reefrunner
Well-Known Member
Every now and then I like to get out leave the buzz of the city, the comforts of home and replace them with a tent, a boat and a rod. It's amazing what landscapes are available to traverse and what dreams can be caught if only one would reach out into our great Ontario wilderness. The "now and then" materialized itself over four days from June 4-7, 2009 as my cousin and made the trek up to the Upper French River for some camping and, more importantly, fishing.
If you are not aware of the area, refer to the map below:
Map of Nippissing and Upper French River
The Upper French flows out of Lake Nippissing southward, twist and hugs countless reefs and islands into the Chaudrie Dam at the south end. [the red boxes below. Sorry for the map, it's tough to get a good copy anywhere. Even the provincial park makes you buy a map, even though you have purchased a permit to camp out there
]
Chaudrie Dam
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums
We arrived at Riverview Cottages Thursday morning, registered our site and gave Brian from Casa Blanca Lodge a call to drop us off a boat that we rented from him for the duration. Just gotta say quickly; Brian is the man. He is a grass roots type of guy that enjoys the company of his guests at the Lodge and is always the most hospitable. His cabins were booked solid for our trip, but he was glad to have a boat available for us. Haven't seen him in two years, so after catching up and exchanging stories we headed up river to our site behind Hunts Island.
View from Camp
[img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg238/MPaciorek/Pic003.jpg
Our vessel (18 Foot Ceder stip, 20 HP yammy)
Set up camp as soon as we landed
Then set up a buffett for Pike and Walleye
We fished that evening just around our camp to get familiar with our surroundings. The water was really cold, 50F in the main bay and close to 60F in the back waters. As Brian warned us "...them fish are gun shy when the water stays this cold", and did that ever hold true. The first evening, fishing from around 5pm until dark, only a dinky perch was caught on a drop shot rigged with a live worm in 20fow off of Hunts Island. Went back to camp for a steak and roasted potato dinner, listened to the loons compete with the Stanley Cup Finals over the crank radio for a while and hit the sack.
Got up early the next morning, the flies buzzing but not biting, a quick sandwhich and black coffee ansd we pushed off shore into our next adventure. Bobbing right infront of our camp tieing our rigs for the day I noticed a conspicous boat approaching our way. The regional CO lined up our boats and after we should him our permits and licenses we were on our way. Started the troll for pike holding tight to shore and passing mid lake humps and reefs. Anywhere we hit weeds, or if the spot looked interesting, we stopped and casted the area. Alas, we forgot to take the skunk out of our boat. Always a good time to take in the wild life.
Green giant moths
Bald eagle
A couple of OSS smallmouth bass and another dinky perch later in the evening caught on small Mepps Syclops spoons we stayed in that night enjoying the nice cool weather, cooler beverages and planned our next attack.
Our last night, desperation mode, we headed into Bob's Bay located on the northern shore tucked away through a pair of narrows and a handful of islands. We fished well into dark, washed all of our lures without a sniff. I take out a frog coloured Zara Spook on the chance I may wake up these darn pike disturbing the glass surfaced water. Sitting on a drop from 6 to 18 feet, I launch the first cast close to shore. Twitch, twitch, twitch all the way back to the boat...nothing. Second cast I launch just off shore....nothing. Third cast, I'm figuring man I'm gonna change this lure....twitch, twitch, cousin mutters something, twitch, SPLASH!!!! FISH ON!!!
It was dark, with only the moonlight to illuminate the action, as the fish dove for deeper water. Bringing her in I caught a glimpse of a white long belly of what I believed to be a decent pike. Take out the flaslight and shine it on the catch..."GET THE NET" I yell out to my cousin. Bring it in and the forest around us is filled with a chorus of jubilation and high fives for this....
This is my personal best Walleye, measured 25 inches and scaled in at 7lbs even. Didn't get a girth of this beast as we were quick to put her back onto her stomping grounds. Man-o-man. As you may tell from the pics, I was stunned a good half-hour, the fish recuperated before I did for sure, lol. Needless to say, I love my Zara Spook and enshrined it as my "go-to" top water. Stoked, we casted around for another hour and slow trolled back to camp where our lifted spirits took us into a beautiful French River sunrise.
