Story:
A five day - four night canoe portage trip in Algonquin park.
The trip was mainly conceived as a fishing trip, but we also spent a lot more time paddling than we expected. Trout fishing in the park is the best in early spring when the water is still cold enough for the fish to be near the surface. In the summer, as the water heats up, the Trout move deeper and deeper into the water to escape, and as such are harder to catch.
We started by getting the water taxi from the Opeongo store up to the North Arm of Lake Opeongo, where we would be starting the trip. If you were to paddle up Opeongo without the water taxi it would take upwards of 5 hours; Longer if it gets windy. The extra dollars is well worth it.
Our first day started with a 1.2 km portage from Opeongo into Proulx lake, The rest of the way consisted of paddling across Proulx, up the start of the Crow River into Little Crow Lake, and then on to Big Crow Lake, where we camped for the night.
We arrived early enough to get a little fishing in before dinner, and a couple of brook trout were caught, which we fried up after dinner for a snack. In the evening, just before dusk, we spotted a moose and her calf crossing the lake. Amazing!
The second day consisted of a long river paddle down the continuation of the Crow River into the Crow Bay section of Lake Lavieille. The weather was great and paddling through the many twists and turns of the river was lots of fun. We stopped every now and again to cast out our lines, and a couple more brook trout were caught along the way. There were quite a few small portages to skirt rapids, but we also ended up running a small section of rapids since the water was high enough that it didn't cause any difficulties. We underestimated the time it would take us to navigate all the wiggles in the river (plus our frequent stops to cast our lines) and we ended up arriving in Crow Bay a lot later than we anticipated. Rather than continuing up into Lake Lavieille proper to setup camp, we just stayed on Crow Bay.
The third day almost entirely involved crossing Lake Laiveille. Lavieille is known as one of the best trout fishing lakes in the park, and for good reason. Within the first hour of casting our lines we had caught 6 trout, 3 of which were giant 4 or 5 pound Lake Trout that we kept for eating later. We spent so much time fishing that we again underestimated the time it would take us to arrive at camp. Lake Lavieille is a big lake, and by the afternoon it had started getting windy and raining fairly hard without much let up. By the time we had crossed the 60m portage into Dickson Lake we were all fairly tired. Unfortunately most of the nearby camp sites had already be taken, so we were forced to paddle all the way down the lake to an island campsite. That night our three lake trout were cooked up in three different ways (smoke house on cedar planks, stuffed and thrown on the grill, smoked in an alder smoke bag), and sufficed to say they all tasted pretty damn good.
Luckily, we were staying on the same campsite for the fourth day so we could fish at our leisure. The fishing in Dickson wasn't as good as Lavieille but we ended up catching 7 brook trout between us, and we were happy with that.
The last day we made our way to the 5.5 km portage that would take us back to the East Arm of Opeongo where the water taxi would be waiting for us at noon for the ride back. Surprisingly the portage didn't seem that bad, and we were all in pretty good spirits at the other side, after about an hour and a half of hiking. There was a short paddle across Bonfield and Wright's lake, and we arrived an hour and a half early for the water taxi. Not bad!
A five day - four night canoe portage trip in Algonquin park.
The trip was mainly conceived as a fishing trip, but we also spent a lot more time paddling than we expected. Trout fishing in the park is the best in early spring when the water is still cold enough for the fish to be near the surface. In the summer, as the water heats up, the Trout move deeper and deeper into the water to escape, and as such are harder to catch.
We started by getting the water taxi from the Opeongo store up to the North Arm of Lake Opeongo, where we would be starting the trip. If you were to paddle up Opeongo without the water taxi it would take upwards of 5 hours; Longer if it gets windy. The extra dollars is well worth it.
Our first day started with a 1.2 km portage from Opeongo into Proulx lake, The rest of the way consisted of paddling across Proulx, up the start of the Crow River into Little Crow Lake, and then on to Big Crow Lake, where we camped for the night.
We arrived early enough to get a little fishing in before dinner, and a couple of brook trout were caught, which we fried up after dinner for a snack. In the evening, just before dusk, we spotted a moose and her calf crossing the lake. Amazing!
The second day consisted of a long river paddle down the continuation of the Crow River into the Crow Bay section of Lake Lavieille. The weather was great and paddling through the many twists and turns of the river was lots of fun. We stopped every now and again to cast out our lines, and a couple more brook trout were caught along the way. There were quite a few small portages to skirt rapids, but we also ended up running a small section of rapids since the water was high enough that it didn't cause any difficulties. We underestimated the time it would take us to navigate all the wiggles in the river (plus our frequent stops to cast our lines) and we ended up arriving in Crow Bay a lot later than we anticipated. Rather than continuing up into Lake Lavieille proper to setup camp, we just stayed on Crow Bay.
The third day almost entirely involved crossing Lake Laiveille. Lavieille is known as one of the best trout fishing lakes in the park, and for good reason. Within the first hour of casting our lines we had caught 6 trout, 3 of which were giant 4 or 5 pound Lake Trout that we kept for eating later. We spent so much time fishing that we again underestimated the time it would take us to arrive at camp. Lake Lavieille is a big lake, and by the afternoon it had started getting windy and raining fairly hard without much let up. By the time we had crossed the 60m portage into Dickson Lake we were all fairly tired. Unfortunately most of the nearby camp sites had already be taken, so we were forced to paddle all the way down the lake to an island campsite. That night our three lake trout were cooked up in three different ways (smoke house on cedar planks, stuffed and thrown on the grill, smoked in an alder smoke bag), and sufficed to say they all tasted pretty damn good.
Luckily, we were staying on the same campsite for the fourth day so we could fish at our leisure. The fishing in Dickson wasn't as good as Lavieille but we ended up catching 7 brook trout between us, and we were happy with that.
The last day we made our way to the 5.5 km portage that would take us back to the East Arm of Opeongo where the water taxi would be waiting for us at noon for the ride back. Surprisingly the portage didn't seem that bad, and we were all in pretty good spirits at the other side, after about an hour and a half of hiking. There was a short paddle across Bonfield and Wright's lake, and we arrived an hour and a half early for the water taxi. Not bad!
Tags:
fishing, portage, canoe, Algonquin Park, Opeongo
fishing, portage, canoe, Algonquin Park, Opeongo
Comments (0)
Facebook
