Trophy Canadian Speckled Trout Trip Report

Trophy Brook Trout (Speckled Trout as Canadians call them) is one of my favorite fish and I have taken several trips in the far Northern reaches of Canada in search of them.

This trip started from the Thunder Bay, Ontario airport where Jeff (Tegg) and I flew about 400 miles North to a remote Native village that is only road accessible by Winter roads a few months out of the year. The next morning we set out with 3 boats, 2 river guides, and our camp manager. We had a 4 hour (40 mile) boat ride across two lakes, portages, and through a river system. Our final destination was a hunting camp used by the village on a tributary to the Trout filled waters of the legendary Winisk River.

We experienced 5 days of some of the best trophy Speckled Trout fishing that can be found anywhere. The river we were fishing had Walleye, Northern Pike, Whitefish, and of course Speckled Trout. A typical day involved our river guides running class II and possibly class III rapids in search of Speckled Trout. This river was huge by any Midwest Trout river standards and could be run with 16′ boats and 25hp motors. I was amazed how our river guides Leon and Junior could expertly navigate boulders the size of my Ford Explorer all while running class II rapids.

The Speckled Trout were almost exclusively found in the heaviest current which was also aerated by churning rapids. Our guide Leon commented that the rapids were also spring locations which cooled the water temperature more suitable for Trout. The inside seams and slower moving current is where we caught Walleye. At times, the Walleye fishing was ridiculously easy using a 1/4 to 3/8 oz. jig head and a plastic twister tail. Some of the Walleyes we caught we up to 25″ while most were in the 16″ to 20″ class.

We fished both spinning and fly rods. Because of the difficulty of fly fishing such heavy current we mostly spin fished with 1/3 to 3/4 oz. spoons. Five of diamonds and orange/gold KO wobblers were my top spoons along with no. 12 gold Panther Martin in-line spinners. Most of the spin fishing was done from 16′ boats while our river guides Leon and Junior expertly navigated the rapids for us to make precise casts in the heaviest of water. Jeff started out with a single barbless hook and by the 2nd day I was cutting off one of my treble hooks and pinching the barbs on the other two. Next trip I think I will only use single barbless hooks from the start.

For fly fishing our top flies were brightly colored Dahlberg divers (thanks again Rootski) and deer hair Mice/Lemming patterns. We were able to fly fish in a few of the calmer locations and at the base of heavy rapids. Seeing one of these beautiful fish blow up on a surface fly was truly a sight I will never forget. I was using a 5/6 weight fly rod and was underpowered with the size of the river, current speed, and size of the fish. Next time a 7 weight fly rod will be in order.

These fish were resident native fish and not “Coasters” or Sea run fish found along the Hudson Bay coast in rivers like the Sutton. They were some of the most beautifully colored Speckled Trout I have ever seen. They were also very thick bodied, muscular, and reminded me of Nipigon River Brook Trout. We were using medium weight 7′ rods with 10 lb. braid and these fish would immediately take drag out while running downstream after being hooked. At times, it was pretty crazy trying to navigate the rapids while fighting and trying to land a fish. This was made more difficult when we had doubles on at the same time. We even had a couple break off with our 10 lb braid.

Special thanks to our river guides Leon and Junior who made this trip possible by expertly guiding us on this magnificent river. Their river knowledge was truly an asset.

A trip I will never forget until next year.

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Congrats! Unbelievable!!!

Awesome pics. That sounds like an amazing time.

Those fish are simply spectacular! I can’t even imagine Brook Trout that big. Delighted to hear that the trip met your expectations and that you had a great time.

And I told you…I tie magic flies

SR

KWP did a great job summing up the trip. Here a few more photos. One new item we hadn’t seen before was walleye on a mouse pattern. Could this be a new mid summer topwater walleye pattern???

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Jealous! That there is a bucket list trip. If you don’t mind me asking what did a trip like this cost you guys per person?

Sounds like a fabulous trip. Great pics! Like James curious what it cost. Not sure if a guy could actually put a price on the experience though.

James Holst wrote:

Jealous! That there is a bucket list trip. If you don’t mind me asking what did a trip like this cost you guys per person?

I did a quick ballpark sum and came up with a $2500-$2600 per person. This didn’t include some incidentals such as food, gas to Thunder Bay, Hotel in Thunder Bay. That may add another $250 bucks.

What it does include is airfare to the Reserve. One night Hotel stay at the Reserve. The actual trip cost was a little “negotiated” on the spot. The Reserve originally had run the camp in the mid 2000s but hadn’t had the operation going for 6 or 7 years. They have plans to get the camp up and running again but were looking at 2016. We were able to convince them to go as we only had two people. We had electricity but no running water. We offered a fee that’s used on the Sutton River for First Nation guided fishing that utilizes a tent camp outpost of $200/day/person. I suspect this would increase once things are up and running again. We also had Gear/Cargo transport charges. This would be variable based on how much gear you bring. We spent about $550 Canadian. It can be a little tricky based on how full the flight is as people tend to transport stuff back to the reserve. Plus fights can get bumped and consolidated. We payed a basic cargo fee per pound as the flights were basically empty. The guarantee however would be to purchase a Cargo Seat which would have been the cost of another ticket ($700+ one way).

James Holst wrote:

Jealous! That there is a bucket list trip. If you don’t mind me asking what did a trip like this cost you guys per person?

