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Why I Put This Website And Forum On The internet:

In the spring of 2007 my group flew into a lake in northern Ontario. The group consisted of my father, my son and me.

We had booked the fly in fishing trip nearly a year prior and we all made deposits with our credit cards to reserve our cabin on the lake.

After driving for 15 hours we arrived at the water airport we were told meet the outfitter at.

After meeting with our outfitter the first thing he tried to do was say we didn't pay our deposit, which is required to make a reservation with that outfitter and most other outfitters as well. We paid our deposits a year prior and didn't bring receipts. We didn't get receipts from the outfitter.

It took some time to straighten the deposit thing out and I was already getting a bad feeling about the trip.

Then we purchased our fishing licenses loaded our equipment on the Otter float plane and off we went. As always the view was totally breathe taking. I started to feel much better about everything and even became excited at the thought of all the monster fish we would catch in the next week.

Once the plane landed we no more than got our equipment unloaded and on the dock when the pilot shoved off and flew away.

We grabbed a bunch of gear and made our way to the cabin. When we opened the cabin door the smell of propane literally smacked us in the face. I immediately ran to the propane tank on the side of the cabin and shut off the valve. The propane tank was nearly empty. We left the door open and brought the rest of our equipment up by the cabin. Then we held our breath, went in and opened the all windows and gave the cabin more time to air out.

Then we went to the boat equipment shed and found the boat motor fuel was nearly gone. Nobody told us anything about being out of gas but our outfitter said he would be bringing in minnows the next day. Thinking optimistically, we figured we had enough gas to get us through a couple days if we conserved. We weren’t supposed to be conserving boat fuel though as we had paid for unlimited fuel.

By now my father was starting to get a negative attitude and it’s hard to blame the guy. Things weren’t looking real bright and we didn’t even have any minnows.

Not having minnows didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. I figured we would do just fine with artificial bait. We usually used minnows when the walleye were being finicky and that didn’t usually happen there often in the Spring.

We didn't have enough fuel to go to our favorite pike fishing waters either. That spot was just too far away with the amount of gas we had. We decided to go after walleye and live with the occasional pike we knew we'd likely catch. We don't usually get very large pike fishing like this but 5 - 8 pounders are not uncommon. Those 20 pound lunkers were quite uncommon while we were walleye fishing though.

The theme of our trips had always been to go after lunker pike and catch enough walleye here and there to eat. Pike is good eating but when walleye are so plentiful why bother with all the bones. Pike are lots of fun to catch and that’s what the trip is supposed to be all about.

We were hoping the outfitter knew the boat fuel situation and would bring in some fuel with the minnows the next day. It sure would have been nice to know for certain what our situation was.

Well we fished walleye from Saturday until Tuesday with no signs of our outfitter. We were forced to be ultra conservative with our fuel. Finally on our way back to camp Tuesday afternoon we saw the outfitters' help “trailering” in a boat full of gas jugs. We were happy to see the gas jugs but weren't too thrilled about not being able to get back to our pike waters for over 3 days. The guy didn't have any minnows for us either.

Needless to say we weren’t happy campers. Sure were glad to get boat fuel but about the only thing the walleye were hitting  were minnows. How did we know? By asking other fishermen that were catching walleye. Yeah we caught an occasional walleye but not like the guys with minnows.

We already paid for the minnows and they were an extra expense. I told the outfitters employee about that we weren't happy about not getting minnows and about the propane leaks. I also wanted them to know so the next party wouldn't be short on propane.

We ended up running out of propane ourselves and I used the 20 lb propane tank from the barbecue grill to get us through the last 2 days.

Now that we had enough fuel to reach our coveted pike waters the near constant rain kicked in. It rained and stormed every day for the rest of the trip which then made chancing a trip to the pike waters too risky.

Sometimes the wind would bluster nasty waves for hours on end. If we were to venture 10 miles away and get hung up way over there in a lightning storm it wouldn't have been pretty. As luck would have it, we didn't make it to our favorite pike waters until Friday and had to depart Saturday morning. We did manage to catch one lunker pike over there and only got to fish there for a few hours.

My dad caught the monster and I'm glad he did. He likes going after those huge pike and that’s why he went on that trip. I know he was disappointed about not being able to hit that pike area more, we all were.

If you think this story is bad don’t read what happens next!

Saturday morning we got up at 5:00 AM because we had to load the boats and travel some distance to meet the outfitter on the river bank at 8:00 AM. We did our part but apparently the outfitter didn’t make it on time. This was crucial because missing him meant we kept going down river to find him.

Apparently all the rain had the rivers swelled more than they had for over 25 years. The markers our outfitter set up for us had apparently washed away. We never saw a sign of our outfitter or the bright orange markers we were supposed to have absolutely no problem seeing.

On our way down river we had slipped through a couple small sets of rapids. They weren’t particularly dangerous getting through but far too strong to turn around to back track.

Then it happened.  We were confronted with some white water rapids that looked quite dangerous. After moving back up stream a little to talk to each other to sort the whole thing out we decided to shoot the rapids. We didn’t really have a choice because we couldn’t move up stream much further and there was no place to land a boat between that looked safe or inviting.

By now we knew we were in trouble and when we shot those rapids there was no doubt. The first thing I did was hit the prop on a nasty rock which flung my 20 horse motor clean out of the water locked in position. It was revving like crazy which let me know something bad was happening. I immediately unlocked the motor and let it back in the water and was back under power.

