Fishing Traveler

Part 3 – Getting Our Feet Wet – September 2009 Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures Fishing Trip Report

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:02:04 +0000

Recently we published Mike Borger’s 2010 report to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. Here is his Part 3 of his 2009 report that he took in September. The pictures of big fish still abound but they are also accompanied by more narrative about the details than last time. We again have divided the trip report into multiple sections. Make sure to check out each of them.

Here’s Mike…

Once we settled in and readied the boats it was time to fish. We were all dog tired and didn’t have a lot of time with the sun falling quickly, but the pull was strong.

Doug and his dad had about an hour head start on us. They were working a bay directly across and within sight of the camp. We motored over to chat and it seemed Dougie had had a decent start. Throwing small bass sized spinnerbaits he managed a couple of chunky monkeys:

The boys were a wee bit stoked.

Suitably encouraged Jason and I set forth on the hunt.
The walleye in this river system are not particularly fussy and they’re pretty much everywhere.
Casting a 11/4oz Silver Minnow I nailed the first of many incidental ‘eyes:

Shortly afterwards slow rolling a musky sized bucktail above some deep weeds Jason hit this beauty:

Jason popped a decent pike then the walleye fishing really picked up:

With an almost full moon and a beatifully clear, calm night we stayed out a bit longer than anticipated. Trolling back forth in front of a main lake point we hit fish after fish, Jason reeling them in with obvious sadistic pleasure.

Finally our bodies began to falter as the allure of some warm food and a comfy bunk called to us.
It was time to wrap things up, but man what a great start!

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – A Flight Down Memory Lane
Part 3 – Getting Our Feet Wet
More to Come…

Part 2 – A Flight Down Memory Lane – September 2010 Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures Fishing Trip Report

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:02:20 +0000

Recently we published Mike Borger’s 2010 report to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. Here is Part 2 of his 2009 report that he took in September.

The pictures of big fish still abound but they are also accompanied by more narrative about the details than last time. We again have divided the trip report into multiple sections. Make sure to check out each of them.

Here’s Mike…

Arriving at the airbase early Wednesday morning we quickly unloaded our gear and readied it for the Otter:

‘Course we had to get a shot of the crew. From left to right, Jason, Doug, myself and Gerd:

With a crew from Nakina Air pitching in the plane was loaded and in short order we were strapped in and ready for the hour long flight north.

For me this area holds a lot of memories. For more summers than I can remember I travelled this region solo by canoe, sometimes for months on end.

Without even having to look at a map I recognized most of the waterbodies enroute to Beteau.

At one point we flew over Petawanga lake a large widening of the Albany. It was cool to see it from the air as it brought back a flood of memories. I remember paddling down it’s length when a thunderstorm suddenly started brewing. Looking for shelter I spied a series of cabins on an island near the lakes east end. From a distance they looked in good shape so I made my way over.

It was an old native camp, probably used for hunting and up close they were in fact pretty derelict. A squeaky door banged loosley on it’s hinges, ragged bits of rotten cloth flapped in an open window. It had a forlorn abandoned air to it and there was a disconcerting feel to the place. I felt I was trespassing.

Nevertheless with a big storm coming and evening approaching I set up shop in the best of the old cabins. Being alone in the wilderness for months on end nothing much would ever phase me, but for whatever reason I was unnerved in this old native camp.

With a strange feeling that I was being watched I fixed the old wood stove in the cabin making sure the stovepipe was solid and secure. With night falling and a cold driving rain the cabin was chilly. I managed to scrounge up some dry wood, stoked up the old stove and settled in as best as I could.

Around 3am I was in a deep sleep when I suddenly woke with a start, instantly alert. Something had roused me, I just didn’t know what. Lying on the bunk I heard one of the doors slam on the other cabins. Every hair stood up on my neck as there was no way wind did that. Just as I was about to get up and look, without warning the stovepipe which I’d secured collapsed into the cabin and the woodstove fell over on its side.

The cabin was instantly filled with blinding acrid smoke and burning embers. In a panic I managed to get the door open and using my flashlight sweep everything outside with an old chunk of plywood. 3am or not with disaster narrowly averted I quickly packed my gear, loaded the canoe in the dark and left the old camp for friendlier environs. I’m not one to get spooked by anything, but to this day the memory of that strange night still unsettles me.

Back to the present, after a little over an hour we were awarded our first glimpse of Beteau from the air and man did she look fishy!

