Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada One time...at fishin' camp.....

In '84, summer time, fresh outta high school...myself and five other gents took a little 12 day 75 mile canoe trip up way North of Toronto, Ontario. We fished, lived off the land and had ourselves a ball. It was for the most part ALL float plane country unless you captained a canoe.

We saw moose, black bear, some sorta fox and other various critters. THE best thing we saw was not one other person <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />.

We visited a couple of unoccupied rental lodges, the nice yellow log ones, signed the log books and went about our way. We found shacks several times along the way assumably belonging to trappers and hunters. A couple had been broke into by bears with various cooking implements scattered. One had a two burner coleman stove bent all to [bleep] layin' in the doorway. We climbed a fire tower and had a great lunch with a great view.

I remember one of the lakes names, it was Green Lake, which was the largest in the chain of events for the trip. A bad storm blew in while we were trying to cross that lake. It was a bit hairy getting across and those events stick in my mind.

Unfortunately I can't recall the name of the "area" for sure. All that comes to mind is Missisauga Wild River Park. Is there such a place and do any of you know the area I'm talking about?

We drove a bunch North of Sudbury, Ontario with a good fifty miles of it on a dirt road before we put in the water. I remember facing off with a logging truck on that dirt road, BIG logging truck. Bigger than what we see on the roads here. I was driving a Scout. The truck won.....

We made a round trip via canoe that covered 75 miles IIRC. There were several portages along the way with one of them being called "The Mile". I won a bet to carry two packs AND my canoe over that portage, one pack on my back, the other on my front and the canoe on my shoulders. When we reached water on the other side we saw the biggest Damn Moose any of us could have imagined to be walkin' about. It was the third we had seen so far so we had a good base to judge by. It was huge, picture book huge...

This place and the water route we followed had been done other times by a couple guys in our group. It was a "known" route evident with prior camp sites and other evidence of it being "the beaten path"...

I wanna say it was along rt 144 somewhere but I just don't know. I've studied maps over the years trying to find it again but it was a long time ago...I'd like to go back sometime.

Another thing I recall is we found the remnants of a very large Log Building...big enough that we pitched 3 tents inside it amongst the trees growing on the "floor". The remaining logs were HUGE, at least 24 inches in diameter and there was really only one corner of the structure still "standing". Logs were very rotted and fragile, moss covered. It was located on a point on one of the lakes. When we passed back thru Sudbury on the way home we stopped at a town hall building and looked up the location. The records said it was the location of a trading post back in the 1600's...

Something else that comes to mind, just a memory of the trip, I had caught a 39 inch Northern Pike from the canoe. We were in the middle of the lake but near some very large rocks out in the middle. One of the rocks sloped up out of the water like a beach...I was a little skeered to fight that fish INTO the boat so we paddled over to the rock to drag him ashore. I used my Pards pliers to remove the hook and friggin' forgot them laying there on the rock. They layed there for a year and my Pard went back the next year and FOUND them. Couldn't believe it. A little WD40 and all was well.....

Anyone know of this area...???

Sounds like North of Sudbury towards Wawa and Chapleau area. Beautiful country, for sure. And it ain't for sale. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Oh, those were YOUR pliers! I guessed somebody would come back for them, so I left them there.

Roy, good decision by a young man to not hoist the jackfish into the canoe... a lot of bad things could have happened.

My brother and I used to fish a lot of fly-in lakes in Canada, in Ontario, B.C., YT, and Labrador. I decided the three most dangerouus things involved on these trips, in order, were :
1. cutting/splitting firewood
2. handling those big toothy fish, and
3. eating MY cooking!

To all our Canadian Campfire friends, thanks for putting up with us Yankee tourists, we love your outdoor experience too!

More then one treble hook has been embedded in my calf from a thrashing jack in a canoe. I think I'm going to make a fish cradle this year and try that out.


SS

SS, they just look at you with those cold Jackfish eyes, as if to say, If I get a chance, I will HURT you! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The worst is when their mouth is open and the hook is "just right there. No need to get the pliers out of the box." A jacks mouth is like a venus fly trap lined with millions of hypodermic needles. Touch the inside and they clamp down like a vise.


SS

YES! I have had them play possum, trying to lull you in to a deep sense of "Heck, I can just grab that hook and shake it loose without those pesky pliers" Then.......GOTCHA! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I doubt trying to buy it would work for any of us... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Seriously though, I would love to take my boys up there in a few years to repeat the trip. Is all that pristine wilderness still pristine..?? I would sure hope the hell it is...

