Speck Labourin' : Northern Ontario adventure

[Dozer]

Wont soon forget this one...

Started off our adventure with the mob with me and a full tank of gas, well... at the end of it all, ten full tanks.

Truckin' along during the night wasn't the wisest of ideas but hey, travel by night, fish by day. Timed it so we could make it to St Mary's in the Soo but we never ended up making it on time... didn't matter though, we were running on a couple of hours of sleep and full of energy fishing a new system. We got there around 10 A.M. and started to fish. This is one scary place... especially that concrete wall that is submerged and runs parallel with the river... standing on that concrete wall 25 meters from the dam is a hair raising experience... I think I will bring a life jacket next time so I feel more confident trekking through that river. We got skunked, fished it very hard only to have spotted 5- 8 chinnies near the dam and I had small fish of some sorts tear my roe bag... I swear :lol: We will be back...

We headed off that night, an 8 hour rush towards Thunder Bay... word of advice... take a jerry can full of gas if you ever travel up those ways. We were tipped off of this particular fishing area by a board member from another site. Got to the launch, packed up the boat and off we were racing to get to our destination... so approx. a 1300 km drive and a 15 km boat ride we arrived.

We were intimidated... well at least I was. I wont lie... These gorges were 100 meters above water level and an additional 25 meters deep below Breath taking scenery, we had a Bald Eagle who lived in area. Quite the show when you see it cruising through the islands and perching up on trees. It was always so far away from us, would have loved to take some pictures of it. This entire area made you feel like a speck of dust... Spectacular.

This made focusing at first hard.... so much water, everywhere you looked, you would see something fishable. So we started fishing. We did our research and what we found was that we needed to keep a small trib mentality on the big system. These pictures do not to justice, but this river is Niagara's little brother in some places.

So we fished some slower moving water... in ONE of the channels :lol:

Nothing... until we were cruising back and noticed a boat fishing the seam of this small riffle.... it looked scary at first. I've never done anything like this, using the boat in current, took a bit of getting used to it but I got the hang of it and sure enough... bang, fish on. Our first brook trout of the trip... a small one but hey, at least we now know there are fish around. CJR put on a clinic that day... go figure... we were using the same method yet he some how managed to catch 7, our man despotiko rounded up one, and I came back to camp with no fish landed. One of CJR's fish.

LET ME GO!

 

[Dozer]

We started off the next morning by going to the same spot... after a tough sleep. Thunder kept us up for most of the night but by first light were were out. I'm telling you, we did a LOT of work that entire weekend... one night we slept in the car for a couple of hours... I ended up sleeping outside in the boat because one of the team mates snored for the most part. We were sleep deprived, thats for sure. I digress.. the morining ended with a couple fish landed... what to do? This isn't the same as yesterday. Jump in the boat and explore... and it paid off huge. Lesson learned here, be versatile.

We went up stream closer to the dam where the water got fast. You either have someone controlling the boat while others fish, or have it anchored with 2 or 3 spare anchors ready in case you loose 'em all. We found a seam from very fast current to frog water... fish loved it and so did we. They even smashed our bobbers, enough reason to try topwater Best of all it was accessible by shore so we anchored, dented the boat numerous times and started fishing. Every new spot. and almost every switch of bait hooked up with fish, landing them was a challenge at times. We lost a lot of fish. Most were 10 - 18 inches.

Across the river we noticed guys hooking into fish like us but then one dude hooks into a big fish... the sucker ran the dude down stream and they couldn't pull it it :lol: They pulled anchor and chased the fish down stream to net it. It looked big. They took off so we naturally took their spot. Only other boat we saw the 3 days we were there...

We positioned and we fished and hit the mother load. We thought those guys did well. We watched them pull 15 fish between two guys in two hours. But we did better. More fish in the 15 inch range in terms of brookies until these two dandy's came out to play. The following picture is the fish of the trip in my eyes. A long 26" fish on a pin :lol:

This pig was interesting.... remember those top water bobber smashes... well, I landed a smaller 18 inch fish with this sub surface hard bait. Came out trashing out of the water. Second time tossed, another strike from a smaller fish, missed the hook set and this cutie came up and whacked it.

CJR caught some whitefish which were awesome to see thrown into the mix along with some suckers :lol: Diversity, Indians! :lol:

After an awesome day of fishing we decided we will stay an extra day... well guess what, I'll make it short. Storm came at night, water levels rose... we couldn't figure them out 100% before noon.

A couple fish here and there but no real numbers and consistency so we took off and headed to another area.

Chinnies were in thick. Glad we made the move.

I though I got hung up on a branch under water and it broke off, reeling it in from 25 meters. Even told my colleagues I had hooked a log. To my surprise I went to land a few of these golden nuggets.

In town I even hooked into a new PB brookie.

Upon further inspection, we noticed the entire town had a brookie ( or is it spec? ) influence...a mural in town.

 

[Dozer]

That night we ended up at bear hunting lodge to sleep and then the morning I almost lost two friends came. Today was tributary fishing day. We had picked out a few spots we wanted to try. The first spot nearly killed us from exhaustion. A couple of hours of sleep a few nights in a row catches up and horrible estimations of distance provided from locals almost led to our demise. 2 hours of trekking we arrive to our spot.

Wasn't much time before we hit a decent river brookie. despotiko's catch.

Rivers were low and loaded with small fish. One/two drifts/"tosses" in each pool and you had to move on.

Dry fly paradise, lots of active fish.

This one is for you CC

After scouting the one river we were done. 1 pm came around... off we were to the spot where the world record brookie was caught. Blh blah blah I'm getting tired... long story short the place was full or 15 - 18 inchers and we caught 8 fish in a day and half.