As we taxied up to the dock we saw the new camp for the first time:

It appeared as though the water had risen a bit since Eddie had left. There were a couple of boats sunk in the water and the dock needed a bit of repair. All in due time. The first order of business was unloading the aircraft:

With 4 eager hands it didn’t take long and in no time we were saying our goodbyes to the pilot and checking out our new home for the next week:

The cabins were fantastic:

Once unpacked and organized we readied the arsenal:

Part 1 – Introdcution
Part 2 – A Flight Down Memory Lane
Part 3 – Getting Our Feet Wet
More to Come…

Part 1 – Introduction – September 2009 Trip Report to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:00:47 +0000

Recently we published Mike Borger’s 2010 report to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. Here is his 2009 report from a trip that he took in September. The pictures of big fish still abound but they are also accompanied by more narrative about the details. We again have divided the trip report into multiple sections. Make sure to check out each of them.

Here is the introduction. Hope you enjoy. Here’s Mike…

Earlier in July of this year I was fortunate to become aquainted with Eddie Guergis. Eddie had aquired an old run down camp on Beteau lake, a widening of the Attawapiskat river 260km north west of Nakina from the natives in Lansdowne House.

As many of you know it’s difficult if not impossible for outfitters to open up new bodies of water as the MNR is not giving out any new land use permits. The only way new waters are opened up in Ontario is by flying further north and leasing from the natives.

Eddie hit the jackpot with the Beteau lake camp. It’s an absolute fish factory with tons of water to fish and explore and huge numbers of both trophy walleye and northern pike.

He started reconstruction of the old native camp earlier this spring and by August it was mostly transformed: A large separate kitchen cabin with all the amenities, 2 very comfortable sleep cabins, a storage shed and a fish cleaning shack. There’s still work to be done, but the bones are there already…

After speaking to him at length I was compelled to book a trip for prime time in June of 2010. What completely caught me off guard was an offer from Eddie to come up and fish the 1st week of September. He was flying in several planeloads of materials and promised we’d be able to squeeze in with our gear and hitch a ride.

I started looking for others to go. Skud AKA Doug was keen to go and asked if he could also bring his dad. In his mid 70’s and an avid angler in his own right, Gerd had never before been on a fly in trip. With Doug stepping up to pay for his pops as well I couldn’t say no. (You’re a good son.)

So the cast of characters was set: Myself, Jason (Basskicker on the board), Doug and his dad Gerd. The excitement was palpable as we loaded the truck in the early morning hours of September 1st and hit the highway for the long drive north to Nakina….

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – A Flight Down Memory Lane
Part 3 – Getting Our Feet Wet
More to Come…

Air Cochrane Nettogami Island Report from Apthorpes Fishing & Hunting Adventures – June 2010

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:08:09 +0000

Photo Courtesy of Apthorpes Fishing & Hunting Adventures

Fellow blogger Brett from Apthorpes Fishing & Hunting Adventures, just got back from a late June 2010 fishing trip with Air Cochrane to their Nettogami Island camp. Brett has an excellent detailed report at his blog. He also has a lot of videos to give you an idea what the trip was like. Here’s a small excerpt…

That evening we helped our annual Lake Nettogami fishing contest by which the boat with the most total inches of fish caught in a two hour period would win. Big Shu and I were in a boat, Ben, Jake and Charlie in another, with the Wilkes comprising the third boat.. We headed to the place on the lake that produced well for us at the end of last year’s trip. Taking advantage of a North-west wind Shu and I drifted over the roller coaster shaped lake bottom catching 150+” of fish in the first 30 minutes.

This tranquil state of fishing utopia was suddenly interrupted by Charlie yelling at us while Jake drove their boat up to ours. Charlie complained that his fish had swallowed his lure and needed help getting it out. They were awed by our total fish count that I shared with them while big Shu removed the lure from the pike. Then Jake, with a devilish look in his eye, wished us well and told Ben to shove their boat off. This grin did not fade as he drove the boat 20 yards down wind from our boat where he stopped the boat and started fishing. Each boy promptly caught fish while drifting over our fishing hole!!!! They proceeded to always stay 20 yards in front of our boat, catching fishing, and quickly passed the 200″+ count. Shu and I shouted angrily at them, calling them unethical, and other such words that should not be printed in a public blog, and which only seemed to fuel their delight. Needless to say, when the two hours were up the boys contended to be victorious while Shu and I claimed it was a victory shrouded in controversy!

