Recently we published Mike Borger’s 2010 report to Eddie North’s Attawapiskat River Adventures. Here is his Part 5 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…
We hit the river early the next morning. The night before was a cold one and we were anxious to catch the early morning bite.
Bit of a chilly ride enroute to our destination:
The go to bait for us was undoubtedly large bucktails in a variety of colours. With each of us tossing our faves Jason scored first with this hungry devil:
Hanging from his maw was a near 12′ baby pike. Absolutely amazing that it still felt the urge to feed!
The fish were definitely on and for a couple of hours the action was incredible:
Jase had a bit of a hard time holding this one.
Once again Doug and his dad kept pace with some bruisers of their own:
We had made plans to meet up around mid day and join forces for a shore lunch.
The boys showed up on cue and we switched gears to walleye catching enough for a feed in a matter of minutes
We had decided to travel as far upstream on the north channel of the river as we could in search of a lunch spot. Amazing country this is, wild, untamed, haunting in a way, but there’s no rocks anywhere LOL! (Pretty sure we saw 3 all week). This far up in the James Bay lowlands the terrain is very boggy and marshy. Stunted black spruce, a few poplars mixed in, and dense alders lining the shorelines. This type of terrain makes it challenging to find a decent shore lunch spot. Nevertheless after cleaning the fish we travelled on and on upstream navigating several mild rapids in the process.
The first order of business was firewood and I used an old solopaddler technique to collect it. On my long extended trips into the bush using a gas stove for day to day use wasn’t an option (Unless I wanted to carry a back pack full of naptha). This meant I cooked on open fire almost every day. Being alone and with space and gear at a premium I also went without axe or saw. This meant using my wits to find dry wood. Upon entering new water each day I always searched for the nearest beaver lodge. Beaver lodges you see are constructed with beautifully dry mostly wrist thick bleached white pieces of wood. Perfect. After raiding a handy beaver lodge we continued on upstream in search of the perfect lunch spot:
Finally we found some higher ground and unloaded the boats.
I set about getting everything ready:
While Jason caught walleye after walleye right in front of me.
After a great lunch we slowly worked our way back to camp checking out some new waters enroute.
Aproaching the camp we decided to troll some oversized deep diving baits in the river channel.
Did I mention the walleye were aggresive?
A somewhat early arrival back at camp allowed us the opportunity to do some work around the camp for Eddie. First and foremost was the installation of some foam in the underside of the cabin’s roof. Doug had started the job earlier in the week and we finished it off. The wee beasties had just enough room to squeeze through single file and patching all the holes was a blessed relief (All future camp guests can thank us now).
After that chore was out of the way we installed a new full sized propane range and did a bit of clean up. A relaxing evening around camp set the scene for another fabulous session of walleye fishing as the sun set on another postcard day.
Regarding the walleye, I’m a died in the wool jig man and there’s nothing I love better than fishing jigs. On this trip when we did key on the walleyes (which was rare) we found our best success slow trolling typical diving lures like Shad Raps upstream against the current. Seemed as though every time we’d make a pass in certain key areas we’d bang a double. Not my favourite way to do it, but hey whatever works! I do have to say it was a relaxing interlude to the hours of intense casting we did each day.
Note the bling around Jason’s neck in this next pic? Thankfully he wasn’t morphing into Snoop Dawg, but instead had an extreme aversion to bugs. When they were thick he wore a lit mosquito coil around his neck to ward off the hungry hoards. Not sure if it worked or not.
Part 1 – Introdcution
Part 2 – A Flight Down Memory Lane
Part 3 – Getting Our Feet Wet
Part 4 – A Land of Plenty
Part 5 – Gluttonous Cannibals and a Trip Upstream
Part 6 – Wolves, Moose, Bears and Giant Pike
Part 7 – Intensity Rewarded
Part 8 – Plane Late? Not A Problem
