Canadian Fly-In Fishing and Hunting Trips

CABIN FEVER ANYBODY ?

2008-03-08T07:40:00.004-06:00

We all know the winter has not been so nice.

This is what we had last May 19th.

2007 Canadian fly-in fishing trip contest winner

2007-12-18T10:54:00.000-06:00

congratulation to Darlene Czernielewski the winner of the fly-in fishing contest.

Canadian Fly-In Moose Hunting

2007-11-25T07:02:00.000-06:00

Pictures from Billy and Chris Fly-In Moose Hunting Trip
Well, as you can see, Billy and Chris had some interesting weather for their 10 day fly-in moose hunt. Billy still managed to show Chris 3 moose. Why did they come home empty handed? ( well you will have to ask Chris that )

Goood Flyin Trip

2007-11-24T13:34:00.000-06:00

Hey Billy

Had a gooooood flyin trip. Thanks for everything.

Tonnes of walleye up there. We jigged, trolled, and casted for them and had non stop atcion with lots of double headers, and like you said a few pike following them to the boat. There were alot of small pickerel (walleye ), but we did catch at least 20 or so each that were above 2lbs.

We spent probably half the time on Upper Kat Lake fishing for pike, and found a couple of good spots where we hooked into tome really nice ones. There was one my Dad missed that we figured was in the 15 pound range, lots in the 4 to 6 pound, and of course the monster. It measured 45 inches. Our scale was broke so we didn't get a weight. If you use the "pike formula" (length x length x length / 3500) it equates to 26 lbs. I don't know if that's how much it weighed, and frankly I don't give a shit. It was the biggest pike I've ever caught and that's all that matters to me.
We are already planning next years trip. We used the spare mantel in the camp. The lantern worked, but I think it needs a new washer ( that thing you folded back to pump it up). It worked alright, but it will definately need changing. Other than that, thanks again, and see you next year.

Lucas

2008 fly-in fishing contest

2007-11-16T06:47:00.000-06:00

Well our season is over now and looking forward to next year's fly-in fishing season.

Just a quick reminder for all our 2007 anglers to send in some pictures for the 2008 Canadian
fly-in fishing contest which will be drawn in mid December--just in time for Christmas.

Have fun dreaming about the pike and walleye you'll catch with us in 2008.

Billy

Ron with Trophy Buck

2007-08-17T13:24:00.000-05:00

This is Ron. He has been fishing with us for, oh, about 18 years now. Usually he comes up with his good friend Chris.He sent us some pictures of his trophy buck. Nice deer. He was bragging about this deer while at the air base and wanted us to see for ourselves his trophy buck. Well, we figured we would show it off to our Internet visitors too!

Just so that everyone knows, we do not offer deer hunts here at Polar Bear Outfitters. In fact, there are hardly any white tailed deer in these parts of the woods at all. There are some but only a handful. We do however, offer Moose Hunting and have a tremendously healthy moose population, but that's another story ... This story is about Ron.

Rory and Grant Upper Kat Experiments

2007-08-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

Rory and Grant, what can I say.

Here are a few of the more interesting pictures that these two cabin buddies sent us for their entry into the 2008 Fly-In Fishing Contest. Their actual fish pictures will get posted up on the web site shortly.

"Hey Bill Here are a few pics from our trip in August you can pic your favourite's for the contest. Grant and I had another awsome trip to Upper Kat Lake this year we cought 151 fish and can't wait to come back next year." Good luck guys!

This is a beautiful James Bay frontier sunset

Here they are, having trouble stopping their meal for this picture, must be walleye they are eating.

We are hoping that you picked up the empties after your little outdoors art experiment!

Kevin the Cougar King

2007-08-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

The little guy is Kevin King—AKA “the cougar”. I think he is about 5 years old from what I remember. Anyway, he was so thrilled with catching this pike that he emailed us this photo of his trophy and made us put his picture on our blog. Keep on casting kid! Great job. The big guy is Eric, his brother.

James Waller Lake Memorial

2007-08-11T09:16:00.000-05:00

James Waller

1988 - 2007 In memory of the sudden passing of our son James, Twin Lake has been renamed Waller Lake. James will forever live in our hearts and will eternally have a place in the heart of the James Bay Frontier.

