Last winter while visiting my good friend and Onaman River Resort owner Robert Lindsay, he received a phone call from The New Fly Fisher T.V. show. Inquiring if he had any availability to accommodate them for the filming of a Nipigon trout and pike episode in June, initially Rob was leaning towards answering them with a no. June at the resort had already been completely booked and, is in fact such a popular month it could be sold out three times over in a season. Yet mulling it over some more, by the end of our week together his mind had changed. Rob had hatched a plan that in order to accommodate and give N.F.F. his undivided attention, he would need to find them some vacant real estate to stay and, momentarily break away from his daily duties running the resort. The night before my departure home he asked if I would be willing to help. His hope was that together we could find a quiet offshore campsite far out on a lake island, set up a cozy home for five days, and use both of our very different boats to provide N.F.F with the fish and filming experience they were looking for. At that moment I could not give Rob a definite yay or nay but, the dates did match up well with a time I had been considering to return on my annual solo trip… Some months passed and it all lined up perfectly; in truth it had to, simply because after Rob’s first mention of it, I was so totally stoked about the idea. To camp out on a new and unfamiliar reach of Lake Nipigon with Rob, and to test myself by fishing all new waters would have been cool enough of an experience all on its own. But then to add the exciting challenge of guiding a respected fly fishing T.V. show to the best Nipigon has to offer, my imagination through me overboard. Sink or swim it had to be done.
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Come the end of our days, Rob, myself, host Bill Spicer and camera man Max all enjoyed an exceptional time. The wind and weather cut the five days down to three and a half but, the fishing was so good that instead of one episode, the show managed to shoot two. From our first hours together Bill could not believe how incredible the fly fishing for pike was, even I had never seen it that good on the lake. As for the speckles, solid efforts had us consistently plucking some fish throughout the full stay.
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One thing I learned through Bill and this whole experience was, when traveling to Nipigon in future, it would be best to never leave my fly rod at home again. Now I want to catch ’em like he does, on the fly!
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To view “The New Fly Fisher” pike episode in it’s entirety click on the pic below…
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For the full written and picture loaded report about my week on Nipigon follow this link…
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And for more about Onaman River Resort on beautiful Lake Nipigon check out…
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http://www.onamanriverresort.com/
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