Possible Canada trip: Memorial day weekend to the next week

My longtime fishing partner is MIA and trying to figure out what to do. Typically we do the North Arm on Rainy for a week in early to late June and use his boat. Pike primary and walleye secondary

With no plans and no partner I’ve been debating what to do. Little concerned about doing a full trip with unknown partners but throwing this out there. Had a bad trip last year with people who were supposed to be fisherman and show me around. Turned out I ended up being their guide in an very unknown place.

Anyhoo, here’s kind of what I’m thinking:

Canada or somewhere remote for 5-8 days
Must include some dedicated time casting for pike.
Preferred fishing style fits my ADD. Trolling live bait rigs hour after hour is okay for a bit. Casting lures/plastics/etc is more active and better fit.
Prefer camping to cabin but open on this one

Boat: I have a 14ft Alumacraft that would work for a small’ish lake. Not comfortable taking something like this to Rainy/LOTW/Lac Seul.

Where??? Did Pasha 5 years back and would love to go back. Other options

Shore lunch is mandatory

Booze – cocktail at the end of the day is good. Serious drinking is best left at home for non-vacation days.

Trip booked

Just saw this. Where did you book?

Nipigon is on my bucket list.

Was offered an open seat to Umfreville Lake north of Kenora. Sounds like a walleye factory and should be fun to chase them early season.

As for Nipigon, that’s on my bucket list too. Was pursuing it a couple years back but fell off the radar.

Might be stupid but the barbless thing there would be a hassle. The two other factors are finding a place to stay in a location you like and that body of water scares me. That’s really big water and could get serious in a hurry.

Other life things have limited how many trips I can take in a year too. Married now

patk wrote:

Umfreville Lake north of Kenora

I fished there in late May 2008. It was a HS Graduation gift from my Grandpa, a fly-in trip for the two of us. It was the best time of my life! I don’t recall any large walleyes for us, they were all in the 15-25″ range, with most in that 18-21″. However, I do remember catching hundreds upon hundreds of them for 3 straight days. It was non-stop! We arrived at the camp sometime in the early evening and I went down to the dock on shore for a few minutes before we had dinner. 12 casts=12 walleye right off the dock, something I will never forget.

The highlight of the trip was the “one that got away.” Grandpa caught a nice 18″ walleye that was coming up on my side of the boat, so I reached down to grab it, and when I was inches away a Northern comes out of the water and bites it, pulling it back down a few feet under the water. It was like a shark coming out of the water, it made that 18″ walleye look like a little minnow. The northern hung on for a few minutes below the surface before letting go and swimming away.

This picture below is one that I have seen passed around on the internet for a few years, this is not the picture from my story, but is a near identical image of what played out in front of me that day. Our guide estimated that the Northern was about 55″.

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