Not Kipawa - but my trip to Temagami - July 11 to 18

[Greg]

A quick trip report from Temagami lake (Ontario) â€" July 11 to 18

Like many here, five of us had been planning our trip to Kipawa over the winter months, however something called COVID impacted our plans (like many others).

Due to the restrictions in place in Quebec (border closures, so many people under one roof have to be from maximum of 3 households, etc.), and some of our group’s work restrictions (not sure a boss can make someone self-isolate for 14 days unpaid if they leave the province, but the threat was there), we made the decision to change to a lake in Ontario.  I searched and found Lake Temagami which is about an hour north of North Bay.  I contacted many outfitters and cottage rentals and settled on a small cottage rental outfitter called Great Spirit Lodge (the cottages were very well equipped with large fridge, 24-hour power, microwave, coffee maker, kettle, toaster, etc.).

From there, our plans continued as normal, groceries, gas, collect all the fishing tackle, etc.  We had my boat and one other larger boat this year, so gear, food and everything else was not a problem.

We left early on the Saturday morning (July 11) and made it to North Bay for a quick lunch and continued North.  We stopped at a well-known tackle and bait shop on highway 11 called Gramps â€" cool place â€" lots of tackle.  We bought leeches and worms and a few jig heads.

We were early for our check in, so I called a head and agreed to meet at the boat launch at 2pm â€" well, we had just over an hour to kill and it was pouring rain, so we slowly got our boats ready and put them in the water around 1:45pm.  The lodge owner Randy was there right at 2pm and he escorted us to the island and we unloaded and unpacked and were all setup by 3 or 3:3opm.  VACATION IS ON!

Over the next several days, we fished many techniques, different lures/presentations in different areas of the lake.  We caught LOTS and LOTS of small mouth bass, some rock bass, pike, walleye (not as many as I would have liked), a few lake trout and one lake herring.

We did two adventure days â€"
1) On Tuesday, we went to the very north part of the lake just to explore, and found a beech and had a lunch BBQ.  It was about a 40 minute ride from our central lake location.  Very nice area and wish I had time to fish it all.  However, still, anytime you stopped and looked around, you could see a handful of cottages (…if not up to 10 cottages at any one time).

2) On Friday, we went to Cross Lake (attached to Temagami through a small passageway) â€" this was our only early morning (up at 4am and packed and gone by 5:10am) â€" this was a great trip as the lake is very remote, limited (practically no) civilization and very beautiful.   I would spend more time in Cross Lake if I ever fish Temagami again.

We fished, slept, drank and ate (…I planned a very robust menu with breakfast, lunches and suppers plus snacks and a few extras â€" I over bought because we rarely ate lunch and we brought lots of food home â€" some of it untouched or the bottle/package never opened).  We also had lots of laughs, as always.  This is probably the best part of our trip.

4 of our group have been to Kipawa before â€" with me leading the Kipawa trip count over the past 15 years â€" and everyone was doing constant comparisons to the Kipawa environment versus Temagami environment… here are a summary of our observations…

1)   Kipawa has less civilization once you leave the main bay.  Much less.  Temagami has 2,000 islands and it seems a HUGE % have cottages â€" some of the cottages can be referred to as mansions with three garage-door boat houses â€" 2 jet-skis, one fishing boat, and one pontoon in the garage.  You could almost always look around and see a dozen cottages, no matter where you were on the lake.   

2)   Getting buzzed… With so many cottages, come so many boats, and jet skis and pontoon boats.  If you were attempting to fish a shoal between two islands, expect to have a passing speed boat or jet ski wizz by at any time â€" within 30 or 40 feet of you â€" and they don’t leave room â€" the geography of the lake is “tighter” feeling â€" so there isn’t really an option â€" its not their fault â€" if that is the direction of their cottage, the boat owners have to take that path.  On Kipawa, passing boats are usually a couple hundred yards away â€" not at Temagami.    Everyone would wave to say hi, but at one point, after a boat passed by and waived, I said to whoever was in my boat… that guy had blue eyes.  Yes, he passed that close.  As you went north, yes, the cottages spread out more, and that means less traffic â€" but we only went for our adventure day and hardly fished.  Again, on Cross lake, we only saw 2 or 3 other boats for our 6 hour adventure day.  If I ever go back to Temagami, it would be a more remote location.  Cross Lake has no civilization so would have to find something close to the entrance.  There are 1 or 2 outfitters at the north end, but they looked closed/abandon.

