Coppersmith Studios Presents

10 Weeks in the Ontario Wilderness

Part 2: FIRE and MISSINAIBI RIVERS 2 weeks float fishing the Fire and Missinaibi Rivers in northern Ontario.

Part 3: OGOKI RIVER, Ontario 5 week solo fishing float trip down the remote Ogoki River system in northern Ontario.

ALBERTA Fishing videos of Alberta

WATCH FIRE, MISSINAIBI & OGOKI RIVERS Slide show of my 7 week solo float fishing trip down the Fire, Missinaibi and Ogoki Rivers.

3 Weeks in Quetico Park

In 1994 I spent 10 weeks fishing the remote wilderness of northern Ontario. I went by myself - just my canoe, fishing gear, camping gear and a big bag of food. With one year left of college it would be my last summer vacation and probably my last opportunity to go on such an adventure before I would get a steady full time job. My plan was to spend 3 weeks in Quetico Park followed by 2 weeks canoeing down the Fire and Missinaibi Rivers and then 5 weeks canoeing the Ogoki River. While my story goes back a few years the information on fishing opportunities should still be relevant. If anyone finds this information useful perhaps they might buy some of my wonderful instrumental fishing music offered on this website or, better yet, my fantastic DVD Trout Streams of Southwest Wisconsin.


Basswood Falls	Burke Lake	Meadow Lake	Agnes Lake

I started my trip on May 23 by launching my canoe out of Moose Lake in Minnesota. This is a popular starting point with many outfitters available. From here it takes about 4 hours to paddle to the Prairie Portage customs passing into Ontario. I spent the next two days fishing Basswood Lake in the Bayley's Bay area. I could see lots of bass in the clear water, many of which were between 3 and 4 pounds, but they would not hit my lures (mostly twister tail jigs). I met a couple fishermen on the portage trail to Burke Lake who had been using leeches and were catching bass up to 5 pounds, northerns up to 32" and walleye in the 19"-26" range. Apparently the water was still a little cold and live bait then was a better option. My plan was to eat fish and I had brought just enough rations for the 23 day trip under that assumption so after 4 days without a fish I started getting hungry.

On my 5th day in Burke Lake I finally caught and quickly ate a 12" smallmouth bass. The water in this lake is very dark and all of the campsites had been taken, forcing me to spend the night along an inconvenient patch of shoreline. The next day I headed out to Sunday Lake. While paddling thru this lake I was trolling a ½ oz gold Rapala Minnow spoon and hooked into something solid. It felt and looked like a long brown weed so I stopped looking at it and just focused on pulling it in until I got it to the canoe. Then I took a close look at it and to my surprised saw it was a northern pike of about 15 pounds. Surprisingly the fish had made no attempt to struggle until it saw me, and then all pandemonium broke out. I was using a bait casting real for the first time in my life and was trying to remember how to work it. This caused me to let the line get loose and - as you can guess - so did the fish. It was a painful loss but I consoled myself by pointing out the fish was much too big to eat. Once again I caught no fish this day and went to sleep hungry.

On the 7th day I arrived at Meadow Lake. This lake is unlike most others in this region in that it supports largemouth bass and sunfish. The bass are plentiful but small, topping out around 12". I caught 3 of them and for just the 2nd time in a week had a reasonably good dinner. The water in Meadow Lake is clear and there is a good weed growth along the sharp drop offs around the entire perimeter of the lake. Most people reach this lake after a grueling 2.5 hour portage and immediately head straight for the longer portage to Agnes Lake. I can understand if you are after trophy fish then Meadow is not going to be on the agenda but it seemed like a scenic, fun lake with good action for smallish bass and bream.


Louisa Falls - Agnes Lake	Agnes River	Portage trail	19" Bird Lake smbass

The next day I did the Agnes Lake portage and paddled 10 miles to about the middle of this long lake, settling for a nice island campsite. The whole time I trolled spoons and plugs deep for lake trout but had no action. I met one other fisherman who had been trolling in the southern part of the lake and said he had been doing well with 7" Rapalas. At this time (May 29) the mosquitos and gnats started coming out, looking for a meal. I was looking for a meal too, having caught just a few small fish in 2 out of my first 8 days. Having exerted myself paddling and portaging while skipping meals for so long was starting to have an impact on my weight.