C'est fini,
Reefrunner
If you are not aware of the area, refer to the map below:
Map of Nippissing and Upper French River
The Upper French flows out of Lake Nippissing southward, twist and hugs countless reefs and islands into the Chaudrie Dam at the south end. [the red boxes below. Sorry for the map, it's tough to get a good copy anywhere. Even the provincial park makes you buy a map, even though you have purchased a permit to camp out there
]Chaudrie Dam
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums
We arrived at Riverview Cottages Thursday morning, registered our site and gave Brian from Casa Blanca Lodge a call to drop us off a boat that we rented from him for the duration. Just gotta say quickly; Brian is the man. He is a grass roots type of guy that enjoys the company of his guests at the Lodge and is always the most hospitable. His cabins were booked solid for our trip, but he was glad to have a boat available for us. Haven't seen him in two years, so after catching up and exchanging stories we headed up river to our site behind Hunts Island.
View from Camp
[img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg238/MPaciorek/Pic003.jpg
Our vessel (18 Foot Ceder stip, 20 HP yammy)
Set up camp as soon as we landed
Then set up a buffett for Pike and Walleye
We fished that evening just around our camp to get familiar with our surroundings. The water was really cold, 50F in the main bay and close to 60F in the back waters. As Brian warned us "...them fish are gun shy when the water stays this cold", and did that ever hold true. The first evening, fishing from around 5pm until dark, only a dinky perch was caught on a drop shot rigged with a live worm in 20fow off of Hunts Island. Went back to camp for a steak and roasted potato dinner, listened to the loons compete with the Stanley Cup Finals over the crank radio for a while and hit the sack.
Got up early the next morning, the flies buzzing but not biting, a quick sandwhich and black coffee ansd we pushed off shore into our next adventure. Bobbing right infront of our camp tieing our rigs for the day I noticed a conspicous boat approaching our way. The regional CO lined up our boats and after we should him our permits and licenses we were on our way.
Started the troll for pike holding tight to shore and passing mid lake humps and reefs. Anywhere we hit weeds, or if the spot looked interesting, we stopped and casted the area. Alas, we forgot to take the skunk out of our boat. Always a good time to take in the wild life.Green giant moths
Bald eagle
A couple of OSS smallmouth bass and another dinky perch later in the evening caught on small Mepps Syclops spoons we stayed in that night enjoying the nice cool weather, cooler beverages and planned our next attack.
Our last night, desperation mode, we headed into Bob's Bay located on the northern shore tucked away through a pair of narrows and a handful of islands. We fished well into dark, washed all of our lures without a sniff. I take out a frog coloured Zara Spook on the chance I may wake up these darn pike disturbing the glass surfaced water. Sitting on a drop from 6 to 18 feet, I launch the first cast close to shore. Twitch, twitch, twitch all the way back to the boat...nothing. Second cast I launch just off shore....nothing. Third cast, I'm figuring man I'm gonna change this lure....twitch, twitch, cousin mutters something, twitch, SPLASH!!!! FISH ON!!!
It was dark, with only the moonlight to illuminate the action, as the fish dove for deeper water. Bringing her in I caught a glimpse of a white long belly of what I believed to be a decent pike. Take out the flaslight and shine it on the catch..."GET THE NET" I yell out to my cousin. Bring it in and the forest around us is filled with a chorus of jubilation and high fives for this....
This is my personal best Walleye, measured 25 inches and scaled in at 7lbs even. Didn't get a girth of this beast as we were quick to put her back onto her stomping grounds. Man-o-man. As you may tell from the pics, I was stunned a good half-hour, the fish recuperated before I did for sure, lol. Needless to say, I love my Zara Spook and enshrined it as my "go-to" top water. Stoked, we casted around for another hour and slow trolled back to camp where our lifted spirits took us into a beautiful French River sunrise.
C'est fini,
Reefrunner
