# Ontario Canada Winisk River



## Scum_Frog (Apr 3, 2009)

Heading up to Canada again to fish the Winisk river.....same group went up last year and the one guy pulled in a 53" Northern and they caught 10 over 40". Anyone ever fish it? Looking for any pointers if so.....if not have any of you guys been successful with certain baits? I mainly throw swimbaits and topwater...Not a spoon kinda guy....I know some people throw mepps inlines as well...any pointers will help were staying in an outpost so anything that I should bring as well would be appreciated!

http://www.moccasintrailsadventures.com/camps/chipai.html


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## OldSchool (Oct 18, 2006)

We do well on spinnerbaits for pike when fishing in Canada. We use them because like you not a spoon guy and own the spinnerbaits already. (My go to color is firetiger)

Also had some luck on twister tails (think Mr Twisters). Caught pike, walleye and SM with them.
Quarter ounce jig head and a 3 or 4 inch twister. (I start with yellow. Sometimes white and also something with chartreuse on the tail.) Keep em near the bottom. I also found that letting them drop to the bottom like a dead/dying fish worked well &#8211; I would do this any time I felt a nip at the tail.
Good luck and enjoy your time on the water!


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

I know you say you're not a spoon guy, but you really should invest in a gold Redeye Wobbler. One of the best pike baits I've ever used in Canada! They work in any depth range, and you only have to cast and reel. You don't have to add anything to them either.


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## kissmybasstoo (May 5, 2013)

Gold and maroon little Cleo's....KO wobblers are killer also, I highly recommend trying out a few spoons. X-raps can be killer too, always clown for me.

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## Scum_Frog (Apr 3, 2009)

Thanks for all the input so far! We are going to be fishing a lot of flowage so it'll be new to me up there.....I cant wait though we take off sunday....I like throwing swimbaits for em....seems like everytime they hit and miss it it'll make the swimbait a little more erratic and they keep crushing it....Then you never need to worry about re-tying just putting on a new swimbait once its destroyed....which surprisingly you get quite a bit of use out of them. Burning them across the top just below the surface is awesome! Gosh I cant wait LOL


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## Scum_Frog (Apr 3, 2009)

Alright guys so here is a quicky report.....photos to follow as well.....

We took off Sunday the 16th around 3pm from my house in Clyde Ohio and drove all the way up to Thunder Bay Canada.....was not a bad drive heading in at all....made good time and ran in too minimum traffic which was nice....oh and not many animals either! LOL....Followed a semi 50% of the way around Superior who was going around 70mph so that helped us make up a ton of time! We stopped and had some breakfast in Thunderbay and picked up some more supplies.....around noon we headed up around Lake Nipigon on the west side to Armstrong station to Thunderhook to stay the night.....Talk about an awesome place!!! Nice amenities with an outstanding lodge and has a 60" flat screen with Dish and wifi! Next day we took off early and went about 2 miles up the road to Wilderness North who flew us out from there.....quick 45 min flight to miminiska to pick up our beers then another 45 min flight even further north and we were there!!!! Chipai Lake! To say you could get lost fishing this place is an under statement.....if you are adventurous at all.....you will get lost....we did...it was freaky for about 20 mins and we were 5 miles from the cabin. That's it! LOL. Its a ton of cuts, bays, islands.....everything! AMAZING place! 

Lodging: Its an outpost....lol. They have 8 beds and you probably wouldn't want that many people....we took 6 and it was "comfortable" a lot of trees were cut down every night by the snoring....LOL....they have a propane fridge and stove and a shower. Deep freeze outside ran by generator and two outhouses that smell like roses....if the roses were covered in crap. Literally. LOL All in all though its a clean place truthfully and nice 15' boats that have 15hp Yamaha's that they are trying to upgrade to 20's next year. Bryan the native there is an awesome guy! His father is handing him the throne for next year and he is hoping to get internet and cable up there for next year!

Now for the fishing.....like I said its an amazing place but its HUGGGEEEE....theres so much to fish we actually had to just pick spots to focus on each day and we still didn't fish but maybe 5% of it! Biggest Northern of the group went 48"....we had 12 go over 40" and the one guy lost a 50"+ at the boat when they were trying to get him in the cradle and put the boga grip on! Stinks!! We all had a ton of 40"+ fish chase to the boat or strike at the boat and miss....scary/exciting at the same time!!! Biggest walleye was caught right at our dock at just over 6lbs! Thing was a piggggg!!! 

