LAKE X JUNE 13th, 2005

Lake X is a small inland lake north of Thunder Bay. I'm calling this Lake X because there are some people that would be upset with me if I start giving out the names and locations of these small lakes that are fun to fish and totally unpopulated. A few years back we started fishing Lake X and we were pretty successful, we would frequent this lake about 2 times a week, we rarley ever caught anything over 18" but we had alot of fun catching and releasing the smaller guys. As you can probably tell by most of my posts, I'm not a trophy hunter, I fish in lakes where I know I will catch fish because I enjoy catching fish. I also like catching good eaters to bring home for dinner, and I also like to provide my Grandparents with some fish from time to time.

This day out at Lake X was a warm day, the temperature was about 28 degrees celcius with very little wind and no clouds in the sky. There were six of us in 2 boats and we started off at an old hot spot around 8:00am. After some time and very little fish we decided to head up the lake to fish some structure. We found a couple of humps on the bottom with the fish finder and dropped anchor, we started to catch a few right off the start. Funny thing though, it was mid morning, clear and sunny, very hot, and yet we were catching fish in 8 - 10 feet of water and couldn't find one fish in 20 feet of water. But, who's complaining, we were catching. We spent most of the day anchored in this spot and with three of us in the boat we were able to catch 9 fish big enough for keeping. After the fishing slowed down we decided to cruise a few small bays and try some surface lures for pike, we had one guy in our boat that didn't think we would catch anything in such shallow water, but he quickly changed his mind once the pike started flying out of the water after his lure. We had to be back at the launch and ready to leave by 1:00pm so we had very little time for pike fishing, but the few that we did catch and the few that we missed were definately an exciting end to our fishing day. We made it back to the launch in time to load up and leave, and also to find out that we outfished the 3 in the other boat, maybe next time...

BRIGHTSANDS JUNE 4th - 5th 2005

As I mentioned in my previous post our hardcorefishn adventure was short listed to two people this year, not only that but we also shortened the trip to 2 days. Myself along with my fishing partner for this trip Steve left rather late on the Friday night, there were a few sceptics about wether or not we would make it out there (it was dark, I had only been there once, and we had no spare tire for the 92kms of dirt logging road). We proved everyone wrong as we pulled into the campsite around 12:30am. We had plans of setting up our tent and spending the first night on the main land, but just as we were pulling in there was a group of Americans in the process of scaring off a bear from the camp site, they informed us that he had been hanging around and had done some damage to some of their camping gear. So, after sitting around the fire shooting the s_it with the Americans we decide to sleep in the cab of the truck and look for an Island to camp on in the morning. Well, that was an uncomfortable sleep, between the people yelling at the bear all night to Steve hitting the headlights with his knee setting off the audio alarm, I think we may have slept for maybe 1 hour. The only good thing about the bad sleep was the fact that we were able to get an early start on the day, we were packed up and on the lake by 6 bells. We crused across the lake to check out a few Islands and we found a nice little Island just big enough for the two tents and a fire pit. It was nice on the Island, no bears and the breeze from the lake kept the misquitos away. We got out on the lake fishing by about 7:30 - 8:00am, and within the first half hour Steve was happier than a pig in s_it, he had already caught more fish than he had caught all year last year. We were catching a few fish, nothing big, but lots in the 17 inch range, we even hooked into a few larger Pike. We kept some fish for a fish fry, so for lunch we had our secret "Fishheitas" and boy were they tasty. After lunch we decided go out for some catch and release fishing as we already had enough fish for dinner. We again got into the Wallys pretty good, but again nothing big. We decided to head back to the Island for some fish and beans dinner and a little relaxation around the fire, unfortunately with the early morning comes an early night. The next morning we decided to head down the lake to the portage past the falls to another lake, this is where the Americans were fishing and they were catching Walleye in the 3 - 4 pound range. Once we got to the portage and were introduced to the millions of misquitos that were there we decided that it wouldn't be worth it to spend our last day portaging through the bush. So we headed back up the lake and fished our usual hole, boy were we glad we didn't portage to the other lake, the fishing was excellent, lots of Walleys and a few close to the 18 inch marker and 1 that was over. We even caught some very aggressive 30+ inch Pike, one even had a Walleye that was on my line swallowed all the way back to his dorsal fin. With the fishing this good we had no trouble catching our 8 fish to take home, so we finally decided that we should go and pack up so that we could get home in daylight. And believe it or not, we made it home without any problems:)

HARDCOREFISHN ADVENTURES

In the past few years I have been going on a 4 day hardcorefishn trip with the boys from work. We normally try to find a lake that is good for fishing and fairly safe to camp, the past couple years have been a little interesting with the increase in the bear population.

