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outdoors a fishing thread
- Thread starter keybrdkid
- Start date
This trip happened a little later than planned due to unforeseen events but I'm really glad it did happen. The plan was dead simple, this is the year I was going to catch a Aurora and Wynn Lake was going to give me one. Everything else was secondary, didn't care what other lakes, river systems Bain wanted to hit as long as I got due time at Wynn. For those unfamiliar Wynn Lake is located about 30 min outside of Larder Lake or Kirkland Lake (almost dead between) in a Provincial Park called Esker Lakes & is stocked with the elusive Aurora Trout that can only be hunted in 3 year rotations, added bonus they stocked 136 adults in 2016. Bain had picked the Montreal river & Lady Evelyn river (eastern arm) as the destination afterwards. We decided to leave after work on Thursday & head to North Bay for the night to help cut in half the 6 hr drive, I was thinking "great" because on our spring trip to Trident Lake when adempsey & I were driving through I spied a wing joint called Wacky Wings & made a special note ( I'm a chicken wing & hot sauce nut) I will say if you are like me & anywhere near North Bay give them a try, great wings & service, sauce wasn't hot enough for me but extremely flavorful.
From there we'd camp at a trailer park for the night.
I'm not sure what Bain is doing here but wanted me to take a picture! 6am pops & we were off to Wynn. We make pretty good time driving up there & stop in Larder Lakes at the bait shot (Larder Bait & Tackle) for some general filtered try again please (trying to put C hit chat but the filter doesn't allow it) chat with a local, nice store but not a very welcoming gentleman working that day, not unfriendly but seemed like we were bothering him. Within 20 minutes we'd be at the lake & once there we would set up our gear & cast our lines out, take our time unpacking the canoe & the rest of our gear, my float goes down! I race to my rod, pop it back "going to be a short day" fish on, wasn't big but it was fighting like mad.get it close only to have it throw the hook. Launch the canoe & troll all over the lake, surprising quite a deep lake for its size.
After trolling around for a few hours marking very little, my ass was tired so we headed back to the launch & fired up the HOBO stove for some dogers when a SUV pulls up & 2 guys get out & we start talking. Local guy's started sharing info on this lake, apparently something had happened in the lake & the adults they just put in died & not from the pike that got introduced into this lake. The pike they were sure were there but think they got fished out because they hadn't seen one come out in over 3 years, they wished us luck because they had yet to catch one this season. Outcome not looking to great but we fired out our lines & ate hot dogs, my float goes down again, reel up slack & pop, fish on but much smaller than the first, land him in a frying pan because Bain was eager to eat this bugger (not really) & my day was officially done. Not the adult I wanted but non the less a Aurora
Maybe a 6" guy if lucky, but we'd spend the next few hours seeing if Bain could catch one. He at one point started to use my set up & wouldn't you know the float goes down but Bain set the hook like he was Salmon fishing & pulled it from the fish...lol. We had planed on hitting Crystal Lake for Splake but opted for Larder lake as it was closing day. We'd camp there for the night & while the fishing wasn't great Bain almost boated a very nice Bass, next day we would make our way day to Mowats Landing. On the road fish stories are common but as we were gunning down route 588 I was talking about the time my bud & I were dive bombed by a seagull when a Grouse started off at the side of the road, Bain screamed "NOT THIS TIME M*&^%%&&%^&" & took the bird out (not really the bird committed suicide) but we had dinner.
Neither of us are hunters so cleaning a bird was alien but Bain managed his best, small but quite a tasty wild chicken. For the first day we thought we'd hit Evelyn & man what a beautiful place. Fishing was tough but did manage a few pike, bass, walleye & perch stopped & had a great shore lunch of pike.
From there we'd head back to set up camp & get ready for dinner. We had a surf & turf thing going with walleye & grouse as the main with whatever else we could muster, was some good scarf!
