We will be leaving early Tuesday morning for a fishing trip that I won to Bakers Narrows Lodge near Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada. We will be fishing for 5 days for Northern Pike, Lake Trout, Walleye, etc. After Bakers Narrows we will be heading for the Black Hills of South Dakota for a few days before heading home. The trip will be 3,800+ miles and we will be towing our 3,500 lb folding trailer. We have been getting between 12.5 (heavy head wind) and 15 mpg here in Oregon. It will be interesting to see what the mileage will be on some flatter ground. I will hopefully have a good fishing report and some pictures when we return sometime after July 13th.

Congratulations on your good fortune and I hope you follow that up with a lot of good luck fishing. I'll miss seeing you online until you return. Have a fabulous trip and take lots of photos for us!

Thanks Truckin'. I'll plan on taking lots of pictures but I'm the photographer that you are by any means. We are also hoping to catch a lot of fish but these are species (pike and lake trout) I have have never fished for on a lake we have never been too so we hope the guides are competent. In any case we plan to have a lot of fun.

You'll have fun. Even if you don't catch any fish you will be with your Ridgeline for many miles and that in itself is fun!! I am going to Canada on a fishing trip as well. I leave July 14 for the upper reaches of Northern Quebec for pike and walleye. My buddies (from my home town in New York State) and I have been doing this nearly every other year for over 20 years. It use to be a fly-in only access lake but now there is a logging road and we can drive right to the shore. Of course, my Ridgeline will be safely tucked in my garage here in Texas the whole time.

shortspark,
If your freezer can't hold all those Walleye, you can use mine.:D
IMHO, Walleye is some of the finest eating fish out there.

You bet Outfitter! There is nothing on earth like a shoreline fish fry of freshly caught walleye. I ate some crappie last night that I caught at Lake Fork and, although very good, they are nothing like walleye. Maybe it is the cold water but there is something special about those suckers.

We catch them like crappie too. We position our boats out from the islands along any shelf area and use jigs tipped with worms. Sometimes we don't even need the worms and catch them hand over fist. Once in a while we hook onto a double. That is where you have a walleye on and a northern pike attacks the hooked fish. I've brought in several doubles that way.

BTW, we had a little meet day before yesterday of Ridgeline owners here in E. Texas. I hope to have another with more people in August sometime. You should get ahold of some Dallas/FT. Worth owners and come out here for it. We plan a golf outing for those that play as well as a luncheon at my clubhouse here at Holly Lake. We might even plan a cookout at Rick's weekender lake home near here (Rick is "FoxyRL" and lives in Plano). You guys in the Metroplex are only 2 to 3 hours away. If we don't have enough golfers, we'll drink beer and talk RL, hunting and fishing. Gals can come too. What do you think?

shortspark,
I miss my younger days when I had a couple uncles that took me with them fishing for Walleyes and Northerns in Canada. They inspired the love of the outdoors that I have today.
I would love to come to a meet if I am in town, business travel peaks for me in July & August but give me a shout the next time you have a get together and I'll head out to East Texas to spin yarns with ya.:)

Okay Outfitter, I'll email you and post here next time we meet.

You'll be passing by me if you enter manitoba from the south. Have fun

You bet Outfitter! There is nothing on earth like a shoreline fish fry of freshly caught walleye.

I disagree. How about some shorline grilled rockfish, redfish, mackerel, tautog, croakers and spot :) I'm kinda biased towards saltwater myself :D

