GPS on Canada Side???

[eyepatrol]

Ahhhh.....same as Steamboat Shoal???? I see that on my map. North of Boreas Island and west of Crest (Hogsback) Island, right?

[bitz]

Hey Rainy. I grew up going to my Dad's on Little Canoe (cabin across from LC Lodge) He sold it to some friends in the early 80's and when I started coming back, we had some friends that had 2 cabins near AMI point. The decided to retire 2 yrs ago and we started looking around. Vince's cabins are 2 brooms, kitchen/eating area and hot shower/running water/toilet with drinkable water. Each room has 2 bunk beds. the bottom beds are = to a double, the top bed a single. We don't spend much time in the cabins anyway, but they are very nice and clean. He has a gravel ramp but he puts everyone's boat in from his truck which was fine with me. They have worms but the minnows are a bit of a [PoorWordUsage] shoot. Sometimes he has them, sometimes not. They have a bigger house with a common room that I have visited with Vince, and if you want to shoot the breeze with him, he is always open to it. We unload in front of the cabin and then park on the top of the drive. then you don't have the truck screwing up the view. There are 2 places you can get gas with in 10 mins, or its about a 30 min ride back to FF. Pretty good deal for the $$ and I am pretty picky.

Bitz

[bitz]

Steamboat rock and shoal are the same. I guess my dad said it looked like the deck of an old steam boat is how it got its name. Don't know that I can see that view, maybe from the air.

[bitz]

Wife and myself until wed. then daughter and son-in-law and 2 yrs old. White Crestliner with 40 hp Johnson. We usually fish the smae areas and try and make 2 trips to Ash and AMI point. Since I fished most of my life on the NW arm, I kind of miss it. Let me know if you want me to email you those spots in NW bay. say hi when swinging by. Usually I try and hit that west red bouy and island just in front of Amik in the evening. Picked up several eyes on the north side btwen the island and the marker last year.

[eyepatrol]

Okay, I got it now. I was originally looking right out from LaBelle's. Oops!

This year my wife wants to take her "scenic drive" all the way over to McDonald Inlet. Not sure if there's any walleye fishing to be had over that way, but I've got some reefs marked on my map to try on our way back. Should be a pretty drive.

[eyepatrol]

Yep, I'll definitely say hi. If you're fishing those areas, I'll certainly see you out there....even from the cabin. With my wife and kids, we usually run in and out a few times each day. Food and other "breaks".

[bitz]

Make sure you have a good east end map (assume you have the CA hdyro maps) I can point you some good spots east of Gull island (flashing lite coming up the main channel) 3 sisters just west of rebecca is good. There is a reef in about 11 ft of water smack in the middle bwteen Ami point and rebecca that has good eyes.

deer island and the channel markers on the way to mcdonalds can pick up some eyes. once you get to the main inlet, it gets pretty shallow and not much structure etc. thru frog portage always gives me the creeps for some reason. very shallow and I always worry about ripping out the lwr unit or something. Never have, but always have worried about it.

[TN Rick]

RP . . .must have been somebody else. At least I don't recall. We had three boats last year and six of us.

[TN Rick]

EP, we actually fish for just about anything that swims. Target Smallies adn Pike usually. Sometimes troll or throw a Rat-L-Trap looking for walleye. Other then that a Walleye has to commit suicide for me to catch it

[RainyPro]

Bitz

I'll have to get the map out to look at where your talking about for the steamboat you mentioned. My father-in-law always called the rock that is south and west of Moores Island a long ways Steamboat, it is usually marked with a jug or such, it is way away from shore and has alot of scares on it from being hit.

[RainyPro]

Bitz,

Amik sounds nice, it looks nice from the lake too, all new, but we use tons of minnows we used 150 dozen last year, and we used 150 gals last year cause we have been going up to Ash alot lately. when you say 10 mins do you mean by car back in Devlin?

[RainyPro]

Rick,

Did you stay in Cabin 2? I think there was a death and most of them had to leave. Which cabin you in this year?

[eyepatrol]

bitz -

Yeah, the maps I have came from the Map Store in St. Paul I believe (got them some years ago). My maps are the same as what Dale has hanging on his wall in his Lodge. They're pretty good maps, but are missing a few rocks.

I'll keep those spots in mind! The reefs I want to try are right in the vacinity of where you've described. And as for McDonalds, my plan is to just take her to the mouth of the inlet and not get in there too far. We both enjoy the ride and scenery a lot, but I also don't like to lose out on too much fishing time either.

[eyepatrol]

Rick

I'd say for the smallies and pike, you're going to the right area. Alex and Ash are some of the better places to fish for those species. In '03 my wife and I took a short vaca to Dale's over Memorial weekend and we hit Ash one afternoon. The weather was so nice and the water was warming through the mid 50's. We hit one bay that had an unbelievable number of huge pike in it. I mean, they looked like tree logs on the bottom in 2' - 5' of water! Unfortunately, I couldn't really get them to hit. I caught 2 pike (8lb & 10lb) and had one on that was enormous, but all the other big ones in there would just follow up to the boat and take off. 2 - 3 fish at a time would follow and then swim slowly away. Man were they huge! Never seen so many pike in one bay and never seen pike that big. My heart was racing and knees were knockin' the whole time.

The numbers and size of pike and smallies in NW Bay have diminished over the years IMO. Don't know why, just seems that way.

[eyepatrol]

RainyPro

Ah yes, that rock I am aware of! I didn't know it was referred to as Steamboat, but yes, now that you mention it, I remember a year or two where that thing was sticking out of the water! Whenever I fish that area of the bay (which is a lot!), I always make sure I stay well away from that puppy! That definitely is a scary one.