“Wow Bill! I never worked so hard just to go fishing” said James the time he helped refurbish the fly-in outpost camp at Twin Lake.

Chappa Lake i-Fred Lake Passage

2007-05-28T07:35:00.001-05:00

Billy with fly-in fishing guests Darlene and Pete docking at Chappa Lake.
Billy signals a farewell goodbye and heads off back to the base. He'll fly back in for a mid-week check up on the isolated anglers.

Darlene hooks into some nice walleye.

Here is the rugged but fully-equipped outpost cabin that accomodated this pair.

Inside the cabin after a real good scrubbing. Thanks by the way.

These folks came prepared to battle the night mosquitoes that have found their way in.

Here is the beginning of the passage that leads to i-fred Lake.

The weather changes often in the frontier but always provides nice views.

Pete relaxes by a smoldering camp fire at the camp.

Beaver Helps Fly in Fishermen For Us

2007-05-26T14:39:00.000-05:00

The air base is bustling like crazy today with countless eager anglers waiting to get their chance at one of our trophy pike and walleye lakes. I managed to get out of the office long enough to take a snapshot of this fine float plane loading up passengers and gear.

Excessively strong winds yesterday made it impossible for us to get into Bill's Lake to fly-out the group of fishermen that were stranded an extra night. In order to make all our flights today we had to ask our friend Ron Baron to help us fly-out some of our guests.

We help each other out here in the James Bay frontier, it's like an unwritten rule amongst the pilots of the area.

Here's a picture of the Beaver float plane that took our fly-in fishing customers to their secluded honey holes today. By the look of the sunken floats, I can tell that this fishing party has perhaps a couple of cases of pop too many.

Thanks again Ron!

Abitibi River Marriage

2007-05-25T18:28:00.000-05:00

It's official. Bryan and Katie have set a date for their wedding. Smack dab in the middle of the fishing season. This happy pair of northerns will tie the knot on July 7th 2007 somewhere on the Abitibi River.

Congrats to both of you from all of us here at Polar Bear Outfitters. It's about time!

Maybe now Bryan will be able to concentarte more on his work, just kiddin' bud you work hard for our fly-in guests and we all apreciate it.

So when you get here from where you are to do your fine walleye and pike fishing with us, don't forget to congratulate him when you see him on the dock getting your plane ready (he's the guy weighing in your beer).

Fly-In Fishing Outpost Camps

2007-05-20T06:58:00.000-05:00

Fully Equipped Fly-In Fishing Outpost Camps

All of our fly-in outpost camps are fully equipped for light housekeeping. Pots and pans, dishes, propane fridges, stoves, B.B.Q. and Coleman lanterns are all at our guests disposal. Each camp has its own perculating coffee pot for those crispy James Bay morning wake-ups. All flyin camps come with two working boats and motors. Most outpost camps have water pumps.
Here is a picture of a kitchen area. Cook yourselves walleye fillets after your day fishing in our remote, fly-in acess only lakes.

Desperate Determined Pike Stalkers

2007-05-19T11:18:00.001-05:00

It is the first Saturday of the fishing season. Snow, ice pellets and freezing rain has grounded us from flying. By two o'clock this afternoon we are expecting 15 centimeters of snow to fall on these parts of the James Bay frontier.

But Chris and Steve Flack are desperate and determined pike stalkers. They quickly help load their gear unto the plane. Off they go from the float plane dock and into the mists hovering above Lillabelle Lake.

We can see from the air base office that they are hammering the northerns left and right. This is the spirit of the true north fishing experience. They may be crazy but man can they fish.

Walleye Fishing Secrets

2007-05-19T10:38:00.000-05:00

Chappa Lake Sunset - Walleye Fishing Heaven

What is His Walleye Fishing Secret

"We were at Twin lake this September. Just wanted to say that our trip was awsome and the fishing was even better."

OK. We believe you of course but this has got to be a picture of the smallest walleye we have ever seen. We cannot imagine how Sam caught this one but we won't ask for his secret walleye fishing tricks.

Fisherman Mike Catches Trophies

2007-05-19T08:05:00.000-05:00

Mike Stemler has been fishing with us for about 18 years now. He is always catching and chasing our trophy fish. Here is a picture of him with a 49 1/2 inch northern pike. We hope you have a great fishing trip with us this season.