We got back from our trip yesterday and a wonderful trip it was. We were gone 17 days and covered 4102 miles through seven states and four provinces. The RL performed flawlessly and effortlessly. We crossed the Continental Divide twice and several lesser mountain ranges and averaged 14.71 mpg. With the RL, trailer, gear and us I estimate our GCW was 8500-8700 lb. Due to the high cost of gas ($2.80 to $4.00 per gallon) and that this was a leisurely trip we rarely towed above 60mph. The mpg varied considerably from tank to tank depending on road surface, elevation change and wind. Our low tank was 12.6 mpg and we had one tank that averaged an incredible 19.5 mpg. The high mpg was due to a combination of very good road, tail winds and fairly even elevation. The low mpg was mainly a very stiff head wind or near head wind for the entire tank. Overall, I was very satisfied with the figures.
Bakers Narrows Lodge was more than we had anticipated in all respects. The log cabins were clean, comfortable and well equipped. Ours overlooked the lake to the east and was backed by a steep cliff that provided afternoon shade. The lake is called Athapapuskow which in Cree means “rocks all around” and it is aptly named. It covers over 200,000 acres and has over 2,800 miles of shoreline and is very beautiful. The staff was very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. We got to know everyone on a first name basis and it was like leaving family when we left. The food was exceptionally good and offered good variety with different specials every night in addition to the regular menu items. The walleye was done to perfection and I had it on three different evenings.
We stuck to fishing for northern pike and lake trout. We have walleye, rainbow trout and smallmouth bass here and I have never fished for either pike or lakers before.
We both were extremely pleased with the results. While the wife did not catch any really large fish, she was happy because she knew that if she had caught a large one, she probably could not have landed it by herself. On the other hand I got real lucky with the help of our great guide Bob. I caught several pike over 24”, two in the 30” range and the one shown below, a 41” one that qualified for a Manitoba Master Angler pin and certificate and a pin from the lodge. The guide estimated the weight at 18-20 lb.
The same luck stayed with me on the day we fished for lake trout. My first ever laker measured 32 ˝” and weighed about 19 lb. After several smaller fish, we had a huge hit and I had the fight of my life with a fish. When we finally landed it, it measured 42 Ľ”, had a girth of 28” and a calculated weight of 41 lb. It qualified for another Master Angler award by over 7”.
We both decided this was a trip we wanted to do again in a few years.
The second part of our trip took us to the Black Hills of South Dakota, one of our favorite spots. We love the wildlife like the pronghorn, bison and deer and the Black Hills have a special combination of grassland and hills forested with Ponderosa pine that make it special. This is the third visit we have made over the years and seeing the progress being made on the Crazy Horse monument and grounds is very special to us. We were first there in ’71, again in ’94 and then this time. We are going to dig out the pictures from the first two trips and see the differences. Mount Rushmore has also made many improvements on the grounds and is always a pleasure to visit. We also toured Wind Cave which is a very unique cave in the way it was formed and has 95% of the world’s “boxwork” formations in the cave. There is also some very interesting history of the original explorer of the cave, Alvin McDonald, who first explored the cave at age 16.
Our campground was one of the nicest we have ever stayed in and we will definitely stay there the next time we visit.
We stopped in Billings, MT on the way home and had dinner and a nice visit with our youngest son’s significant other.
This was one of the nicest vacations we have ever had and we were only happy to head home because we missed our pup Mokey, who was too young to take on a trip of this magnitude.
I have a lot of pictures to edit and organize and will post them on a website in the near future. I will post a link if anyone is interested.

Glad you're home again, and yes, please do post the link to your pictures! It sounds like a wonderful trip.

Wow! That 41" Northern and 41 lb. Lake Trout are outstanding catches. Glad to hear that this was one of your best vacations. Seventeen days sounds like an awesome vacation trip.

I saw and read your original post the day you started your trip and have been waiting anxiously to see pictiures because I knew the fishing and scenery would be great where you were headed.
Hope you had a chance to have a shoreline fish fry like shortspark mentioned - nothing beats it!

A few weeks before you left on your trip I returned from a short seven day fishing trip to Lake of The Woods in Ontario Canada out of Sioux Narrows.
Actually it was our annual "work on the cabin" trip but we always sneak in a little fishing on the work trips until we go back in the later summer months for fishing and relaxing.

You mentioned lake Bass. I attached a few photos of my youngest brother and the two lake bass he caught and some small Northern Pike I caught. (mine look like babies compaired to your 41" pike). Your fish are awsome!
I have only caught one anywhere near the size you caught in years of fishing so I would say you had an exceptional fishing experience.

That Lake trout is awsome and must have been a real fight.
Pike and Walleye are my favorite eating fish in Canada.

On the Lake Of The Woods there are 14,000 islands and 65,000 miles of rocky shoreline and is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on the planet and I'm sure it was the same in Baker Narrows and Lake Athapapuskow.