It was very reasonable considering the quality of fishing we had…We used Wasaya Airways from Thunder Bay to the remote village. The ticket cost was about 700 US$ round trip. We had to bring our own food and the extra gear cost an additional 200 US$ per person. We also had to spend a night in a hotel in town at a cost of 125 US$ per person. Then the cost of 2 river guides, a camp manager who helped with clean up duties, use of the cabin, and all our gas (about $10 gallon in town which had to be brought to our cabin) was $175 US$ per person per day or about 1,000 US$ person total for the trip.

We were basically charged the cost the township paid our river guides plus gas. It was a 4 hour boat ride plus a portage from town to camp. We even had someone from town make another run on day 3 to bring us additional supplies. We estimated we used close to 500 US$ in gas for the 25 hp outboards plus running the generators for 5 days.

We did make sure we tipped our guides well and everybody that helped us from town. All total the cost was only about 2,500 US$ per person.

I should point out some of my figures are Canadian dollars which would explain some of the differences. The $2500 US number is pretty close.

Here are some more pictures…We used both 16′ Lunds with a 25 hp Etec and an 18′ freighter canoe. We had planned on going farther downstream with the freighter canoe but our guide Leon did not feel comfortable running larger rapids with only an 18′ freighter canoe. His preference was a wider 20′ freighter canoe.

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STOP im getting to jealous lol. Thats awesome looks so fun.

Congrad’s on the trip, adventure and sizable beautiful trout!
We flew into the Albany River out of Nakina some 10 years ago and experienced similar fishing, I.E.: spec’s to 4 pounds. Walleyes to 7 – 8 pounds and pike up to 20 pounds. In our case the 1st nation guide was the key. I couldn’t believe the rapids he could navigate it was like a roller coaster ride. They warned us never to try it on our own and a few smashed up boats along the shoreline sure testified to that. It was the adventure of a lifetime. We made sure everyone caught a decent spec but focused more on the trophy pike and walleye fishing.
So what river did you fish? The logistics sound a bit complex, not a package deal.

This river also had Northerns, Walleyes, and Whitefish…At times the Walleye fishing was stupid easy using just a 4″ twister tail. We even tried Moxies and of course they also worked. No live bait needed.

Those rapids the Natives can run is truly amazing. The river we fished would be very hard to fish effectively with a canoe. There was one set of rapids with 7′ to 8′ waves (for sure class III and maybe even class IV?)) the guides almost went down so we could get to the lower river but he wanted a bigger 20′ freighter canoe for stability. We were planning on walking the portage if he would have run it.

We were fishing a large tributary of the Winisk River which drains into Hudson Bay. I have also fished the Albany and several of its tributaries and I thought this river had more and even larger Speckled Trout. We were maybe 200 miles North of the Albany.

The 400 mile flight must have been a bit costly. I looked and that Winsk River sure is up there. I’m guessing that was the biggest factor in the trip cost as well as that of the 1st nation guides. That is a long flight (400 miles) in a float plane.
I’ve never traveled more than 120 miles by air and those fights cost a lot more than closer flights for pike and walleye which were only say 40 to 60 air miles distance from base camp. I remember those wild boat rides down the rapids with the guide navigating gigantic boulders. I always wondered how did he ever master those boat driving skills without getting killed! One thing that surprised me on the Albany was that large specked trout often lived side by side in – near the fast water along with large pike. Apparently large concentration of suckers lived here here as well and that’s what brought the pike into the rapids. One could catch a 3+ pound spec and a 10 or 15 pound pike in the same area. Did you ever do the Albany with John Baxter as your guide a master at driving the boat, fishing and all sorts of outdoor skills. He was an Ojibwa from Fort Hope.

joc wrote:

The 400 mile flight must have been a bit costly. I looked and that Winsk River sure is up there. I’m guessing that was the biggest factor in the trip cost as well as that of the 1st nation guides. That is a long flight (400 miles) in a float plane.
I’ve never traveled more than 120 miles by air and those fights cost a lot more than closer flights for pike and walleye which were only say 40 to 60 air miles distance from base camp. I remember those wild boat rides down the rapids with the guide navigating gigantic boulders. I always wondered how did he ever master those boat driving skills without getting killed! One thing that surprised me on the Albany was that large specked trout often lived side by side in – near the fast water along with large pike. Apparently large concentration of suckers lived here here as well and that’s what brought the pike into the rapids. One could catch a 3+ pound spec and a 10 or 15 pound pike in the same area. Did you ever do the Albany with John Baxter as your guide a master at driving the boat, fishing and all sorts of outdoor skills. He was an Ojibwa from Fort Hope.

Just to be clear, we didn’t take any charter or floatplane anywhere. We flew with a commercial airline called Wasaya Air from Thunder Bay to the Native village. They have commercial air service to all the Native villages that are not road accessible. From the Village we boated in another 40 miles to the camp. We also weren’t fishing the Winisk River but rather a tributary of it.

I haven’t heard of John Baxter but I remember one trip we were going to fish with Eli Baxter but at the last minute he had to cancel. Our guide Leon was top notch and even guided Dan Gapen a while back.

John was basically the head of the Baxter Clan until he became to old to guide. They were famous on the Albany and worked with numerous outfitters such as Heast Air and Leuenbergers. On the Albany at the time John said a trophy spec was 5 pounds. we caught a few 3 to 4 pounds tops, but we focused more on the big walleyes and pike. I know their home base Fort Hope (native village) was supplied by air since it was ~ 120 miles by air to the nearest road. The Albany also had sturgeon which we saw but didn’t fish for. Don’t know what the situation is up there now since our trip was a few year back.