My son was driving the other boat and had very little experience with outboard motors. You guessed it too, he followed me right in and smacked the same rock I did and I could hear the motor revving loudly just like mine did.

When I looked back their boat was nearly 80 degrees to the water. The look on my father’s face was sheer terror and he had the death grip on the sides of the boat. I was yelling “LET THE MOTOR DOWN!” and their boat was totally out of control spinning in circles. Finally my dad caught hold of a branch sticking out from shore and my son got the motor back down in the water.

We barely scathed through this last incident and we knew we had to have missed our outfitter. We had no way of knowing where we were and that’s a bad feeling way up there in the north woods. Flashes of “Survivor Man” were racing through my head along with thoughts of strangling our outfitter.

I thought I’d never see the outfitter again and I was also thinking that’s probably a good thing for him.

Then we saw some sort of bridge going over the river. I thought it was probably a train track bridge but there was a nice place to land the boat right to the left and in front of the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge there was at least 200 feet of raging white water. It was pounding so hard it was muffling the sound of the outboard motor I was sitting right in front of. I knew I had only one chance to needle that boat onto that small patch of grass in front of the bridge.

I backed the boat up as far as I could and gunned that 20 horse outboard motor with everything she had.

I managed to make my mark, jumped out and quickly pulled my boat out of the way. Then I guided my son in, grabbed their boat and yanked it to shore.

We didn’t know where the hell we were but we were no longer at the mercy of the forest or the river, we found a road. Keep in mind this wilderness is huge and we were beyond the edge of any real civilization.

The next turn of events were as mind boggling as the rest of the story. Once we landed our boats we were still very lost. There was a dirt road but we had no idea where it lead to. We decided somebody needed to stay with the boats and our equipment while the rest of the party went to search for help.

I told my father and son that we needed some fishermen to rescue us. "Fishermen would be the only people that would likely come this far from civilization. They would surely be able to help us out but with the river raging the way it was the chance of seeing any fishermen was slim to nil. It would take a hard core fishermen to attempt fishing in that river."

We decided that I would watch the equipment while my son and father went in search of help. To my amazement about 30 minutes later a truck with a boat and trailer appeared far down the road. It was coming from the same direction my son and dad were walking toward.

When the vehicle got close to me it slowed down and there inside were 5 die hard fishermen. My dad, my son and 3 crazy Canadians that thought any day was a good day for fishing. We were rescued, and to our amazement we were only a half mile from our outfitters main outpost.

The 3 Canadians unloaded their boat into the river and gave us a ride to our outfitters' headquarters. Howard, the owner wasn’t there, he was out looking for us. His wife answered the door and didn’t even believe me when I told her we came all the way down the river. She said it was impossible to pass through the rapids in a fishing boat. I explained to her that their boats were in front of the bridge before the rapids. She laughed and said “Not those rapids,  the set of rapids about a half mile in front of the bridge.”

I told her we passed through those rapids in the boat and nearly bought the farm doing it. She then told me if we made it through those rapids we were the first to do so and live through it.

It must have been because the rivers were swelled so much the water level was high enough to get us over most of the big rocks in the rapids.

She actually had to drive to the bridge and see our boats before she even believed what were telling her. Then she drove off to find Howard.

When she returned with her husband he was in utter disbelief.  He shook my hand and told me they were going to make a plaque with my name on it for being the first man to pass through the rapids alive. I wasn’t impressed, we nearly lost our lives and he wanted to make jokes about it. I have a great sense of humor but I really couldn’t find a single reason to even crack a smile for this joker.

While Elsie was off looking for Howard I told their son I was going to let the world know how terrible we were treated. He acted as if he could care less, and he probably didn’t.  I was really hoping he would tell his parents but I doubt they would care either when I look back at the whole thing.

Well I’m keeping my promise to let the world know about this Ontario, Canada fly in outfitter and you are reading the proof.

I have been going to Canada and fishing remote fly in locations since 1979.

I've seen lots of crazy things up there, unpredictable weather, nasty storms, large waves, white water, huge pike, incredible walleye fishing and lots more. My last visit to northern Canada stands out as one of the most memorable. Not because of the excellent fishing which we did enjoy. Not because of the delicious walleye dinners we had every evening. Not because of the beauty, solitude and all the other things we enjoyed. As a matter of fact my last fly in fishing trip to northern Canada was so memorable because we nearly died. Yep that’s so memorable I'd like to forget it, but I can't.

I created this website so fishermen can learn more about what goes on up there in northern Canada. We need a place where we can review fly in fishing outfitters and tell each other about our experiences good or bad.
When outfitters are willing to put their clients into life threatening situations to save money something needs to be done.

Outfitters need a rating system just like hotels, motels, campgrounds, cruise ships, ski resorts and the rest of the tourism industry. Lets give them one.

This is a mission I won’t be able to complete on my own though. I’m asking that outfitters and fishermen both offer input, reviews and ideas to make a fair rating system that benefits both quality outfitters and fishermen.

Visit this page to read more on our thoughts about a fair ranking system for the fly in fishing industry.

Thanks,

Steve Snyder

For Those who really want to know which outfitter is responsible it's O'sullivan Lake Outfitters based out of Aeroland close to Nakina.