And you're right, usually there's a white milk jug or something that is placed on that spot...but not always!

There's another rock that sits just 1' - 2' below the water surface which I'll have to talk about later to see if you're aware of it. Doesn't show up on any maps, but my grandpa's lower unit found it one year!

[RainyPro]

EP

You should mark it on your GPS, it makes it easier to stay away from it.

The only rock I ever hit was in the chute from Lake Footprint up to Jackfish I was trying to get the boat lined up to go up the chute and bent the prop up pretty bad. You ever make that trip?

One year there was a guy up there with a realy nice Ranger, he hit those rocks right south of Turkey Island and knocked everything out of his lowerunit.

[eyepatrol]

Yeah, I'll have to do that. I just got this boat in Oct. of '06 and haven't been up there since buying the boat (with locator & gps), so when I do I'll mark all kinds of spots.

Nope, never made that trip before. Most of our time is spent in NW Bay and it's only been the past 6 years since I've been making the scenic drives (ever since getting married!). So far we've been through Alex, to Ash, Paddy and then the Cascades. Each year we take 1 day to do a big drive somewheres and this year she chose McDonald's. I always let her pick and choose where we're taking the daytrip.

[RainyPro]

If you feel like taking it out of the water, going to Despair is a neat trip, You can go see the mechanical portage into Boffin from Despair, it's got traing tracks and you drive you boat on and they pull you up the hill. There are alot of cabins on Despair to see too, plus you can go into Footprint and see where the Footprint river (in the reservation) comes from. Watch out for the huge rocks in the One Mile River though.

[eyepatrol]

I haven't been down the road to look at Despair for a long, long time. I know when I was a young lad our family would go fishing there like one day during our stay. But otherwise we just put in on Rainy and that's about it. Sounds like an interesting portage though.....being able to lake hop right from your own boat.

[TN Rick]

I've had breakfast since last year, but believe we were in 1 & 2 last year. 3&4 the year before. We're split this year between cabin 5 and one of the rooms attached to the main lodge.

[eyepatrol]

Cabin 5 is nice. 7 is my favorite!

Nice thing about the lodge room is the a/c.

[bitz]

Devlin is further than 10 mins (about 20) but there is a gas station on the reservation which is about 5 mins and there is a lodge at Despair further up the road past Labelles (where the road ends) that has a pump and some basic groc etc. I usually bring my own and only once needed to buy another 5 gal so don't know the cost. My guess is, if you needed that many minnows, Vince might be able to get them for you but not sure. Nite crawlers was no problem. He did have some leeches also, but we usually are working smallies and don't need much of any of those. I would suggest you might try calling Vince and talk to him about the gas/bait. WOW, that's 1800 plus minnows... just a question, have you ever tried the frozen ones, or the gulp minnows. I see lots of guys talk about them, but have never tried them myself.

Bitz

[bitz]

EP, when you go to McDonalds its a nice ride up the Big Canoe also...there are several bays etc and if you luck out, you can spot a moose or a bear along with lots of deer. Little Canoe has similar views and is a bit closer. If you get up LC, the second cabin on the right was my Dad's We called it Camp Geemani which is Ojb for Little Canoe. It got kind of run down but a few years ago now, some people purchased it and fixed it and it looks very nice again. The land north on the river is wilderness area and can't have cabins etc. Lots of history around there. The spot where the first cabin is ( a log one) was a guy named Locke and he cut his leg with a chain saw (so the story says) and his wife (she was Indian) had to paddle him to FF but he bled to death before she made it.

Bitz

[TN Rick]

EP,

We wanted two cabins together 5&6, 3&4, etc, but none were available so we had two rooms by the Lodge. Ony problem is that they are SMALL without room to cook for or feed eight guys. Cabin 5 came open so Dale moved us into it. We'll make it work.

[TN Rick]

On a little different note, can anyone recommed a place to eat in Ft Francis for dinner?

We are going to be at Birch Point for a week and are thinking about taking a break one night and driving in for dinner.

[RainyPro]

Bitz,

Oh yeah we looked at staying at the Despair lodge once, I forgot they had gas there. I didn't know they had it in the reservation. How big is the reservation, I've often wanted to go check it out.

We have tried all kinds of other not live bait and never had as much luck as with minnows.

[RainyPro]

Eyepatrol,

My Father-in-law always loved 6, close to the dock and nice view, no trees in the way. I don;t think we ever stayed in 7.

I like the first one you come to when you get into camp I think its 8 or 9. it's all by itself and if we are lound no one seems to care.

[eyepatrol]

Quote:

We have tried all kinds of other not live bait and never had as much luck as with minnows.

That's interesting as I feel the same about crawlers. When we go, crawlers outfish everything at a huge ratio. BUT, maybe that's because we usually would go in mid-July when crawlers & spinners work well??? Not sure. We don't even bother to think about leeches, but yet Super Black really likes to use them if I'm not mistaken???

I think when you get on them and find them, most live baits work real well. I'm actually ordering some of the Gulp! leeches to try them out up there this year. See how that goes.

[eyepatrol]

Yeah, I believe that's cabin 8. That's a nice spacious cabin if I remember right. Only stayed in it once or twice. Cabin 9 I think is the one that is set back away from the lake and the other cabins. My aunt & uncle stayed in that one a couple times and it is pretty spacious too. Only downer is it's set away from the lake.

[RainyPro]

Rick,

The ones on the lodge are really nice, but very small. 5 looks nice, never been inside though. 6A and 6B are very small. Now that I think about it it was 7 that my father-in-law liked.

We have eaten at the red dog for the last few years you can eat outside and they have cold beer, but the food was okay. We also went to Pizza Hut one year on the road back from Mainville. other that that I have no idea.