Birch Lake, Ontario Fly-In Fishing Trip

PG5768

PG5768

Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
4,367
I just returned on Thursday from a five day fishing trip to Birch Lake, Ontario. I saw kgd's earlier post and thought this would be a good place to share some pictures from my trip.

We left from the Kay Air HQ near Ear Falls last Friday morning.
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The weather was cloudy and rainy as we loaded the Beech D18S we were flying on.
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We arrived safely at Birch Lake and unloaded our gear.
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After moving everything in to our cabin we got ready for our first day of fishing.
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We saw beaver lodges around almost every cove.
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Saw many Bald Eagles.
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Butterflies.
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Thats something Ive always wanted to do.... Ill bet it was an amazing trip.
 
Ahw buddy - I love fly-in fishing. Haven't done it in a two years now, but will be going back out the next chance I can. Hope you got some fish!
 
Flowers.
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We even caught some fish.
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I brought my G-10 Tyrade and Michael Morris Profiler with me.
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We had one day of mid-70s (F) weather, but most days were cloudy and had some rain.
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We flew out on last Wednesday.
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We had a great time and owe it, in large part, to our host and pilot, Pete Kay.
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I didn't realize how many lakes NW Ontario has until I got home and looked up Birch Lake on bing.com's map section.
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I also fulfilled one of my goals, I tried french fries and gravy and poutine. :thumbup:
 
j williams said:
That's something I've always wanted to do.... I'll bet it was an amazing trip.
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This was one of the life-long dreams of the couple that we went with. Fly-in fishing in Canada. They had a great time.

kgd said:
Ahw buddy - I love fly-in fishing. Haven't done it in a two years now, but will be going back out the next chance I can. Hope you got some fish!
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We didn't get one on every cast, but we caught at least 20 or 30 each every day. The limit was 2 Walleye, 2 Northern Pike, and 1 Trout per person per day (Birch Lake is a Conservation Lake). We had no problem having enough fish for dinner every night. Didn't catch any Trout. Caught Northerns all the time, a few Muskies, and plenty of Walleye.

udtjim said:
I live for those, hope you had a great time.
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We had a great time, the cabins were fantastic (propane refrigerators, solar lights, indoor shower, new Thermos propane barbecue grill, propane deep fryer),
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the boats were very good (Alumarine boats with swivel seats and new Yamaha 15 HP outboards),
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and the fishing and scenery were phenomenal.
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Glad you had such a great time ! Great shots too. I like the menacing clouds.
 
kgd said:
Glad you had such a great time ! Great shots too. I like the menacing clouds.
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Thank you. Here's another shot of my favorite cloud formation.

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BTW: You've got a beautiful Province. :D
 
Now that's something I would love to do :D

Looks like you've had a great trip. Thanks for sharing :thumbup:


Kind regards
Mick
 
Looks like an incredible trip, something I really want to do someday. Great photos!
 
Awesome trip!

I used to go way up there every year. They were some of the best trips ever, and these pictures brought back lots of memories.

One of my favorite things was seeing moose nearly every morning on the shores of the lake we were at.

Thanks for posting those.

B
 
Looks like you had a great time. Glad you enjoyed your stay in NW Ontario. It has been years since I fished the Ear Falls area....not too far away from me.

Thanks for sharing the great pics!
 
Awesome! I would love to do that sometime!

What else came other than Pike?
 
tonym said:
Awesome! I would love to do that sometime!

What else came other than Pike?
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For some reason, northern pike gets a bad rap even among Canadians. I've really changed my mindset about this over the last few fishing trips I've had. As an angling fish they are superbly scrappy and will put you through your paces especially when they get close to the surface. In some lakes they can get huge, with 25 lbs not being uncommon and a whack load of 2-3 pounders that are better suited for eating. When a pike hits, it explodes with energy onto your line. None of that limp wristed nibbling that walleye will do.

