The morning was exceptionally bright even though the lake was covered in a thick fog. By the time we had finished up breakfast the fog had lifted and the sky was clear. One canoe passed to the west coming from Jesse Lake and headed off toward Walter Lake. 

I fished with a jointed Rapala as we headed east on Elizabeth Lake and managed to catch one decent sized pike. The narrows on the east end of the lake do not show a portage but you cannot paddle through them so we had to get out and portage. I remembered this from the last time we passed through this area.

The portage into Haliday Lake is difficult and by the time we reached the lake we were ready for a break. The start of the portage climbs a long hill in the middle of what was currently a stream. We did a little fishing while we slowly made our way across Haliday Lake but I don’t recall catching anything. The portage into Sturgeon Lake is also a difficult one that is both up and down a fairly steep climb. The portage ends in an area of flooded timber. It is next to impossible to see from Sturgeon Lake and rather difficult to navigate by canoe.

From Sturgeon Lake we headed east and wound our way up the Deux Riveiera. This area was full of marsh so we kept our eyes open for moose or any wildlife for that part. We did manage to see an osprey and an eagle fighting for the right to fish the river and it appeared that the eagle was winning. We also managed to see several submerged beaver dams. Most of the dams we were able to paddle through/over but at least one required us to get out and scoot the canoe over it.

By the time we reached the twin lakes it was getting warm. The portage to Dore’ Lake was long but very scenic. It passed through several different types of forest and followed the non navigable stretch of the Deux Riveirea up to Dore’ Lake.

When we arrived at the lake we immediately noticed a school of suckers spawning in the crystal clear water right in front of the portage landing. As we paddled out to the main portion of the lake we chased several schools of suckers that darted around attempting to evade us. 

A pictograph location is indicated on the map on Dore’ Lake. On my map the location is slightly east of where the pictographs are actually located. There is a small cliff face opposite the small island along the south shore. It is on this cliff face that a couple very faint drawing are. We actually passed by them the first time we were looking for them but found them on our second attempt. The images are difficult to interpret but one of them appears to be a small canoe to me. The other one I cannot identify.

After checking out the pictographs we crossed the lake to a campsite that is basically in the center of the lake on a wide point. The campsite wasn’t very exciting but not bad either. It was slightly difficult to find two flat spots for our tents but we managed. 

Our plan for the day was to make this our fishing tournament lake. The annual tournament is basically the biggest fish in length caught within a specified time period. You can only enter one fish and it cannot be a pike. The winner gets the coveted Vigoda award, bragging rights, and a lure from everyone else’s tackle box at the end of the trip.

Camp was set up and fire wood was gathered before we had a hearty portion of beef stew compliments of PennPaddler. We got ready to start the tournament but oddly enough, pghportager and I could not find our fishing gear, it had mysteriously gone missing. Eventually we found our gear back in the woods away from the canoes. That didn’t stop us from getting into the canoe and getting a jump start on the tournament.

pghportager and I paddled out from camp and headed to the northwest. I put on my lucky Husky Jerk and cast it off to the side anticipating immediate success. The wind had picked up while we were having lunch. We headed to the more protected west shore and trolled north. Not long after we got out of the waves I had a fish on. It was fighting pretty hard and took me a little while to land it. To my surprise it wasn’t just one fish. I had caught two smallmouth bass at the same time. The lucky lure was working extra hard today. The fish measured about 14 inches each, not tournament winning material so I tossed them back.

The fishing turned out to be pretty slow. pghportager and I trolled over the whole northwest end of the lake and only managed a couple smallmouth. I decided to keep one that was 15 ½ inches, on a stringer, just in case we didn’t manage any more fish. We decided to head south along the west shore. In one cove I almost lost the bass to a rather large pike that took some interest with the bass on my stringer. pghportager noticed it and managed to scare it off.

Just for kicks we decided to head to where we had seen all the suckers near the portage and see if we couldn’t hook into one of them. They were certainly big and not pike. The weather was starting to turn so we didn’t mess around with the suckers for very long. We also didn’t have any fishing gear that would seem appropriate for sucker fishing.

As a wall of clouds moved in so did a fierce wind. pghportager and I decided to head closer to our campsite in case the weather really decided to turn on us. As luck would have it as soon as we entered the main part of the lake the wind was in our face. We stopped fishing and pushed through 3 foot swells in a down right wicked wind till we reached the water in front of camp. The other guys were not back at camp and nowhere to be seen. Since they weren’t back at camp we opted to continue fishing. This time we headed to a semi secluded bay to the east of our camp.

As we entered the bay we could see the others fishing to the north of us. Keeping our game faces on we put the smallmouth on the other side of the canoe so they couldn’t see that we had any catch. I couldn’t tell if they had a stringer hanging from their canoe.

We fished the bay for a short while and ReelHappy and PennPaddler appeared to be heading back to camp. Since they were apparently calling it quits we decided to head back to camp as well. The fishing on Dore’ Lake was not proving to be all that exciting.  As we neared the camp ReelHappy and PennPaddler, who had all ready landed at the camp, were watching us. We slowly trolled by them toward our earlier landing spot. That’s when pghportager hooked into something. He fought the fish while I kept the canoe pointed into the wind. It turned out that there were actually lake trout in the lake. pghportager landed a 23 inch laker. 

We landed at camp shortly after. I was tasting defeat. The others were as well. PennPaddler had a 16 inch smallmouth and ReelHappy was fishless. pghportager was surely feeling victorious as us others just hung our heads.

Dinner for the evening was lake trout, smallmouth bass, and some habanaro grits compliments of ReelHappy’s brother’s restaurant. pghportager also had a side of smack talk which we endured for the rest of the trip. But that is what you earn with the Vigoda.