It’s been raining in the north to beat blazes over the last two months. Hunters are safely boating far and wide in search of moose. Many reports around town this fall are of successful hunts, but more important to me is the word that the rivers are high, and fish are pretty much being left alone. A fishing I will go.
Last Tuesday I woke to nasty pain and swelling in my left forearm. The day before I had scrounged some dry wood from a buddy’s place and spent an hour splitting it into kindling; not something done very often, in preparation for my trip. A case of tendonitis not a first, but definitely the worst, was to become a developing plague over the weeks course.
Wednesday while putting my pants on before work I suddenly tweaked my head wrong and then got the old familiar sharp pain in the neck. Not the first time with a wry neck but still a raw deal nonetheless. Spent the day trying not to move my head, and thinking to myself… what’s next?
Friday rolled in and it was go time. In the driveway, the canoe full with a weeks gear, I watched from the living room window in awe as a monsoon-ish downpour took hold of the sky. I cursed a number of times leaving the house anyway, and kept cursing all the way down to the launch with Bren. Then, when I was motoring just out of town and realizing I forgot the paddles and lifejacket, I turned around and cursed back to the dock, cursed as I walked home, cursed in the door, cursed back down to the boat, and kept cursing as it continued to pour rain on me while I drove upriver over the next hour or so. Finally, the rain stopped, yet my foul mood remained dampened for some time after.
The weather wasn’t really expected to let up though. It was forecasting scattered showers and possible thunderstorms for the next two days. Having been given only a few short rainless breaks during the ride up river I decided to take good shelter from the mess of it all. An old run down cabin at the mouth of the Abitibi River I have often used would surely be the perfect place. Strange thing was, when I arrived there I heard from inside the cabin a clanking of beer bottles and a man’s voice singing that Tiffany song “I think We’re Alone Now.” I wrapped on the door as it all just sounded too familiar……….. AND LOW AND BEHOLD IT’S MY THREE FINGERED SLOTH BUDDY, FLOATFISHIN’!!!
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The arm, the neck and the monsoon still fickle, well, my belief was bad luck came in 3’s, but now, here’s FLOAT. Figured right then and there I was onto my second dose. I turned and looked to the sky……………
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…………… and so my getaway not really fool proof, nor inviting, I entered into the cabin realm of one FLOATFISHIN’.
Float had come a long way, seriously. Only one week before his arrival I had sent out an SOS last minute invite for an angler to come join me for my fall pike and walleye fishing journey. He answered the call. And so with blessing from Rox and powered by Molson Dry, Beef Jerky, Player’s Light and his love for the fish, Float set out a bushwhacking from Ottawa. Following the banks of the Ottawa River north to Lake Temiskaming, onward through the Blanche and Black River systems to Lake Abitibi, and from there smooth sailing it down the Abitibi River to this very cabin where it meets the Moose, Float had arrived almost safe and sound. Almost, for he did lose two fingers to a viscous chipmunk after trying to lick it’s nuts.
With my dry kindling Float and I got the old makeshift stove going that Phishfinder and I had rigged up during a spring blizzard fishing trip. Aluminum foil in the holes was intact but she was a bit damp inside from a few wet leaves that made it down the chimney. Won’t lie to anyone, it took some smarts getting the water to burn but, “I” pulled it off and heat did then radiate. Soaked to the nads through my rain gear I pulled off a little more too, and then hung it all above the fire to dry out. All was good as ol’ Float and I shared some beers, ate fajitas, and sang along to the many 70’s & 80’s tunes I had on the Ipod. All was festive.
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Saturday and day two, Float and I agreed to stick with the cabin comforts one more night. The day was grey and often windy and rainy. Float and I ventured over to the Cheepas and fished the morning throughout the 9km stretch from the rivers mouth up to the train bridge. This gave me a chance as well to see how water levels were before bringing the canoe in with a full load.
The Cheepas was perfect. Amazingly high, highest I had ever seen. The first 9km was full out with no shallow drive and took no time at all. Float and I picked off a few small pike and eyes in a few of the eddies along route but by 1:00pm we were soaked, hungry and cold so we made our retreat back to the cabin.
*** Figure I’ll post the map here so folks can follow along ***
Camp#1 is the cabin at Abitibi. It’s about 32 km upriver from Moosonee.
Camp#2 was our second site. It was 55km on GPS up river from the mouth of the Cheepas, or, about 88km from Moosonee. There’s a second campsite at 65km/98km up as well.
“The End” for us came at 76km, but at about 90-100km the river becomes so narrow it’s not much wider than the boat.