Doesn’t it sound like a great time? So, check out Apthorpes Fishing & Hunting Adventures for more details on the report.

Part 5 – Walleye Fishing at Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures 2010

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:00:27 +0000

This is part 5 of a photo essay of a trip by Fishing Traveler friend Mike to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. If you haven’t read the intro, please check it out for more details on the trip report. This part features some of the walleye that Mike caught on his trip. Remember that Mike was focused on the pike and not walleye.

Here’s Mike…

Once again the walleye were mostly incidental catches for me. I didn’t do a whole lot of walleye fishing and many of my fish came on the larger pike lures. They’re incredibly aggressive up there!

When we actually did concentrate on walleye we caught them hand over fist. Best bait for us was a 4″ white or chartreuse twister tail on a 1/4 or 3/8oz head. Beyond a few diving plugs that’s really all you need up there.

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Trip to Eddie’s North Attawapiskat Adventures
Part 3 – Exploring at Eddie North’s Attawapiskat Adventures 2010
Part 4 – Trophy Northern Pike Fishing at Eddie North’s Attawapiskat Adventures 2010
Part 5 – Walleye Fishing at Eddie North’s Attawapiskat Adventures

You can also find additional photos from other members of Mike’s group at OFN.

Part 4 – Trophy Northern Pike Fishing at Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures 2010

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:00:10 +0000

This is part 4 of a photo essay of a trip by Fishing Traveler friend Mike to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. If you haven’t read the intro, please check it out for more details on the trip report. This part features some of the many trophy pike that Mike caught on his trip.

Here’s Mike…

Now on to the important stuff!

As mentioned the water was incredibly low. Many of the back bays we fished last September were high and dry. The pike were still in many of the same spots but instead of fishing for them in 4-5′ of water it was now 1-3′ of water. These extreme shallows were already quite weed choked and could only be fished properly with a weedless lure of some type. The bread and butter lure for most of the group was the venerable old Johnson Silver Minnow, in both the 3/4 and 11/4oz sizes. Tipping it with a large twister tail or a piece cut from an 8″ Reaper slowed the sink rate. This allowed us to crawl the bait slowly over and through the thick slop. The big gators were lurking and many of the strikes in the extreme shallows were heart stopping. If a pike saw your bait more often than not it’d hit, sometimes rushing the lure from 10-12′ away.

As the week wore on and the water temps rose the pattern changed a bit. Instead of extreme shallows we found them in broad, almost featureless weed flats in water depths of 4-8′. Anywhere we found an obvious weed clump we found the big pike. In this type water I used 2 baits. Either a 1oz inline bucktail or smallish bass sized 3/4oz spinnerbait. The really large musky sized baits didn’t work as well. We did try trolling the deeper river channels with oversized diving baits like the Grandmas, but it didn’t really produce for us.

I also caught a good number of my larger pike on my follow up bait which was usually an 8″ black Reaper rigged on a 1/4oz Esox Cobra head jig.

Many times a large fish would follow to the boat but wouldn’t commit. I had a fast action spinning rod and Shimano Sustain 4000 loaded with 30lb Power Pro rigged with the black Reaper. If a fish refused the flashy stuff a quick flip with the oversized plastic almost guaranteed a hook up.

Between all 6 of us I have well over 600 photos to choose from. There’s absolutely no way I could possibly give a blow by blow account of the action so I’m going to provide a sampling of some of the best.

I caught both the largest pike (47 3/4″) and the largest walleye (29″) were bested by yours truly.

Numerous fish over 40″ were caught, many in the 42-45″ range. These fish were all amazingly fat and I know that a large number of our fish were well over 20lbs.

Now on to the fish pictures starting with the pike.

The Fishing

This next shot is both Dan and myself. We put two huge pike, one 45″, the other 42 in the cradle at the same time.

Part 3 – Exploring at Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures 2010

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:00:31 +0000

This is part 3 of a photo essay of a trip by Fishing Traveler friend Mike to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. If you haven’t read the intro, please check it out for more details on the trip report. This part features a number of non-fishing pictures of what awaits you on an Attawapiskat River fishing trip. I have to say that Mike’s pictures under the heading Serenity Defined are just incredible!

Here’s Mike

After landing we quickly unpacked and settled into our new home for the next week. Dan and I lingered for a bit, unwinding and catching up while the other boys raced for the boats rods in hand. With our trip falling very close to the summer solstice we had over 19 hours of daylight to play with. Plenty of time to fish ourselves to exhaustion.