Glad to hear that you would like to make a return trip. Nothing beats Canadian fishing and scenery. I have been going there fishing and camping with my three brothers since I was 9 years old.

Can't wait and love to see more of your pictures and yes, would be interested in a Link.

One last little bitty Pike. :o

Hey Joz, nice cabin! I wish we had one like it.
You mentioned lake Bass.
Yes, the lodge has exclusive fishing rights to seven flyin lakes, one of which is stocked with smallmouth bass. Since we have some of the country's best smallmouth fishing in Oregon, I wasn't interested in doing that. Those were some plump smallies your brother caught. I'm still trying to break the 20" mark on smallmouth. My biggest to date is 19 5/8", 5 1/2 lb.
That Lake trout is awsome and must have been a real fight.
Yes it was. I have never experienced anything like it. Bob talked me through this one. First, to keep my rod pointed straight at the fish for two reasons. The added friction added by having the rod loaded could cause the line to break and also it is so difficult to reel that the added friction would make it almost impossible. When the fish was fighting, the only way I could gain any ground on it was to turn the reel handle like a knob, one half turn at a time. I got it up to about 75 or 80 feet (Bob could see it on the fish finder) and then it would head for the bottom again. It did this a couple of times but fortunately did not go all the way back down. The second time I got it up it headed toward the anchor rope so Bob the guide rushed up and released the anchor (they use a salmon fishing type anchor system). The fish eventually gave me a break and came up fairly easily for 20 or 30 feet. I was extremely grateful because by that time every muscle in my arms and back were aching. I finally worked it up to where we could see it and it looked enormous, especially to a warmwater fisherman like me. I guided it toward the net and Bob expertly got it in the boat. I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face. I didn’t know it at the time, but after Bob had released the anchor, the laker towed us about 300 feet while I was it. Definitely the experience of a lifetime. I can't imagine would it would be like to catch a world record laker which currently stands at 72 lb. The lake held the world record for 60 yrs. and all the guides say there are world record contenders down there. A week or so before we arrived a man the guides described as 6'3" and strong hooked a laker that after fighting it for 45 minutes had only managed to get it 4 feet off the bottom. The line then went slack and when he reeled it up the jig was still there with a chunk of lip attached.
There have also been a few cases of the fish stripping off all 300 yds of line and no one being able to stop them so I can believe they are down there. The day before I caught my fish another guest landed a 54 pounder and another 54 pounder was caught the previous week.
Hope you had a chance to have a shoreline fish fry like shortspark mentioned - nothing beats it!
I can't agree more! After catching the big one, Bob said we needed to catch a pike between 25” and 29” as he had a shore lunch planned for us and anything over 29” has to be returned and less than 25” would not have enough meat for the meal. After catching several too small I finally landed a 26” one that fit the bill. We motored over to a large flat rock on a point and Bob got out the gear and set about making us lunch. We were happy to find out that one of his previous careers was as a cook, including a year as cook at the lodge. Pike are very bony fish but Bob was an expert at it and made it look easy. He had brought some baked beans and a combination of potatoes, green beans and mushrooms which he heated on the camp stove as he fried the pike coated with seasoned floor in oil. While all this was happening an eagle sat not far from us eying the fish carcass that Bob had left lying on the rock for it. The lunch was fantastic! Pike fresh out of the water done to a golden brown (and not a single bone to be found) with beans and potatoes. I had never eaten pike before but judging from that experience I rate it right up there with walleye and perch. Just before we were ready to leave, the eagle got tired of waiting and left, but there were several gulls that were more patient. We then went trolling again and by time we had made a lap around the bay the pike carcass was picked clean. The first picture is Bob our guide making lunch.
On the Lake Of The Woods there are 14,000 islands and 65,000 miles of rocky shoreline and is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on the planet and I'm sure it was the same in Baker Narrows and Lake Athapapuskow.
Right again, Joz. Here are a few shots of the lake and one of the grounds looking toward the owners log house. The last one is of our cabin tucked away against a cliff in the woods overlooking the lake.

Couldn't agree more on the great smallmouth bass fishing in Oregon. It is the best in the country.

