I spent 30 days paddling Quetico chasing fish and good photos and video. The first 17 days were solo plus my dog and the last 13 days were tandem plus my dog. I came out for one night to resupply in Atikokan and pick up my friend in Fort Frances. I did the same trip last year as a full month solo plus dog and have found that one night out for resupply, gear repair and a mental reset is the way to go. Also, 16 nights of food for my dog and me is about 50 pounds which puts my total gear weight without boat at about 110 pounds which I have decided is enough. I carried 11 pounds of camera gear including a full frame DSLR, a waterproof point and shoot with a fisheye lens, a GoPro, a light weight tripod and a lot of batteries. I love to fish but it gets to the point where you have caught enough fish and the challenge of getting good photos and videos becomes a nice secondary project and over the course of a month it is good to have a project. I don't travel much for such a long trip. Both halves of the trip I went in at Stanton, did a loop through Jean and came out at Nym. I am happy staying in one camp for a few days if there are good fishing lakes to which I can day trip. The video is meant to be a enjoyable six minutes. It is scenery heavy at the start and fishing heavy in the second half so don't shut it down if you are seeing too much scenery and not enough fishing. We live on a great planet. Get out there and enjoy it.

Canoe Fish Quetico

Thanks John, quality stuff.

Strong work! Thank You!!

JohnH,

Very well done. Great photography and fly fishing at its finest.

Very nice!

Hey John,
we crossed paths on Jean, my son loves those flies! My camera got some grit in it and gave me trouble or I would have some pics of big bass caught on your creations!

To paraphrase Joe Frazier, " Lawdy, lawdy, that was great!"

Great video

Really enjoyed the video. Thanks for posting it!

LotW -

It is great to hear from. I am amazed that I see people on the lakes and then encounter them on the board. Talking to you guys and hearing you caught some fish on those flies was really one of the high points of the trip. I hope your son ties up something good and gets a twenty incher on it.

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

That was really enjoyable, thanks!

Nice! Cool dog, great pic of the dragonfly with empty shell casing nearby and several nice fish. Almost makes me want to take up fly fishing (almost ;-)

The dragonfly seems to be a major food item for the bass in June. We saw lots of bass poking around next to the shore in a foot of water and I suspect they were primarily looking for dragonflies crawling out. They usually had a beat and cruised back and forth along a short stretch of the shoreline. Casting to them was some of the best fishing of the trip and as long as you did not spook them you had a good chance of getting a grab. Many times you would see the fish coming for the fly or see the wake of the fish approaching the fly. Exciting stuff - prowling the shoreline in your boat looking for feeding bass in the shallows.

Your best chance to get a dragonfly photo is when they have just broken out of their shuck and are letting their wings dry. Once they get their wings working they won't tolerate you getting close enough for a photo which for my lens is 6 inches or less. They are cool critters but if I was a small bug I would be terrified to see one. They seem like the tyrannosaurus rex of the aquatic insect world.

Awesome video! Looks like a great trip!

Well done!!

Dragonflies and praying mantis are my favorite insects with Dragon fly probably #1.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing! (My mutts would never be curled up asleep in the bottom of the boat while I'm fighting a fish. I'm jealous!)

That dog is pretty good but she got in the habit of going into the woods on a hunt and not coming back. She would do it when saw me loading up the boat. I would paddle off like I was leaving to lure her out of the woods. A guy camping near us got real worried because he thought I was leaving her behind. I do worry that she will run into a couple of wolves which we did see at Chatterton. Also saw a bear on a portage into Oriana Lake. She alerted me to a Moose one day that had sneaked up behind while I was doing some wade fishing. I imagine she felt pretty fierce chasing off a big critter like that.

Johnh: "That dog is pretty good but she got in the habit of going into the woods on a hunt and not coming back. She would do it when saw me loading up the boat. I would paddle off like I was leaving to lure her out of the woods. A guy camping near us got real worried because he thought I was leaving her behind. I do worry that she will run into a couple of wolves which we did see at Chatterton. Also saw a bear on a portage into Oriana Lake. She alerted me to a Moose one day that had sneaked up behind while I was doing some wade fishing. I imagine she felt pretty fierce chasing off a big critter like that."

Off with you, Bullwinkle!

What a lucky dog ! thanks for sharing John !