3)   Fishing â€" very different â€" I believe it is because of the water clarity â€" it was so clear; you could easily see 15 feet down and look at your jig on the bottom of the lake â€" amazing water clarity.   Great to swim in (which we did fairly often).  Bass were prevalent, unfortunately walleye were not.  We caught some walleye, only by trolling deep crank baits over shoals at sunset or in darkness.  The biggest was a 21.5 inch walleye I caught.

4)   The lake structure and Navionics maps… there is so much structure, shoals, and rocks, you have to be very careful â€" and you can not trust the GPS maps â€" I remember looking over at a seagull standing on a rock that was 2 inches out of the water… my Navionics indicated that area was all deeper than 20 feet.  We quickly became accustomed to fishing any new area with caution and a slow approach.

I have to tell one story… going back to point 1 about civilization and lots of cottages â€" on our first day, after breakfast, we decided to stick together (the two boats) and drive around the central area of the lake â€" which has one big island which is called Temagami island.  We picked random spots/shore lines to fish and were talking from boat to boat a little.  While fishing one shore line, there was a cottage high up on a rock with some people in the screened in porch.  A lady came out of the porch and informed us that it was impolite and rude to fish in front of anyone’s cottage.  Pardon?   Let me think about that for a second… so many cottages and I have to NOT fish shore lines where there are cottages?  I don’t think so.  Lady you don’t own the water in front of your cottage.  We looked at each other in disbelief and couldn’t really grasp her message thinking “did we just hear what I think we heard”.  We ignored her, didn’t engage in any debate or conversation and just continued on down the shore.  WOW.  Our first day and we get that attitude.  We gave her a very unflattering nick name and as we actually caught some decent bass in front of her cottage during this strange conversation, I returned later in the week to fish the same location a couple more times and caught a few more bass.

There were lots of other highlights…
1)   My strange sleep walk and got lost at 2am and couldn’t find my bed
2)   My buddy Matt caught a 39 inch pike in Cross Lake â€" that was incredible!
3)   I let my son drive the boat on our North adventure day, 3 minutes after being behind the wheel, he got pulled over by OPP boat and then having my boat, safety equipment checked over, etc.  A good interaction which was all positive.  Last year, I suggested to him to get his boaters card to rent one of the lodge boats at Alwaki â€" although not necessary, it was a good thing to always have (and I was right! Haha).

4) The Temagami access road to get the boat launch - wow - 19km of gravel and rough road - we took it slow on the way in (pouring rain so it was very wash-board like).  It smoothed out over the week so the trip out was much better.

Would I go back to Temagami â€" sure, always up for a fishing trip if I got invited along.  But would I purposely book Temagami over Kipawa, no way.

We look forward to our return to Kipawa and stay at Alwaki.  I have a 4-day weekend planned in September at Alwaki â€" time to turn my focus to that… 59 more days.

Cheers!

[Ozzy30]

Thanks for the good report Greg, It's always nice to try new spots.

[limacharley]

Having fished Temagami-I knew it was a busy lake. Most cottages are on an island which prompts people to boat in.
Cross Lake has excellent lake trout fishing. If ever up that way for ice fishing-Diamond Lake is spectacular for walleye and lakers.
Dan & Bonnie run a great business at Gramp's.

Nice report Greg. See you on Kip hopefully. Come down to Hunter's Lake for an evening fish and a beer. Dock with the flag.

[Jay Thomas]

Very informative report Greg. Thanks for sharing.

Limacharley mentioned Diamond Lake. 9 of us flew into Diamond Lake probably 25 years ago. Unfortunately for us, the weather turned horrible soon after we arrived. First morning in camp, we woke up to 9 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Worse yet, our cook forgot to bring the eggs. 

Jay

[Greg]

Wow Jay - that doesn't sound like a good start to a trip!  What time of year was that?

Greg

[Jay Thomas]

That trip was in mid Sep and it was eventful.