Got stuff together & grilled some grouse & pan fried some in butter, walleye followed with instant mashed potatoes, then sat back with a decent whisky
The next day we were to hit the Montreal river. Rain was forecasted but the morning looked like this
But quickly turned to this
Not real rain more a mist, the kind that chills to the bone, so after 4 or so hours I had enough as the bite was off anyway & we made for a camp. Bain wouldn't let the tug is the drug go & he'd solo for a bit while I sat back in between the rain & brakes with a nice fire & a nice whisky
Think he bagged a walleye or 2 slow trolling a worm harness but that pretty much closed out that day. The next day was our farewell so we planned on getting up early & fishing for a few hours before the trek back to the GTA. 6 am rolls & we enjoy the morning sleep, somewhere around 730 we start moving about cooking breakfast & then out to fish. We do a few passes around where we caught some pike the day before but didn't hit anything so we packed it up & headed home.
Overall it was a spectacular 4 days of fishing & exploring new places with a good friend & good laughs. Again the wildlife was somewhat sparse but Bald Eagles were beginning there mating dance I believe, river otters were doing otter things, red squirrels were cursing at Bain & grouse were committing suicide by van & a AURORA TROUT!!!!!!! A great trip to be done again for sure!!!
Some random shots
And finally my whisky picture
From there we'd camp at a trailer park for the night.
I'm not sure what Bain is doing here but wanted me to take a picture! 6am pops & we were off to Wynn. We make pretty good time driving up there & stop in Larder Lakes at the bait shot (Larder Bait & Tackle) for some general filtered try again please (trying to put C hit chat but the filter doesn't allow it) chat with a local, nice store but not a very welcoming gentleman working that day, not unfriendly but seemed like we were bothering him. Within 20 minutes we'd be at the lake & once there we would set up our gear & cast our lines out, take our time unpacking the canoe & the rest of our gear, my float goes down! I race to my rod, pop it back "going to be a short day" fish on, wasn't big but it was fighting like mad.get it close only to have it throw the hook. Launch the canoe & troll all over the lake, surprising quite a deep lake for its size.
After trolling around for a few hours marking very little, my ass was tired so we headed back to the launch & fired up the HOBO stove for some dogers when a SUV pulls up & 2 guys get out & we start talking. Local guy's started sharing info on this lake, apparently something had happened in the lake & the adults they just put in died & not from the pike that got introduced into this lake. The pike they were sure were there but think they got fished out because they hadn't seen one come out in over 3 years, they wished us luck because they had yet to catch one this season. Outcome not looking to great but we fired out our lines & ate hot dogs, my float goes down again, reel up slack & pop, fish on but much smaller than the first, land him in a frying pan because Bain was eager to eat this bugger (not really) & my day was officially done. Not the adult I wanted but non the less a Aurora
Maybe a 6" guy if lucky, but we'd spend the next few hours seeing if Bain could catch one. He at one point started to use my set up & wouldn't you know the float goes down but Bain set the hook like he was Salmon fishing & pulled it from the fish...lol. We had planed on hitting Crystal Lake for Splake but opted for Larder lake as it was closing day. We'd camp there for the night & while the fishing wasn't great Bain almost boated a very nice Bass, next day we would make our way day to Mowats Landing. On the road fish stories are common but as we were gunning down route 588 I was talking about the time my bud & I were dive bombed by a seagull when a Grouse started off at the side of the road, Bain screamed "NOT THIS TIME M*&^%%&&%^&" & took the bird out (not really the bird committed suicide) but we had dinner.
Neither of us are hunters so cleaning a bird was alien but Bain managed his best, small but quite a tasty wild chicken. For the first day we thought we'd hit Evelyn & man what a beautiful place. Fishing was tough but did manage a few pike, bass, walleye & perch stopped & had a great shore lunch of pike.
From there we'd head back to set up camp & get ready for dinner. We had a surf & turf thing going with walleye & grouse as the main with whatever else we could muster, was some good scarf!
