Fishing the Ripple: OH CANADA! Ontario Fishing Guides, Muskie, Walleye and Pike on the Fly!

Oh Canada!

As I sit and reflect on the last two weeks of my fishing adventures from my home base on the narrows of Wabigoon, Ontario, I am struck most of all by the sheer vastness of fishing domain in just this little area. Wabigoon Lake boasts 26,000 acres of fishing and Dinorwic Lake offers 17 miles of wildnerness with no homes on 99% of the lake! On top of all of that, both Wabigoon and Dinorwic are connected to eight lakes without portages and have a total of 60,000 acres and more than 300 islands! The land surrounding these waters is mostly what they call Crown Land, which is still held in trust by the Queen for the people of Canada, or it's native land Indian reserves.

I tried my luck fly fishing around the wild rice just out in front of home base (my parent's home on the Narrows) with my dad, but didn't truly get the full flavor of fishing until I went out fishing with some great friends and good people, the Bilsbarrows.

With my famous fishing guides, Mike and Marilyn Bilsbarrow of MidWest Outdoors(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s6y1qDX4LM), we spent a full day catching northern, perch, muskie and most of all walleye in some of the most beautiful waters of Canada. Although fly fishing isn't "the thing" in this part of Canada, we had great success off the boat. I love to fly fish in unconvenitional areas! Mike gave me some insight on where to catch these amazing creatures and it's obvious that his years of experience on these waters pays off.

What struck me the most was that these waters, although a great vast fishing ground, were not busy with fishermen! We traveled for a long time without seeing a boat most of the time! Mike guided us to what looked like "the perfect place" and no sooner did Mike, Marilyn and I wet our lines and fish were on! It was like a feeding frenzy on the water! SO much fun!

After we caught our share of fish and the fillets were cleaned and on ice, Mike took me back to shore where I met up with Marilyn and the rest of my family for shore lunch! Cooked over the open fire, Mike made the walleye and perch we kept, beans in a can and traditional potatoes and onions! Marilyn provided her famous homemade coleslaw and the fish never tasted so good!