View topic - Beresford Lake 2012

Oh darn, last years trip report is still on the first page of this forum, oh well.

We went back for Labour Day again this year with the intention of day tripping out of the park to new local streams/lakes.

I work 4 10 hour days so every weekend is 3 days and long weekends are 4 days which can allow for more variety and some peace and quiet, and it allows us to head out of the city on Saturday morning long after the crush is gone from Hwy 59.

We arrived saturday afternoon and set up in the sporadic showers and had everything up in time for more steady showers. We did manage to get on the lake later for a little fishing but apparently most people weren't catching anything and we only managed 3 pike.

Had some pretty cool thunderstorms roll through early sunday morning which dropped a fair amount of rain and it was overcast and windy. We headed down to Tooth Lake intending to do some small mouth bass fishing but it was blowing up way too much for us to get out in the canoe so we headed back up to the Manigotagan and paddled upstream. One of our desired day trips was supposed to be into Gem Lake, where we have never been before, but getting a late start after visiting Tooth we only got as far as the first rapid/portage.

The fishing in that pool was pretty awesome, with almost a dozen pike, 4 small mouth and 4 nice pickerel. The portage itself is nice and clean and measured out to 335 paces. I had previously mapped the trek into Gem at 12kms and this first rapid is almost 1/3 of that total, but we lacked time so fished and floated back down to the road.

On our way down in good water, floating at 7.8 kmh we had a cow moose come out of the bush and walk straight toward us before finally seeing us, she stopped, looked for a few seconds, then ran for the forest, stopped and looked again before disappearing. Thus, I got yet another fuzzy moose picture.

The Manigotagan has good flow in the upper end so eventually it will get down to the bottom end and bring the level up somewhat.

Christine decided she didn't have the energy that weekend for the 24km round trip paddle into Gem so we canned that idea for now. We are still planning a Thanksgiving trip for this year so that might fit the bill, or we may go do the Rabbit River then.

It rained fairly heavy sunday evening for an hour or so but monday dawned beautiful with a south/west wind and we decided to explore the lake further.
We headed to the north end and up into Moore Creek then Beresford Creek to the first rapid. After catching only one skinny pike in the pool and having boats come up the river, we went back and took the Moore Creek branch up further until we happend upon a beaver dam. At this point we just turned back to the lake to fish our way back to camp.

Not much in the way of fish that day but a steady headwind gave us a decent workout. Once I tracked out our route for that day it turned out to be about 16km of paddling with another 4 later that night so we could easily have done the Gem paddle, but of course we would need to get out of bed before 9am too. Having it get dark early and the sun rising later gives us plenty of sleep time.

Typical Monday evening in the park after everyone else has left is to go around and check to see who left a fire burning in there pit. We found 3 this year we needed to douse. Yes, they are steel boxes the fires are in but still pose a threat if the wind gets up.

That evening we took a paddle down the Garner a couple of portages to fish some pools and had some luck with smaller pickerel and pike and the river is up and running well this year, likely 2 feet higher than last year for sure, with good flow.

Tuesday morning dawned bright and cool as we packed and headed out to the city, going the long way across 304 and visiting Marty at Wallace Lake Park before heading home. The Manigotagan at Woods Falls looks a little low but the water upstream should push the gauge up in a week or so.

All in all it was a good little trip with some new water explored and more ideas and plans in the works to go further next time or next year, if I'm still in Manitoba next year.

Karin

pics

last pic

Nice trip, your lucky to be able to get away to such a nice area on a 3 day weekend.
That picture of the stripper is nice, along with the Garner River falls pics.

Hi Robin

Yes, it is only a 3 1/2 hour drive to that area and there is so much more to explore in the future in Nopoming Park. Atikaki is more desolate, less likely to see people out there than in Nopoming. On the drive up Saturday morning we saw 8 vehicles at the Rabbit River parking lot and the lot at the Seagram Route had at least a dozen vehicles. The lot at Tooth Lake, which has about a 1/4 mile walk in to the lake and no back country camping was full as well, so it must be good fishing in there.

One more trip this fall then maybe next year will be more. This year I've only actually been out three times. I'm pondering a move to Red Lake sooner than later so that would change where I would paddle next year.

The stripper performed very well considering it is called the "Cottage Cruiser". It is a bit hard to turn, it lacks rocker, but tracks straight as an arrow and takes weather well and is very stable for a boat considered to have poor initial stability. I may just have to build another one since I still have the molds, I just need to make it lighter. It got alot of attention too, ,moreso when people found out we built it.

Thanks for looking in.
Karin

Thanks for the report Karin. I agree, the stripper looks great, as did the scenery.
Cheers,
Bryan

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