Wollaston Lake Fishing Adventure

 June 13 our Canadian fishing crew (Shu, Dwayne and Jim) set out on a 16 day fishing trip adventure to Lake Wollaston SK, Canada in Shu's Class A 38' RV.  The trip did not disappoint.  5 days driving each way and 6 days of fishing.

Shore of Lake Huron

Onroad * Scrabble games 

We started off through Canada and went west to Michigan.  First night was spent at Alpena County Long Lake Park

A whitefish 

 which was great.  33$ a night, was right on a lake and very clean.  The next day we finished our drive along Lake Huron.  Lake Huron was interesting as it was not as scenic as I thought.  The shore is shoulder to should with mostly unassuming houses,  There are no docks as the entire beach is public.  Looked very similar to lakes Erie and Ontario.  The crossing of the Mackinac Bridge was definitely breath taking and super cool. The rest of the drive through.  The rest of the day drive to Duluth MN via upper Michigan and Wisconsin was very modest in terms of scenery.

Duluth MN was a big surprise for us.  We had no idea how big the city is and the magnitude of its shipping progress.  Thousands of trains, huge ocean cargo ships, giant grain and coal elevators.  It was also a clean and well kept city.  Lots of stores and breweries. The Duluth Trading Post store was "ok" and definitely should not be the main reason to visit Duluth as there is a lot of other things going on.  We parked the RV in Duluth Conference Center parking lot and used Lift to get around.  We stayed at Indian Point Campground, just outside of Duluth.  Another very clean and affordable RV campsite on a peninsula close to the shore.

Mechanics fixing RV

The next morning we experienced a malfunction with the rear RV slider where it came off the track while it was being pulled in.  We were stressed about this ruining our trip as we all knew service stations are really backed up.  We went to a Camping World outside of Duluth in the AM at their opening.  Unbelievably they were terrific and within the hour they had the problem fixed and we were back on the road.  Just a great, rare, auto repair experience!

We drove from there to Winnipeg South KOA campground just west of Winnipeg, MB.  Typical KOA clean, gravel, and next to a highway and railway.  Next was to Prince Albert where we stayed in a very sketchy fairground in the city.  It had electric and water but there is an obviously serious drug problem in this city.  We saw young people shooting up and lots of drug paraphernalia.  The camping area was littered and definitely felt unsafe.  Needless to say we skipped staying here on the way back.

To this point in our travels I am reflecting that the Mackinac Bridge was really the only sight that was impressive.  Not that the shores of Huron and south of Superior weren't pleasant to the eye, but I would not go back again.  Happy to have seen it for sure.  From Duluth MN to La Ronge SK it is all flat farm land...I mean FLAT...just like the American prairie. We drove 16 hours through this unchanging scenery.

The drive from Prince Albert SK to La Ronge SK is where the geography began to change with more hilly features including pines and birch trees. It also was a dirt road until 60 years ago. La Ronge is where the infamous route 102 dirt road begins and it is 200 miles up this road to our destination Wilderness Family Outfitters.  This was the dustiest and bumpiest road imaginable shared by tractor trailers hauling 2-3 trailers and not so interested in sharing the road with an RV from New York.  Absolutely brutal trek going 5-20 mph due to all the bumps.  This was a true long lonesome highway, but had many great views of lakes in the distance.  Our friend Dwayne assured us that there was a placed called the Lamplighter Inn kilo marker 141 where we could get gas, food, and spend the night.  None of us believed this as there was literally NOTHING for the 180 miles of dirt road to kilo marker 141.  Well, at marker 141 there was a sheet of plywood with hand painted letters "Lamplighter Inn"so we pulled into this driveway to a sandy parking lot the size of 3 football fields.  On one side of the lot was a big beautiful helicopter and very large fuel tanks on the other.  There were three modular home like looking buildings, one of which was the "restaurant" and the others were the "Inn".  Several large semi trucks with multiple trailers were parked in the lot.  We parked on the edge of the lot near the helicopter.

The "Lamplighter Inn" experience is was really makes these adventures special.  This "inn" supports the many miners in the area as does the helicopter.  The people cooking and waiting on us, truckers who were curious to know why we were there, and the helicopter pilot who refused our $200 cash offer for a ride (but gave us tour of the copter in lieu) were all terrific and just salt of the earth people.  This was an unexpected gem and we ended up staying the night there as the remaining 20 miles to the outfitters seemed way too ominous after our brutal first dusty and bumpy 180 miles.  We enjoyed having both dinner and breakfast there.  We filled the gas up and they were kind enough to let us fill the water tanks free of charge.  On the bumpy ride the day before a can of sodas fell on the water tank drain so all our water was gone.

My reflection on routes 102 and 905 are that they are for trucks only.

Jim with a nice one

 We wouldn't bring an RV.  Not only was the road terrible but all the dust filled the lower compartments so all our luggage and tackle were covered in thick dust.  The scenery is beautiful.  You definitely have to pay attention as some trucks were flying and fish tailing all over.  If we did the RV thing again we would leave it at Prince Albert and rent a truck.

Upon arrival at Wilderness Family Outfitters we were immediately greeted by Brian and his wonderful family.  The lay out was a series of well kept cabins, a lodge and fish cleaning hut serrated by finely groomed stone pathways and handsome landscaping.  Located in a  protected cove where they're about ten boats on a well constructed dock.  The boats were terrific.  25 HP electric starter outboard with a live well, depth finder/GPS and comfortable boats seats.  By far the nicest boats I have ever been provided by a Canadian outfitter.  Our modern cabin was beautiful with drinkable water, hot shower and great view of the bay.

