Ryan Lake 2015 Edition

[genoel]

It’s a little late coming but here’s the report on the 2015 edition of our annual Ryan Lake fly in fishing trip courtesy of Mikisew Sportfishing.
This year my lovely wife Liz and I seriously considered skipping our beloved journey to Ryan Lake. But after being contacted by Denis, a member of the group we flew back with on their trip out from McLelland Lake last year, who had decided to give Ryan Lake a try and wanted some information about the lake, we reconsidered and thought it would be a shame to break our streak of consecutive years with a visit to our favourite place. This was my 11th consecutive year on a Miksew trip and my 10th visit to Ryan Lake so Denis figured I might be able to give him a few pointers.
Anyways, we packed up our things and spent a couple of days camping on the way up to Fort McMurray before reporting to McMurray Aviation on the morning of Aug. 26th. We were quickly on our way aboard the scheduled flight to Fort Chipewyan. After a quick wave on the way by to my brother working at Shell’s Albion plant



we arrived at Fort Chip.



After a brief stopover there, we were picked up by the Caravan and began a bit of a tour. First we stopped at Loutit Lake where we picked up Gord Jonah and his lovely wife.



Gord manages several companies for the Mikisew band and we were soon on our way with them to check out a couple of their other camps. We made a stop at the beautiful camp at Colin Lake where we took a few pictures and looked around.



Soon we loaded up again and headed over to see the camp at Cornwall Lake.



After a quick stop there for another tour we were on our way again and shortly arrived at Ryan Lake.



After a quick visit there we, thanked Gord and his wife for allowing us to tag along with them on the tour and they were on their way back to Fort Chip to catch a flight back to Fort McMurray. As it turned out, Denis and his group were at Ryan Lake when we arrived. They seemed to really have enjoyed their trip and it was nice to visit with them while we waited for the Caravan to return. Denis left us some of his ‘secret’ bait, which worked great, and soon the plane returned and they were on their way home.



We loaded our gear into the cabin, had a quick lunch and headed out on the lake. We had our first walleye 3 minutes after we started trolling and soon had a couple of nice keepers for supper.



After supper we headed back out on the lake and were treated to a wonderful sunset which was the perfect end to what had been a long but great day. We were sure glad that we had decided to make the trip after all.



More to come.

[BuckMaster101]

Keep it coming, Thanks

[genoel]

The next morning brought another spectacular Ryan Lake sunrise over the eagle nest and was a preview of the rest of our stay.



We caught many more nice walleye and even started keeping a few of the larger ones so they could freeze for the trip home.



We noticed a few changes this year from years past. Firstly, the blueberries were a bit harder to find, but we still found plenty to enjoy our usual pancake breakfasts.



Secondly, the water level was down about a foot and the rock we had left our son standing on a few years prior which had barely shown then, was much more obvious this year.



Also we seemed to catch a few larger pike this year than usual despite targeting the walleye but still no real monsters with the largest being just over 90 cms long.





Some things did stay the same. We saw the resident eagles, peregrines, kingfishers and a few of the other local birds.





Still more to come.

[genoel]

As usual, we also enjoyed the beauty of some of the plants which scratch out a living amongst the rocks





and enjoyed some of the colors of the trees which had just begun to change.



We experienced the usual sunrises,



and sunsets.



And despite a full moon looming,



we caught plenty of these,



which led to many of these,



and probably way to much of these.



Last batch to come.

[genoel]

But alas on Aug 31st, after 5 days which seemed to end in 5 minutes, the moon went down,



the sun came up,



and after a quick visit from our local mink, it was time to clean the cabin and pack up for our trip out.



Way too soon the plane arrived and dropped off a couple of fellows to take our place and we loaded up and were on our way.



We made the short flight back to Fort Chip where we said goodbye to our travelling companion for that portion of the trip and transferred to another plane which was waiting for us.



Once again, we were quickly on our way and once again we flew back over the delta,



past the dunes,



and followed the winter road,



back to Fort McMurray.



As usual we would like to thank the people at Mikisew Sportfishing, Ron Herman for fitting us in at such a late date and Gord Jonah for taking us along on the tour on the way up there. We also must thank all the fine folks at McMurray Aviation for once again getting us and our gear there and back safely.
Gord told us that they may have some exciting changes in place for next year so if you have never taken a trip with them I once again HIGHLY RECOMMEND it and if you already have experienced what they have to offer you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about. Try it you might just like it, WE SURE DO!
We can't wait until next year!

George and Liz Noel

[Red Bullets]

Great photo album. Thanks for sharing.

[livinthedream]

Nice!

[diamonddave]

I love those reports!! Simply awesome pictures!

[Flight01]

It's been 6 years since I was at Wylie lake with mikisew. Your pictures of Ryan bring back memories. Thanks for posting

[Walleye101]

Very nice. We were the group at Loutit right after Gord. You may have seen my son and I taking a stroll on the point by the cabin when you guys landed on the water. I'll post some pics soon. I caught my personal best Pike. 20.4lbs and numerous 10-15 pounders. And of course a ton of eye's for the pan.

[outdoors forever]

I thoroughly enjoyed this pic thread!

Very nice, looks beautiful, and thanks for taking the time to put the pictures up!


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