There was a few logging operations going on at the time...Am wondering how that may have changed things in 22 years time...

Ya'll had an ice storm up that way a few years back right? How did that change things?

Has there been any forest fires in that area..?


As an example, not of fires or logging just changes as in forest growth, I stayed away from the Aderondack Mountains where I bear hunt for about 8 years...when I returned it was all together different...the scrub had grown up and the old familiar landmarks were way different. One favorite rock cliff where I could view a long ways was so growed up you can't see off the cliff anymore...

Anyway...am wondering how to obtain topo maps of the region...or at least a map more detailed than the Atlas I got...I've lost track of the guys I went with and we pretty much were winging it anyway. Like I said before a couple of them knew the way but the rest of us were along for the ride....

Any more help would be really appreciated.

Kid...I'll tell ya right now iff'n I had to depend on my fishing expertise to survive long term...I'd starve to death. Sure glad huntin' has better luck for me than fishin' <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

That trip to Canada was about the BEST time I've ever had catchin' fish. Every cast caught a Northern...That particular 39 inch fish was THE biggest fish I've ever had on a line. He was ornery too....I know that he had swampin' my boat in mind as soon as he realized he was caught <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

We ate 'im fair and square in some trail mix Fish Chowder just to pay him back for the fit he threw along side the canoe.....right tasty he was too... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You might want to check out this site.

http://toporama.cits.rncan.gc.ca/toporama_en.html

It's a topographical map site for Canada put out be the governement. The detail isn't great, but it's better then most and free. I usually just print off the map pieces and piece them together. Laminate it, punch a hole in the corner and tie it to your canoe/pack. Then you take a grease pencil and mark it up with where you are and where your going. Works pretty slick.


SS

quote: "39 inch fish was THE biggest fish I've ever had on a line"

move up here, we need to change that number a little. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
But that is a nice sized jackfish.

Thanks Sam, that just might help me out...

Some day, the size of the fish I catch in Alaska is ALL i'm gonna hafta worry about.....

The ice storm was well south of where you were. I think you were north of chelmsford up near Gogama. It's a huge area, still being logged, but a huge area. Great fishing, might even be better than it was as they did some pretty god work controilling acid rain in the 80's and 90's. I now livein Alberta and the rockies are spectacular, but the canadian shield finishes a close second or beauty.

martinbns,

We visited several fly in lodges that were on the lakes up there. They were very nicely built log structures obviously geared for the Outdoorsman both in fishing ventures and hunting. Unfortunately there was no one home when we passed thru, we deduced they had not yet been occupied by clients that year but were in the ready.

I have always wondered who they belonged to and how to contact them. We signed the visitors logs at each one of them but I can't recall any outfits names from what we found in the cabins.

Are these lodges goverment run or private? They must still exist there, it looked like a thriving venture as there were well stocked pantries and boats laying about...

Re: "jackfish", "Northerns". Both are local, colloquial names. Much simpler to call them what they are - Pike.

I've always found a short Ruger landing net right handy for those headed for the frying pan or aluminum foil in the coals. Danged leaders get in the way every once in a while, but that's just "catch and release". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> It's amazing how they calm down once that net touches them (roughly between the eyes).

Try the Ministry of Natural resources offices in timmins or Sudbury. It's news to me if the govt runs lodges in these areas, they were probably just rental cottages or fishing camps, most people leave a few things like canned goods behind when they go. There are flyin lodges all over northern Canada, you rent them and the boat, look after yourselves, bring your own food etc.

My pike fishing mentor would bring them in and pick them up by their eye sockets, which would "freeze" them...He never used a net. My first few trys at it weren't pretty. It bothered me, imagining what that felt like and the effect on the focus mechanics for the bigger fish we put back.

Just picking them up by squeezing their gill plates shut works just about as well, though requires some effort on the bigger fish...

My Dad had half an interest in a camp on the Montreal before it was roaded and we went there yearly as kids...things you wished you still had <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If you get a Pike that is in excess of 40" long, you got your hands full trying to heft them either by the eyes or the gills. Beside which, the boney edges of the orbits (eye holes) can be pretty sharp on the fingers, and the slime makes 'em a little tricky to hang onto around the neck.

I just cut the line and let them go. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I hate the slimey things. Give me trout or yellow pickerel any day. (after the fight, of course.) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />