Fishing White Lake 5

One year, it was in the spring, a group of us headed for White Lake. That lake can get so rough in bad weather we decided to camp in a sheltered area. Just to the north of One Eye Bay was a long cut, seen on the map and it led to Ravine Lake. This lake is just what its name implys, a long and narrow ravine..

The beginning of the lake is where the blue dot is. We figured that if we camped there we would be able to fish no mater how much the wind blew and it could sure get rough.

One morning we saw four guys on a big pontoon boat come in the cut. We went out to talk to them and they said they had spent the night in One Eye Bay because the big lake got so rough that it almost flipped the pontoon boat!! The pontoon boat was a fairly large one with two 35 hp Johnstons on it! Man it had to be rough out there! We hardly noticed it back where we were camped. I remember one day we were looking back toward One Eye Bay from our protected bay and something looked odd. We could not figure what it was we were seeing but decided to investigate.

A couple of us hopped in a boat and headed out to look it over. As we neared the chanel we could see that it was huge waves we were seeing. They were coming across the opening – see yellow arrow and were about 10 or 15 ft high and crashing into that little bay. We were in the sheltered bay to the north of the opening. That was scary because we had camped the year before on the edge of that little bay. Thankfully we had no storm like that.

One day we decide to take a run to the northern end of Ravine lake. As you can see by the map it was quite a run. We fished along the way and picked up enough fish for a shore dinner. One odd thing worth mentioning is that just north of our camp, blue dot, our compass would go nuts. It would spin like a top. There must be a lot of iron in the area or something.

As we neared the north end of Ravine lake we noticed smoke coming from an old run down trappers cabin. There was a boat there and you could see someone had made some rough patches to the cabin. There was a tarp tied over the top to shed off rain and the window had been crudely boarded up.

We pulled into shore and two guys came out. We got into a conversation and we found that they were also from Pontiac, where we lived. The cabin was just an old trappers cabin and they had been up for a couple weeks and were staying a month.

They invited us into the cabin, which was fairly large for a trappers cabin and as we walked in we saw that there was a tent pitched, inside of the cabin. They laughed and said that the roof leaked and the tent had mosquito netting. They used the rest of the cabin for cooking and such but at night they slept in the tent. Smart.

I noticed a rifle leaning against the wall and mentioned it. They said that it was for a bear that had been hanging around camp. We were supprised and they took us outside and pointed out what we had not noticed before. The wooden door of the cabin was all clawed up and there were some cans laying around that had been all chewed up. They said that the bear had been coming around almost every day and that they had a lisence and were gonna shoot the thing. I asked them what was holding them back and they said that they were waiting until the end fo their vacation because they had no way of preserving it and it would cost some money if they were to take it to a freezer in White River. Sounded smart to me. I don’t know if they ever got it or not.

They told us about another lake to the east of them, accessable by taking a moose trail- see yellow line, the cabin is at the yellow dot at the north end of Ravine lake. This lake was a fly in lake and was full of nice fish. There were a couple boats left there and they were rented by a lodge out on the main highway. We would have to pay at the lodge and then just hike to the boats and go fishing. Easy huh?

That might be story 6