With the snow now falling, I'm looking forward to next year's annual canoe trip. Our group of four is thinking about going to Wabakimi (2 of us have been there before - to the south end of the park).

Would appreciate any suggestions for routes. Would have 6-7 nights in the park and fishing would be the priority. Nothing is off limits regarding entrance / exit to the park. I know there are options as we once entered via a train.

Assuming most lakes offer walleye (based on previous trips), but would love to target some trophy pike and have a chance at a big laker. The trip is typically end of May, early June.

Any ideas?!

At that time of year the fishing lodges will be at their peak season.
Perhaps fly into Wabakimi Lake and paddle out to Little Caribou.
You get a shuttle there into Armstrong.
Wild Waters or Mattice Lake outfitters can help with that trip.

The train in option is not very appealing because the westbound trains from Armstrong leave you off in the middle of the night. But with the help of an outfitter it can be done.

Do you want to drive to the edge of the park and paddle in?
See the thread I started on Drive Up Access.
If you enter at Smye Lake, you can paddle past the fishing lodge on Flindt in 2 days and then fish Gault, and the Allenwater River up to Brennan. You will likely run into motor boats fishing in Brennan as there are several lodges in Brennan.

Another option from Smye is to go up through the Flindt River into Tew Lake. From there you could fish the west end of Wabakimi Lake. Again, Wabakimi has lodges and there may be motorized fishing in that lake.

With 2000 km of canoe routes in Wabakimi your options are wide and varied.

Fly into Granite, paddle north to Wabakimi, then paddle east towards Smoothrock and exit via Little Caribou. Shuttle it back to Armstrong. It's a week to 10 days or so but good trip and you'll cover a lot of water with good fishing all of the way.

Another easy access trip - Enter at Little Caribou go into Smoothrock and down through Onamakawash and train out. Train picks you up at Schultz's Trail around 9 am on a Friday.
We did this in 2011. Trip Report Here.

It gives a good mix of river, small lake and big lake fishing/paddling. The portages are well established and campsites are easy to come by. Mattice Lake or Wabakimi Wildwaters outfitters can help with shuttle and train coordination.
I don't know of any other outfitters up there that cater to canoeists.

quote jcavenagh: "Another easy access trip - Enter at Little Caribou go into Smoothrock and down through Onamakawash and train out. Train picks you up at Schultz's Trail around 9 am on a Friday.
We did this in 2011. Trip Report Here.

It gives a good mix of river, small lake and big lake fishing/paddling. The portages are well established and campsites are easy to come by. Mattice Lake or Wabakimi Wildwaters outfitters can help with shuttle and train coordination.
I don't know of any other outfitters up there that cater to canoeists. "

Good advice, and I would tack on to this that time permitting you could skip the train out and cross the RR tracks at Schultz's trail and continue down to the Kopka River and have your car spotted for you at Bukemiga. This would add about three days of paddling so maybe you don't have time for it, but something to think about. Trip report

And, that early in the season there is likely to be water in the culvert. So...it's all good.
AND...correct me if I'm wrong, but that would not require those beast portages with the ropes and ladders, etc.

Thanks for the posts. Regarding entering/exiting the park, we are completely flexible - just looking for one epic trip.

Right now its a toss up between 1) flying into Granite and going up through Wabakimi and then through Smoothrock and out Caribou or 2) flying into Spring and going up through Smoothrock and out Caribou.

As you may see on the other topic toward the top of this board, we are also highly interested in the Luella Attwood area. It doesn't sound like many canoes paddle these waters (we are aware of the outposts), so not sure if we'd be spending more time clearing portages than on the water.

To many options, too little time...

The Luella/Attwood area was covered by The Wabakimi Project in 2013. Long lost portages were located, cleared, measured and mapped. Campsites have been identified and cleaned in many instances. Information on this area is available in The Wabakimi Project's Volume 4. I was there and did the Attwood through Guerin part of the project that summer.

Walter, we could also put you on to a fly-in (or road-in)/ take out at road route on Crown Land southwest of the park (in fact, it connects to the Smoothrock/ Tamarac Lake area). We caught lakers and pike in some of those lakes, and the river in the last stretch has brookies. This route was cleared and mapped (for Project, but is not yet published) last summer. The moving water portions are downstream runs, once you come out of Mountain Lake, if you go from fly-in to road take-out, and the road take out is an easy shuttle back to Mattice. This route could also be taken as part of an egress from the Park, if you were to fly in to the Smoothrock area. Those Crown Land lakes see almost no fishing... One way to do that is to leave your vehicle at Mattice, get a flight in, and have a shuttle arranged for the short distance back to Matttice. Feel free to email me, if that one sounds interesting. Ray T.

Correction to the above: the route I am talking about, above, runs SE from Tamarac, not SW. (Thanks BV!). Ray T.