Questions Re: Onaman

[Moosebunk]

I have a pre-existing trip I take annually to North-West Ontario in which I tow my own boat up there (16' Rebel, 60HP) during the late summer.

Onaman's seems to have some rave reviews online here. I was hoping some folks with past experiences there could answer some questions.




1. How friendly is the road up from 11 to Onaman's Resort for towing the boat? How are the launch and docking facilities? Is gas available nearby?

2. How is the river for boating hazards?

3. In Humboldt, how would you rate the speckle, laker and pike fishing... and during what season is this? Also, how have you found lake conditions to be generally, ie; is it often big wave water? Are there always places to fish out of bad lake conditions?

4. How is the access and how much time does it generally take to get into Onaman Lake from the resort?

5. In Onaman, how would you rate the walleye and pike fishing... and during what season? What are big fish generally for the lake?

6. At the resort, how are the accommodations?

7. Describe an average fishing day on either the river, Lake Nip and/or Onamans?

8. What is it about Onaman's that you enjoy most?

9. Anything about Onaman's to be warned about?

10. During what time of year do you generally go?


Thanks guys in advance for any consideration and reply. Appreciated, and will help.

[Mike Borger]

That's a lot of questions Drew LOL!

My friends relatives own that resort, we should talk.

[Wade B AKA: Ruger2506]

Originally Posted by Moosebunk

I have a pre-existing trip I take annually to North-West Ontario in which I tow my own boat up there (16' Rebel, 60HP) during the late summer.

Onaman's seems to have some rave reviews online here. I was hoping some folks with past experiences there could answer some questions.







Thanks guys in advance for any consideration and reply. Appreciated, and will help.

1. How friendly is the road up from 11 to Onaman's Resort for towing the boat? How are the launch and docking facilities? Is gas available nearby?
No there is not gas nearby. Pasha Lake Cabins has gas, not sure if Chad will sell to non-renters. Get gas in Beardmore. That's that last gas you'll see for sometime. In fact you should probably top everything off in Thunder Bay. Nipigon may or may not have gas.

The road IS NOT FRIENDLY. It's a long, hazardous, bumpy ride from 11 to Onaman. They are logging roads that are maintained by the logging companies. If you are lucky, they will have graded recently. The aggregate they use up there is huge (3" - 4" + rocks). Between large rocks and pot holes, it makes for a long trip. 25 MPH tops, if you are lucky.

I would highly recommend bringing 2 extra tires for the boat, extra bearing buddies/caps, bearings and supplies, #2 shovel, etc. I lost a bearing buddy and a tire on that road. Saw another guy rattle his fender right off his trailer. The TowTector doesn't work at all up their either. Dad's boat has a ton of rock dings in his boat. Perhaps a TowTector reinforced with heavy rubber mats.

We went past Onaman because our boats were to big to land there. I would talk to the resort and verify you can get in. We landed on NorthWind and drove all the way up to Ombabika River to access Ombabika Bay on Nipigon. If I remember correctly, it was about 52 mils and it took us 1.75 hours.

2. How is the river for boating hazards?
Everything up there including big lakes has many rock hazards. I would think Onaman is the same.

3. In Humboldt, how would you rate the speckle, laker and pike fishing... and during what season is this? Also, how have you found lake conditions to be generally, ie; is it often big wave water? Are there always places to fish out of bad lake conditions?
Don't Know

4. How is the access and how much time does it generally take to get into Onaman Lake from the resort?
Don't Know

5. In Onaman, how would you rate the walleye and pike fishing... and during what season? What are big fish generally for the lake?
Guys who were staying next to us were on Onaman most days. More walleye than they could shake a stick at. 400 fish for the week. Many of them were nice fish also (20"+).

6. At the resort, how are the accommodations?
Don't Know

7. Describe an average fishing day on either the river, Lake Nip and/or Onamans?
What species? Walleye on all the lakes we hit, unreal. Lakers on Nipigon? Challenging (when we were there).

8. What is it about Onaman's that you enjoy most?
It's an outdoor heaven!

9. Anything about Onaman's to be warned about?
Since you are bringing your own gear, BE PREPARED. It's a rough and ugly county up there with NO close service stations or parts stores.

10. During what time of year do you generally go?
August. Lakers peak time is different than Walleye and Pike. Depends what you are looking for.


Check out my post from our trip this year.http://www.forum.minnesotawaterfowle...ighlight=pasha


https://www.walleyecentral.com/forums...ght=Pasha+Lake

[polaris-pete]

The previous posts answers are 100% correct. I will verify everything he said.I spent a week at Chad's place ( Pasha lake) in mid June.I would never haul my won boat there ( even though I had thought of it).We were lucky as they had just graded the roads while we were there. While in Camp some of his boats and trailers came back very broken, broken springs, bent axles, in fact none of Chad's trailers have any lights on them any more.The rocks are large and uncoming traffic can be quite fast and some of them have no respect for anyone coming the other way. This is vast and wild country and nothing or no one to help out in an emergency but yourself and your partners. Onaman is a large rocky lake and shoals come up out of nowheres! There are no marinas or any cabins on it except one outfitter has a couple cabins you have to fly into and it costs some large $$$. The fishing was great the entire week.As for the Onaman River Lodge, just as in other forums some loved it and some hated it. Its not a 4 Star resort but the owners are trying to do a good job. Thats alot considering how far they are away from everything. We took whatever we thought we needed and then some and used just about all of it. Chad is a great guy and does guiding on the Jackfish River and on Onaman itself.If you need alittle more info PM me and I will give you a couple contacts who went also and have been going for some time. Pete

[Wade B AKA: Ruger2506]

I personally wouldn't hesitate to bring my boat back. Of course we are planning on spending a lot of time on Nipigon looking for those big Lakers.

Just know that your rig won't be the same when you get home. Take your electronics out of the boat and keep them in the truck under protection from the pounding roads.

[deputy dog]

not being a smarta** but is the fishing that good to put your equipment, and kidneys through all that. i'm not familiar with that lake so that's why i ask

[polaris-pete]

Myself, no I would not subject my equipment to that abuse but many are different. We had great euipment and fishing using Chad's 60 bots and motors on many different lakes. he has 97 different lakes to put his people on.But YES the fishing was EXCEPTIONAL- thats why we are going back. Didn't really see the need for 18-20 ft bots on any of the lakes we fished. The exception would be Nipigon but if we needed to fish it, Chad had a big boat of his own. To many other smaller lakes that held large amounts of walleyes.We fished different lakes all week and caught as many as you wanted but always dreaded the long and rough road back to the Cabins.I talked to 1 fella at camp who had his own 18; Mirrocraft. By the end of the week he had a cracked windshield, a broken transducer, a busted prop from a large rock and the boat was so filthy from road dust that after the first day trailering it covered, said why bother! So he hauled it each day uncovered and said he would never bring his back either. But as I said, many would, just not I.

[Wade B AKA: Ruger2506]

Originally Posted by deputy dog

not being a smarta** but is the fishing that good to put your equipment, and kidneys through all that. i'm not familiar with that lake so that's why i ask

YES, the fishing is that good. Not to mention, that's why I bought my equipment. If I wanted to use resort equip all the time. I would have saved myself the 10's of thousands of dollars and spent that money on resort fishing trips.

Besides, I can't imagine fishing those bodies of water without my Humminbirds.

Which isn't a bad idea if I didn't want to fish tourneys and for leisure around home.

Dad and I have discussed it and both our boats will be back there on our return trip. I bought it to use it.

Like Pete said above. Mainly for Nipigon.