A satellite image of Kesagami Lake in Northern Ontario offers a misleading picture of the lake's profile and characteristics. Sure, the sandy beaches and appealing points are accurate, but what may surprise you is how different these sub-arctic waters are from most everywhere else in the continent.
The James Bay Basin or the James Bay Lowlands are famous for being the second largest wetlands in the world. At over 320,000 square kilometres in size, this unique system of waterways and peatland situated on clay silt has given life to land and water dwellers since its beginning roughly 8,000 years ago.
Just south of the sub-arctic treeline, Kesagami Wilderness Lodge is located in the heart of Kesagami Provincial Park. Overhanging reddish peat moss banks surround large areas of the lake, and it's otherwise sandy boreal shoreline is home to moose, caribou, black bears, wolves, and a number of other unique Arctic wildlife species such as lemming.
Flying in this May we had limited visibility with storms on the horizon, but still managed to spot a bear with three cubs grazing in a marshy field. I cannot imagine the wildlife one must see from the air on a clear day flying into Kesagami. Had the fishing been slow, perhaps I would have been monitoring the shoreline more closely for wildlife during my visit, but (not) sadly– the fish were hungry.
A common misconception of the lake would have you believe because of its size, it must have substantial depth. A surprise to most, certainly myself, was how such a massive lake has a median depth of only seven feet.
Continuing the wow factor are the fish species of Kesagami Lake. Consisting of northern pike, walleye, whitefish, burbot, and perch, with bait fish species of herring, white sucker, and longnose suckers.
The lake and its inhabitants are of course the main draw to the area, however, once you walk the delightful path towards Kesagami Wilderness Lodge’s main building from the dock, it becomes glaringly obvious you’re going to enjoy your time off the water as much as on.
If you arrange to have a guide for the duration of your stay, you’ll have met them as soon as you exit the float plane at the docks. With a brief introduction and game plan made, your guide will be ready when you are to head out fishing.
Upon entering the main lodge, a welcoming party will serve you hot coffee and make sure you aren't in need of a snack or meal before you depart to your room to get settled. You’ll find your belongings are already there and you can begin getting ready to hit the water or just relax for
the remainder of your first day.
Accommodating guests and meeting their needs are top priorities for Kesagami Wilderness Lodge management and staff. Need extra cushions for your boat ride? How about tea instead of coffee each morning? If it's within their means, they will make it happen for you. It's incredible what this remote fly-in lodge can accomplish for its guests.
Even if you choose not to hire a guide– a service I highly recommend not passing on–dockhands will have your boat ready for you each morning, all you have to do is let them know when you’re planning to set sail.
Being as large as it is, time is required to make your way around the lake, but there is fishing close to the lodge as well for half-days, or days with unfavourable weather. I did well fishing right off the dock begrudgingly waiting for my float plane to arrive. There are several shore lunch spots to choose from on the lake, many with sandy beaches and unique bird species, such as sanderlings.
Once you return from your day on the water, all you have to do is pull up to the dock and they’ll help you empty your belongings and park the boat for you as well.
Fishing for walleye in 3 feet of water will not be weird for me. There was an adjustment period going for ferocious, energetic walleye in less than 10ft at all times. The abundance of bait fish and food for Lake Kesagami’s fish species is absolutely mind-blowing.
On my first drop in the tea-stained water with a simple rig of jighead and fluke-tailed plastic, I fully expected it to keep falling only for it to go slack in 2 seconds. Looking at my guide, MattGreco, who I’m sure read my mind, this can’t be the spot, he simply shrugged. Only having time
to close my bail, and turn a quarter of a crank, my line was tight and the surprisingly fresh fight with my first Kesagami walleye was on.
You could go as finesse or as simple as you want, and there were always fish willing to bite. Speaking as the person on the boat who is usually the last to see success, I did not experience this at Kesagami.
Later in the afternoon, we’d head to clearer sand bottom waters in search of big pike. You could sight fish for them, or you could blind cast. It didn’t matter if you made a cast somewhere you clearly saw there were no fish, one would surprise you in your retrieve, typically right by the boat. The best type of heart-racing fishing we all love.
After catching several pike each afternoon, most of them best 35” or more, we’d head back in for dinner. The beauty of Kesagami is, if you’re game to fish more, your guide is too. Some evenings we’d head back out for the walleye bite, as if we didn't have enough of that each morning. To be clear– you can fish walleye all day at Kesagami and cover a lot of ground doing so, it's just fun to change gears every so often.
While you’re fishing for walleye, it’s no surprise you can happen into a pike. On my second evening, I just happened into my personal best pike at 42” long. Giving us quite a few runs at the boat, it was netted, photographed with a beautiful sunset and released in no time. All great lodges pride themselves on safe fish handling, but I am incredibly impressed with how fluid Matt’s procedure was with getting that fish back into its comfort zone.
I didn’t happen into any of Kesagami’s rogue perch, whitefish or burbot but I did manage to catch more walleye than I have in the entirety of my fishing career. I wish I was exaggerating that statement for the sake of my previous walleye history– but it is very much a fact.
Fishing in Ontario is a quintessential experience for most anglers, we really do have the best of everything here, but I have to admit, while staying at Kesagami I had to keep reminding myself I was still in Ontario at all.
My long days spent on the water weren’t always the perfect sunny conditions you’d hope for on a vacation, but the sweeping Subarctic skies offered great shows of rain walls and ever-stretching rainbows. These dramatic backdrops made Kesagami all the more wild and unpredictable, the type of place I love to visit.
My good friend has been telling me time and time again about Kesagami Wilderness Lodge and how, “this is a place unlike any other you’ve been, Arctic or not.” Well good grief, was he ever right. It's not unlike me to daydream about fishing but I will admit my mind wanders back to
Kesagami more often than not.
What a daydream come true it'd be to once again sit on the shores listening to winter wrens sing over the sizzle of walleye in the pan, and cast my heart out into 8” of sandy water only to be ambushed again and again by greedy pike.
