North America's Greatest Fishing Lodges
BY JOHN ROSS & KATIE ANDERS
  Fishing for record pike as far out in the wilderness as you can go.

If you asked a dozen outdoor writers to pick the best place in North America to catch big northern pike and walleye consistently, you’d get three dozen opinions. But near the top of everyone’s list would be Kesagami Lake, a provincial park some 60 miles south of James Bay. Days of 100 walleyes up to six pounds and two dozen pike in the neighbourhood of 20 pounds each are not uncommon.

Here’s why. Road access to Kesagami Lake isn’t just limited, it doesn’t exist. There are only three ways to get there. Fly, paddle through on the wilderness canoe route or walk. Nobody walks in, and few mosquito-hardened souls float through on the way to James Bay. The lodge is the only game in this corner of the country; so the number of anglers on this lake is limited to 50 for each of the 12 weeks in the season. Finally, Kesagami is unusually shallow, averaging seven feet deep with holes to nearly 30. Thus, it warms earlier than other lakes in similar latitude, and that means a longer growing season for everything in the food chain that supports pike and walleyes. A strict policy of catch-and-release with single, barbless hooks is enforced.

Surrounded by peat bogs and quaking muskeg, Kesagami is deeply tannin colored. Some say that the dark water gives anglers more cover, allowing them to get closer to big fish. Others believe that the tannin somehow adds to the pikes’ ferocity. Makes little difference, but the fact is that if you cast a Power Spin or chrome and red Mepps Syclops over the weedbeds, you’ll get thrashing strikes, time after time. You don’t have to be a flycasting champ to reach big fish, but it helps if you’ve figured out how to knot monofilament and steel leader materials. Generally speaking, the bigger the fly, the bigger the pike. Walleye anglers can pick up fish all day with grub-tipped jigs (no live bait allowed), and flyrodders will do reasonably well with reasonably well with Clousers and sink-tip lines. You’ll fish, guided or unguided, from 24-foot freighter canoes, pushed by outboards.

The lodge welcomes kids and goes out of its way to ensure that they not only catch fish, but learn about pike, the lake and the environment. The classroom is the canoe and the teachers are mom, dad, guide or, as 13-year-old Jeff Brenchley from Bloomsberg, Pennsylvania discovered, a 45.5-inch pike. Brenchley’s fish set a Canadian “Live Release” record for northern pike when he caught the fish on June 16, 1995.

Ten rooms in the log lodge and the six cabins stretched along the lakefront that can accommodate up to eight are attractive and comfortable, all with private baths. The lodge has a bar, and you can even get in a game of pool.

Reprinted from “North America’s Greatest Fishing Lodges” Page 283