Have floated down the Umpqua River many times in rubber rafts for about three miles to the tiny town of Elkton Oregon where we camp, catching smallmouth bass all the way.
They are smallies and nothing like what you catch but man is it fun!

The picture of the shorline lunch was just oustanding and made my mouth water.
Glad you had the opportunity, every fisherman should try it.

Your description of catching and landing that Lake Trout is great and so typical of catching a fighting trout of that size from 60 to 80 feet down.
It does wear you out and muscles start hurting that you never knew you had.

Thanks for the additional photos and narration. That area looks much like Lake Of The Woods in Ontario Canada.


More pictures Please!! :)

I forgot to mention that during the entire trip we only saw one other RL, a red one in Alberta. We did get a lot of stares and the campground owner in Idaho was very interested in our RL, asked a lot of questions and expressed frustration with his F150 with 33,000 miles on it.

More pictures Please!!
Happy to oblige Joz. :)
Picture #1 is the first lake trout I have ever caught. 32 1/2" and about 19 lb. I've often said I'd rather be lucky than good.
Picture #2 is the second nicest pike I caught, also measuring 32 1/2".
Picture #3 is another of beautiful Lake Athapapaskow.
Picture #4 is of the marina. The lodge has four float planes, two of which are Beavers.

CUinaRidge has already posted some great shots of the Black Hills so I will just post a few with some different shots.
Picture #1 - On Highway 244 west of Mt. Rushmore there is a pullout where you can catch a profile of George Washington.
Picture #2 - At night they have a laser light show on the face of the mountain at the Crazy Horse Monument. Before the show starts they light the mountain in different colors such as this.
Picture #3 - Another color on the mountain
Picture #4 - An interior shot of the large Indian Museum and Cultural Center. There is another room about this size and another building.
Picture #5 - A twice life-size bronze of stallions fighting by Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor who was the force behind the monument and worked on the mountain from 1948 until his death in 1982. His widow and seven of his ten children carry on his work.

Thanks for posting the photos and trip description Webwader! Man, you're making me home sick for Friendly Manitoba.... :) Lots of great memories at "the Lake".

Skywalker, I certainly agree about Friendly Manitoba. Everyone we met at the lodge was very helpful and friendly. The lodge owners were very friendly too and they were originally from Alberta so you must have some friendly folks there too. :)

If anyone is interested in seeing more pictures of our trip you can visit my website. (http://obpc0.tripod.com/thegreatadventure/)

Envy is close to what I feel!I wish I cudda and you didda!

Wow! Great photos and the big pike was awesome! Back in the '70s when we first started going to Lac Putchrincourt in Northern Quebec it was fly-in only. Now there is a logging road you can take which of course increases fishing pressure. Back then I caught a couple 47" monster pike but the last few years nothing like that has been caught.

I returned from my fishing trip there last week and then went to Vegas. Just got back last night. The walleye fishing was as good as ever thanks to a new catch and release program that went into effect a few years ago. Although the logging road increased pressure some, our group only saw two other boats for the whole week. We caught hundreds of walleye and many pike up to 36". The biggest walleye I caught was 24". Drop a little jig tipped with a worm off the rocky points of islands and hold on! It was a great trip and yes, the shoreline lunches we had were fantastic.

I'm also glad to hear about your Laker success. Although I have lived in Texas for over 30 years and am now mostly a bass and crappie fisherman, I grew up on the shores of Lake Seneca in the finger lakes region of NY. I still go back once in a while and fish with old childhood friends for Lake Trout, Rainbows and Browns. In fact, I often go up for the annual Memorial Day Lake Trout Derby which has been a big event there for many years now. Up there, we fish for them several different ways. Early in the day we still fish with sawbellies then switch to either jerking cooper line (spoons attached) or using downriggers. There is always a rapala at the rear for the Rainbows however and we almost always catch some while deep trolling the Lakers.

Oh well, now that this trip is over I have to face cutting the grass in a little bit (only 98 degrees here in Texas today!!). But the memories of a good fishing trip (which seems to get more expensive every time I go) makes one forget the work and weather. It is money well spent.