We have been travelling to Deer Horn Lodge in Quebec for the last couple of years. For those of you not familiar with it, it is 18 miles of butt banging gravel road to the lodge. Love every mile of it! lol Looking for any input from others who have travelled into similar lodges in Quebec and eastern Ontario. We like to bring our own boat and our own food and schedule our day the way we want. We like the remoteness of the Cabonga and lack of fishing pressure. Looking at other options and seeing what is out there.

P.S. I have been doing the google, thread search and other investigative digging! ;-)

Looking forward to hearing about some new locations and secret spots that may not get the notoriety

Mike

Mike:

Here's the web addresses for 11 outfitters in north western Quebec

http://www.3seasoncamp.com/ on Lake Kipawa
http://www.taggartbaylodge.com/ on Lake Kipawa
http://www.bushcountrycamp.com/ on Lake Sasseginaga
http://www.ogascanan.com/ on Lake Ogascanane
http://www.clubtroutlake.com/ on Trout Lake
http://www.nemio.com/ on the Gouin Reservoir
http://www.senneterreoutfitters.com/ on Lac Maseres
http://www.kapitachuan.com/ on the Megiscane River and Lac Pascagama
http://www.lac-berthelot.com/index.htm on Lac Berthelot
http://www.stcyrroyal.com/ on Lac St. Cyr
http://www.wetetnagami.com/ on Lac Wetetnagami

I've fished at 6 of the 11 locations and fishing buddies have fished 2 of the 5 I haven't fished. You may already be aware of the above outfitters. One caveat. Any trip to the Gouin Reservoir will involve at least 4 hours of gravel road unless you fly in.

Mike
WE go to Lac Albanel in a Quebec SEPAQ camp ground. Remote & isolated with Walleye, Northerns,Lakers & native speckeled trout. Depending where you are driving from it might be a bit far.

I have been to kipawa,gouin and berthelot. Gouin and berthelot were very good.kipawa was probably the worst fishing i have ever had in canada. Berthelot is a large , very private lake.the walleye fishing is very good. The owners , cabins and equipment are very good also.gouin was good fishing but a little harder finding the hot spots.another very good spot is parant lake lodge. The lodge is right on the highway but if you boat up the lake a few miles you won't see another person. Their cabins are very nice. Good fishing, pikeman

Howdy,

I can't speak for the other lakes but I agree with the statement that Kipawa was the worst fishing I have ever had in Canada. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Take care,

Ruddiger

Every fisherman has experienced fishing trips that were less than fully satisfactory for reasons other than the lake was a poor lake. For instance, weather can have a big negative impact on walleye fishing. While Ruddiger and PIKEMAN30 obviously had a bad experience on Lake Kipawa, I wonder whether their categorization of the lake as the worst fishing they had ever had in Canada was based on only one experience. That wouldn't negate their experience but it would put their comments in perspective. I've fished Lake Kipawa for the last 10 consecutive years and in those 10 trips, our group has only experienced one year when we had to work hard to reach limit. Most times, we've caught lots of walleye including more than the just the occasional walleye over 5 pounds. Last June, we had to keep eating walleye twice daily in order to be able to keep harvesting nice fish. As well, the lake offers opportunities for lake trout and northern pike. I just don't believe Kipawa warrants a reputation as a bad destination for fishing.

I have 40 years of experience fishing Lac Kipawa and would tell anyone that it is interested that the walleye fishing for small fish is fair to excellent. If you are expecting to catch limits of 18 -24 inch fish it simply is not going to happen. It is however exactly what i am looking for in a family vacation, solitude, scenery, a reasonable drive from my home etc. If you are booking a trip just for the fishing however I would definitely look elsewhere.

Howdy,

In the interests of fairness I have only been to Kipawa once. It was in August of 1997 and my father and I went there to catch pike. My dad had gone there for years in the 1970's and caught his biggest pike ever (44 inches). Based upon this success we decided to go back. We fished for pike most of the time, although we did spend some time on walleye.

For the week, we caught less than 10 fish. Yes, less than 10 fish. Before you flame me for not knowing how to fish, I must tell you that this was not my first rodeo and I do know a little something about fishing. Perhaps it was a bad week, perhaps things have improved since then, however, it was bad enough to keep me from going back.

On the plus side the scenery was beautiful. I’m sure I could do better today with 13 more years of experience under my belt, but I know of a lot better places that I would go back to first. Kipawa would be the last on the list.

Take care,

Ruddiger

On the subject of Lake Kipawa I simply stated that the week we spent there was the worst fishing we have ever had .It was the last week of May and the weather was very good. We have made over forty trips to Canada and have caught tons of fish. what was I supossed to say ? That was my experience period.Take it or leave it. Good fishing Pikeman

No offense intended to those that posted on Kipawa. I appreciate your insight. I am not looking to have a bash on any outfitters. I would like to hear about experiences to places you had an enjoyable time and caught relatively decent fish. These places I am looking for are drive to destinations with little fishing pressure. Distance is of no concern. I am only looking to expand my choices based on good experiences from the membership here.

Mike

Kipawa is a good lake but certainly not comparable to a more remote fly in or drive-to lake.
There's plenty of big walleye in Kipawa but you have to adapt and refine your tactics to catch them consistently.
We've stumbled on to a fantastic mid summer bite for big suspended fish using planer boards, line counter reels, and deep diving lures like Manns stretch 20.
Pretty much identical to how we're fishing Quinte in the late fall.
It's taken a few years to figure out the ins and outs but as mentioned the big fish are there, and in abundance.
The average guy who's used to sitting off a hump or a point and dropping down a jig may find it frustrating.

Trooper....

I recommend Lac Berthalot , out of Senneteer Quebec , up by Val Dor.
I have had a couple good trips there , and have seen some hugh pike caught there.
One day , one of the biggest pike i have ever seen came into the camp. The guy said , the pike was attacking his stringer of walleye and all he did was net the fish , the fish was 49.5 in. long . I still can not beleive he fillet it and brought it home to eat.
I too have fished deer horn for yrs. and am going back in July 3rd. Last time , unless the fishing is better there. Last two, trips have not been up to par. I think there is to much fishing pressure there now. It used to be much better.
Steve does a good job of managing the lodge , but fishing has gone down hill.
cnydave.

drive in on dirt road for ogascanan is 60 miles or so, rough road last 30 or so