Cory our guide

We had originally reserved two guides for the next day, but Brian advised a bad weather front was due to come in and that we might have a better experience using the guides that afternoon.  Corry, Brian's son, was our guide.  Nice young man who was extremely helpful in getting us oriented to the lake.  A big challenge was the lake level was down over three feet so causing the appearance of many hazardous rocks through the lake.  His orientation helped us avoiding these prop busters all week.

All the fish caught with our guides were in 4' deep or less water.  I caught a 37" pike casting an orange colored Mepps bucktail and a 30" pike with an 8' musky bait.  Both caught up against the shore.

Dwayne with a beauty

I have been to northern Canadian fishing trips for over 20 years.  The rule of thumb for lures on these trips was to use big metal in-line spinners...we call them Christmas trees. Wollaston was NOT about metal, rather it was about crank baits. The 37" pike caught on a Mepps proved to be an anomaly. Shu caught a beautiful 44" pike on a large crank bait. We even caught a 16 inch white fish on a crank bait.  To catch walleye that were legally small enough to keep we used ultralight tackle and jigs.90% of the walleye we caught were over the minimum size limit of 21".  This was fine as the little guys were outstanding eaters.  We had plenty of walleye and lake trout to make for spectacular shore lunches.  Lake Wollaston has some terrific beaches for shore lunches and the outfitter even provides locations with fire pits around the lake.

Two of our six days were impacted by bad weather.  The second day we were there the wind was blowing 20+mph from the north making it impossible to get out of the cove.  So we fished a little in the cove, caught some walleye, and returned to the cabin for an afternoon of Scrabble.

Waiting the storm out

The other day had us caught in a violent lightening storm in a part of the lake known as The Narrows about an hour boat ride from the outfitters.  The wind kicked up to 30+ with incredible sheets of rain.  We anchored in a small cove, close to shore and out of the wind.  We were in the cove for about an hour and the four of us were recalling our high school science classes regarding lightening and metal boats.  If we headed back to the outfitters we would be in open water  for most the trip.  Dwayne was counting the seconds between flash and boom, which was calming when he would count 5-6 seconds, but when the count only went as high as 1 second  I think there was a lot of private praying that took place.  After an hour we determined that the danger poised by hypothermia was rising such that if we didn't get shelter it would be more dangerous to us than lightening.  We hugged the shoreline of the Narrows for only half a mile when a large bolt of lightening hit the hill immediately in front of us to which we immediately put into shore to refocus.   After 20 minutes it seemed to lighten up and we made the 1 hour boat ride back to the outfitters.  It was a very unnerving ride as once we got into the open water we could see that the lake was surrounded by large thunder clouds and the distant lightening displays were ominous.  Well, we made it back in piece, soaked to the bone, but being able to immediately take a hot shower after such an event was an incredible benefit of this outfitter.

The balance of the week was spent doing a lot of trolling and exploring the nooks and crannies of the vast shoreline of Wollaston.  Many places were over 20' deep only 5' off shore making trolling very scenic, albeit I bet I lost $200 worth of crank baits on snags involving reels whose drag settings were not working.

Wollaston Lake is a barbless hook lake.  In fact we even got pulled over by two SK Conservation Officers who checked or lures to make sure they were bent down, which they were.  The problem arose when they asked for licenses we had them on our phones but did not realize they weren't physically on our phones rather they were in the "cloud" and without cell service are unable to access them.  Fortunately the officers call us in to their dispatch via a satellite phone who confirmed we had licenses.  We got off with a verbal warning and lesson learned.

The week went fast and we all agreed this was the best outfitter experience any of us ever had.  Brian and his entire extended family that operate the lodge are just the nicest people.  They were always friendly and others who took advantage of their meal plans raved about the cooking.  They have several friendly dogs at the lodge, of them, named Ranger, was warned to us by Brian upon our arrival that if we gave him any treats he would be ours for the week....lol sure as shit, first night he got a piece of hotdog from the grill and he stayed on our deck for the week LMAO...he was terrific!

Bragging Board in Lodge

The journey home was highlighted by driving the northern shore of Lake Superior starting in Duluth MN via Thunder Bay and Sault St. Marie .  We read a lot about this being one of the most scenic drives in North America.  Here is my take.  To get the full experience you need to stop at the opportunities for short hikes to see beautiful waterfalls, difficult in a 38' RV.  From strictly an RV roadside view perspective the drive from Thunder Bay eastward was absolutely breathtaking.  We were surprised as the literature suggested it was Duluth to Thunder Bay that was the scenic route.  It is not that it is not pleasing to the eye, it just is a lot more about commercial opportunities versus East of Thunder Bay where there is only cliffs, trees, and breathtaking views.  We stopped in Thunder Bay and it definitely looked tired and depressed compared to Duluth.  We drove by homeless camps in the center of the city and the buildings looked "tired".

An Absolute Must Stop!!!!

2600 miles there and 2600 miles back.  Great trip.  Definitely would go back and would definitely do the drive along the northern shore of Lake Superior.  Once home it took 3 of us 10 hours to remove all the dust from the compartments and 5200 miles of squashed bugs off the body of the RV.

Roadside view of Lake Superior