Four years ago we started the annual trips with a fishing adventure out at Cheeseman Lake, we had a couple of Southerners join us for the trip and the fishing was pretty decent. The largest fish that weekend was about 2.5 - 3 pounds and the rest were all good eaters. We got an extra treat that weekend as there was a large forest fire in the area and we got to watch 5 waterbombers fill up numerous times, they were flying so close to us that we could see the pilots and their engines would rattle our oars in the boat.

Our second hardcorefishn trip was spent out at Brightsands, we were a little concerned about the 92 km treak up a logging road, but it really wasn't that bad. We camped on a point right beside the in flowing rapids (some call it a waterfall), this was one of the nicest camping spots that I had ever been to. The fishing was again very good, nothing huge, biggest again about 2.5 - 3 pounds and a lot of good eaters. There's nothing like a can of Bush Beans and some fresh fried Walleye. This trip was a little rough on me though, I lost my voice for the first 2 days (no one else seemed to complain) and then after a few beer and going for a swim, I may have drank a little bit of water which resulted in some possible Beaver Fever, I was very ill that night (I even stopped fishing). But all in all this was probably one of our most enjoyable and memorable hardcorefishn adventures.

Our third hardcorefishn trip was held at Majata, we had the usual 5 guys and we recruted one more. This trip was full of mishaps and misfortune, we had a bear that got into our cooler on the first night eating our cream and salads and a pound of bacon, while repositioning the vehicle that night to scare the bear away we accidentally ran over the chain saw. The next day we woke up to the bear again outside our tent trailer looking for food, he wasn't very aggressive but he definately was persistant. The two individuals from Southern Ontario didn't arrive until our second day out, so someone had to go pick them up at the airport, that took half a day. Oh, and we forgot to pick up gas while in town picking up the two from the airport so we had to run to the Kab Lake Store to get gas. More misfortune, while travelling to the store we got a flat tire, and to top that off, the store was closed so we had to go to Gull Bay. Besides all the bad luck, the fishing was good, nothing big just a bunch of good eaters. Did I mention the weekend was full of misfortune, the weather was also terrible, it rained, it hailed, it sucked!

Our fourth hardcorefish trip was held this year, unfortunately due to health reasons our group was short listed to myself and a new recrute. We decided to go back to Brightsands where we had to camp on an Island to stay away from the bears. The trip this year was good, no problems getting there, no problems while there, and no problems getting home. Again, the fishing was good, nothing huge just some good eaters and a few 30 inch Pike. I even had a large Whitefish on but I had no chance of bringing him in with the current we were in. The weather was nice, and good thing we were on an Island because the flies on the main land were brutal. Hopefully 2006 will be yet another successful hardcorefishn trip, and hopefully we can get the original crew back together.

Welcome to hardcorefishn, the name hardcorefishn was given to me and a fellow angler a few years back due to the amount of fishing we were doing that year. We fished in the rain, we fished in the snow, we even had a canoe out on the lake in mid March during a snow storm! I'm an avid angler from Thunder Bay and I mostly fish small inland lakes for Walleye, I don't consider myself an expert in the field of fishing but I do hold my own when out on the lake. I've recently purchased a digital camera and I bring it with me on all my fishing adventures, this page will be my fishing trip diary where everyone can see where I've been, what I caught, and even the wildlife that I've seen. My first image that I will post will be my hardcorefishn logo, the logo was made up a couple years ago by myself, half of the logo was borrowed from a graphic that I found on the Internet, and the other half was hand drawn by me. Hope you enjoy my Blog.