April 4th and 5th - Slamming it on Abitibi

Thursday (April 3rd) my oldest son and i hit road at 1230 pm bound for Abitibi for our last hardwater trip of the season. First stop was to pick up 8 dozen minnows once we crossed into the correct bait management zone. Next stop was the cottage (North Bay Area) to pick up all our gear. From there we drove direct to Timmins and arrived at the Super 8 at about 9pm. Basically hit the sack right away.

The next morning we drove the one hour to the start of the logging road. Depending on the year and what active logging is going on the logging road can get you as close as 8 km from the lake. Worst year we ever had was 18 km from the lake and this year it was 13 km - so about average. The portion of the road that was drivable was in better shape than past years. Lots of snow still - 3 or 4 feet in the bush and plowed snow on the side of the road was higher than the roof of the truck:



Bush trail to the lake was in great shape as well:



Ice thickness varied from 27 to 32 inches depending on the hole. Weather was fantastic as was the fishing:



Yours truly:



Son with a couple of beauties:



Son with our 8 walleye limit plus a mess of goldeye for the smoker:



Had to put lots like this back to keep within our limits:



Big beautiful country - 220,000 acre lake to ourselves for 2 days:





Ended the trip with 42 walleye, a mess of goldeye and one small burbot.

Another great trip for the books. Everything went completely smoothly until the very end. On our return stop at the cottage to put gear back i decided to try and drive down my one mile long driveway as i figured things had melted out enough and didn't feel like unloading the snowmobile and setting up the toboggan - well that was a mistake - i knew it too was just feeling lazy. Got exactly 1/2 way (1/2 mile from cottage and 1/2 mile from road) pulling the trailer and then buried the truck past the frame in a mixture of snow, ice, slush and mud. The driveway is narrow so now facing the wrong direction and no way to turn around with or without a trailer. We unloaded the snowmobile and said the hell with it we will deal with it in the morning and headed to the cottage to hit the sack as it was 1030 pm.

7 am this morning we sledded back to the truck. First thing we did was unhitch the trailer and using the snowmobile and a recovery strap we spun it around 180 degrees in place to get pointing in the right direction. Then we used the tow chains to secure the trailer to the hitch on the snowmobile. Then the Skandy beast towed that wheeled sucker all the way back to the road. Then we went back to the truck did a bunch of shoveling and hooked Skandy beast to the truck hitch via the recovery strap. Skandy was put in low gear, truck in 4WD with diffs locked. Son was behind the truck wheel and I was on Skandy. Son hit it and i pinned Skandy - Skandy's front end went up in air but the super wide extra long studded track stayed in contact, grabbed and truck started moving - pulled her back about 12 feet and front end went down and truck was loose. From there i reversed the truck out the half mile back to the road.

Total recovery took 3 hours.

I’m sure the 3 hours spent on the recovery was over-shadowed in a very positive way in having the whole lake to yourselves for 2 glorious days!
Awesome catch!
A perfect way to close off the ice fishing season!

Man those are some nice fish and to get that many in two days. Nice going. Goldeyes...always good to have an unusual (for down south that is) species to add to the catch too.

Nice fish! Looks like a bit of slush on the lake. How thick was the ice? Very nice clear blue sky. Is it just me noticing we’ve had a lot of nice clear days lately? If I wasn’t comfortable with the past ice season then I’d be making the trip up there for one more fish too!

Great report and the weather looked perfect.I know it’s not fun getting stuck but if it has to happen there’s no one better to do it with than your son. You will remember getting unstuck long after the fish are gone.

Walleye, wow! Your trip turned into another off road adventure. Glad you got the truck out of the mud. I cant wait for walleye opener down here in May. By then the clean up of trees should be completed for the neighbourhood. Then I can have a fishing rod in my hand, instead of a chainsaw. LOL.

The slush was localized and created by us drilling the holes. About 6 to 12 inches of snow on the lake and the other odd small pocket of slush as well but nothing that was an issue. Ice thickness was 27 to 32 inches depending on which hole you measured. Shoreline was rock solid and tight.

That sounds like a great trip, or maybe adventure!

I haven't fished Abitibi in years.

How the the Goldeye taste? I've caught them, but have always thrown them back.

Congrats to you and your Species what a great trip and glad you made it out safely.
Enjoy your catch you will have some tasty meals

Goldeye are mostly horrific if you cook them any conventional way. The only way to consume (this is what we do) is to brine in my secret brine recipe for 8 hours. Then smoke them at 165 for like 6 to 8 hours. Fish also have to be hanging in the smoker.

Do that and they are amazing.

Awesome trip and a great read

Awesome trip and report Joe. Sounds like you had an excellent season

Always look forward to reading your reports Joe. What a healthy fishery Abitibi is

Thought you might get a laugh seeing this. Many people have asked me this question over my entire life. Why don't you just buy fish at the store? Buy fish at a store that I did not catch and clean myself, sure but no thanks. Buy fish at a store and miss a chance at being outside all night fishing, nope not doing it. Buy fish at a store and not hear the loons singing throughout the night. Miss the rush of my bobber going down and catching a monster fish. Or hearing the fish breaking the surface of the water, and not knowing exactly what it is until it hits the net. You can't pass on a thrilling fishing tale about picking up a few walleye at the local grocery store. LOL.

Right on man. I never buy fish. For the reasons you mentioned and the $$$$ they want is crazy.