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Northern Quebec Walleye Trip

WoodieBoater

WoodieBoater
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WoodieBoater

WoodieBoater

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Northern Quebec Walleye Trip

i know this isn't ANYWHERE near here, but i thought id throw up a report just in case anyone was considering a Canada walleye trip.

We go to Cabonga Reservoir in Quebec (semi) annually. Its a great trip. Pretty much everything i look for. Tons of water to fish, disconnected from the world, pretty remote, no other boats to fight with, no trash species to wade through.Anyway we had a pretty good trip. the jig bite was tough but once we switched to trolling worm rigs things sped up. Came home with a 10 man slot limit, most fish in the top end of the slot 19-20 inch range. We had shore lunch every day with the smaller slot limit sized fish. Lots of big 6 to 10 pounders but unfortunately, all of those had to go back. and let me tell you its tough to throw one back on a tough day of fishing. All in all a great trip for anyone looking for good water to fish up there.

 

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chugbug

chugbug

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Nice to see Quebec is still producing walleye you dont hear much about it like you use to it doesn't seem like as many fisherman the states are going up anymore . I have fished whiskey river a couple times not to far from Cabonga . Then we switched to Hay Bay but that fishery went down hill from what I have heard , nice pics brings back memories .

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WoodieBoater

WoodieBoater

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We left from Binghamton, crossed in Ogdensburg, went through Ottowa and that took us about 10 hours, but we took our time and we were pulling boats. We stayed at Deer Horn Lodge which is on the northwestern "corner" of the reservoir. Pavilion Cabonga is on the southern side of the reservoir. You can trailer your boat up there. The drive has drastically improved over the years. There's about 20 miles of dirt road now which in the past has been a leaf spring breaker, but this year it was very smooth. The fishing has gone downhill a bit since Ive been going. it seems that my first year (2008) the only thing we caught was 4 pound and up fish, and we didn't have to work for them at all. It is the water supply for Ottawa, so you're kind-of at the mercy of how much water is in the reservoir. The water this year was high and cold, and it seemed like a constant grind, but we got em and it beat the hell out of walleye fishing around here. We were getting a lot of small fish this year, and i think that has to do with the slot that's been in place for 5? years now. We were there in a drought year when the reservoir was 4 feet low when we got there and 7 feet low when we left. THAT was a tough week of fishing

 

Its a long drive and a lot of work to get there. I think that turns alot of people off.  But for me alot of the appeal is getting away completely for a while, and fishing somewhere for solid, quality eyes without jockeying for position with other boats. Especially recreational craft:puke:, Some pricks will practically run you over. The water around here can get so busy its lost alot of appeal for me.

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WoodieBoater

WoodieBoater

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wow yup haha. thats quite the haul.

Have you already gone?

How was the fishing? Were you after muskies and pike or eyes?

 

And yeah id recommend it. Totally worth the drive to me.

Navigating those big Canadian lakes is the most daunting thing id say. Cabonga has 2800 miles of shoreline and i believe Lac Seul is around the 3000 mark as well?

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Sk8man

Sk8man

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Nice going Dave:yes:  Those eyes are the right size to eat ....I wouldn't worry about throwing the tougher ones back:)

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Xxx

Xxx

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Congrats to your trip!! Canada is the greatest place in the northern hemisphere for quality and quantity of eyes. I've been fishing Canada for 40 years and have watched the great fishing in Manawaki move north as the loggers made roads to lakes that were fly in only lakes to drivable lakes. Which also was the downfall of many lakes. I also disagree with people bringing there own boats, for one reason only if you made the wrong call on the wind for the evening bite you were screwed because with the smaller engines you didn't have time to correct yourself. Now people bring there own boats and can fly all over the lake. I'm not knocking big resivores to bring your own boat, but guys were hovering the lakes dry. The best thing they ever did was implement a slot limit. This is bringing the fishing back, to what it was? Never will it be the same as the late 70's -- early 80's!!! Since the border crossing even before 911 I've had 3 terrible experiences that were totally uncalled for, 3 guys in their 70's and me in my mid 30's, the ways these guys got thrown around by these young punks was a disgrace!! These men were American Vets. and they found nothing on us other than I had 1 sleeve of chew to many and I paid the $60 some dollars in tax. One of those guys was my father, Korean combat Veteran. I'll keep my money in the states. That's me, and like mentioned before it is the walleye capital of the world and every walleye angler should have at least 1 experience in their time on a Canadian walleye lake.

Again congrats to your magnificent trip!! Yes I know how hard it is to put a 30"---36" walleye back, but now they have cell phones for pics and replica's available, quick measurements plus photo and they can reproduce that fish right down to the tiniest detail. All good stuff!! Thanks for sharing. PAP.

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WoodieBoater

WoodieBoater

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Nice. Maybe ill have to look into getting out there.

The pics have always been enough for me. Maybe someday if i land an absolute monster ill get a replica made. I'm just thinking about all the 3 1/2 to 4 pounders that used to come home and go in the freezer. 6 of those makes a hell of a fish fry. I know the slot is designed to keep breeders in the water and boost the population, which seems to be working. Itd just be nice to haul some more meat home.

 

Yeah we had trouble crossing the border a couple of times at Wellesley Island. Ive always held true that its not hard to get into Canada, its just hard to get back into the U.S. we've never had a problem with Canadian Border Gaurds but you get the wrong ***hole coming back into the U.S. and you can expect to have a bad day.

Anyway, we started crossing at Ogdensburg/Prescott and that has always been much more relaxed. We hardly ever run into traffic there and we've never had a tough time from anybody. I think the Wellesley crossing just gets too much traffic and people being generally rude. The Guards there always seemed high strung.

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Xxx

Xxx

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5 minutes ago, WoodieBoater said:

Nice. Maybe ill have to look into getting out there.

Yeah we had trouble crossing the border a couple of times at Wellesley Island. Ive always held true that its not hard to get into Canada, its just hard to get back into the U.S. we've never had a problem with Canadian Border Gaurds but you get the wrong ***hole coming back into the U.S. and you can expect to have a bad day.

Anyway, we started crossing at Ogdensburg/Prescott and that has always been much more relaxed. We hardly ever run into traffic there and we've never had a tough time from anybody. I think the Wellesley crossing just gets too much traffic and people being generally rude. The Guards there always seemed high strung.

 

X2 to Odgensburg!! Much smaller complex, fewer young lad's trying to make a name for themselves. We had trouble getting back to the U.S. Because the young buck didn't know the allotment of fish is different in Quebec Province than the Ottawa Province, plus the lodge limit was 2 fish less then the Provincial limit, they had to get in touch with a Quebec fish and game officials only to be correct with our fish limit, while it took 3hrs to figure this tough question out!!!  :whew:

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lrg355

lrg355

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I have been on Cabonga many times. Fished Lac Rapide and Bark lake. We would pack up the boat and run for 2 hrs and camp on an island. They stopped allowing that after forest fires and that sort of lost the appeal. The costs also got out of hand. I think my last trip was 1986. Time flies.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

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  • 2 weeks later...
jk1

jk1

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PIKE  where are the pike???  We used to go to Chibagamau 2 times a year, lots of pike, I like pike too.  We fished a different lake every day, always a good time and yes we too have had problems at the border, twice by female officers......jk

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  • 1 year later...
Dougs

Dougs

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Heading to a lake with the family 5 hrs north of Manawaki.. Small lake- 3km x 1km. Mid july to beat the flies.. Didnt do great last year..trying to catch fish with no topo of lake.  Please..any advice would be great.. 716-307-3330

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