Alwaki Sept 1 - Sept 7

[Hodgey1]

Since it’s rained nearly every day since getting home from Kipawa, I figured it would be good time to put in a trip report.

With our trip beginning on a holiday weekend, I gave much consideration as to when to travel north. We ended up deciding to leave Friday at 2:00pm. I would have preferred of course to leave Friday morning early, but both my wife and I had to work most of the day. All in all, I would say our travel up was smooth and uneventful. We started by checking the bridge/border crossing times online as we went. Once we got closer to Buffalo, the information was showing that the shortest wait time was at the Queenstown bridge, with only a 5-minute delay. So, we crossed the border with very little delay.

Once on the QEW, traffic was very heavy heading towards Toronto, particularly at Hamilton, so the 407 ETR was a welcome relief. I decided based on the QEW traffic to try and skip the 400 and opted for Route 27 north instead. The 27 runs basically parallel and just west of the 400 and reconnects at Barrie. It was a little slow, but I’m certain not as bad as the 400 at 6:00 pm on a Friday of a holiday weekend. Based on what the traffic was like once we reentered at Barrie, I’d say the bypass was a success. Route 11 was busy, but traffic thinned the further north we got. We arrived in Timiscaming at 10:30p with 8.5 hrs of travel time, which is about the norm for us with a stop for gas.

This week away was supposed to be relaxing and a much-needed relief from work and caring for my elderly father. Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be. Just as we were driving into Quebec my phone rang with news of my father being taken to the Emergency room. So needless to say, not a good start to our trip. I am very very fortunate that I have an adult daughter who is always there to help care for her 80-year-old grandpa. She stepped up and took over my roll famously and kept us up to date on his condition. We were able to continue our trek onto Alawki, once assured that dad was stable and doing ok. So, each of the first few days where spent fairly close to the Alwaki Lodge in order to check dads status throughout the day. Thankfully he made continuous improvements and by Monday we were told that he would be released the next day.

Enough about the not so good, now the good: While loading our boat for departure to Alwaki, someone comes over and says hey Chris, I’m Greg. Turns out to be @GregL from the Forum. He introduced us to his crew, wife Tina and brother in-law Jim and wife Kathy. Great group of people. We had many cocktails throughout the week, discussions of all things fishing and dog related. Bam - new friends! We all rebooked the same week again next year, so already looking forward to next fall hanging with the whole gang again.

The fishing: I would call the walleye fishing every bit as good as when I was there in July. On one misty/rainy evening it was amazing, with my wife and I catching near 40 walleyes. It was also my observation that more fish were within the slot this trip. We didn’t catch any monsters, as our largest was 18”, but it seemed more fish were 15” plus than previous trips. We caught most of our fish in water 29’-33’ deep, with half a crawler working famously. Unfortunately, I did not get much Laker fishing in, the little we were able to do, produced only three trout with our largest at 21”. I desperately need to upgrade my fish finder to have built in background mapping, I’ll save that for another post.

Besides great fishing, highlights include many fresh walleye dinners. We also had walleye appetizers, grilled Lamb chops, London broil and Jambalaya. Don’t tell anyone, but my wife and I ate 3 walleyes for an early dinner one day with a side of nothing “is that legal?” Walleye and more walleye, emmm, not even a veggie or potato. I tried a new cooking method that we just loved. I took a throwaway aluminum sheet pan and put it on the grill and melted a healthy amount of butter in it. Then I placed the unbreaded filet directly into the hot butter and only seasoned them lightly with garlic salt. Once cooked, I placed on a plate and drizzled some of the melted butter onto the filet, yum!

The other good of course, Alwaki, what a well-run facility. As I’ve mentioned in other trip reports, the cabins are outfitted nearly as good as my own home as far as cleanliness, cooking utensils, grills, deck chairs and other amenities. I told Tina, we rent different beach houses every year for a week with family. They are typically houses worth multiple $100's K or $1m plus and cost a lot to rent. They’re almost always outfitted with the cheapest sh_t cookware, flatware and furnishings, nowhere near as good as Alwaki's. Brian & Tina’s attention to such things is A+.

As for the weather, it was changeable, with some overcast warm days, some sunny cool days and one stormy day. I’m certain pretty typical September weather I would guess and for the most part a good weather week.

Our trip back started with a departure from Alwaki at 7:00am with heavy fog. Thankfully I had my Garmin with previous tracks enabled, or we would have had to wait for the fog to lift. We were on the trailer and heading home by 8:00 am. We had smooth sailing most of the way with moderately heavy traffic on the QEW to the border. Travel time was less than 8 hours, a really good number considering a long lunch break/gas stop.

That’s a wrap, once we got past the possibility of us having to race home, we ended up with a good trip. Ultimately the start to our trip could have been way better and the flip side, it could have been way worse!


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[Greg]

Great report Hodgey - glad your dad is ok also.

Thx for great pictures also...I miss the views and landscape there so much.

Greg

[T-Bone]

Nice work Hodge...great summary and wonderful pics. Ahhh...I miss that place. Also glad to hear your Dad is doing better.

Be well...you can count on hearing from me one way or another until we meet again next year at Alwaki...a mere 316 days from now... 

GO BROWNS!!!

[NortonJoe]

Great Report!  Only 317 more days until the our next trip! 

[Jay Thomas]

Really enjoyed your trip report and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Jay

[puckster_guy]

 I Love those pictures, Great post thx.

[limacharley]

Great report Hodgey. Wish I would have had time to drop in. Hopefully next time.

As far as your meal with just walleye; garlic salt is a vegetable in my book. Hope your dad gets better real soon.

[Hodgey1]

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes. I’m sitting at home today thinking how nice it would be to sitting on my boat at Kipawa right now.

[fishtildark]

Great report Hodgey, sounds like everything worked out and the best to your dad. curious if the trout were getting shallower in anticipation of the spawn? Also seems you didn't have any problem talking the Mrs into booking again for next year.. You must be doing things right. Thanks for the report.
oh BTW, congrats to you and T bone for a "win" against the steelers.

[Oarin]

Nice report and pictures. Glad you both had a great time. Looks like you ate as well as Jon and I do at camp. Now for a long winter and spring until our next trip.

[RHYBAK]

Just an FYI to all.

Lake Trout do not spawn until late October.
At the moment I am still catching them trolling on Lake Simcoe at 100 feet.
They won't start moving into shallow water until the water really cools down ( Mid October)

[Hodgey1]

Great report Hodgey, sounds like everything worked out and the best to your dad. curious if the trout were getting shallower in anticipation of the spawn? Also seems you didn't have any problem talking the Mrs into booking again for next year.. You must be doing things right. Thanks for the report.
oh BTW, congrats to you and T bone for a "win" against the steelers.

We only got out Laker fishing a couple of times, I did not notice them being any shallower, but I'm beyond a novice when it come to Kipawa Lakers. I'm also having fish finder issues that when I troll with DR's the finder picks up the DR ball's? As for rebooking, my wife enjoys the peace and solitude afforded by being at Kipawa as well as me. She has actual gotten fairly hooked on the fishing also. One evening we were out in a misty rain and a pretty good chop and I wanted to pull anchor and leave. She was two or three fish behind me at the time and she turns and says "we'll go when I get 3 more fish"

On the Squealers, they seem to be as big a mess as the Browns right now. How's negotiation going with Bell? Oh, good ole Antonio have his panties in a bunch?  We're tie again " 0-1-1"

[Hodgey1]

Nice report and pictures. Glad you both had a great time. Looks like you ate as well as Jon and I do at camp. Now for a long winter and spring until our next trip.

After seeing everyone else's food after my first trip, I had to kick it up a notch. 

Only 312 more days!

[RHYBAK]

Hodgey1

When trolling with the downriggers, you will not always see the cannon balls on the fishfinder unless you have your transducer pointed back a bit.
You must rely on your fishfinder depth and an accurate line counter on your downriggers  to avoid hanging up on the bottom or running into a shoal.

[SgtCrabby]

Glad your dad is doing better.
Great report and pictures.

I like your groups cook, does a better looking job than our groups cook (which is me).