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="" />

My father-in-law won't let them in his boat. He is from Manitoba, and if it ain't a pickerel, it ain't a fish. My son tried to convince his Granpa to try catfish, but no luck. The lucky kid goes fishing with his Granpa in Snow Lake this spring.
We are hitting French River county in August. Muskie territory.

Do you guys have Muskies up there..??

We have both Pike and Muskies. In Chautauqua Lake just down the road from me we have a cross breed of the two we call Norlunges...If ya want a fight, I've heard that hookin' a 40 plus Norlunge is interesting....

Do we have muskies up here? There are two of the best muskie lakes in Ontario within a 20 minute drive of my house. Every year, there are muskies taken in the 48-50" range, and there have been some even larger than that taken. I think there was one or two taken that went nearly 60", but I may be wrong. I have seen the "logs" sunning themselves in the middle of the lake on many occasions. Biggest Pike I ever caught was about 24 lbs. That was plenty of fight on light tackle. My Dad caught a lot of big Pikes, and he ate every one of them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

all this jack talk is makin' me hungry. One time in summer '04 we had company at the cabin that could feed the kids breakfast, so I told wifey she should come fishing with me early in the AM to see what its like (usually it's me and the lab...). In <2 hours we (mostly she) caught more than a dozen jacks and smallmouth... last one was a 36 1/2" jack... It was the biggest fish she'd ever seen, let alone caught herself. Needless to say, she now understands why I get up early to get a couple hours of rod time in.

We kept a couple including the big one... I filleted it boneless, and we had a couple of amazing meals... the kids devoured it. I've got a lot better at doing boneless jacks in the last 2 years, and we're eating more pike.... I like that they have some flavour... pickeral are a little bland, both on the line and in the pan IMHO.

Hey Brent, when you say filleted them boneless, how do you do that? I usually fillet them normally and then take out the ribs and "Y" bones seperately. Do you actually fillet the fish in a way that makes it boneless to begin with?

BTW, if you are frying up jacks and you find that they curl up in the pan, remember to fry the side that had the skin on it down first. That keeps them from curling up.


SS

Sorry, maybe a mis-nomer.. I do it in an extra step, after the ribs... probably same as you. It can be done in one process, sort of like de-boning a whole fish. I tried it, didn't like it so much. Seemed more tedious. I find it helpful to cut the fillets off the fish (but leave skin on). Then when you remove the Y bones, the skin helps to hold the meat together. After it's boneless I take the skin off.

good tip about the frying... I've never noticed that they curl, but I've probably been putting them "skin side down" in the pan by accident all these years. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I hadn't thought of leaving the skin on. I might have to try that one time. I usually lay them on a cookie sheet and leave them in the fridge for a couple hours to cool before I debone them. They get a little "stiff" (for lack of a better word) and it makes it easier to cut out the y bones.

I learned a way to do perch a couple years ago from my grandfather that works slick too. Cut off the dorsal fins and make sure the skin is cut along the back from head to tail. Cut down behind the head, just through the spine. Peel the skin off with your thumbnail from by this cut on the back. Hook your thumb in the gut cavity, grab the head with the other hand and pull them apart. You end up with a skinned and gutted perch. The tail and caudal fins are still attached (you can cut them off if you want) and you have all the meat on the fish still on the bone. You cook them up and then seperate the meat from the bones by running your knife on either side of the spine and lift it out by the tail. You have a perfect skeleton and no bones left in all the meat from the fish. I used to try and fillet them and it was tedious to say the least...


SS

"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".

Shooter, you are such a puss <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"

Shooter, you are such a puss <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I picked up a pair of those gloves with the rubberized palms and I grab the jacks behind the head across the back. The gill plates generally flare out and kind of "hook" over your forefinger and thumb. I've lifted 40" jacks out of the water this way. The big ones are easy to grab. It's the little hammer-handles that are tough. They flip a few times and shoot out of your hand.


SS

LOL "Hammer handles" must be a canadian term... that's what they've been called in my family since I was a pup... not uncommon to chat with guys at the store and have 'em say "just a few hammer handles", so I realized it wasn't just my Dad's nickname.

I like holding 'em (hammer handles) with their tails sticking out in front... that way when they wiggle, I use the tail to give the dog a muzzle wiping before I toss 'em back.... she finds the slime tastey <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> If I let her lick the pointy end, she'd probably get her tongue bit.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />"Hammer Handles" are about 4in longer than "Cigars"!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />