Lake Ogascanan July 15-22

[Nancy]

I went north with John's daughter and son-in-law this trip with the idea that this trip would be dedicated to John. This year will be known as the year of the electronic equipment fail (camera) or maybe just more gray hairs and my ability to run it.

I told Donna before we left that I might get the third degree from the border guard being a female traveling alone. They didn't disappoint me. She asked me a barrage of questions. Since I am going back up in two weeks as of this writing, she sent me in to get an E99 or P99 form. ( I would need to go to truck to be accurate). Anyway barely managed to get through customs without a teardown. Next stop was our traditional stop at Webber's. It has definitely lost much of it's quality over the years. We stayed at the Bo-Mark in North Bay. That was a great stop as usual. Some of the fire fighting crews from the forest fires were also staying there. The fellow managing the motel said they don't sleep much. I bet they don't.

Next morning on to Temiscaming , ice, and Ogas. Kevin and Donna wanted to have breakfast at the Canadianne. John and I had pretty much sworn off that place the last time we were there. They didn't disappoint me. Fans weren't working, no meat. That's OK. On to better things.

The Red Pine Chute road is showing remarkable signs of improvement. They were just starting that project last September when John and I did that last minute trip.

We stayed at the Northern outpost cabin again. That has always been our favorite in recent years.


Got John's chair set up for his week of relaxation. Last summer his chair got to be pretty well known. We stayed at the main camp and when he didn't feel like going out fishing, he left the chair at the dock so he could talk with everyone. When he wasn't there, they would ask Brad where he was. 


He was al into having a funny shirt for the trip up. I found this shirt for him and he said order it with his blessing. It was enroute when he passed away. But it rode with me in the boat all week.


As far as the fishing went, it was a really great year. I caught more big fish in one week than I have ever done. I caught 1 24.5 incher, 1-25.5 incher and 2 26 inchers (Both in the same day). This is where I had camera failures trying to get selfie pics. I had trouble last year, and was bound I was going to get it done this year. Got it figured out at the end of the week for this little 28 inch pike.

I can't seem to get in the mindset to weigh the walleye as I know most people here want to know what they weighed. I have to admit that a split second after I released everyone of those larger fish, I thought, I forgot to weigh it. Oh, well.

Overall, I would say numbers wise this was one of the top two trips I have had. I think it was Thursday morning the wind shifted out of the east, and I thought this will be a waste of time, but caught ten that morning with one being one of the 26 inchers. When we got there the surface temp of the water was 79 degrees, and was mostly catching fishing 17-22 feet of water. By the end of the week, the air temp had dropped and with a storm that rolled in dropped the water temp down to 71.5. Most of the fish I was catching then was in 14-16 FOW.

The one thing I missed this week was some of the beautiful sunrises or sunsets I have been privy to in the past. I would guess that it may have been due to a smog effect from the forest fires. I couldn't smell any smoke in the air. Jer said the week before you could smell it and was leaving him with a scratchy throat. This was the best little passed sunrise picture of the week.


Looking forward to the trip in a couple weeks in the cabin next to JP Morgan and his dad.

[CaptainCrappie]

Nancy, I'm sure that John was there with you sharing the beauty and good fishing. He may have had something to do with it.  Take care.

C.C.

[Chazz]

Great post Nancy - I'm happy to say we had the pleasure of meeting John last year on our way out and yes he was parked in that chair greeting everyone as we unloaded our boat.  We will be arriving in 2 weeks also so hopefully we will be able to meet you this time.  Good to hear road in is better.
By the way were you using worms or leeches .

[morganjp]

Hey Nancy, Sounds like a great time overall. Looking forward to our trip up and hooking up/fishing with you.. Less than 2 weeks away. Dad just ordered a batch of worms from local bait shop yesterday.  Just starting to get things around for the trip. See you at Ogas. JP

[Oarin]

Great report! I really like how you took John with you. Glad you had a good time.

[Nancy]

@Chazz , I was using leeches. Donna fished with me one morning and she was using worms and outfished me, so they both work.

[Jay Thomas]

Great report Nancy. Thanks for sharing.

Jay

[Greg]

Great report Nancy.  So happy you had such great fishing success.

Love the symbolic John chair - my family does something identical with my brother-in-law who passed away almost 2 years ago.

Greg

[getthenet]

I'm sure John is smiling !

[SgtCrabby]

I'm  sure John was smiling while sitting in his chair. 
And happy he doesn't need to wear the jacket to stay warm.

[Hodgey1]

Nice report Nancy, glad to see you’re carrying on the tradition.