The cabin on Diamond accommodated 8 guys in bunks. However, we were 9 guys. So one of the guys offered to sleep on the floor between 2 sets of bunks. After he crawled into his sleeping bag, he looked up and saw two 200 pound guys sleeping in the top bunks. No way he says. With that, he moved himself and his sleeping bag out of the cabin. At this point I have to point out that this volunteer spent almost 30 years in the military. As a consequence, his sleeping bag qualified as cold weather gear. Good thing because next morning, there was 9 inches of fresh snow on the ground. When we opened the door the next morning to find him, all we noticed was a slight rise in the level of the snow in one location. On further inspection, that was him and we had to wake him up.

We endured 4 days of very cold, windy and wet weather. Four hours was about the maximum duration of an outing. One day, the wind and waves were so strong that the 6 HP outboards weren't strong enough to get us back to the cabin. So we stopped on an island and built a huge bonfire to stay warm until we could proceed back to the cabin. We were marooned on the island for about 3 hours. On another day, two guys returned to the cabin early because they were too cold. The first guy out of the boat didn't have his land legs, lost his balance and plunged off the dock into the lake. His fishing buddy helped him out of the lake and the two of them struggled to the cabin. They both stripped off and crawled into a sleeping bag.

Jay

[Greg]

Jay... That is hardcore for sure... wow!  I hope I don't come across that kind of situation on my first September trip

Greg

[RHYBAK]

I did two ice fishing trips to that island cabin.

There were six of us and we had a great time.
The whitefish were very light biters and very hard to hook.
Good fishing .

We had one guy dress up in a bear suit and sit in waiting .
We sent his buddy out for firewood and watched as the bear jumped all over him.
Needless to say, a few pairs of underwear had to be changed after that.
Both from fear and laughter.

[T-Bone]

Thanks for the report Greg...I'm sure it was nice being out on the water and with your buddies. And I've heard that about Temagami...loaded with people and boats, not loaded with walleyes or really good fishing...not loaded with nice people (snobbish insiders). On all counts, as you said, not Kipawa.

Hope to see you in September...though I'm not counting on it. 

BTW...a little [song] play on my sentiment above...good little diddy. If you hang around me at all, you know I like my oldies...

https://youtu.be/iu-7DXBiVsA

[Hodgey1]

Very well done report Greg. I must say, I’m not going to be in a hurry to fish there any time soon. The encounter with the lady floors me, not polite to fish? Wonder how she feels about the jet skis wizzing by? Gezz.

When is your September trip? I’m not holding my breath for my Sept Alwaki trip to happen 

[Greg]

Hodgey -my trip in September is Sept 18 to 21st - same weekend basically as T-Bone.

T-Bone - the fishing wasn't all that bad, we never really got skunked anytime we went out - bass (mostly smaller) and pike is all.

We still had lots of laughs and explored some new water so we have some great memories for sure.

Greg

[limacharley]

People not wanting fishermen fishing around their docks is not an isolated event to Temagami. When my FIL and I used to do a lot of bass fishing right here in North Bay (Trout Lake)
we had a lot of people come out and try to chase us off. We were like....well that's where the bass are hiding but we spoke to one guy at great lengths and he reasoned with us with this explanation.

His kids swam off their dock and didn't want to get a jig or lure in their feet because some fishermen break off and leave their gear attached to the dock. It made a lot of sense to me.

Now that I have a dock on Kip, I don't shoo anyone away but I can tell you I've found a few jigs on the top of my dock. My dog got one stuck in her lips cuz dogs find shiny things....we had to hold her down to get it out. Good thing she didn't swallow it. And since I snorkel around my dock I've found a couple of HotnTots and other crankbaits firmly planted on the cribs.

So I understand where they're coming from.

[Greg]

I get what you are saying LimaCharley, and i would be very upset if I ever lost a lure on a dock and a dog or child accidentally found it in a bad way... I hope if I ever did that, I would do everything possible to get the lure (including going for a swim) or call the owner over, etc.

In this case - we were 30 yards out, and 30 yards down from her dock - we did not fish around the corner where her dock was. 

Greg

[Fort Wisers]

Great report Greg! Thanks for sharing the stories!