Burntwood Lake Lodge

[HuntElk]

Has anyone had any experience at Burntwood lake Lodge in Manitoba? We are taking a trip up there this year and we are flying into an outpost of theirs. Any comments regarding the fishing or the operation?

[Norsky]

I'm heading up there on Tuesday the 15th. Fishing out from the main lodge, should be fun.

[HuntElk]

Please let me know what you think of the place. I would be curious to know what kind of fishing we will be looking at.

[Norsky]

The place was great, the fishing was a little slow since the cold weather had moved in the day before we got there. There are alot of big northerns up there, but finding them and throwing the right lures was a little tough. They don't tell you a whole lot about how and where to fish, but can hire a guide for an extra $125/day, then they will take you to their honey holes and bays that are loaded with fish. I could point them out on a map for you though.

[This message has been edited by Norsky (edited 06-23-2004).]

[HuntElk]

Thanks for the offer on pointing out hot spots on the lake but we are not fishing out of the main lodge. We will be flying in for about 20 minutes so I am assuming our fishing area will be different. Did you have any luck finding walleyes and was there any size to them? Also, how was the family as hosts? Is their facility nice? Do you have any idea how long of a drive it is from Minneapolis? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Norsky]

We drove up to Snow Lake also and it took us about 15 hours, a very very long and boring drive once you get past Winnipeg. We stayed overnight there at the Diamond Willow down by the hospital in Snow Lake. You guys must be flying out to McGee lake, the walleyes there are much larger than in Burntwood. The indians/natives do net quite a few walleyes in the area but I don't think they get up to mcgee. Jigs and Gulp! plastic twister tails worked the best for eyes, we also brought salted minnows which helped also. You really won't see the Gogals much, they seem nice though, Brad will probably just fly you out and pick you up again on your last day. He likes to keep the plane close to the trees on takeoffs. The northerns up there don't seem to like larger baits, I had the best luck on a #4 and #5 mepps spinner with a red and white trailer. Get a good map and find the bays with feeder creeks going into them.

[HuntElk]

Actually we are going out of Dow Lake. Do you know anything about it? Also, how far is the drive once you hit Winnepeg to Snow Lake as far as total mileage and the amount of time it takes to travel it? We will have 6 guys traveling in a rented RV.

[HuntElk]

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it.

[pegleg]

No problem Elk Hunt. Did you realize they do not allow Jack Daniels in Canada?

[HuntElk]

I was not aware of that. Darn! There goes another good trip down the crapper, eh?

[Norsky]

From Winnipeg to Snow Lake it took us about 7 hours, not sure of the miles though, I think it was close to 380 miles. The road actually isn't too bad for driving, it gets a little bumpy hear and there, we did see one van that had went in the ditch. It had started raining and the water pools up on the highway. Our car was hydroplaning quite a bit. I didn't hear anything about Dow lake, they only talked about mcgee and fishing there. The Gogals will probably fly you around if you wanted to try and fish other lakes. Also, I would check you home owners insurance to make sure they would cover you in case someone in your group wrecks a lower unit, lots of rocks up there. Our guide even ran into a couple. By the way, we found the walleyes in about 4 feet of water and windy and overcast days, when the sun came out and the wind died down, we found them down to about 8-12 feet. A GPS and a depthfinder are very handy up there. I brought my Marcum unit and it worked very well. Also I found it would have been nice to have a drift sock at times. The Honda motors were brand new on the boats we had, but they didn't run very well at all, they would stall out and then take about 20 pulls to get going again. Also you might want to bring a good net, something a little larger for pike, or else a Boga Grip would be ideal. The bugs were just starting to get bad but the Ultrathon repellant took care of that.

[This message has been edited by Norsky (edited 06-23-2004).]