Many anglers know this letdown well. You drive for hours, haul your gear down to the dock, and find three other boats already sitting on the point you came to fish. Lake Ogascanan Lodge & Outposts offers a different kind of week. The lodge sits about 60 miles (100 km) up a bush road in a restricted-access zone of Quebec, with no towns, no residents and no other lodges anywhere on the water. The Mullens family is the only outfitter and the only landowner on the lake, so the only boats you see out there belong to other Ogascanan guests.As a Quebec sportfishing lodge, Ogascanan centres every trip on three fish: walleye, northern pike and lake trout. All three reproduce naturally in the lake, and none of them are stocked. Guests can choose from 10 cabins spread across six locations. The drive-in Main Camp suits groups who want to unpack and get on the water fast, while the private outposts and the Island Outpost Camp let a group boat out and keep a corner of the lake to themselves. Boats and motors come with the trip, and every group gets a lake orientation on arrival from owners who have fished this water for decades.
"People ask us all the time if the drive is worth it. We tell them the truth. Sometimes you're fishin', and sometimes you're catchin', and the fish don't always bite the same. We can promise that nobody else is working this water. There's no other lodge, no cottages, and no winter fishing. The law protects the walleye, and we coach our guests so they don't waste a day hunting for fish. If you want a quiet lake and fish that are really there, come see us," said a spokesperson for Lake Ogascanan Lodge & Outposts.
The fishery holds up because the law protects it, not because of a camp rule. Ogascanan sits in a conservation zone where anglers must release both small and large walleye, and the season runs only 16 weeks, with no ice fishing and no fishing at all for the rest of the year. Big pike and lake trout go back in the water, too. The camp posts fresh catch photos on its Fresh Fish page during the season and adds a new photo gallery every year, so you can judge the fishing on what is happening now, not on pictures from five seasons ago.
About Lake Ogascanan Lodge & Outposts
Lake Ogascanan Lodge & Outposts is a family-run fishing lodge and Quebec lake trout outfitter on a restricted-access lake in Quebec's bush country. The Mullens family outfitting tradition started in 1964 with Ken Mullens on Kipawa Lake. His son Brad and Brad's wife Ginny ran their first season at Ogascanan in 1989, and their sons Dan and Jeremy now handle the day-to-day work with help from the rest of the family. Guests fish for walleye, northern pike and lake trout from a drive-in Main Camp, private outposts and an Island Outpost Camp. To check rates, see this season's catches or book a trip, visit https://ogascanan.com/ .