Walleye Trip suggestions????

[baitfish]

Anyone have any good experiences with walleye fishing trips/lodges.... Ontario or Quebec?????
-French River
-Kipawa
-lady evelyn lake
-etc....

I'm open to places with gd walleye fishing and fair accommodations???

[Kerrazy]

Hey there,
I would highly recommend Camp Mac Mac, on lake Nippising. Now, I will caution that the keep limits may be low this year, yet the fishing has always been fantastic!

It does not matter if you are a troller or a jigger, you find success with both disciplines.

Now, Camp Mac Mac, is a rustic camp, with about 10 cabins, with indoor plumbing (no hot water) and old fashioned cook stoves for heat. It is not a five star accomadation, yet groups of angler's have returned for over 50 years each spring, and families during the summer for decades.

Your host is a good guy named Cliff, he will leave you be or offer you some info on the hot spots. All depends on you.

It is about a 4-4.5hr drive to the dock, and an 18km boat ride in to the camp on the Lady Mac Mac.

Cheers,

[adempsey]

I've been to Lady Evelyn Lake two times. One week in late June/early July and one week in early August.

I think it's reasonable to catch 10-15 Walleye a day, but there is definitely potential for a lot more; which is a lot more than I can say for all the inland lakes I've fished in Southern Ontario. You can do a lot better if you manage to locate the fish feeding in the evenings. We did experience good non-stop action one or two evenings, but these were the smaller 12-14" fish, with a few bigger ones thrown in. Of course, there are some really nice fish there too. My very first night I caught a 27", 28" and 29" within 20 minutes of each other casting a jerkbait to the shoreline of an island adjacent to deep water. It's definitely one of those lakes where you can find some good concentrations of fish. The problem is it's a fairly substantial lake and, as we all know, locating fish isn't always easy. Good Smallmouth fishing can be had too.

The lake has five camps [at least as far as I know] all of which are located on islands you boat to. Two are American Plan only,Island 10 and Garden Island Lodge. I stayed at both of these camps. Great places. Top notch equipment. A bit expensive. I'd probably go back if the price was more reasonable (or if I had a lot of extra $$$!) Third is Red Pine Lodge offers both AP and HK. It has new owners as of last year. They ran a special for a while, maybe they'll do the same this year. Fourth is Ellen Island Camp a HK camp. I read good things about it, but never been. Looks like a reasonable, but typical, HK camp. Fifth is Mitchell’s Lady Evelyn Camp [no website], which is located nearby Ellen Island. I don't know much about this place, but it's been around a long time and I read it's a more rustic experience.

Technically you could stay on the Montreal River and still access Lady Evelyn. I don't know how inconvenient this is though, but might be a more economical solution. There are at least two camps you can check out -Mowat's Landing Cottages and White Pine Lodge.

I'm heading to Kipawa this summer due to $$ and driving distance. I think it will be similar to Evelyn. Definitely potential for some good fishing action, but also potential for disaster if you don't figure out the fish in time. I hope it's not a disaster for us!

French River I've only fished in the fall a couple of times. Never did well when we went, but it was only for 3 day each time. Definitely a beautiful river system and park. I suggest doing some research on the camps that are on the river closer to Lake Nipissing, such as Chaudiere Lodge, and the Hartley Bay area, such as Bear's Den Lodge and the French River Lodge.

Horwood Lake and Ivanhoe Lake are other options. I've fished both of those as well. We got blown off of Ivanhoe Lake for most of our trip, so I cannot comment on that too much. Might be worth checking out some of the Ivanhoe River boat-in outpost camps though. Air Ivanhoe and Red Pine Lodge both operate some.

We didn't do that well on Horwood, but I don't think it reflects the fishery. When we went we pretty much did most of our Walleye fishing in shallow weedy lakes, which is the opposite of where we were on Horwood. I've seen some good reports coming from Horwood and would like to go back one day. We stayed at Horwood Lake Lodge, which was a nice place with excellent equipment. This is a drive-to camp that offers both AP and HK. We were in an HK cabin and the rates were very reasonable when we went. There's also Horwood Outpost, which is more centrally located on the lake. This is a boat-in HK camp. I don't know too much about it, but it looks like a typical HK camp. I've considered it a few times and would like to check it out. There's also Big Bear Camp at the north end, but I don't know much about it.

I've also done fly-ins and the fishing on the fly-in lakes has always been better. Not always "gangbuster" fishing, but definitely better. It should be of no surprise that any lake that is near a major populace like Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec will get fished hard. Overall, I think Lady Evelyn and Horwood have some protection from this. Even Kipawa to some extent. For the most part, Lady Evelyn is a fairly isolated lake as you cannot access it by road [maybe some logging roads if you really wanted to, I don't know for sure]. Thus, there is no easy way to access it. You have to cross the Montreal River and then trailer your boat up the side of the dam to launch. Not something most people want to bother with. Horwood is technically accessible, but it's through logging roads. So, again, you wont' find a huge number of people willing to make the trek. There will be some though. I think the only thing that Kipawa has is it's sheer size. The easy access points are in the more southern end of the lake and heading to the north end is quite a long haul. Luckily there are several camps in the northern section of the lake.

Now, if you're willing to drive a bit further or fly-in, your options for better fishing and even better value grow.

[Wallyboss]

The best walleye fishing I've ever had. http://www.tenmilelodge.com/

Went there for about 10 years in a row on opening weekend and our average for 8 guys 3 days of fishing was well over 350 walleyes.