Knight Lake via Air Cochrane

Knight Lake Ontario

Old Man and the Sea

Charlie and Jim

Jessica catches the most fish

Jessica Apthorpe 19

Another fun fishing trip in northern Canada.  This year we flew via Air Cochrane to Knight Lake.  This was a very last minute trip due to everyone's college and work schedules.  It was great that we were able to pull off quality family and friend time, especially in the James Bay Region where we could be "off the grid".  This year my daughter Jessica and great friends Shu, Charlie, Jim and Johnny-Boy made up our expedition.  It was especially nice having the Jessica and Charlie help with the 10 hour drive north.  We stayed at our regular hotel, Thriftlodge in Cochrane, which has undergone a pretty impressive makeover since the last time I was there.  We enjoyed steaks at the restaurant immediately adjacent to the hotel.

In the morning we were at the air base by 9:00 am.  Things have changed a lot in terms of process at the air base.  I do not know if it is due to the sad plane crash a couple years ago or change in management.  Everything is very formal now and lots of paperwork to sign.  Our longtime Air Cochrane friend Andre is no longer there.  He is reportedly working at the Detour Lake Mine.  As a side note we drove by the Detour Lake Mine parking lot which was huge and filled with trucks.  They apparently use helicopters to fly the works from this lot to the mine.  There was a large helicopter flying over head pulling this huge circular antenna that was bouncing radio waves off the ground looking for minerals.

Lou was our pilot and he was a cheery soul.  We no problems in our one hour flight.  Jessica was able to fly a little bit on her own in the plane she flew in on.  I compensated her pilot by giving him a large handful of venison jerky which he thought was the greatest thing ever.

We were on the water by noon.  The outfitters told us there were 40" pike in this lake.  Well not so.  I had acquired a sonar/down imaging unit and rigged it up to be mobile.  It worked great, but what it told us was the entire lake was 4 feet deep. Well big fish need cooler water in the summer and 4 feet is not going to do it.  The lake has absolutely no structure, holes, drop offs, boulders, etc…just flat. No depth changes, no drop offs, no boulders ....simply an unremarkable bottom.  The lake is almost 3 miles long, but approximately only two miles of it are fish able.  The northern third of the lake is completely overgrown with reeds as it is very shallow…like two feet deep.    The entire shoreline, of the two miles which is fish-able, has reeds growing an easy 50 to 100 yards from shore.  Pockets of grass weeds and cabbage grow throughout the lake.  The fish-able part of the lake was so small a slow troll would only take about an hour to do one lap.
  
 In terms of the cabin, it was fine and very typical of the other Air Cochrane cabins.  I thought it was perfect for a fishing trip.  We rented a satellite phone which proved critical as a gas hose broke on the first day and there were no spares.  They flew one in for us.  2 of the 3 boats leaked.  One boat literally leaked a gallon an hour which proved to be a royal pain.  Fortunately it was warm so wet feet could be more easily tolerated.

 

In terms of the fishing, it would have helped a great deal had we had better information on the lake.  I have fished with Air Cochrane on Nettogami, Edgar, Haultain and Mikwam.  This lake cannot be compared to these body of waters.  Knight Lake holds yellow walleye that average about 14” and can get as big as 18”. Walleye is what this lake is all about.  We initially set the bar for 24” as a BIG walleye, but by the end we lowered this to 20” and caught only a couple that big.

We did catch a handful of 8-10” perch which are always a nice surprise.  The northern pike were the smallest pike I have ever seen in such abundance.  20” was the biggest pike caught, most were 12-14”  Information from the outfitter suggested a couple 40+” pike had previously been caught on this lake.  I am not buying that after this trip.  Our group has enjoyed a lot of success over our 15 trips via Air Cochrane, this lake is too shallow to hold big pike.  The best bait proved to be once again the white 3” Mister Twister and small single hook spinner baits.

Funny events included Charlie's unintended backward flop out of the boat: Jim helping Bret on the dock attempt that got them both wet; and Charlie getting up off the picnic table allowing it to flip on Bret, Johnny-Boy and Shu.