McConnell Lake -July 2004
A little about the lake and area.
The lake it self was absolutly beautiful, there was much more too this lake that what we had anticipated.
It was a much deeper lake that what we are used too, with some very drastic drop offs. The weather all week was very
hot and humid, leading us too work for the fish. There was not one cloud in the sky for the whole week that we were
there. Figures, the only heat wave of that summer, and we are trying to catch fish!
There were a few lakes that we were able to hike too, one of them use to have its own cottage that was
used for other fishermen, which is currently closed, this one being Melrose Lake. It was not a bad looking one,
and if you had too you could have survived in it. This lake was a smaller one, extreamly rocky in areas, there
was this one bay that was full of rocks, they were just sticking out from every angle. I suppose that is the reason
we call it dead mans bay. Fishing on the lake I am sure would be amazing, we did not have such luck. It was just
so hot if I were a fish I would have been hiding too. There was a few fish caught there and a few lost in the action
of reeling them in. But the one we constantly talk about is the one that really did get away. The weight
on this baby was unreal, I cast out my line with my black and white daredevil spoon on, and let it sink right down.
Slowly I started to reel in and I felt several quick tugs on the line, I was not sure if it was weeds or a fish.
I pulled back on the rod and felt the line jerk around as if it was reeling me in. I looked at my boat mates and told
them that they better get a net ready. It was like this fish had heard me say it and as I was reeling in the line this
fish took a deep dive under the boat and just kept swimming. This is when sitting in the middle of a 14 foot boat,
can come at your disadvantage. None the less a few seconds after that, this monster swam away with half of my
line and my lure. I have vowed too go back and retreive this lure. Darn fish!
Our mini-blog.
Friday was strictly a travel day. We departed at 5:00am from Toronto, to our destination Folyette, Ontario.
We were surpised just how much we had packed in the car. It was going to make for a cramped drive. Our whole planning
of leaving so early was to beat the cities morning rush hour traffic. And that we did. We made great time
to our first rest stop, which was in Nobel. It was here that we grabed a quick stretch and a coffee,
piled back in the car and proceeded north to Sudbury. It is here that the travel now becomes intersting. We are
well beyond what we would normally travel to if we were going to someones cottage.
Again since traffic was just so good we hit Sudbury in less than 2 hours. We ended up staying a little longer
walking outside of the car knowing the next stretch of highway was going to be nothing but trees. We took full advantage
of the time we had outside of the car. As we were heading up the highway up to Gogama, we noticed a lot of logging trucks
at one point we were stuck behind 3 of them. And not driving the safest. One of the trucks swirved and nearly
took out a electricity post. But we give thanks to the small town that they turned off in. Getting them off the
road in front of us made driving much calmer for the 3 of us.
We stopped just outside of Gogama at the or what they call a gas bar, the Vagabond. I am not sure why they
call it that since they do not sell gas! But none the less it was a place to get out of the car and rid ourselfs
from car ass.
Our ride up north was really uneventful, besides the singing to our cds in the car. We fianlly hit the town of
Folyet. It was here that we had to stop for some supplies that we had not brought up with us. The town is
absolutely small, and the general store reflects that. I believe that the population was marked at 400 on the town sign.
But I don't quite remember. We then begain to make our way to the lodge which was a few minutes to the west. But
for some strange reason it seemed to be the longest part of the ride. As we pulled up to the lodge, we could see the
planes sitting in the water by the dock. That just made the excitement sink in that much more. And let me tell
you we could not wait to get too bed so tommorow would come faster! After checking in and putting our supplies in the
freezer we nestled on the deck looking over the Ivanhoe River. We talked about the week that was to come, and how much
we would love to open up a lodge of our own. The trip was looking like it was going to start off on the wrong
foot. We had pre ordered our beer for the week a few weeks back and had told them too call if there were any problems.
Well the order of Labatt Ice was never to be seen, as it was apparent that up there they had never even heard of the beer.
It has been around for years, I guess it just has not made its way to remote towns. Although the year before in Chapleau
we did manage to get some at the beer store. Since we were the first group in that day, it slotted us for the first
trip in the the morning. That was exactly what we had planned for. So grabed a bite to eat and set off to the
cabin to finish the last minute preparations that we had to do.
July 24, 2004
Finally after months of planning it was fly in day. With being the first to fly out that morning we were up bright and
early. We cleared out the cabin that we called home for the night and went down to the lake to weigh our gear and load
it on the dock. We had time for a quick bite to eat, we had not even finished our breakfast when we saw the plane come
in from the fly in lodge that they have. In a matter of minutes they had our belongings packed on the plane and ready
to go. They move fast there, the pilot quickly came and found us and ushered us to the plane. The weather was
perfect for flying, you could see so much from the air. Including the town of Folyet which is not much bigger from the
air! The plane ride was about 20 minutes north, you could see all the areas that were being logged. Then
from the distance you could see what we were too call home for the next week. The water was calm and there was a sence
of peace that surrounded the area. After the extreamly smooth landing we unloaded our gear and watched the plane take
off from the lake. I swear the pilot was no older than 22. But he got us there safely and that was all that
mattered. As the plane flew off in the distance we all stood there for a moment loosing ourselves in the sounds of nature.
The trees rustling and the birds singsing. And yes of course Ruben hollering of his quotes from Paint your Wagon.No
sooner than we had everything unpacked we all practically ran to the boat to go and catch Walter. We were going to waste
no time. So much lake to learn in a week, we had our work cut our for us. The weather was really warm and it was
going to be tough for fishing. We all met up at the cabin about lunch time to talk about what we were going to do.
It was decided that we were going to hike over to one of the other lakes to attempt fishing there. We were told that
the lakes there were considerably shallower. We went and found one of the paths, which was clearly marked for us.
The hike was not that bad, and as long as we kept moving the bugs were not that bad. Of course everyonce in a while
Ruben would stop and pretent to read off a tree quotes from The Wizard of Oz now. Everyone was just so happy to finally
be there. And then there it was Melrose Lake. It was such a different looking lake. There were no big rocks
sticking out no islands but there was another cabin on this lake that was ours. And that was the first thing that we
wanted to see.
The cabin was cute in a weird sorta way. It almost looked haunted, you know the kind of cabin that Norman Bates
would own. But we were brave and ventured up too the cabin. You have to walk over jagged rocks to get too
the door. But when we went in it was not all that bad inside it was much smaller than the one we were in. But
still cozy. Now that adventure was over it was time too fish once again. We started working every structure of the lake
and in the begining the lake looked to be promising. In the first few casts Ruben had caught a bass, and the first fish
of the trip. We were all excited, but the next few hours proved to be challenging. We had light hits or what we
thought were hits. We spend the good part of the day there and decided to head back about 7pm. We wanted to make it
back before it got too dark to get through the bush. We got back to our cabin and Jay was nicely preparing a fire for us.
And we were graced with the traditional fire dance he does every year. But it was not much of a dance since the fire
got really big very quickly. We sat by the fire deciding if we were going to eat dinner or not. We pondered over
this for hours and at about 11pm we decided that we were hungry and took out some chicken to BBQ. The night sky was extreamly
clear you sould see stars for miles. While looking up at the sky we noticed that it had taken on a strange effect.
There were streaks of white light flashing all over the sky that we could see. It looked like a bunch of gases zipping
all across the sky in many different directions. It was somthing that I had never seen before. We figured that
it must be the northern lights. It just would not stop, and we would not stop watching it. Finally we had to call
it a night. Light show or not, we were tired!