On the 9th day I trolled 6 more miles up Agnes Lake but still caught no lake trout. Finally, near the Dack Lake inlet I caught a good 3 pound northern pike. And yes I ate the whole thing! After that I started catching smallmouth bass, nice ones in the 14"-16" range that this area is renowned for. I got a half dozen before a thunder storm forced me to my campsite early. This marked a turning point in my trip when the smallmouth bass activity increased to the point of being easily caught with artificial lures. The next day I kept my campsite where it was and spent the day fishing the several inlets and bays along northern Agnes Lake. It was a partly cloudy day, and when the sun would shine the bass would bite.

By the 11th day I portaged my way into Bird Lake. It was June 1st, the bass were well into their spawning period, often seen guarding their nests, and the fishing was getting great. I was catching numerous smallmouths in the 14" to 18" range with the largest being 19" (and by the way, when I give these measurements they come from a tape ruler, not my imagination). The northern pike action started picking up too. There was one 25" pike that bit off my orange floating Rapala and then spit it out. I quickly tied on a gold Rapala and cast to that same spot and hooked him again. This time it didn't get away. This occurred in a shallow bay area and I don't think there would be two pike of that size in that area. One thing about Bird Lake is you can fish one portion of the lake and expect to have good bass fishing and then go find a section that has a marshy shoreline and catch northerns. I had so much fun on this lake I decided to spend a 2nd day here. The fishing continued to be outstanding.


Anubis Lake campsite	Murdock Lake	18" Murdock smbass	Murdock Lake

On the 13th day I moved on to Anubis Lake. This was a delightful little lake which I enjoyed for 2 whole days. There is a small island right in the center of this small lake and it makes for a perfect camp site. I would canoe along the shoreline casting out 2.5" orange Rapalas and reeling in 14"-16" bass. In the northern portion of Anubis is a large concentration of boulders and here some good pike can be taken. I got four fish in the 5 to 7 pound range plus numerous smaller ones. These fish were aggressive. Twice I hooked and lost a nice pike on my ½ oz Syclops spoon, cast right back into the same spot and caught what seemed like the same fish. And besides bass and pike I was also able to catch some walleye up to 20". They succumbed to a 3" fire tiger Rapala. I put one walleye on a stringer and soon after saw two other walleye swimming near it. Apparently walleyes like company.

On the 15th day I continued my travels northward and reached Kawnipi Lake. While encompassing a very large area with many acres of water Kawnipi Lake does not seem giant because from a canoe you can only see a small portion at a time. It is divided up into numerous bays, arms, branches and islands. The water here is clean but very dark due to adjacent marshes. If ever I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere this was the place. Near the portage trail from Anubis there is a branch of the Agnes River that enters and here I had fast action on some smallmouth bass averaging 15" and pike around 2 pounds. Aside from the inlet the lake is difficult to fish due to the dark water. You cannot easily determine the depth or bottom content. Because of this I decided to just troll with crank baits along the very jagged shoreline for 2 days while I paddled west towards my next destination, Murdoch Lake. Along the way I picked up several walleye averaging 18", some bass and a few northerns. These usually hit along the tips of the points. Lake trout are said to reside here but I assume you need to fish deeper for them. A traveler to this region will find no problem getting a secure island campsite.


20" Murdock bass	Murdock Lake island	Inlet to Murdock Lake	West Channel Agnes Lake

At the end of the 16th day I turned south from Kawnipi and arrived in Murdoch Lake. I was a little disappointed to have traveled so far and find 4 other canoes fishing here. There was a strong north wind so everyone was crammed into the north end of the lake. There were two islands in the lake, a medium sized one which looked perfect for a campsite and a small dome shaped island. The nice island was already taken so I decided to pitch my tent on the less desirable one. There was really no good place to setup a campsite here and I had a very unpleasant and slanted sleep there. Despite hearing about the good fishing here I resolved to leave this lake early in the morning and find a better place to stay for the next several nights.

