We are all familiar with the saying, “So close and yet so far.” That sums up what our guests often tell us once they are here -often a very long way from home- and yet surprisingly close to special “additional” adventures within their basic fly-in fishing adventure. For example, guests to our Strikers Point Lodge, have for years scheduled fly out trips – about a 20 minute flight – to Lake XP, and caught dozens of Northern Pike with action so fast they often do NOT believe us when we tell them about the lake.
So this summer we set up some adventures from our Miminiska Lodge, Ontario’s only Orvis Endorsed destination, and offered up these “additional adventure trips” to our guests. Adventures that were not available on Miminiska Lake itself. You have no doubt heard of our day long Brook Trout Fly Out down the Keezhik River. Or heard about the surprise successes of Lake Trout anglers who fly out to Emerald Lake and return the same day.
Well in late August we went one step further up at Miminiska Lodge – 51 degress north on the Albany River. Markham , his sister, Mattie, and his father, Mark Sr. along with two First Nation guides took a two-day trip down the – let’s just call it River XP – for Brook Trout. And boy did they catch ’em! Mark tells us more in the podcast where he describes drinking from pure bubbling springs, catching very big Brookies, and staying one night in a tent with a great Canadian sunset . He remarked how valuable and caring the guides were, and how he was fascinated by the “holding poles” the guides use to stop the canoes in shallow rapids to allow for casting. He also took the one-day “drop off” trip to Emerald Lake, where guides were not necessary and the threesome caught and released over 50 Lakers. As you plan your 2009 trip, ask about our “Trips within Trips” so that you too may enjoy more of what a fly-in fishing adventure has to offer.
BTW: thanks to Rick S of Michigan, who, last week, read our story and listened to Jenni McDermid’s report on her research on Lake Trout in Ontario. Rick writes to ask if we know about “Splakes” a hybrid of Speckled Trout and Lake Trout. Good question. See that note, OR read Gord Ellis’s report on an early spring trip he took with his father – just for Splakes.
Keep in touch. I welcome your phone calls and e-mails. You can send me one now.
Alan