Mike and Theresa were married this year and he sent us this great picture from the Carolinas of him and his latest trophy.

Congratulations to both of you and we wish you both a happy life together.

2007 First Flyin Fishing Team

2007-05-18T06:29:00.001-05:00

Here are our first fly-in fishing guests for 2007

Our first flyin fishing team has just left the water and are in the air towards Bill's Lake. They are going to have a blast nailing hungry walleye after walleye. Fish your hearts out guys!

Wow! 400 hundred pound overload on beer. Happy fishing trip.

Another Canada Fishing Season Begins

2007-05-16T15:33:00.000-05:00

Our first fly-in fishing guests arrive on Thursday. The fishing season in this part of northern Ontario Canada begins on Friday.

We are busy like crazy getting all the camps ready and are just as excited as our fisherman are to get those walleye and northerns on hook. The plane and the camps are in tiptop shape.

We hope everyone has even more fun than last year and has the northern Ontario Canada dream fishing vacation of their lives.

See you all when you get here! The juicy walleye, the monster northern pike and the untamed James Bay frontier await you.

Billy and his crew

2007 Fly-In Fishing Contest

2006-12-23T09:28:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to ED Koeppen, the winner of our 2007 fly-in fishing contest. Have a great fishing trip!

Caribou Hunting Northern Quebec

2006-12-13T08:22:00.000-06:00

Billy and Chris - Polar Bear Outfitters; Cochrane Ontario Canada fly-in fishing and moose hunting outfitters. Here are some notes that Billy jotted down for his blog about their caribou hunt in Northern Quebec.

We went to quebec to hunt on dec.2 to 5 2006. We saw many animals however we missed the migration. We hunted caribou that strayed from the herd with outfitter Donnat Asselin ( excellent outfitter ). The accommodations ( trailers ) were good and warm and the camp maintance guys do a fantastic job cleaning the bath rooms. The camp was pretty cool all around. The roads were extremely icy but we managed to get a few of the left behind the herd caribou. We had caribou for supper on the last night and it made the cold and ice conditions well worth it. The meat was great.

The happy Ontario fly-in fishing and caribou hunting team took some time in northern Quebec Canada this early winter. Here are a few pictures of their Quebec Canada hunting trip.

Caribou Hunting in Northern Quebec Canada Caribou

Canada Walleye Fishing Boat Lunch

2006-08-16T05:31:00.000-05:00

We forced Billy and Chris to get off the base for a couple of days to relax. Our fly-in fishing season is in full swing. This is Chris' pike that Billy lands. The Canadian outfitters works so hard landing the fish that he needs to cook themselves up a "boat-lunch".
Some people just can't make it quite as far as the shore before they taste the freshest walleye fillets in the world. Billy has obviously done this before.

We've started booking for 2007, give us a call in Cochrane Ontario Canada.

Fishing Bounce Lake Ontario Canada

2006-08-15T05:16:00.000-05:00

The James Bay frontier of Northern Ontario Canada is a fun place to take a fishing trip.

Some of our guests are so happy to be out walleye fishing at Bounce Lake that they fail to board the boat correctly. Thanks Dave for the funny fishing picture, see you again next year!

Fly-In Cabin Reconstruction

2006-08-01T06:34:00.000-05:00

The float plane is loaded with the last of the cabin construction material. This is the preferred way to deliver material and equipment to our outpost camps in northern Ontario Canada.

Billy's crew spent a week out a Bounce Lake a little while ago. Bounce Lake is one of our prized walleye fishing lakes and the cabin there was deteriorating because it sinking in the soft ground. That cabin is already over 25 years old. Billy remembers putting in the old beams himself as a child with his Dad, Steve. Just in passing, we are not afraid to tell you that we truly believe that we are one of Canada's best choice of fly-in fishing outfitters. We back that up with three and half decades of summer vacation memories. That's why we enjoy giving you a behind the scenes look at our long established operations. In our opinions, this is the real Canadian fishing trip, most everything else we see in advertisements is based on what we have been doing day-to-day since 1971, but we don't think could ever replace the real thing.