The next day I proceeded to do just that. As I paddled towards the portage trail near the southern end of the lake I took out my rod and made a few casts. Within an hour I had caught a half dozen bass from 17" to 20". I could see everyone else on the lake left and the good island was now vacant. With the fishing so good and having the whole lake to myself I headed for the medium sized island, setup my campsite and decided to stay a few days. I did not regret it. The smallmouth bass fishing was fantastic. Most fish were caught on a 3.5" orange floating Rapala. I was catching a couple dozen bass a day and most were in the 14"-20" range. There were several points that also yielded good walleye action on twister tail jigs, particularly the one on the eastern side of the lake. The walleyes averaged around 16". And if I wanted big pike I could seek out areas with large boulders, throw some of my heavy spoons and I would get fish. Most of the pike were between 2 and 4 pounds but I did lose one that would have easily gone 10 pounds. The water here has a greenish tint with visibility down to about 8'-10'. There is a lot of gravel and small rock throughout the lake. Supposedly there are lake trout in Murdoch. I tried drifting over the deep part of the lake while vertically jigging but didn't catch anything. During the three days I was on it only a few other canoes passed by, and only 1 or 2 stopped to do any serious fishing. It takes so long to paddle here that most people don't have enough time to fish here much.

On my 20th day I departed Murdoch Lake and headed south thru the west channel of the Agnes River. There are 5 portages to negotiate on the way to Agnes Lake. Along the way I picked up a few more smallmouth bass although most of the west channel is not good bass habitat. Also the bass at this time seemed to be done spawning. You could see the bass beds but not the bass. And upon hooking one of them they would fight a lot harder, often leaping out of the water and shaking out the lure. When I arrived at Agnes Lake a strong wind made me setup camp early. The waves can get really big on 20 mile long Agnes Lake when the wind is coming from the south. The next day I canoed 7 miles south thru Agnes and then headed south west into Silence Lake and then Sultry Lake. Wind and rain kept me from fishing these lakes thoroughly. I noticed the number of other people began to increase significantly in this area and I wonder if the fishing would have been as good. It was June 11, and while the gnats and black flies where diminishing in numbers the mighty mosquito was more than compensating for them.


Silence Lake	North Bay Basswood Lake	Bird Lake outlet	17" Bird Lake bass

On my 22nd day I trolled spoons while paddling thru Summer and Noon Lakes. I caught nothing and the lakes themselves did not look as fishy as the other lakes I had seen. I eventually arrived at expansive Basswood Lake. While I was paddling, cutting thru the middle of this large lake, I came across an island and questioned if I should setup my campsite for the night or continue on to the next island a mile further south. Clouds were overhead and the wind was light but off in the distance I could see a band of clear blue sky approaching. I began wondering if a cold front might be approaching and with it some strong winds. After a couple minutes of debating the issue I finally decided to head for the nearby island. It was the smartest decision of the trip. Within a minute the wind had begun gusting to 30 mph. I was barely able to get ashore and secure my canoe. Had I decided to head to the next island I would have been trapped in the open water, not being able to paddle against such a wind and would have been subjected to 3 foot waves. That was the only really dangerously close event that happened to me while in Quetico.

On the 23rd day I went thru Prairie Portage, paddled 15 miles, portaged 150 rods, got back to my car, packed up my stuff and drove 10 hours to my home in Wisconsin. It had been a great trip, exhausting but exhilarating. And once I got home I had just a week to prepare for my next trip that would take me even deeper into the Canadian wilderness - to the Fire, Missinaibi and Ogoki Rivers!

NEXT: Fire and Missinaibi Rivers

Created by: Dan Coppersmith 2023| www.CoppersmithStudios.com

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Coppersmith Studios Presents

10 Weeks in the Ontario Wilderness

3 Weeks in Quetico Park