complete with chest freezer, sink, shower and solar lights complement all of the buildings.
The main camp is insulated, well furnished complete with solid wood log chairs and large table, full size propane fridge and stove and 3 sets of bunk beds. Lots of windows with screens, an inverter to charge phones, cameras, etc,, hot and cold running water, generous woodstove, a comfy couch and lazy boy chair! Outside we had chairs to sit around the firepit, a new propane BBQ, Fish Fryer, a solid wide dock with plenty of Lund boats and motors. 
Although the camp is a bit of a rustic layout not having separate bedrooms, it is very well equipped, clean and spacious with all the amenities you need for a great week.
Whiteclay can be a bit of an intimidating lake when you look at it on a map as it spans approx. 35 kms in length with Boreals camp being close to the middle and near the Raymond River which flows into Whiteclay. The lake, like most north of Nakina is tea stained and medium depth with some rocky shoals, some deep holes, some sandy shorelines and a cool 100’ shear vertical rock passage at the north east end of the lake. Loads of bays, islands and narrows to explore and duck out of wind when needed. 
As there was a bit of a heat wave during our week in 2021 and a swim at our sandy beach was a welcome relief on the hot days. Our 2022 trip proved to be quite the opposite with the temp dropping to below zero a couple of time causing us to spark up the woodstove.

The grounds were nicely manicured with the grass cut short keeping the mosquitoes to a reasonable level.
The 2021 trip being our first visit to Whiteclay, we spent the first couple of days “exploring” and trolling various sections of the north/east end of the lake and fishing the Raymond River all the way up to the rapids a few kms from the main lake. The rapids were very scenic and a definite hotspot for tons of nice 19-20” Walleye with the occasional fat Pike being caught right at the base of the rapids in the fast water.
Trolling around a large shallow rock shoal straight out from the camp and around the island to the right of the camp provided countless Walleye and decent Pike with John catching a 40”er on the backside of the island.
Further east on the north side of the lake we trolled through a small neck down where the water was moving a little quicker and several large rocks were visible. After a couple of double headers while trolling we dropped anchor and proceeded to jig a ridiculous amount of very decent Walleyes. This location would become our “Walley Hole” for the days we were having fish for dinner as it pretty much guaranteed to produce.
One particular day we filled our gas tank to the brim and fished our way down the east end of the Lake looking for the rock face passage known as “the Gorge” that we had heard about prior to our trip. After a pretty good boat ride we suddenly found ourselves in this passage and looking at the fishfinder, it indicated we were in water over a hundred feet deep! I tried to paint a picture in my head of vertical rock cliffs extending 100’ up and 100’ down below the water, thinking this is very strange as most of the lakes in the area are shallow and the terrain pretty flat. I suggest if you visit Whiteclay, is a worthwhile boat ride to see this beautiful scenery and there certainly is some good fishing all along the way.
The boats were great, no leaks and motors all worked flawlessly all week. 
Mid-week Sue, Jason and their two girls Katelyn and Chloe flew into camp with some extra gas and several bags of cubed ice for us, while checking to ensure everything was working perfectly.
While no record size fish were caught this week, we did catch our share of nice healthy Walleye and several big frisky Pike. In chatting on our last night we felt the we should return to Whiteclay in spring next year to finish exploring and give the big Pike a little more attention. Folks like Jason & Sue make the decision to return easy as they go out of their way to provide a great experience and they are always upgrading their camps with new appliances, boats, motors and renovating the buildings.
Having visited many Lakes north of Nakina over the years targeting large Pike, I believe Whiteclay has all of the ingredients to be a excellent big Pike lake and of course the tasty Whiteclay Walleye are very abundant throughout the lake.

Our 2022 return Trip to Whiteclay Lake with Boreal Forest Outfitters.

Another early morning greeting in my driveway as the Walleye Wanderers pulled up and hurriedly loaded the gear into our vehicles and we were headed back to Nakina.

This year four Wanderers, John, Ron, Frank and I returned to the beautiful Whiteclay lake with our host Boreal Forest Outfitters, owned by Jason and Sue Booth. We visited Whiteclay last year and enjoyed the scenery, the accommodations and of course the fishing so much that we felt we needed to return to this big beautiful lake.

The drive to Nakina was easy and uneventful until we were on the road from Geraldton to Nakina when we spotted a medium size black bear sitting down in the shrubs about 15’ off the road and completely ignoring us as we snapped a couple of quick pics.

A short way up the road we had the pleasure of a moose coming out of the bush, ensuring we knew that we were in Northern Ontario.

 

We arrived at Jason and Sue’s base camp which is actually a house in Nakina where we would have a bite and beverage and spend the night before flying into Whiteclay in the morning.

Early Saturday morning the Wanderers were eager to get going and met up with our hosts Jason & Sue and their two wonderful girls Katelyn & Chloe at the Nakina Air float plane base where we got caught up on recent events, talked about upgrades to the camp and of course the fishing. In short order our gear was loaded up and Greg was corralling us onto the turbo Otter for our flight to Whiteclay.

After a beautiful flight, we touched down at Whiteclay and immediately saw a difference from last year as we no longer had the white sandy beach anymore. Yep, it was spring and the water levels were higher then last years trip at the end of June but it just meant less rocks to worry about.

A couple of major upgrades Boreal Forest did to this camp and most of their other camps this year was the installation of full sized solar powered fridges and chest freezers. I found this to be a huge bonus as it takes away any carbon dioxide issues that can occur with propane appliances and provides quiet and dependable operation. By the way, the fridge worked great and the chest freezer was awesome!

Another major upgrade were the new wide body Lund SSV-14 boats with 20 hp motors! Plenty of space, comfortable seats, dry and stable, just what you need for long days on the lake.

As mentioned, the water levels were quite different than our mid-summer trip last year but the fish were still abundant, just in some different locations. As we explored some new parts of the lake we found some new Walleye honey holes and we also dialed in the big frisky Pike.

You don’t have to spend half a day traveling to get into fish and one of the most productive spots we found was straight out from the camp around the island where you could land both walleye and pike consistently.

Of course a few visits up the Raymond River to the scenic rapids were made with no shortage of walleys & pike to be had every time.

All in all it was another great week and as we got into the bigger Pike this year we pondered returning for a third year in 2023.

If you are looking for a larger scenic lake with tons of shoreline, moving water, big Pike and plentiful good sized Walleye then give Whiteclay some consideration. Along with the fishing you will be well looked after by your hosts Jay & Sue whom are friendly, down to earth, hard working folks who run a great operation, focused on the customer experience.

If Whiteclay isn’t what you are looking for, Boreal Forest has several other great camps to consider and I personally have been to their Hurst Lake camp which I will be returning in the upcoming years.

Until next trip,

Rob & the Walleye Wanderers 

[gordy28]

Thanks for sharing.  A lake and outfitter high on my list but we couldn’t make it work for our 2024 trip

Overall just looks like a beautiful lake both in the fishing and the scenery side 

cheers

Andrew 

[TJQ]

Great report!

[BassMan11]

Awesome report. Love the Nakina area lakes!

[mamona]

Beautiful report, enjoyed it a lot

[Dara]

I didn't read all that. I just looked at the pictures.

Looks like you found your Shangri la., and mine.

[Whopper]

Congrats on your WC experience.

Did my first flyin there and returned for five more trips with two different outfitters. First trip and  visit to the "Gorge" I will never forget, simply awesome, fished the "Rock" about half way up and the catching was fast and furious.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Whopper

[walleye wanderer]

On 1/14/2023 at 8:37 AM, Whopper said:

Congrats on your WC experience.

Did my first flyin there and returned for five more trips with two different outfitters. First trip and  visit to the "Gorge" I will never forget, simply awesome, fished the "Rock" about half way up and the catching was fast and furious.

Hey Whopper, great to hear you enjoyed WC as much as we did and I suspect "the rock" you refer to is the same spot where we caught a ridiculous amount of Walley's. In fact we have one of our American friends returning this year after a few years away due to COVID so we are taking him into Whiteclay June 3rd for a week!

If you happen to have any other secret spots on WC, especially towards the west end and feel like sharing them, please let me know.

Cheers

WW

[Bill]

Whiteclay Lake looks like a great destination.

Thanks for sharing the report and pictures.

[akaShag]

Thanks for taking the time to write the report!  That area is certainly blessed with some great fishing............but I sure found the road trip up to Nakina to be some L...O...N...G...!

Doug

[RickOnt]

Walleye Wanderer

My group was there the last year Don, Mattice Lake Outfitters, had the camp, Before he sold it to Jason and Sue 

We flew out of Armstrong a two day trip for us older guys to get there

Nakina is much better as it can be one day to get there

The spots you mentioned were also good for us.

Also try the inflow of the Ogoki River , up the west arm, right at the falls.

We never hiked up past the falls

It was very good for us For Pike and Walleye

Have fun

Rick

[walleye wanderer]

2 hours ago, RickOnt said:

Walleye Wanderer

My group was there the last year Don, Mattice Lake Outfitters, had the camp, Before he sold it to Jason and Sue 

We flew out of Armstrong a two day trip for us older guys to get there

Nakina is much better as it can be one day to get there

The spots you mentioned were also good for us.

Also try the inflow of the Ogoki River , up the west arm, right at the falls.

We never hiked up past the falls

It was very good for us For Pike and Walleye

Have fun

Rick

Hey Rick, glad to hear you had a good trip to Whiteclay! I would like to venture up to the west end to fish the falls but it is a long ride from Boreal's camp...maybe this year though with the new 20hp Merc's.

Cheers

WW

[RickOnt]

Yes 20hp will make a huge difference!!

We had the 9.9hp and was a long ride, even going to the Gorge.

Having the 9.9's was my only issue

If ya can even say that LOL