On the third day we went on an hour boat ride with Bryan and he cooked us a shore lunch on the "beach" where he grew up and his family cabins were..was real assuring when we got off the boats the beach was littered with wolf prints and bear!!...then when we got there we realized we had everything we needed....but a pan! LOL....so Bryan and I took the boat around this big island and beached it and walked into the woods about 100 yards to his families run down cabins....we followed this trail where a moose had recently went through and destroyed all the above branches! Was awesome looking! He took me into his families small cabin and his uncles looking for a pan....it was an eye opener to say the least....they even had this really cool cabin built strictly for ice....very well constructed! Needless to say I found two pans hanging behind the fireplace and we washed them with some sand/stones and they actually cleaned up well! I don't know what it is but a shore lunch with the view that we had and breathing in fresh air is just an experience that's indescribable! My partner who I was fishing with wasn't like my fishing style....I can fish all day while im up there and I fish hard! He was a fish for 2-3 hours and head back to the cabin type of guy lol. So when we fished before shore lunch we had found a patch of big northern while trolling for them and only got to spend about 30 minutes in the area before lunch....when we got done eating I wanted to go back and spend some time there....we were trolling 5-6" soft plastic swim baits and crushing the fish....it was hard to keep the big walleye off for some reason....22-26" walleye were non stop.....healthy fish! Caught a few pike in the mid 30" range and lost a 40"+ right at the boat about 5' away. I was mad to say the least it was a fat fish! Like I said before we only fished for a short time in that spot and then ate but my partner wanted to get back and take a break and I was ticked to say the least...this spot could of turned into something special....it was perfect!!!! 

All in all I want to go back there for sure....would love to go with a different group of guys who fish hard so we can explore more water! I went with the owner Tom Sharpnack and 4 other guys that are around 15+ years older than me....not saying they cant fish hard...they just don't by choice LOL. I seriously wouldn't go to any other body of water if your targeting Pike....there's more possibility to catch 50"+ northerns than any other place without a doubt. 

The entire week we had gorgeous weather....barely any wind at all and mid 70's!!!! Until the day before we were supposed to leave....wind came in....then over night storm rolled in.....hoped it would be gone by morning so we could take off....NOOPPEEEE!!! The entire day it was so bad out you couldn't even fish.....we stayed cooked up inside going nuts!! Then the following day came and it was the exact same thing....there was about a 2 hour gap of mediocre weather and sure enough wilderness north got the plane in and about 30 mins out it cleared up and we were able to get above the clouds and on home we went!!! Got into Armstrong station around 11 and walked into my front door at my house at 10a.m the following day....I was up for just under 40 hours. Talk about dragging but for the next couple of days....took forever to get back into the groove I felt like crawing in a hole and sleeping for 3 days! LOL.

Was a great get away though but I sure did miss my wife and kids! On another note though I cannot wait for my ice fishing trip!!! I want to go to Lake Simcoe bad!!!

I did get to fly copilot too which was awesome and a great view!!! Pilot kept on drinking water and making me nervous so I had to snap a pic! LOL


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## Scum_Frog (Apr 3, 2009)

Here's some photos. No fish photos they are on my camera but I didn't take many pics unfortunately I forgot lol. The nice cabin is at thunder hook. Awesome place! 


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

Great report! Sounds like the fishing was great and it looks like a good time was had. That group of guys you were with looks like they were up to no good! Lol! Are they all car salesmen too?


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## Scum_Frog (Apr 3, 2009)

haha surprisingly they are a very low key group lol....and ones the owner, one is me obviously LOL....ones the GM of the Ford store, one owns his own Warranty Company, Ones a Pharmacist/Military and the one taking the photo is CPA!


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## Schatty (Jul 13, 2012)

Sounds like my kinda place Scum_Frog! I absolutely love catching monster pike! I have been trying to get together some guys to go north of the border for the past two years with no luck. All my buddies are Lake Erie guys and have little interest in a remote trip up north. We used to go to a place in Northern Ontario, Mistinikon Lake, every year until the owner sold his lodge to the gold mine operation (4 years ago now I believe). The lake had lots of pike and walleye but mostly smaller fish. I probably had about 10 trips there and managed several 40+inch pike. I have only dreamed of catching a 50+!! I will definitely keep this place on my bucket list of places to visit, just need to round up a new group of guys that I can convince to go!

I need to stop reading all these Canada reports, it is definitely making me miss the annual Canada trip even more!


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