More on the fishing though in just a bit…It’s been said the Attawapiskat river and Beteau lake in particular is a truly magical place.

After experiencing it twice I have to say that I agree.

Untouched and literally teeming with fish and game, it has an ethereal quality.

Here’s a bunch of shots that capture the essence of the place and the experience we had:

Sunrise at Camp

Burning A Bucktail Over A Broad Weed Flat

Sunset Ride Back to Camp

Navigating the Rapids

The Canadian Shore Lunch

Old Native Camp

In a very isolated back bay Dan and I saw this old pot hanging from a tree:

After beaching the boat and walking through some incredibly thick brush we found the remains of an old native camp.

Rainbow

Serenity Defined

Dan Goes For A Swim

On the 2nd day of our trip while navigating upstream my transducer suction cup came unbuttoned and before I could react it pulled my entire finder into the river where it sank in the tea stained water.

I figured it was gone for good. Dan insisted he jump in for a look. (You have to remember this water was cold!). He quickly shed his clothes, hopped into the cold river current and amazingly found the darn thing right away.

Part 2 – Trip to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures 2010

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:00:52 +0000

This is part 2 of a photo essay of a trip by Fishing Traveler friend Mike to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. If you haven’t read the intro, please check it out for more details on the trip report. This part features their trip into the outfitter with some commentary from Mike.

Here’s Mike…

Joining me on this new quest for Pike were Louis, Bill and Justin. As well, Justin’s buddy Dave and my very good, very old friend Dan who now resides in Thunder Bay with his family joined us.

It truly was an outstanding group, everyone meshed well and we shared a lot of laughs.

Arriving in Nakina the night before our flight we checked into the only motel in town and relaxed a bit after the lengthy drive.

Only being 3 hours away Dan didn’t arrive ’till later on Friday evening (lucky sod!). After saying our hellos and introducing him to the rest of the group we hit the sack early. Saturday morning would come fast….

Arriving at the Nakina Air Service base the next morning, we quickly weighed then loaded our gear into one of the Otters.

For most in my group it was their first time in a float plane and the excitement was palpable as we taxied up the lake.

It’s always a thrill flying above the clouds over thousands of untouched lakes. In my younger days I paddled much of this country alone in my canoe and in many ways it’s like coming home.

I’d been told the water level was dramatically lower this year.

Here’s a shot of the camp from last September:

Here’s the way it looked this year. As you can see there was a tremendous amount of exposed sand beach where last year there was none.

You can also see the large main lodge/lounge area that the outfitter is currently constructing. When the camp is finally 100% finished it’s going to be amazing.

Fishing for Northern Pike on Snare Lake with Air Cochrane 2010

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:43:55 +0000

This is a very well done video, which was shot from Snare Lake in Ontario. Snare Lake is one of Air Cochrane’s fly-in lakes in Northeastern Ontario. The thing I really like about this video is that it clearly shows how these guys were catching northern pike on the lake. I love the excitement as they catch a very nice pike.

Incredible Eddie’s North Fishing Trip Report June 12 to 19, 2010

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:03 +0000

I recently emailed Mike Borger about using his incredible photo essay of his trip to the Attawapiskat River with Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. To say this trip looks incredible is an understatement. Many of you may have viewed this report on other forums. If you haven’t get ready for a giant “I wanna go now!” reaction. Mike and friends caught a ton of big pike and really nice walleye during their trip. They primarily fished for trophy pike. You will see that many of their walleye aggressively latched onto the oversized pike lures.

This is primarily a photo essay with some brief comments from Mike. There are a ton of pictures here for your vieiwng pleasure. Slower download speeds beware but the wait will be worth it. I have divided the report into 5 posts to make it a bit easier for those of you with slower internet connections.

Finally, Mike has been gracious enough to provide his email address. If you have questions about the report or Eddie North’s Attawapiskat Adventures, you can email him at solopaddler2@hotmail.com.

So thanks again to Mike for sharing this with us. Here’s Mike’s introduction…

Last September (2009) I had the great fortune of visiting Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures while it was still under construction and had the best pike angling of my life.

It seemed like every current break, backwater, slough, channel and inlet had hungry gators lurking. With such an incredible trip under my belt the June trip was greatly anticipated.

Anticipation tends to get me through the otherwise mundane facets of life. I firmly believe that having something to look forward to is a necessity. No matter how bad my day is going all I have to do is calm myself and think Attawapiskat and the stress is magically gone.

To read more, go to one of the parts of the report.