Not what we had in mind…..

Sometimes a late season muskie trip does NOT turn out the way you hope for, but with some perseverance Ryan Klein and I were able to have a little bit of success this weekend. With the help from a few others of course.

Ryan and I saw a winter storm on the horizon and wanted to time it right with a massive feeding window on a new lake in Northwest Ontario. We rolled into Crawford’s Camp Wednesday night late. Woke up to rain coming down Thursday morning and hit the road. We drove 4 miles down an old logging road into the lake and we were off and fishing.

At this point the snow started flying. So hard at times it was hard to make out the shoreline 20 feet away that we were trolling along. After a few hours and a few sets of soaking wet gloves, we decided to make an escape. Upon pulling the boat out of the water we realized that the 4WD was not working on Ryans truck, and the snow has now accumulated about 8 inches. We get the boat and trailer out of the water and unhook it. Little did we know, we were in for a long day.

There was a tree down every 30 yards on that entire 4 mile logging road. We made it about 3/4 of the way out before we ran out of chainsaw gas. Of course the truck would get stuck every time we stopped to cut up a tree as well. Lucky enough I was able to get ahold of a couple friends from Kenora to come and bail us out with a pull and more chainsaw power and gas. Sean had to win a battle with the O.P.P as the highway was closed to get to us. Once he got to us we were able to get out of the bush right at dark.

The next day was boat retrieving day. Matt Rydberg (owner of Crawfords Camp) was kind enough to borrow us his truck. That dang road had just as many trees down going back in as it did coming out. After 5 more hours of logging we made it to the boat. It was so ridiculous, Ryan and I just laughed and went fishing.

These muskies were hard earned! Thanks to everyone for bailing out a couple bone heads!

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Wow nice fish!! Sounds like a lot of work, but nice fish!!

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Did you have any trouble with other boats crowding in on your spot?

No, just a couple loons wondering where the heck the summer went.

Cool…..

One of those trips where the “trip” becomes the story. Sounds like you were well prepared, and a lot lucky to have support from others. Would have been a cool IDO episode….

Hard core on your part and some nice fish to show for your effort. Commendable

bigpike wrote:

Hard core on your part and some nice fish to show for your effort. Commendable

X2
They might not be the best trips but sure are the most memorable

not sure hard earned does it justice. strong work boyz! and awesome reward!

That’s Hard Core!

-J.

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

Sam

Oh – to be young again.

Nice job Mr. McSharry!

You’ll surely be talking about that one for years to come.

Well those ARE some impressive muskies! So I’m sure you’re ready to head back up there again in a couple weeks when the big fish bite really turns on…

I’ve been going back and forth on if i’m going back yet or not. I think i’ll let the weather decide for me. I can guarantee the best bite is happening right NOW.

Pat:

Your name came up a month ago from a friend of mine that fishes that same lake… Always talks about how much of a pain in the a$$ it is getting back there!!! Don’t remember the circumstances, but he met Rydberg back there for some reason I don’t quite remember, but Matt recounted your story to him and he was telling it to me, so I told him if I ran across it again, I’d send him a link!!!

Still a great story!!!

Mark

mbenson wrote:

Pat:

Your name came up a month ago from a friend of mine that fishes that same lake… Always talks about how much of a pain in the a$$ it is getting back there!!! Don’t remember the circumstances, but he met Rydberg back there for some reason I don’t quite remember, but Matt recounted your story to him and he was telling it to me, so I told him if I ran across it again, I’d send him a link!!!

Still a great story!!!

Mark

I sure am hoping that we don’t have to deal with that kind of adventure again. It’s a cool story but I don’t need two of them!

Pat:

Todd and V left to go back up again, fishing LOTW this time staying at Witches Bay (???)… They were going to stop by Crawford’s Camp to see Matt to drop off some homemade jam (if I am remembering right, I think he helped them at the same boat landing, thus the story and the jam for helping them…). You are correct on the adventure, no one would need to be involved in that considering the potential danger involved in that scenario…

Mark