first time fly-in trip

Bay_Fishing

Bay_Fishing

Well-Known Member
I'm 16 days aways from my fly in trip with Cochrane Air. The wife and I are going alone no kids for 5 days (y) . Heading to today Lake they say it's 2 miles long 15 feet deep Sandy rocky bottom walleye and pike are the target . Never gone this far north so don't know what to expect just want to have a great time and catch some fish. Never been on a water plane should be a great experience in all. I will have to figure out how to post pics when I get back.
 
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don't forget your rifle for black bear...i think the season opens mid august up there...fish guts works great for bear bait!!! Good luck!!!
 
I have been fishing north east of Cochrane every spring for last 13 years ....great walleye fishing.....I usually drift..jig. and troll with live bait .....but ripplin redfins...CC shads do work well...the small moonshine casting spoons work well for pike and lake trout ......we will jig with the perch/pickeral rigs or a jig /twister tail and a stand-out or dropshot hook 8-10" up from jig...tipping both hooks with minnows....salties will work if u cant get live bait....we also drift or troll with bottom bouncer and a floating jig head with minnow.

chartrues and green jigs / twister tail work good during day...white at night or low lite....orange anytime for pike.

Bears shouldnt be a problem this time of year...lots of food in the bush...... but if you are a hunter...bear opens August 15 .....cookies , bread , donuts are best baits ..with cherry syrup ....u are competing with the berries this time of year....fish..meat..grease not very good ..early season....but once fish is covered in maggotts then the bears will eat the fish / meat

take some raid....incase door gets left open in cabin......take bug jacket or head net....bugs are terrible this year first 45 min @ dark....which is prime northern walleye time!!

A portable fish finder ..like fishing buddy...is well worth taking...usually run on 8-10 AA batteries and should last whole week....find deep holes....or the in / out flows look for drop offs

Good luck....have a great trip
 
Most of those Northern fly-in lakes are loaded with walleye and pike. We flew in one year out of Jellicoe to go bow hunting moose on a secluded lake. We caught walleye until our arms fell off. We absolutely killed them slow tolling red/white Erie Dearies with dew worms over shoals and around small islands. We ate them until we couldn't look at another one but they were great eating. Any streams coming into the lake should have lots of specked trout in them with the possibility of a 5-7 lb. trophy speck. Good luck, enjoy your trip and don't forget the bug spray. :)
 
Wow thanks for all the input a tips guys. I'm taking my portable hummingbird that has a battery with It and planning on taking some salties and Dew worm from the yard. And will try your tips thanks again
 
Its a 53 mile flight from Cochrane one cabin a they say there are 2 back bays that you can push the boat into to find some giants
 
Just back from a week at Magiskan. From there we fished Brailey, Mikwam, Magiskan, Springer Lakes as well as the Mikwam River system as they are all connected. Had decent numbers of fish but biggest eye was 18", lots of little pike but spring likely better to target big pike. Did get a couple nice ones, largest was 17.5lb. Bugs weren't bad at all other than some mosquitos at dusk.
Definitely take some worms, jigs tipped with worms out fished plain twisters or bucktails. Bring some wire worm harnesses if you have them, copper/pink/orange blades worked well trolled or drifted in a good wind and handled pike as well. Also take whatever you need as far as consumeables, soap, dishsoap, TP, paper towels, garbage bags etc. Not guaranteed to be any of those things there. A quality fry pan can make life nicer as well if you can make the wt limit and a stack of paper plates would also decrease the dishes. All burnables are to be burned so some fire starting cubes helped as it has been a wet summer up there.
We took a Katadyn filter which worked well for water rather than the weight to fly it in and some drink crystals/ice tea powder for non alcoholic drinks. For sure caught enough fish to eat whenever we wanted but these lakes are pretty flat and featureless on the bottom and the fish were scattered. Not a high volume fish slay but somewhat what I expected in a relatively inexpensive, near north fly-in. I'm not sure that these lake are as fertile as the shield lakes of the northwest.
Have fun, it's great to get away from everything for a week!
 
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If I'm covering area to find walleye in those smaller lakes up north, I like to troll backwards with a drift sock up front, bottom bouncers with about a 3-5 foot flouro lead with a floating jig head tipped with a leech. Live leeches will keep well if you change the water and keep them out of the sun. .8mph to 1.2 works best for me. If you are catching pike while doing this you only need to go a little deeper.

I'm going to Horwood lake in 2 weeks not quite as far as you are. Good luck up there!
 
Dman .... is Horwood a good fishing lake I've been checking it out .... is Big Bear Camp a good one.? not many camps on it... Red
 
Red Fisher said:
Dman .... is Horwood a good fishing lake I've been checking it out .... is Big Bear Camp a good one.? not many camps on it... Red
Click to expand...

I go to Horwood outpost, really good camp- this is my 4th trip in there. Usually catch 200-250 pics in a week all 12-18 inches. Always get 3-4 over 24 which are released. Caught one that measured 36 two years ago. The pike in the lake are unreal for size, lots in the 40 range.I seen some kid from Michigan bring one back to the camp over 60.

I think big bear you can drive to it right? The fishing is a little bit better away from the cottages from what I understand. The only way to the outpost is by boat- so you have a really good section of the lake to fish without much others to "compete" with. Can't wait to go!

I'll be interested to see how the fly-in goes for bay_fisher, that idea has been on my radar for a while
 
Dman. Yes can drive 2 Big Bear.. We had 8 guys on fly/in from Hearst Air great trip went for 6 years then old age set in... will be waiting bay_fishers return story also.. and your report on Horwood.. Red... Thx
 
I googled the lake you are going too...Today lake....it appears to be about 15-20 miles north of where i usually fish in the spring and occasional fall trips.

very good fishing in that area !!! Walleye & Sauger are a very lite biting fish generally sucking your minnow in...... we generally use lite or ultra lite action fast tip rods when jigging or drifting ....and use 6-8 lb flourocarbon line. when we felt slightest tension on line...we lower rod tip so fish sucks minnow into mouth instead of pulling of hook and then raise tip and set the hook. we have had 100+ fish days. If you plan on using jigs with standout hooks or floating jig rigs etc..... take some wine corks and thumb tacks so that you can wrap pre rigged setups and have them in your pocket so if a pike bites you off then you can quickly re-rig and be back fishing or have multiple rods rigged and ready togo

from what i saw on the map....i would start around the narrows ruffly half way down lake.....or the 2 big points on the west side of lake (should have structure and good drop off)

generally if you get allot of pike along shoreline at same depths...usually walleye are 2-5' deeper in spring we will slow troll 3-4' and get nothing but pike and 5-6 will be walleye
depends on year ...next year could be 7-12 depending on temps.

if you get bored with wallleye and pike ......try jigging the deepest holes you find .......might catch some jumbo perch , whitefish, and even the odd bullhead catfish 1 lb +

other than great lakes ...I rarely use lures anymore ...but i have done very well with the new moonshine small casting spoons 2" ? they cast far and troll nice, plus glow in the dark
ripplin reds...cc shads ..walleye divers...husky jerks all good choices.....mepps syclops spoons and williams wobblers are great for pike bucktails and topo water also good

I realize weight is always an issue when flying in 50-75 lb / person usually but a pk of senco worms and hooks rigged weedless might work well for casting into weed pockets
some lakes up there (not all) will have leafy weed coming up too surface in 8-10' of wate
 
if for some reason you don't fly out or have time too kill in Cochrane ....check out the snowmobile museum @ polar bear compound....and driving and checking out the Gardner cable ferry make for scenic drive (straight past cochrane airport) also liabelle lake has lots of small pike and any rivers around there (muddy water year round) have walleye, sauger, whitefish that can be caught from shore casting pickeral rigs out.
 
Thanks all. And weight shouldn't be a issue as were flying out in a beaver cause I don't know If the wife would handle th Cessna Lol, I thats 980lbs including our body weight. Where can u get wire worm harness haven't seen many kicking around.
 
You'll be great for gear /water etc. then, we had the Beaver for 2 adults and 2 teenagers so only about 280lb for freight which went quick. Case of water's 28lb, case of beer's 20lb. We also took a small solar panel to recharge the fishfinder batteries and phones for picture taking.
Check with Angling Outfitters for harnesses or shops further west, they get used a lot more on the west end of the lake. There's also the Lucky Strikes at Can Tire but with the low visibility stained water bigger brighter Colorado blades had more action.
 
Been fishing a lake north of Long Lac for a few years, sounds similar to the one you're going to. All we use now are 1/8 jig heads with twister tails. Use them for both trolling and still fishing. Found it to be a lot cheaper than replacing lures if you get snagged. I just carry a case that has an assortment of colored heads and tails. Sounds like you'll be on your fly in about the same time we are going north.
 
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