Pike are easier (for me) to detect structure/habitat characteristics based on surface cues like weed margins, rock ledges and timber margins. Walleye are easy to find ideal habitat if you have a bathymetry map or sounder for depth, but it can be a little harder finding them when you aren't equipped with those tools.

As a food fish a lot of people shy away from them because of the y-bones. True, you have to fillet them a bit differently (See the 5 fillet method scattered throughout many website posts) but once you've done this a few times you will find it very easy to do. The flesh of a pike is more firm than walleye and when eaten fresh every bit as mild. The one thing you shouldn't do is cook pike with its skin as they put out a lot of mucous during the stress of fighting and that produces a highly 'fishy' odour that permeates the flesh when cooked. The last time I went fly-in fishing, my wife and I ate a couple of walleye and pike side by side in a little taste test. We were both extremely surprised to find that we preferred the pike to the walleye.

Anyhow, didn't mean to hijack the thread. Just wanted to proclaim what an awesome fish pike is to have in your lake!
 
tonym said:
Awesome! I would love to do that sometime!

What else came other than Pike?
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We seemed to be most successful fishing in Northern Pike habitat. We had most success on Flukes, Rattle-Traps, and Red-Devil spoons. I think the Walleye and Muskies we caught were more the result of luck when fishing for the Pike. A depth/fish finder would have been a great help, as KGD mentions. We did catch fish up to maybe 30 inches, but there's a slot limit, too. 1 fish of each species over 18 inches per day.

Thanks to all of you who enjoyed the pictures. Happy to share.
 
kgd said:
For some reason, northern pike gets a bad rap even among Canadians. I've really changed my mindset about this over the last few fishing trips I've had. As an angling fish they are superbly scrappy and will put you through your paces especially when they get close to the surface. In some lakes they can get huge, with 25 lbs not being uncommon and a whack load of 2-3 pounders that are better suited for eating. When a pike hits, it explodes with energy onto your line. None of that limp wristed nibbling that walleye will do.

Pike are easier (for me) to detect structure/habitat characteristics based on surface cues like weed margins, rock ledges and timber margins. Walleye are easy to find ideal habitat if you have a bathymetry map or sounder for depth, but it can be a little harder finding them when you aren't equipped with those tools.

As a food fish a lot of people shy away from them because of the y-bones. True, you have to fillet them a bit differently (See the 5 fillet method scattered throughout many website posts) but once you've done this a few times you will find it very easy to do. The flesh of a pike is more firm than walleye and when eaten fresh every bit as mild. The one thing you shouldn't do is cook pike with its skin as they put out a lot of mucous during the stress of fighting and that produces a highly 'fishy' odour that permeates the flesh when cooked. The last time I went fly-in fishing, my wife and I ate a couple of walleye and pike side by side in a little taste test. We were both extremely surprised to find that we preferred the pike to the walleye.

Anyhow, didn't mean to hijack the thread. Just wanted to proclaim what an awesome fish pike is to have in your lake!
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No problem Ken, your comments are appreciated. The smaller Pike put up the most fight of any of the fish we caught.

We had some help figuring out the "Y" bone fillet technique from our neighbors on the first day. The fillets of both fish tasted equally good to me. The Walleye are just a little easier to prepare. And you are right, the Pike certainly give off a smelly slimy mucous. :eek:
 
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Brian Andrews said:
Awesome trip!

I used to go way up there every year. They were some of the best trips ever, and these pictures brought back lots of memories.

One of my favorite things was seeing moose nearly every morning on the shores of the lake we were at.

Thanks for posting those.

B
Click to expand...

We did see a momma moose and her baby coming down to the lake on one of the islands. Neither of us were fast enough with the camera though, to get a picture.
 
Excellent pics, PG5768! I really love that part of the province. It looks like you had an amazing trip, and it brings back some great memories of some of my past fishing outings.

Thanks for posting!

All the best,

- Mike
 
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