I finally had the chance to set out with my girlfriend Stephanie again on a canoe trip, and this time we decided to do Long Lake to Tupper Lake going along the Raquette River. I had passed through here only a few weeks before doing the Northern Forest Canoe Trail section 2. The fishing had been extremely good when I passed through, so I was excited to take her through some of the beautiful scenery I encountered and get her on some good fishing.
Day 1 we set out from the Long Lake boat launch and it was immediately obvious that the water levels were much higher than when I had been there only a few weeks before. There had been a lot of rain leading up to the trip and it continued as we set out. This apparently did not affect the fishing in any way because within a few minutes of throwing our trolling lines behind the boat I had a Northern Pike on. This kept up as we caught a few more Smallmouth while making our way up the lake to find a lean to near the outlet that would eventually take us down the Raquette River. The first lean to we checked out was taken, but a quick paddle to the opposite side of the lake found us an even better looking empty one. We had an easy lunch of mac n cheese and then took a short nap to try and recover some energy after setting off so early and then paddling the length of Long Lake. We awoke a few hours later to some beautiful conditions. The wind had calmed down, the rain was gone and we just had beautiful skies in front of our lean to. The evening bite was apparently not on, but we did come back and make our classic first night kielbasa dinner. Beautiful sunset and a great nights sleep.
Day 2 we set out to onto the Raquette River finally and aimed to tackle the Raquette Falls carry. Before we got there we did hook into a few more nice Bass and had some fairly decent weather for once as we made our way. I had done the carry before and knew it was not super rough, but also not easy with the amount of stuff we bring. Since it took us two trips to carry all our gear we followed the side trail back that leads along the rapids and to the falls. It was an amazing sight seeing them rage and froth due to all the rain and increased water levels. With the carry behind us we set off a short ways further down the river to find an unoccupied lean to we could stay in for the night. We fished a bit more that night and eventually settled back into our lean to where I cooked up some steaks in the cast iron and did some potatoes for the side.
Day 3 is where we ran into a bit of a catastrophe. The day started great with only light rain and some eggs and bacon for breakfast then we were back off down the river. Fished our way down slowly, made some spaghetti for lunch and eventually settled down in lean to 21A in the evening. It had apparently only been built in 2014 and was absolutely beautiful. Barely any carvings, built in a great spot with a nice firepit in front. It was a great place to spend our last night of the trip. I was really shocked that we were able to find an unoccupied lean to at every spot we wanted to stay over what I thought would be such a busy weekend. The fishing that night had gone REALLY well and I hooked into a very nice largemouth using my classic Whopper Plopper 75 top-water lure. It was right around when we were getting ready to head back that disaster struck, I was trying to get a better look at what I thought was a deer through some trees and attempted to stand up in the canoe! Genius move, I know. I was so accustomed to our previous Radisson canoe which is super wide and almost seems impossible to flip that I thought nothing of it as I stood up and it happened almost instantly. The boat rocked a little, we must have shifted just right and the whole thing dumps over. All 3 fishing rods, my tray full of terminal tackle and my tray full of Trout tackle, our net and my wet shoes all go over with us never to be seen again. Luckily we had both gotten into the habit of always wearing a life jacket in the boat, which is something I used to be very lax about. Obviously we had become soaked and it starts to get a bit cold at night by that time of year so we were quick to paddle back to the lean to (we had somehow miraculously kept ahold of the paddles) and got a warm fire going, some warm drinks and food in us and burrowed into those sleeping bags.
Day 4 and the trip to our take out on Tupper Lake was bittersweet. After a downpour of rain and a storm in the distance during the late morning it quickly turned into a beautiful day with blue skies above us, and very fishable looking waters all around us. I constantly felt tormented seeing all the weeds, Lilly pads and deep holes we were passing and having no way to fish them with all our gear somewhere at the bottom of the Raquette River. Perhaps it was for the best that we were not able to fish because less than a half hour after we got off the water the wind REALLY picked up and the waves that started forming on Tupper Lake would not have been fun to navigate.
All in all, a great trip with some good fishing and unbeatable Adirondack scenery. I have replaced almost everything I lost in the time since this trip. The only thing I am still trying to nail down is a good new rod to use for when I troll for big Northern Pike. I uploaded two videos of the trip to my YouTube channel, one is a short 2 minute clip reel and the other is a full length 50 minute video of the trip.
