White Owl Lake Report - June 2-9th 2024

[BassMan11]

After 2 more or less disappointing fly-in trips over the 10 years or so I decided to reach out to Mike. B to see what he would recommend for our 3rd Walleye and Pike Trip. Well we returned yesterday from White Owl Lake Outpost out of Hornepayne and I can safely say Mike knows what he is talking about. 

The Road Trip - Nothing notable from Southern and Eastern Ontario. Stayed in White River the night before which is only a short 1 hour drive to Hornepayne the next day which was great. HWY 631 to Hornepayne had lots of wildlife... we saw 7 bears and 4 moose on the combined drive in and out on a 80km road Very neat but also have an eye when driving. 

Flight - Short 10-15 minute flight from Forde Air base in Hornepayne into the Outpost. They use a Beaver which is a much smaller airplane than the usual Turbo Otter. One thing that was interesting is that even though we had a 100lb weight limit per person ,they flew in all of our overage for no cost. I assume this is due to consistent flights back and forth to the Lodge... so hopping over to the outpost at White Owl isn't out of the way. Very nice perk!

Camp - Rustic but functional. It had running cold water at the sink and also a cold water shower behind the camp. These are fed by a gravity system and topped up with a pump down the dock. 3 bedrooms that can sleep 6... but 4 would be the perfect size. Wood stove (no wood processed). Standard Outhouse. Electric fridge, so the 2200 watt generator needs to be running about half the day to keep things cold. They provide lots of gas for this though. Propane stove and lots of pots, pans, plates, cups, etc. New BBQ and fish cooker in good working order. Boats were standard 14" Nadens with nice seats and no leaks.

The camp itself to me needs some work and it could be really good. I think the focus is more or the Buck lake lodge portion of the operation... which makes sense because its most of the business. You also get a Garmin in reach for emergency purposes... but it is not much use... more on that later. 

The Weather - I feel like with its proximity to Lake Superior... the weather on the lake changes quickly. We had mostly overcast skies all week with a 15km west-ish wind. It rained in the afternoon almost everyday for an hour or 2 before usually clearing out by 5-6pm. All in all pretty good fishing weather for the most part. Also being June... the days were very long which was great. We ate dinner almost every night at 10pm.... felt like 7pm!

White Owl Lake - The lake itself its a fairly structureless marshy bowl. Not your typical Canadian shield Walleye Lake. About 5km long and narrow, we were able to find high percentage spots fairly quickly and key in on them. I brought a larger side scan fish finder which cut the learning curve down drastically. Water is stained and dark. Also we couldn't find 1 shore lunch spot. Bummer!

Little White Owl Lake - Can be navigated to via boat down a narrow channel. This lake sets up very different with more Rocky shoreline and depths down to 140'. Didn't stay in there very long as the bigger lake was producing more fish.

Starr Lake - You can portage into Starr where there is a very nice 14' Lund Boat to use. The water is much clearer and the walleye were a different lighter colour which was very neat.  We only fished it a short time as weather blew us off the lake. We caught fish... but nothing that set it apart from the big lake.

The fishing - This was by far the best fly in fishing trip I have been on for numbers. Myself and 3 other non walleye fishermen boated 727 fish in 6.5 days on the water. Both Pike and Walleye were shallow and aggressive post spawn. 95% of fish were caught in 5-10 feet of water. Water temps were a consistent 60-65 degrees all week. Hot baits were bright paddle tail minnows (casted or trolled) and slow death spinner rigs, but a large variety of baits caught fish.... from wacky worms to mepps and a worm. We brought a flat of worms which was overkill in my opinion. I think I used 6 worms all week personally.

Largest Walleye - 25" x 3 with the average fish being 16-18"

Largest Pike - 38.5" (but saw larger chasing hooked walleye)

Lots of prior visitors at the camp wrote their trip report on the walls of the cabin. One 5 man group said they had caught 1518 fish in 7 days. I do not doubt this. White Owl is teeming with fish.

Constructive criticism - The communication with the outfitter is limited at best. We had a weather delay coming out but had no idea of flight status' or expected flight out times. We used the in reach but had no response until 4pm that day saying... "we are trying to get you out" All understandable but a heads up in the morning  or throughout the day would have been appreciated. Plane arrived at 630pm and got us out eventually.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. I'd like to thank Mike. B for his insight and recommendation on the outfitter and lake. It was everything we were looking for and more. 

Tight Lines,

BM

[TJQ]

Great report. Fly-ins are always an adventure.

[Terry]

Sounds like a good trip to me 

[LostAnotherOne]

That must of been a sight seeing that big pike chase your walleye.  Big fat head on it too I'm sure.

[BillM]

Nice!!  Nest time get someone tossing something big for those gators (Williams Whitefish, etc)

[CrowMan]

Thanks for the report, sounds like a great time. Can't say I've ever been disappointed in a fly-in. Although not everyone produced boat loads of fish, they've always been a memorable experience...even the ones where things went south a little (the exploding outhouse...lol), wouldn't take me much convincing to do it again..

[Rizzo]

sounds like a blast

[BassMan11]

16 hours ago, CrowMan said:

Thanks for the report, sounds like a great time. Can't say I've ever been disappointed in a fly-in. Although not everyone produced boat loads of fish, they've always been a memorable experience...even the ones where things went south a little (the exploding outhouse...lol), wouldn't take me much convincing to do it again..

Disappointing from the perspective as you see a lot of successful trips and good camps.... we have had propane leaks, roof leaks, lackluster fishing, terrible weather, outfitter issues, equipment issues, etc. I wouldn't go back to the first 2 places if you paid me... especially after this last trip. The trips were still memorable.... but only from the company perspective.

[BassMan11]

18 hours ago, BillM said:

Nice!!  Nest time get someone tossing something big for those gators (Williams Whitefish, etc)

We did drag around some large spoons in the areas we saw the Big Pike... I had something large on at one point but it came off. Most of the focus was on eye's though. 

[Iggy]

Great to hear you had a good trip. Outpost camps are always a little more challenging but the solitude makes up for most challenges.  Lots of fish and fish fries also make the trip

Thanks