 

[Dozer]

Best depth finders ever.

Would we do it again. Yes.

Would we recommend it to others? Yes.

Lessons learned

1. Watch where fish are being caught.
2. No expectations.
3. Be versatile
4. NEVER GIVE UP!
5. Don't drive at night if possible.
6. Just because they're local, doesn't mean they know.... well, don't rely on information from ONE person :lol:

Thanks for an amazing trip guys. Special shout out goes to forum member SmackUm for taking the time in answering questions and Dundas for the long PM's

Good night.

 

[openfire]

:shock:

Quite simply the most inspiring fishing report I've had the pleasure of reading in a very long time!

What an amazing adventure... and those brookies... ridiculous.

Seriously??? :blink:

WOW!!!

 

[hightechdecks]

wow,,,,,must have been one wild ride up there. thanks for the post game. tip #4 is best

 

[rocheleauc]

SPECtacular week buddy. Just about to leave for work and looking at these pictures right now is heartbreaking lol. Wish we could've stayed longer.

Back to reality

 

[Joel52]

Nice trip report. Well worth the trek to the north country. #6 is a great tip... and night driving? yikes! See any moose?

 

[ChaseChrome]

[font="tahoma][quote][/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma]St Mary's in the Soo...This is one scary place... especially that concrete wall that is submerged and runs parallel with the river... standing on that concrete wall 25 meters from the dam is a hair raising experience...I swear :lol: We will be back...[/quote][/font][/color]
[color="#808000"][font="tahoma]You're right...it's one scary piece of water (especially wading it)...I don't think you'll find rocks more slippery than here. The spring run is magnificent on the Mary's (that will be the next trip [/font][img]http://www.ontariofishingforums.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_cool.gif[/img] )[/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][quote][/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma]...take a jerry can full of gas if you ever travel up those ways. [/quote][/font][/color]
[color="#808000"][font="tahoma]Stations few and far between up there for sure!![/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][quote][/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][img]http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv169/mikepoplawski/DSC00822.jpg[/img][/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][/quote] [/font][/color]
[font="tahoma][color="#808000"]Nothing more daunting than fishing BIG BLACK WATER up North--not at all like fishing THE BLUE[/font]
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[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][/font][/color][color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][img]http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv169/mikepoplawski/DSC00907.jpg[/img][/quote][/font][/color]
[font="tahoma][color="#808000"]Someone got out on the wrong side of the bed...

Nice Brookie bro!![/font]
[font="tahoma] [color="#1c2837"]

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[font="tahoma][/quote][/font][/color]
[font="tahoma][color="#808000"]Now THAT'S a nice fresh Chinook--I remember those from being up there (a little "different" from their Ontario cousins man!!)[/font][font="tahoma]
[quote][/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][img]http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv169/mikepoplawski/DSC00945.jpg[/img][/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma][/quote][/font][/color]
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[font="tahoma][size="5"]RULE #7: DON'T DO THIS!!![/size][/font]
[font="tahoma]Up there men are men...and sheep are nervous...[/font][/color]
[color="#1C2837"][font="tahoma]Thanks bro...[/font]

"CHEESECAKE"

Hey guys, looks like quite an adventure!! Thanks for reporting D-man​

WELL DONE!!​

​

CC​

 

[getin]

darn! You made me report late to work today, got busy reading your report and when I finished,,dooh,,late

Congratulations, this is something that stays with you! I guess I know who the person who helped you (from other forums) is. Seen similar size bookies and scenarios recently

Thanks for sharing

 

[Dugger]

Holy crap, Dozer!!!.... I'm speechless (and that doesn't happen too often )

what an incredible trip and to think it is in this beautiful province!!! I have to get up there some day.... i wonder what impact the Chinooks have on fall spawning Specks


Congrats sir!

 

[FishingNoob]

Wow. The scenery and fish are breath taking! I think that is the greatest report I've ever read since joining. I've never seen trout soo big before! I'd love to make that trip someday...

 

[fisher12]

Excellent report! those brook trout seem well worth the trip

 

[NADO]

wow...breathtaking report.

Love the "let me go" tagged fish.

Definately the trip of a lifetime.

 

[Rain-Bow]

Solid report! . In fact I can't remember the last time I read such an exciting report on brookies!

 

[Aldeir]

Wow!!! Beautiful place...looks like heaven.

Fantastic catches <o)))><

 

[Dozer]

Its worth it ladies and gents. You must have access to a boat. Without a boat, 90% of the fish wouldn't get caught. Start saving 50 bucks a month and round up a team and get out there people... bucket list it 100%.

The ride up there wasn't as much animal activity as the ride back. The ride up we were cruising at 80 km/hr... ended up seeing a lynx/bobcat and a couple of foxes. The ride back was a little different :lol: Feeling a little bit more confident with the car and terrain we were gong faster this time, until we saw a moose, then it was back to 80 km/hr. That night we saw coyotes, foxes, rabbits... well over 15 individuals throughout the night.

 

[chris f]

great job guys looks like you had an awesome trip,thanks for posting and sharing

 

[salmotrutta]

I can't believe you guys drove!

Must be wicked getting such large "spec"imens. Was that your first time fishing large brookies?

I can relate to the tiresome night driving. I've driven from NJ to Ontario on no sleep a few times during the night. No traffic, and mostly just deer to look out for (and state troopers). Their roads are poorly lit and more narrow, but after the first drive I got used to it.

Drive fast enough, and you won't have to bring food for the trip

 

[fish.hunt.love.repeat]

Beauty pictures! I love it up there... thanks for the read. :-D