Got stuff together & grilled some grouse & pan fried some in butter, walleye followed with instant mashed potatoes, then sat back with a decent whisky
The next day we were to hit the Montreal river. Rain was forecasted but the morning looked like this
But quickly turned to this
Not real rain more a mist, the kind that chills to the bone, so after 4 or so hours I had enough as the bite was off anyway & we made for a camp. Bain wouldn't let the tug is the drug go & he'd solo for a bit while I sat back in between the rain & brakes with a nice fire & a nice whisky
Think he bagged a walleye or 2 slow trolling a worm harness but that pretty much closed out that day. The next day was our farewell so we planned on getting up early & fishing for a few hours before the trek back to the GTA. 6 am rolls & we enjoy the morning sleep, somewhere around 730 we start moving about cooking breakfast & then out to fish. We do a few passes around where we caught some pike the day before but didn't hit anything so we packed it up & headed home.
Overall it was a spectacular 4 days of fishing & exploring new places with a good friend & good laughs. Again the wildlife was somewhat sparse but Bald Eagles were beginning there mating dance I believe, river otters were doing otter things, red squirrels were cursing at Bain & grouse were committing suicide by van & a AURORA TROUT!!!!!!! A great trip to be done again for sure!!!
Some random shots
And finally my whisky picture
Wow
Thanks for documenting that and sharing.
Thanks for documenting that and sharing.
Damn,Chris. I need to shoot up there and hook up with you for some fishing and photos. Never heard of an Aurora, nice one to check off the list.
Speaking of. Here is a gila trout.
No 30# Kings,but some finesse stuff. Frustrating as fuck slinging flies in here,but rewarding fish even with their small size.
Speaking of. Here is a gila trout.
No 30# Kings,but some finesse stuff. Frustrating as fuck slinging flies in here,but rewarding fish even with their small size.
Pr0digal_son said:Damn,Chris. I need to shoot up there and hook up with you for some fishing and photos. Never heard of an Aurora, nice one to check off the list.
Speaking of. Here is a gila trout.
No 30# Kings,but some finesse stuff. Frustrating as f**k slinging flies in here,but rewarding fish even with their small size.
Where did you nab the Gila? That's on my list as well as a Golden. Nice Brown & beauty little creek, can imagine how many reties. Oh & anytime you want to head up man we can definitely put a plan together!
ColdSmoke said:
I am very aware of the impact. These pictures are of the few I kept. :-) I am the lead fish culturist at a major fish hatchery in Alaska and I went to college for Environmental Conservation. The creek these came out of normally doesn't have enough water to support fry all the way until they migrate to the lake. I am sure that you are aware of the consequences that alewives have had on spawning trout in the Finger Lakes region of NYS and also in Lake Ontario. Keeping a few fish here and there is going to do little impact to the overall fish numbers in that lake, especially with the DEC stocking it every year.
I will never be a guide.
:-)
:-)
No apologies necessary Cold Smoke. My buddy and I went out to fish for grayling and we ended up with this instead.
I miss fresh fish 
I took up fly fishing last year and have been insanely hooked on it ever since. So far, I primarily spend all my time fishing for trout on catch and release rivers such as the Cedar and Yakima in Washington. The Snoqualmie River forks have been a total blast with my new 2 wt. fiberglass rod. Love this thread.
You look to have as many boats as I have shore fisherman when the Kings & Ko's make their run...lol, nice fish though man!ColdSmoke said:A couple nookies from two weeks ago.
chileaddict said:I took up fly fishing last year and have been insanely hooked on it ever since. So far, I primarily spend all my time fishing for trout on catch and release rivers such as the Cedar and Yakima in Washington. The Snoqualmie River forks have been a total blast with my new 2 wt. fiberglass rod. Love this thread.
Beauty Bow man, not much of a feather chucker myself but do enjoy attempting to pass myself off as one from time to time