We forecast knowing that we will be here in the future. We have good pike and walleye fishing. We protect our lakes from being exploited. We are in no hurry to do any harm to our tremendous pike and walleye fishing resources. We manage our lakes critically and highly promote sportsfishing conservation measures including catch and release and the use of single barbless hook on our monster pike lakes. We know that with only the best fishing around, well-kept fully-equipped cabins, immaculate flight and float plane maintenance record, sturdy boats, operating motors, personal attention and hospitality, competitive prices, fishing and outdoor guidance and all the other equipment in good shape, we will survive as veterans in Canada's tourism industry.

Ok, now back to the story. We had to fly-in outpost cabin. ifred thought that this would be a great blog article to show our future guests that we work hard here at Polar Bear Outfitters to keep our camps in tip top shape. It took us two trips with the Cessna to get all the material in. Johnny ( not to be mistaken with the now world famous aka Johnny Bait ) and Brian spent a week out there with the portable sawmill to repair the cabin. These guys worked hard in the 40 degree C humidity and they earned their place in our blog. We originally thought that this reconstruction project would take a couple of days but it took a week. Billy is still trying to figure out what these carpenters did with all those hours at Bounce Lake. So here is:

Fly-In Fishing Camp Repairs at Bounce Lake

Brian is ... well ... I don't know what he's doing there. I guess he's pretending to swing off a chair to indicate that the support structure is sound. That's my best guess.

There are pictures here of the cabin in different phases of facelifting. Actually, this is more than cosmetic work. One of the things that some guests complained about last year was the heat inside the cabin during those blistering humid afternoons in the James Bay Frontier. The area has a long history of being unforgiving to those that come unprepared. It is essential on these days to get indoors and drink as much water as you can. It could be up to 10 degrees Celsius cooler in the cabin than outside. Open at least two windows, perferably ones not facing the sun.

We have some of our cabins that have siding on them already and those ones do stay cooler in the afternnon than their non-reflective white, non-vinyl-sheathed counterparts.

Our portable sawmill has been modified to be used to make planks and wood beams. we like a good challenge here at Polar Bear Outfitters and ifred came up with a contest.

We bet two free pickerel cleanings and a dozen worms on who could strip the glued-on like bark off of a 40 foot long 8 inch diameter spruce tree and drag it up the hill to the cabin. ifred himself is the king stripped dragger securing the top time of 1 hour and 13 minutes. Another proud achievement for all of us here at the Lillabelle Lake Air Base in Northern Ontario Canada.

Three logs on top of the bare and squared cribbings now support the outpost building. Brian thinks the cabin should be good for about 30 years.

ifred Wins National SEO Award

2006-07-30T14:25:00.000-05:00

Fred and his coveted Varnished Moose Charm Award he won at last year's Obscure SEOs of Canada Awards Ceremony.

Polar Bear Outfitters supports its crew of outdoor adventure preparers and especially are especially proud of Fred. We are a tight little family like thing in the summer time here in the James Bay Frontier and life wouldn't be the same without him around. You might have booked a bear hunt with Fred or gone to his mystical Internet marketing lake named after him. The one where only walleye 25 inches and bigger are caught so far this year. If you ever spoke on the phone with Fred you'd know he's got the real secret SEO touch too. He knows the fishing spots, he just won't say nothing important. He just likes to leave little clues about his fishing expertise lying around here and there; SEOs are all the same pffft ( as BB would say ).

Fred, we just wanted to wish you the best in all your future SEO services. We know that you are the best. Others try to discredit your work all the time and that makes you really show off your expertise. May you have many more moose tirds along your way to your web site promotion stardom in your head Fred. Congratulations, we are all so very proud of you and your trophy shit.

Bryan and Katie Fly-In Outpost Engagement

2006-07-24T07:04:00.000-05:00

In true James Bay Frontier spirit, our local worm picking wizard, dock superviser and outboard motor repairman Bryan proposed marriage to his long time sweetheart Katie at a fly-in outpost camp last week. It doesn't get much more romantic that that around here folks. Imagine the moment. Walleye fillets a-frying in a secluded setting, a young couple in love rained in for the afternoon in a fly-in fishing outpost camp, the makings for a real romantic James Bay Frontier time.

At the air base, we found out about the happy event when Billy returned from their mid-week flight check. We made an effort to embarass the happy couple by decorating their truck for the ride back into town. So congratulations on your decision, Bryan and Katie, from all of us here at Polar Bear Outfitters and Lillabelle Lake Resort, we want to wish both of you only the best that life can offer and a very happy future together.