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Float and I warmed up and ate, and instead of sitting around we toured over to a few different back bays on the Moose River nearby the cabin. We sort of stumbled into a new spot on the troll and fished the crap out of this shallow, dying cabbage filled bay. Johnson spoons were working great for me and I picked up a dozen or so pike, Float on the other hand was losing fish after fish with different lures. One bigger pike mid to high 30 inch range took a Flappin’ Shad of his right at shore and ran his tight dragged Abu and 80lb Power Pro for a good tour right under the boat. The shallow water and rod buckled right over the gunnel and the fish had him at its mercy, he couldn’t turn it around and so it came unpegged. Float just couldn’t believe the strength of these northern river pike, in fact, he kept bringing that up with pretty much every fish he caught on the trip. “They just smoke and hammer the lures. Even the snot rockets are nuts. They’re taking line off the baitcaster and I have the drag set to it’s tightest. This is a musky outfit” I think he liked the northern fishing up here. I think I mentioned it a few reports back how tough I find them this time of year.
I caught a pretty good one of my own in that little new honey hole back bay. Plan to get back there and get Float’s fish some day soon too.
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Sunday morning came cold but calm and bright. By daybreak we were fed and nearly packed, so we said goodbye to the cabin around 9:00am and embarked upon the Cheepas River. Having fished the first 9km the day before we opted to put the throttle down and make time through that first stretch. With the full load boating against the current in my 20 foot freighter canoe with 15hp Honda we reached a max speed of 18.8km/hr. Our average moving speed on the GPS was around 12km/hr though, as, many swifts and rapids had to be gauged slowly for depth, and, we stopped often to fish. Float just soaked the morning in. So did I. The Cheepas is gorgeous.
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Being more interested in pike we fished eddies more than incoming creeks. I found the south side of the river along pretty much all of the 80km stretch has a deeper cut bank that’s obviously more shaded as well. Walleye fishing in eddies and incoming creeks on that side seems better. On the north side the shoreline is in many places more gradual and shallow, and so pike numbers were better in those sun facing eddies. Sure, both fish were found on both sides though. I kicked things off with a nice walleye.
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Float needed a pike with his dismal results the previous days. He found one. He was made a firm believer in the Johnson spoon on the Cheepas. Both of us tried other things like in-lines, spinnerbaits, other spoons, Flappin’ Shads and big bucktail jigs, and after experimenting the only other thing that could come close to being as effective as the Johnson was a William’s Wabler. Key presentation was a cast right to shoreline then a slow to medium retrieve keeping the lure right to bottom. Adding a white 3 inch grub seriously made a huge difference on both the Johnson and Williams. I used a large red and white Johnson or 4 ½” half and half Williams, while Float stuck with the straight silver Johnson. The Wabler being lighter, I slowed it down even more to keep it on bottom and at times jigged it in on the retrieve, this worked for pike and even a few eyes as well.
Here’s a couple of the fish.
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We broke for lunch early afternoon. All lunches and suppers were pre-prepared to save time during these shortened daylight hours. I had made up 5 stew, 5 chili and 4 seafood chowder dishes and froze them all in aluminum take-out style bowls. They’re totally easy to just throw on the Coleman as is, heat for 10 minutes and serve. Learned awhile back I hate taking time to eat when fishing and traveling the river, but hot nutritious meals are a necessity. This is the best way, and all the meals frozen together in one cooler can last for days and days frozen keeping cool stuff cool as well, and without the need for ice packs.
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Just after 5pm we had traveled 55km up the Cheepas for the day. We encountered many sets of shallower rapids and one with a solid wall of water that needed careful climbing, as, it is usually a falls but with all the water had become more of a big swift hump.
I had learned of two camping spots at two different “S” bends in the river. The fishing at each was supposedly great. When we arrived at the first we thought it was just perfect. Pictures didn’t turn out but, what we did was pitch the tent then cover an area about twice the size of the tent with a big tarp. Worked well, as, that night it rained a little and everything stayed dry. A couple pressure treated planks of wood were laying around so they became a table, and plenty stones lay on the ground so we had our fire place.
After some single malt, tunes and spotting mice everywhere, we retired.
