-paddling
-fishing
-enjoying the company of friends
At the request of other members of our group, no locations will be posted on the Internet. Consider this a “River X†report.
In our group we had 6 people, all avid paddlers, all avid campers and most are avid fishermen. My paddling partner was my good buddy Mike. Mike and I have had many fishing adventures together and he always catches the biggest fish. I may catch more fish at times, but he always catches the biggest fish. This trip would be no different.
We had over 200km to paddle in total. With close to 2 weeks we were able to keep a slow to moderate pace, allowing us to fish as we traveled. We often trolled as we slowly paddled. Along the way we caught many walleye:
The walleye were caught almost exclusively on crank baits. They had no interest in jigs, spinners, etc. They just wanted something big, flashy, and moving quickly. No finesse methods needed here. Wally Divers, Berkley Flicker shads and Rapalas all worked well.
Most walleye were in the 2-3lbs range, but we did catch the odd larger one. Including this 6.8lbs walleye caught by Mike. Yes, it was the biggest walleye of the trip. Caught on the largest jointed Rapala in firetiger.
Just because we are camping, don't think we are roughing it. I ate better on this trip than I do at home. There were no store bought freeze dried meals. We had fresh food the first couple of days. After that all food was painstakenly purchases, cooked (meat, etc, and dehydrated prior to the trip by one of the other guys. We had chilli, pea soup, pasta, bannock every meal, desert almost every meal. We even had cheese cake one night. To add to this we had walleye 3 nights:
We stopped at a couple of tributary streams and fished for brook trout.
They were there in numbers, but they were quite small. Unfortunately we were not able to get any large specs on this trip. We tried fishing some rapids in the main river without success. We had some follows and a few bites, but didn't land any. Earlier in the year we would probably have had a better shot.
What I looked forward to most about this trip was the opportunity to catch some large pike. For the first half of the trip we caught lots and lots of small 2-3lbs pike. It became frustrating, and I even said I was giving up on pike at one point. 3 minutes after I said that things started to get interesting.
Landing a large pike in a fully loaded canoe can be difficult. There is no room bring a huge musky sized net. Here I am landing a pike in the 12lbs range. I caught it on a large flat about 2-3' deep with a sandy bottom and weeds. I caught many more on the flat, but they were small again.
Just as we were thinking of continuing our journey downstream I hear screaming from one of the other canoes. “Reed has a huge pike!!!!†So we zipped over to help land the beast. The battle between fisherman and fish reached epic rod breaking proportions...literally. It took a run under the canoe and the rod broke as soon as it touched the gunwale. Once landed (for the second time, as it escaped after the picture below was taken) we made the short paddle to shore for pictures and measurements.
Here is one happy fisherman. This pike measured 45â€
The fish was released and we all congratulated the lucky fisherman. He said they caught the pike on the steep drop off next to shallow weed flat. Of course he did. Why didn't we fish there? I open my tackle box and pull out the largest lure I had with me, a Storm Giant ThunderStick. Mike put on a chartues Panther Martin bucktail spinner. We paddled out to the drop off, got setup and started our troll. As soon as we got the troll line exactly where we wanted, both rods doubled over. The timing was so perfect we both assumed we had snagged on something submerged.
“I am on bottomâ€
“Me tooâ€
“Wait.....I think it is movingâ€
“Not mine...definitely bottom....wait.....I think it is moving tooâ€
There were several seconds of confusion at this point. What is going on? Did our lines tangle? Did 1 pike grab both lures? I have heard of that happening. Soon both fish start fighting and taking huge runs. We have a double header to end all double headers.....and in a freakin' fully loaded canoe too. What are we going to do? I catch a glimpse of my fish. “It is HHHHHUUUUGEE!!!â€. Mike is fighting his on the other side of the canoe. It takes a run close to the canoe and I get a good look at his fish. Holy crap....it is an absolute monster. Now we know we are screwed. How are we going to land them? The other guys are still on shore basking in the after glow of Reed's 45 incher. We start screaming like an old lady that just had her purse snatched: “Help!!!! We need help!!! HUURURRRRYYY!!!†At one point the fish crossed paths and our fishing lines actually crossed. I thought we were done for sure. By some miracle, both fish decided to do a 180, and they continued the fight without getting tangled. At one point Mike's pike walks on its tail for 8 feet across the surface of the water. Mike starts to get his in close. “Pass me the landing gloves!†“No way! I am not letting go of my rod!†Both fish begin to tire as the fight comes to an end. The other canoes are still a ways off and won't be of any help landing the fish. I get mine along side the canoe, grab it and put it on the floor. Mike has his right next to me so I do the same. I scooped both up and had them in the canoe within seconds. Under the circumstances, I still can't believe how easily and quickly the fish were boated. We make the quick paddle (30 seconds) to shallow water for pictures and measurements.
Here is my small 42†pike.
Mike's fish was one ornery beast. It bit my fishing rod and left teeth marks. It clamped down on a folding chair in the canoe. They had to use pliers to get it to let go.
Mike's was an honest 47â€. It looked like it had been in some battles. Check out the missing piece from the tail. Again, Mike has the largest fish.
I am still wondering why both fish were so close together. Is this common? They must have been right on top of each other. I really wish we had taken a picture with both fish side by side. However, in the excitement it never happened.
All pike were released and swam away with no issues. We tried to get setup and troll the drop off again, but we were too exhausted from the excitement. We continued our journey and trolled as we went. We missed a few large pike and landed several walleye in the next couple of hours. I missed what would have been a PB walleye as well.
From this point in the trip on we stopped catching small pike and started catching large pike. We caught several others in the 10-20lbs range. But I think these 3 were the largest. All caught within 20 minutes.
One night while setting up camp we saw a motorboat coming up the river. They stopped on the opposite side and started fishing. After we setup camp, the boat came over. It was a Cree man and his wife. They had just come from checking their sturgeon nets. We invited them to join us by the campfire. They stayed for a couple of hours and shared many stories with us. He told us about tracking moose on snowshoes in his youth, hunting caribou, geese, etc. I think they enjoyed visiting with us as much as we enjoyed their company because he came back bright an early the next day after checking his sturgeon nets. Here are two sturgeon he had with him:
Later in out trip we stopped at a Cree village. They had a festival going on and were very happy to have visitors. The chief and his right hand man gave us a tour of the village. I took photos, but I won't post them on the Internet. We asked for permission to take photos, but not specific permission to post online. However, here is one picture of sturgeon being smoked. Visiting this village was an amazing experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.
We showed the chief our intended route. He gave us some great fishing advice and told us were to find a large rock with pictographs on it. He suggested campsites for the next couple of nights as well.
The weather changes quickly east of James bay. We were rained on nearly every day. In 100 percent humidity things dry very slowly.
“Where are the matches?â€
“They are in the barrel.â€
Here are some other photos from the trip:
