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Just returned from an 8 day, 7 night adventure on Ajax Lake and three portage' lakes up in Ontario, Canada. We met in International Falls, MN and then shuttled up to Nestor Falls, Canada which is on Lake of the Woods. Here are some pictures I took during the trip.
We flew out on a twin engine float plane as there were 6 people coming out when we arrived. I believe this plane was built circa 1964. We hauled in all of our food, tackle, booze, etc. as you can see.
Lot's of water out there. It was socked in and we were delayed an hour or so. When we did get up we stayed under the cloud ceiling and probably never were above 500'. Made for a great view and ride. This shot was just before w landed on Ajax Lake. It was only about a 30 minute flight. We have gone to another group of lakes in the past that would be a 1-1/2 hours flight each way so this way nice.
See ya! This was Sunday, July 3rd and they came back and got us on Sunday the 10th.
Home sweet home.
This ain't no foo-foo resort. Pretty basic but the cabin was new. I think we were the 4th or 5th group to use it.
Everything except the propane stove/oven and water heater was solar powered.
Here is our plush living room. Our flat screen TVs were the windows. No radio, Internet, cell phones, telephones either.
Or indoor plumbing!
Pretty nice little kitchen with a large 12V refer for all the grub for the week. No cooks or guides! You're on your own.
Central heating too although we never fired it up.
The only fire we started was for trash disposal.
The master suite! Shared with my good friend' Tony's grandson.
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Here's the dock as seen from the front deck of the cabin about 9PM.
Here's the equipment on the main lake, Ajax. There were four lakes with boats on each lake for our use.
The weather was a little bad the first couple of days and we concentrated on Ajax Lake and the fishing was "scratchy" at best. Here is Dennis, my early fishing partner's first catch. If you look real close, he's holding a Bass.
But Dennis rebounded with a average sized Northern Pike soon thereafter.
One of my oldest and best friends, Toni Patti, (the old guy with the overalls) made up a huge pot of his award winning chili that we ended up eating the next day when we struck out on the Walleye. Nobody complained though. The chili was that good!
You have to portage' (a French thing!) between lakes. Here I am hiking to McArthur Lake. We all had made the trek the day before for some good fishing but Tony and Dennis' knees said "No Mas!" after the first trek so Trey and I fished the portage' lakes alone the rest of the trip. The best fishing was the farthest away, of course. Lot's of mosquitoes in the forest so you spray each other down real good with repellant before you start the trek. Looked pretty much like this on every portage'. Got really wet near the lakes as they have had lot's of rain up there like us in California this year. Boots were a must!
Once we arrived at McArthur Lake we had to navigate a narrow channel like this for about 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile to reach the main lake.
Reminded me of the ride down the Amazon River in Adventurland at Disneyland, Anaheim! These lily pad flowers were closed when we arrived but opened up by the time we came back through that afternoon. Really pretty setting.
Once the sun came out, so did the turtles. Saw lots of these guys sunning themselves. Also spotted a large White Tail deer in this area and Moose tracks and droppings between McArthur & Nickle Lakes. At the main lake, Ajax, it was several Beavers, lot's of Loons and a Bald Eagle but I didn't get photos. My fireworks diplay for he 4th of July was an amazing show by the fire-flys!
Here's my fishing partner for the later part of the trip. "Trey" (Tony Patti III) can fish! Gave me a run for my money and I think he nosed me out for top angler this trip. (But don't tell him I admitted that!)
Here's one of several Large Mouth bass I caught on McArthur Lake. You had to cross McArthur Lake to get to the best fishing, which was on Nickel Lake. That meant 2 portages' each way. I was one "whipped puppy" after the second consecutive day of double portage's!
But like I said, Trey was on fire. This is an estimated 5 lb. Small Mouth bass. I know some guys that fish Small Mouth all their lives and never get a monster like this.Trey doesn't look happy at all does he? He caught all of the Walleye on the trip and all were caught on this day so we had our first "Fish Fry" that evening.
My boots were in pretty bad shape after the first portage! On the next day, both soles had come off by the time we got to McArthur Lake. But being the trooper I am and wanting to get back to Nickel Lake for the best fishing, I did the last 3 portage' legs on little more than rubber and cardboard. No soles on either boot. Felt, almost, like walking in my socks. In mud and lot's of rocks and roots! But it turned out to be the best day, quality fish wise, of fishing for the entire trip.
However, we had not portaged' to Horseshoe Lake yet and I was determined to fish this lake as we believed that no one else had fished it, or at least we would be 2 of maybe 6 people that has fished it in years! So out came the duct tape!
The patch job worked and I ended up getting the biggest Northern Pike of the trip on about my last cast of the day at Horseshoe Lake.
That evening, Dennis and Tony teamed up for a "Beer Butt Chicken" feast! Was one of the highlights!
By the end of the week the weather had gotten just unbelievable. In the 4 trips I have made up here since 1998, I don't ever remember it ever getting up in the 80's. Here I was trying to get one of those photos where you can turn it either way and it looks the same but a few ripples in the water ruined that. But a beautiful scene nonetheless!
By Saturday evening, everyone else was pretty much done fishing, so I went out by myself. I had finally figured out how to catch the Lake Trout that were down on the bottom, 50-80 feet. I had picked one up earlier that day and had brought it in still flopping and filleted it for lunch. Dennis added some dry rub, fired up the BBQ and then I put a dollop of butter on it and grilled it, skin-side-down, and slid the filet off the skin that was then stuck to the grill. Man! If you've never had fish that fresh I can't tell you how good it tasted. Anyway, I caught another one that evening while fishing alone and wanted to get it on film before releasing it or I'm sure they would have called BS. Couldn't figure out the timer so I just did it this way.
Here is my last catch of the trip. It was almost 10 PM on Saturday nite so I decided to put out this huge plastic lure with a big spinner that Tony Sr. had in his box and that no one thought would ever catch anything and troll home. Well, it caught a Northern Pike. Not too many minutes later I heard a motor. Tony & Trey came out with a flashlight on the other boat looking for me in case I was having motor trouble or something.. I was only about 1/4 mile from the cabin by then and waved them over, thanked them for their concern and continued to troll back to the cabin. Got back a little after ten o'clock.
GREAT ENDING TO A GREAT FISHING TRIP!
The next morning a smaller, single engine, float plane, (a 1956 Beaver) picked us up and took us back to reality. Can't wait till next year!
KK
If you're interested in a great adventure you can contact Randy and Maureen Hanson at Hanson's Lodge or visit their web site at http://www.hansonslodges.com/flyin/
