A Fly-in Fishing Trip at Kaby Lodge

In early June, I visited Kaby Lodge on Kabinakagami Lake with my partner, Eric. This was our first visit to this scenic destination, and also our first ever fly-in fishing trip. We had the opportunity to get into a ton of walleye and northern pike, and take in the incredible views on this vast body of water. There’s something special about the Northern Ontario landscape. In addition to the great fishing, delicious meals, and cozy accommodations, it was nice to be out in the wilderness without cell service or distractions, soaking up every moment of this adventure. 

Kaby Lodge

Kaby Lodge is family-owned and operated, run by Tom and his wife, Michel, whose family has provided customer service since 1946. Along with their friendly staff, they take care of everything the moment you step out of the floatplane and onto the dock. We felt spoiled having all of our meals taken care of along with daily housekeeping service in our cabin. We also enjoyed the opportunity to spend 3 days on the water with Adam, who has been a fishing guide at Kaby Lodge for 17 years. He certainly knows his way around the lake! It was a nice change of pace to sit back and enjoy the experience as passengers, as we normally take ourselves out fishing. 

Fishing On Kabinakagami Lake

Kabinakagami comes from the Oji-Cree Indigenous language, meaning “lake of many bays”. This lake is over 30,000 acres in size, has over 140 islands, and averages 20 to 24 feet in depth. In addition to walleye and northern pike, yellow perch and whitefish are also found here. We focused on targeting walleye and northern pike and were blown away by all the action! For walleye, Eric and I brought along 6-foot 10-inch medium light spinning setups spooled with 10-pound test fluorocarbon line. I primarily fished a 1/8-oz VMC Mooneye Jighead with a Rapala CrushCity Creeper in the Neon and Black Nightmare colours. Eric did best with a 1/8-oz VMC Ned Rig Jig with a Rapala CrushCity Salted Ned Roll in Black. We also used 3-inch chartreuse grubs. Rain or shine, the bite was on!

For pike, I brought along an 8-foot medium-heavy baitcaster setup spooled with 80-pound test braided line and an 80-pound test fluorocarbon leader. The pike were absolutely crushing a Williams 3/4-oz Whitefish spoon in Yellow and Orange. It was so much fun getting onto schools of pike and catching them cast after cast (same for the walleye)! Eric landed the biggest northern pike of the trip during our final day here. It was a thick 37.5-incher that he incidentally caught on a walleye jig, but we were excited to see it nonetheless! We kept a few walleye during our first day for a delicious fish fry lunch prepared by Tom and Michel. We released all of our other catches. 

Check out all of our catches along with our full experience at Kaby Lodge!

Part 1 at Kaby Lodge:

Part 2 at Kaby Lodge:

Needless to say, our first fly-in fishing trip was an incredible experience all around. Thank you, Tom, Michel and the staff at Kaby Lodge for such a memorable trip that we’ll be talking about for years to come!