It was time to escape reality for 8 days and we knew what the perfect location was. An island on Black Bear Island Lake on the Churchill River system. Karen and I have explored this wonderful 40 km long lake many times and we knew that slowing down the pace for a week was just what we needed!
After the long drive, our pilot was waiting to load us up and fly in to Pine Island Resort at the east end of the lake. Tiki and Pepper were ready to get out of the jetta and fly too! We loaded the Beaver and strapped the 18 foot prospector to the pontoons. Bill had us on our way quickly. The flight is only about 30 minutes and our friends Bart and Vicki were at the dock to greet us along with Jake the hound.
Karen and I headed off to Vanderwater Island, of course we named it!
The Churchill River System is long, over 600 miles long. It is part of the historic fur trade route that lead the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company all the way to the Athabasca Region and beyond. Most of the Churchill is in the Canadian Shield. High rocks make for great camping spots.
Of course the fly fishing is amazing for both pike and walleye! We had a great time popping deer hair mice to unsuspecting aggressive pike along the weed beds. Large clousers were all we used to tangle with pike, several over 10 pounds. We ate lots of the plentiful mouth watering walleye.
When the lake turned to glass, the walleye and smaller pike as well as lake whitefish were targeting the hexagenia mayflies that were all over the lakes.
The 8 days were a great escape to start our summer holidays. The pictures below are from this year's trip!
Beavers are a great plane to fly in. They are a work horse!
Our pilot, Bill, taking us to Black Bear Island Lake!
Tiki and Pepper enjoying the view!
Casting right out in front of our island yielded many pike and walleye!
I enjoyed reading John Gierach's new book, All Fishermen are Liars, in the evenings. Fun to read!
The hexagenia were everywhere!
Large 3/0 clousers were all we needed to catch loads of pike and walleye!
Thankfully the dragonflies kept the mosquitoes silent for most of the trip.
Walleye in the frying pan. Fantastic!
Pike are everywhere and lots of them!
Pine Island has a fishing camp on it and we were able to land at their dock before canoeing out the
6 km to our island.
Our relaxing spot!
Walleye on the fly, lots of fun!
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