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Backcountry Brookies. Eat, fish, sleep, repeat.


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#1 troutddicted

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:54 AM

Love chasin' 'em brookies.  The setting, thrill of the hunt and frustration all combined have made brookies my favourite fish to target.  Often times I find myself looking through various maps of lakes, planning out areas to fish, just to kill time.  The internet make things so easy, if you look deep enough you will find something somewhere with detailed information on where to fish, when to fish, etc.  But where's the fun in that?  Through trial and error, success is much more enjoyable and experience is the word we replace with "failure" or "mistake".

 

Headed up north a few days prior to open up the cottage.  Lots of wildlife along the way so driving up was a little more exciting...we could of ended up with turkey dinner for a week.  If I hadn't of slowed down I could of easily mowed down about 4 of them.  However, there were still lots of casualties on the way up...

 

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I couldn't careless if these flies went extinct, I'm sure most of you share the same thought :lol: 

 

Couple replaced sections of pipe, the annual mouse turd cleaning bonanza, pine needle raking fest and a couple of unforeseen issues taken care of we could finally relax.

 

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Got to toy around with my new camera gear.  With spring in full swing there was an abundance of cool stuff to shoot.

 

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If you look closely to on the snout of the turtle there is a little white dot which is called an egg tooth.  They use this "tooth" to slice open the egg and after a short period of time it falls off... this turtle is very young and I've probably scarred it for life with my ugly mug.

 

 


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#2 troutddicted

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:54 AM

Hit up a splake lake on the last day at the cottage.  A 15 minute hike through the forest and I got to the water.

 

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First cast with a small spinner I had a fish follow.  Grabbed my float setup, a worm and quickly cast it in the water, watched the fish come from the depths and take my worm.  Short battle, assisted by the net and there it was.  There are rumors of brutes roaming these waters, will definitely be back to hunt one down.

 

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Came back to the cottage to enjoy some good food and went to bed in order to wake up early for the rendezvous.

 

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#3 troutddicted

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:55 AM

Woke up to a nice surprise.  Few years back had snow fall over night and dust the trees in June, middle of May?  Its "snow" big deal. 

 

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We knew what area we were going to, but didn't know what to expect.  Picked an area with a few rivers around and lakes with moderate depths ( that could support lakers in case we wanted to chase something other than brookies ).  A little over 10 km of canoeing we established base camp and hit the water.  First spot looked promising, two lakes connected with a fast flowing river and an impassable falls.  Prime water.

 

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3 consecutive casts, 3 fish, 12" - 14" inchers, quite the start.  Action remained fairly steady for an hour and eventually stopped.  We slowed down the fishing to allow the fish to rest for a bit before we started the second assault. Sun started to set and the fish started to bite.  Lots of hardware fish but most fish were taken on minnow imitations and frozen minnows ( lots of bait fish swimming around ).

 

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#4 troutddicted

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:55 AM

Woke up the next day and set off for a new area.  Crossed a lake to look for another river mouth only to find a swamp full of black flies. We were left with  two options, look for the river mouth and spend who knows how many hours paddling before we find any sort of faster water or just get the #$@& out.  We left, went back to the same spot as the day before and got a couple of fish.  Fishing was slow so we relocated again.  We found the spot only to be greeted by the carcass of some larger animal rotting in the sun on a rock, the smell nearly made me puke.  What lay around the corner, is probably one of the nicest areas I have ever fished.  This is the hole we fished.

 

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This was just above the hole.

 

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These are some of the fish we caught... the better photos of course :lol:

 

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Its amazing how well these fish camouflage, except for the red fins.

 

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#5 troutddicted

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:55 AM

The way out was painful, back tracked the same route however this time we were fighting the wind.  At one point the wind whipped up some white caps and caught us off guard... the canoe even picked up some water from a wave cresting at the perfect moment... scared the hell outta me.  Stopped at another spot and were rewarded with some afternoon fish.

 

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Man, if I won the lottery I would spend a good amount of time fishing Ontario, so much water and so little time.

 

Be back in the fall for more, rest well brookies.

 

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#6 FrequentFlyer

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 05:17 AM

awesome! though wouldn't catch me up there feeing the blackflies


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#7 CJR

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 08:04 AM

Awesome trip dude.  Can't wait to do it again. 

Great write-up too.  :cool:


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#8 Brian

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 08:17 AM

Great report...awesome pics...


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#9 buck

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 10:26 AM

.


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#10 salmotrutta

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:21 PM

Love the pics, looks like a superb time. 

 

I wonder if that river is predominantly brook trout territory, or if any other species are there like pike.


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#11 staffman

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:43 PM

It sure looks like a great time was had by all.


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#12 fisher12

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 08:13 PM

Nice trout and scenery, the snow surprised me.


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#13 troutddicted

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 10:35 PM

sounds like a great trip, what kind of camera are you using?

 

Nikon D3200 and a D5100.  As for the pike, the area is void of pike.  Only other species we caught were perch, was a very light bite and we got into some really nice fatties.


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#14 CJR

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 10:42 PM

Dozer = Perch Whisperer.  :mrgreen:


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#15 frozenfire

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 11:21 PM

Absolutely fantastic!

 

I'm quite jealous right now.


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#16 efka

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Posted 20 May 2013 - 10:12 AM

well done boys...


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#17 apz245

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Posted 20 May 2013 - 07:40 PM

great report and photos!

 

this is northern ontario at it's finest, those waters you fished look so pristine.. and all native species, very nice...

 

also lol @ the turtle comment... don't be so hard on yourself, i'm sure the little turtle will grow up fine


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#18 SmackUm

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Posted 20 May 2013 - 09:34 PM

Majestic photos thanks for sharing Dozer!
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#19 Knuguy

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Posted 20 May 2013 - 09:38 PM

Nice fish and nice pix. I assume you used a tripod for the night shot. I've always balked at portaging the extra weight of a tripod


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#20 CJR

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Posted 20 May 2013 - 09:52 PM

Nice fish and nice pix. I assume you used a tripod for the night shot. I've always balked at portaging the extra weight of a tripod

I borrowed this one from my friend, very small and lightweight, folds down small. I fit it in my camping bag with all my other gear without any issues.  But definitely needed it for that shot.  :cool:


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