Wilderness experience makes Ontario desirable.
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO - The bow of our 16-foot aluminum boat cleaved a bed of pencil reeds and nosed into a spruce-lined tributary to Whitewater Lake.
The unnamed creek lay ahead, a dark, meandering path bright with possibilities.
Fishing guide Keith Missewace raised the outboard motor and used an oar to encourage the craft through a shallow, sandy turn and over a fallen spruce tree.
My fishing partner Matt Reilly and I now had hundreds of yards of slow-moving, serpentine water to target.
The farther upstream we pushed, the more frequent the strikes came. Northern pike hit a big streamer thrown by Reilly, and walleye engulfed a jig and soft plastic tail on my line.
“I’ve never come this far up this creek,” said Missewace, 21, a member of the Fort Hope Band of Ojibway who grew up on the nearby Albany River system and now works for Wilderness North, a company that operates fly-in fishing lodges in northwestern Ontario. “Maybe nobody ever has.”
The chance to cast into seldom-fished waters with abundant populations of fish in a remote setting is enough to lure droves of U.S. anglers to Canada each year.
That was certainly true for our group, which included: Chris Hunt, 48, of Idaho Falls, Idaho; Reilly, 21, of Charlottesville, Va.,; Mark Taylor, 51, of Roanoke, Va.; and me.
If it presented an opportunity to wet a line in waters not yet fished this year, this decade - or perhaps ever - well, we’d take it.
Hunt, Reilly, Taylor and I are members of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Following the 2017 OWAA conference in Duluth, Minn., we packed our passports (or in my case, my driver’s license) and headed farther north for an angling adventure.
Over the last three decades, I’ve been fortunate to fish at far-flung destinations such as Alaska and New Zealand. But this trip was my first ever fly-in experience in Ontario, a much more accessible location for residents of the upper Midwest that also offers world-class fishing.
Over the course of four days, we fished out of two lodges operated by Wilderness North. The first portion of the trip was focused on northern pike and walleye fishing out of Striker’s Bay Lodge on Whitewater Lake, a 26,000-acre natural enlargement of the Ogoki River.
The second was highlighted by brook trout fishing near Miminiska Lodge on the Albany River system.
Wilderness North was founded in part due to its proximity to Wisconsin.
John “Jack” Mark, an aviation enthusiast and decorated U.S. military pilot who lived in Oshkosh, began flying float planes into the remote reaches of Ontario in 1960.
Mark’s fascination with the region crystalized in a resolve to share this wild part of the world; in 1990 he purchased his first outpost cabin and formed Wilderness North.
In 2000, husband-and-wife Alan and Krista Cheeseman of Thunder Bay became partners with Mark. And in 2007, after Mark’s death, the Cheeseman’s bought the remaining portion of the company from his children.
The Cheeseman’s are now sole owners of the company, which has grown to include three full service lodges, two housekeeping lodges and seven outpost cabins.
All are accessible only by float plane. To service the remote sites, the company has a fleet of three float planes, including a DeHavilland Turbo Otter, DeHavilland Beaver and a Cessna 185.
We started our trip in Thunder Bay, Ontario, site of a float plane base and headquarters for Wilderness North.
It’s about a nine hour (585 miles) drive from Milwaukee to Thunder Bay. It includes a crossing of the U.S./Canada border near Grand Portage, Minn.
We arrived in Thunder Bay in early afternoon, got loaded into the Otter and flew about 90 minutes north to Striker’s Point Lodge on Whitewater Lake.
The flight, at about 5,000 feet, allowed great views of the woods and waters and even some of its fauna.
“Did you see those moose?” Taylor said of multiple big mammal sightings on the flight.
We stepped out of the plane and into a full-service lodge tucked into the boreal forest.
We were met by Mark Melnyk, 42, who serves as Wilderness North’s CFO (Chief Flyfishing Officer).
Melnyk went to college in Thunder Bay and fell in love with the region. He now spends about two months each year on fishing projects in northwestern Ontario.
Melnyk said one of the advantages of northwestern Ontario is its accessibility.
“You can get here and fish the same day,” Melnyk said. “That adds significantly to the value and to the overall experience.”
After a four-course dinner at 7 p.m., we grabbed our fishing gear and motored to the outlet of the Okogi River in Whitewater Lake’s northeastern arm.
The wind had dropped, white clouds drifted through the blue sky and the lake had a light “walleye chop.”
“Not so much white in the whitecaps anymore,” Melnyk said.
The lake is noted for “prolific walleye fishing and trophy pike angling,” according to Wilderness North literature. Walleyes to 33 inches and northerns to 53 inches have been landed on Whitewater.
At 26,000 acres, or nearly twice the size of Wisconsin’s famed Chippewa Flowage, it has a lot of water. And very few anglers.
During our stay at Striker’s Point Lodge, by my calculation there were about 3,000 acres available per guest.
Walleyes were cooperative our first evening, readily striking jigs tipped with soft plastics and streamer flies crawled along the bottom.
The walleyes were up to 21 inches in length; all were thick across the back.
We fished until about 10:30 p.m. when the sun just touched the trees. There is no need to stay out after dark in these waters to catch walleyes.
Wilderness North started using “conservation fishing policies” before they were widely accepted in the industry.
If they wish to take fish home, guests at Wilderness North lodges are limited to two walleyes and two northerns.
They can keep a couple walleyes or northerns each day to eat for shore lunches while staying at the lodges, too.
All brook trout must be returned to the water.
As a result, the vast majority of fishing at Wilderness North lodges is catch-and-release.
With its own aircraft and a high level of flexibility, guests can literally point to a lake on the map and ask if they can fish it.
The Wilderness North pilot and staff will decide if the lake is big enough to land and take off safely.
If it is and the weather cooperates, you’ll go.
We stuck to Whitewater Lake for our two days. On the second day, we ate breakfast at 7 a.m. and hit the water about 7:30.
It was another warm day with moderate winds. We explored reefs in the main lake, back bays and several creeks. In one marshy stretch, we encountered a cow moose dining on vegetation.
I mentioned how the sunny conditions “feel nice.”
“That’s probably what the moose is feeling,” Missewace said.
For the next five minutes I dragged my jig over the side of the boat as I took notes and photographs. I caught two walleyes in that time without even trying. The 18-inchers were a magnificent golden brown in color.
We kept a half dozen that day for shore lunch, which Missewace and Melnyk prepared on a rocky point. The walleye fillets were laid on a bed of spruce boughs and served along with fried potatoes, baked beans and salad.
As we ate, a bald eagle soared overhead and common loons fished in an adjacent bay.
After lunch, Missewace squeezed his boat into the no-name creek where Reilly and I were likely the first to fish this year, and perhaps for much longer.
Northern pike in the stretch were unable to resist a long, feathery streamer. As he released yet another pike into the clear, tea-colored water, Reilly said “It’s hard to think it used to be this way everywhere.” Yes it is. As Jack Mark likely intended, the trip to Striker’s Point Lodge in northwestern Ontario reminded us of the value of wild, pristine woods and waters.
Here’s hoping the same lessons of environmental protection and sustainable use of resources will be shared with many generations to come.
Next week: Brook trout fishing on a wilderness river.