Monday was grey. During the night I woke many times to the sounds of engines. Seemed we were directly under a flight path as jets were flying by overhead one after another, and, Float snored solid all night and moved around all over the tent. Come morning my wrist could barely bend without nasty pain. I mean it hurt that morning to the point of near tears when trying to use my hand. I’m a southpaw and this tendonitis was affecting my good hand. I had been running the tiller with it, often pulling the motor in and out of shallow drive, and fishing for 3 days now since the initial flare-up and my thumb was numb from the swelling up my arm. I freaked Float out by having him feel the crepitus of the tendon as I would try to extend and flex my wrist. He had been a great help all trip doing anything I asked and often carrying much of the load. I couldn’t not fish and keep pushing on up the river though, so I popped Naproxen and Acetaminophen each morning along with a beer and after a couple hours that loosened up the inflammation enough for me to get by. Casting became not all that bad, hook-setting just simply hurt, playing a fish was killer. Couldn’t help it, as Float and I toured another 20km up the river that morning then fished back to camp we must have caught 60-70 fish. The day was amazing, and as it went on it continued to clear up and let the sun shine down on us.
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This one pike of Float’s was more than a little greedy taking his lure.
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Pike were on fire. We fished basically the two “S” bends marked as campsites on the map and pounded the numbers. Some good sizes, Float set the hook into one big pike too and it was nearly an instant bite off right through the 100lb braid. (braid leaders might work for musky, but after this summer losing a number of medium to big pike on Kesagami to braided leaders I’ll never use the junk because there is absolutely no trusting it) Float switched to a black nylon coated steel leader afterwards and didn’t lose another. Him and I both picked up several nice fish throughout the day. For pike numbers, I’ve only ever done better on the Ekwan. These pike were ruthless in the cold water too, a real treat.
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During the day we were met by two hunting parties, and over at the second camp picked up a good bunch of dry wood so we could have an extra big fire that night. And so, that’s what we did at days end. Warm bonfire under calm starry skies, no one around for miles and miles.
Final day come Tuesday I woke at 5:00am and got up to cook breakfast. It was bitter cold.
Let Float sleep to 6:00 and puttered around packing a few things up in the lantern light. The way the weather had switched to cold suddenly and the fact I remembered that the weeks forecast was calling for some nasty north winds and chances of snow I thought it’d be good time to get home.
When Float got up I think we were both still kind of tired. We started laughing hysterically about everything. Rolling up the tent we were saying stuff like “We’re winning the war on terrorism, the fight against aids and just saying no to drugs.” Then holding our guts as we rolled around with laughter. Maybe not that funny now but there were tonnes of funny things being said, it was one of the highlights of the trip to us.
By daylight around 8:00am we set off. Had all day to fish our way out, boat travel was quicker down river with a lightened full load too. Top speed reached was 31.1km/hr but at full out we averaged around 24. The rapids I kept things safe by going shallow drive regardless, yet we took them quick knowing many of our lines and channels through the rocks ahead of time.
This picture we’re approaching the falls, but, you can’t really see them.
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One awesome area of the river is an expanse where an old forest fire burned. Another is a stretch where limestone boulders line the river banks. For the muskeg rock is a rarity. The river in these parts was deep and fast. Coming down river a good gusty cold wind pushed us along but it was in these sections things seemed even more frosty. Kind of eerie to me. Some locals think the Cheepas is haunted. Had the sun really been out shining on these white rocks they would have likely given a whole different feeling.
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One thing about this cold deep section was an eddy we found at one of the bends. After a couple casts with the Williams I knew walleye were there and tapping away at my big lure. Float then sets the hook into a snot rocket.
I’m jigging the spoon on the retrieve from shoreline to the boat, keeping it down. When it starts to come off bottom below the boat a couple casts in a row I get tapped but nothing sets. On a next retrieve I get a big tap and set the hook right away into what I’m 99% sure is a solid eye. The fish gives a few good rips of my 50lb braid and then comes boat side. A healthy looking 5lb walleye is the best of the trip.
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Not quite realizing how fast we had come down river Float and I found ourselves back at the railroad crossing by 2:00pm. We ate a quick lunch there and then bust out off the Cheepas down onto the Moose River. On route home I saved a few spots for Float to try for pike and so sure enough we catch about a dozen or more fish. Water on the Moose while we were up the Cheepas rose about one foot. I tell Float I wished he and I had another week so we could fish the North French River and way up the Moose as well. The pike are stacking. The big fish still not quite in I don’t think but the little ones are piling up in good numbers at predictable spots. It’s prime time fall pike fishing and I’d bet about a 2-3 week window to take advantage is all that’s left.
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Trips end Float and I rode in home on the sunset. What a great time out with my bud. Caught about 120-130 fish and put about 220km’s on the war canoe. The Cheepas and the trip were all just simply awesome.
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Bunk
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