Clip Video: https://youtu.be/mEloqfLhmqo
Full Video: https://youtu.be/_zPxI36nWxY
Day 1 we set out from the Long Lake boat launch and it was immediately obvious that the water levels were much higher than when I had been there only a few weeks before. There had been a lot of rain leading up to the trip and it continued as we set out. This apparently did not affect the fishing in any way because within a few minutes of throwing our trolling lines behind the boat I had a Northern Pike on. This kept up as we caught a few more Smallmouth while making our way up the lake to find a lean to near the outlet that would eventually take us down the Raquette River. The first lean to we checked out was taken, but a quick paddle to the opposite side of the lake found us an even better looking empty one. We had an easy lunch of mac n cheese and then took a short nap to try and recover some energy after setting off so early and then paddling the length of Long Lake. We awoke a few hours later to some beautiful conditions. The wind had calmed down, the rain was gone and we just had beautiful skies in front of our lean to. The evening bite was apparently not on, but we did come back and make our classic first night kielbasa dinner. Beautiful sunset and a great nights sleep.
Day 2 we set out to onto the Raquette River finally and aimed to tackle the Raquette Falls carry. Before we got there we did hook into a few more nice Bass and had some fairly decent weather for once as we made our way. I had done the carry before and knew it was not super rough, but also not easy with the amount of stuff we bring. Since it took us two trips to carry all our gear we followed the side trail back that leads along the rapids and to the falls. It was an amazing sight seeing them rage and froth due to all the rain and increased water levels. With the carry behind us we set off a short ways further down the river to find an unoccupied lean to we could stay in for the night. We fished a bit more that night and eventually settled back into our lean to where I cooked up some steaks in the cast iron and did some potatoes for the side.
Day 3 is where we ran into a bit of a catastrophe. The day started great with only light rain and some eggs and bacon for breakfast then we were back off down the river. Fished our way down slowly, made some spaghetti for lunch and eventually settled down in lean to 21A in the evening. It had apparently only been built in 2014 and was absolutely beautiful. Barely any carvings, built in a great spot with a nice firepit in front. It was a great place to spend our last night of the trip. I was really shocked that we were able to find an unoccupied lean to at every spot we wanted to stay over what I thought would be such a busy weekend. The fishing that night had gone REALLY well and I hooked into a very nice largemouth using my classic Whopper Plopper 75 top-water lure. It was right around when we were getting ready to head back that disaster struck, I was trying to get a better look at what I thought was a deer through some trees and attempted to stand up in the canoe! Genius move, I know. I was so accustomed to our previous Radisson canoe which is super wide and almost seems impossible to flip that I thought nothing of it as I stood up and it happened almost instantly. The boat rocked a little, we must have shifted just right and the whole thing dumps over. All 3 fishing rods, my tray full of terminal tackle and my tray full of Trout tackle, our net and my wet shoes all go over with us never to be seen again. Luckily we had both gotten into the habit of always wearing a life jacket in the boat, which is something I used to be very lax about. Obviously we had become soaked and it starts to get a bit cold at night by that time of year so we were quick to paddle back to the lean to (we had somehow miraculously kept ahold of the paddles) and got a warm fire going, some warm drinks and food in us and burrowed into those sleeping bags.
Day 4 and the trip to our take out on Tupper Lake was bittersweet. After a downpour of rain and a storm in the distance during the late morning it quickly turned into a beautiful day with blue skies above us, and very fishable looking waters all around us. I constantly felt tormented seeing all the weeds, Lilly pads and deep holes we were passing and having no way to fish them with all our gear somewhere at the bottom of the Raquette River. Perhaps it was for the best that we were not able to fish because less than a half hour after we got off the water the wind REALLY picked up and the waves that started forming on Tupper Lake would not have been fun to navigate.
All in all, a great trip with some good fishing and unbeatable Adirondack scenery. I have replaced almost everything I lost in the time since this trip. The only thing I am still trying to nail down is a good new rod to use for when I troll for big Northern Pike. I uploaded two videos of the trip to my YouTube channel, one is a short 2 minute clip reel and the other is a full length 50 minute video of the trip.
Clip Video: https://youtu.be/mEloqfLhmqo
Full Video: https://youtu.be/_zPxI36nWxY
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire