In the summer of 2001, my Brother Michael along with his Sons went on a Fly-In fishing trip near Azilda, Ontario and later told us how much they enjoyed their 7 days of fishing and exploring the lake.  He said the fishing was really good on Lake Scotia which is among many other lakes owned by Sudbury Aviation who have a float plane airport just outside of Azilda Ontario.

Fishing near Baltimore is out of the question nowadays, even with the Chesapeake Bay so near because of water pollution in all the tributaries caused by continuing dumping of sewage and industrial chemicals.  The only place we did fish was Loch Raven Reservoir which supplies water for Baltimore by renting a boat with an electric motor since gas engines are prohibited.  Recently there was talk about prohibiting 2 stroke gasoline outboard motors on the bay, requiring 4 stroke which reduces motor oil pollution.  Politicians struck it down since the boating industry complained it would hurt their sales.

My wife enjoys fishing as much as I do and we checked into making reservations on a lake for one week.  Marg, the owner of Sudbury Aviation told us over the telephone that Lake Scotia is intended for groups of five or more and suggested we try Lake MacSmith which is 1.5 miles in length with plenty of fish and wildlife.  We booked for the last weekend in July 2002 and sent our deposit.  Time went slow anticipating the trip to upper Ontario for the first time and the thrill of having our own lake to ourselves for 7 days from Saturday morning until the following Saturday.  She recommended we stay at a local motel the night before so that we could be at the airport by 7 AM and that she would make reservations for us at the Valley Inn about a mile from the airport.  The Valley Inn was nice since we could back our vehicle right up to the sliding entrance door.

We were told it was OK to take our 22 pound dog Sadie with us and that she could also stay in the motel.  On our first trip to Azilda in 2002, we went via Niagara Falls and around Toronto which was very confusing not having navigation features on our vehicle except for a small Garmin GPS device which had no voice features.  We made it to Azilda Friday morning after napping at a rest area along the way.  That gave us time to look around and watch the float planes go in and out of surrounding lakes.  Many people there own their own plane and depend on it for much of their transportation.  That Friday evening after checking in, we went shopping for food items such as milk, coffee, vegetables etc.  My Brother told us we would be eating fish each day for dinner, either Walleye or Bass and were told Pike is very difficult to filet but a thrill to catch and release.

We were at the airport by 6:30 AM that Saturday morning and walked around a nearby park situated on Ramsey Lake.  When they opened, we paid for the trip in American funds not realizing we should have stopped at the border to exchange some American currency to Canadian for shopping and gasoline. At the time, the American dollar was $1.47 to the Canadian $1.00 where we made out fairly well renting the lake.  In about an hour, they helped load the plane which was an older Dehaviland Beaver which had plenty of room inside for our gear and basic foods.  Our dog Sadie sat in my wife's lap in the back seat looking out the window as though she was in our pickup truck on a highway. 

The lake was beautiful as the plane came in for it's landing which was our first experience in a float plane and was fascinated how the pilot Mel cut the engine and floated right up next to the pier.  We were told the cabins were constructed from pine trees growing there at the cabin's site.  Everything else such as the propane powered refrigerator, stove etc were flown in by their versatile Dehavilland Beaver planes.

There are separate pages on this site that give descriptions of previous trips along with some photos:
LAKE MACSMITH 2002       LAKE CONNIE 2003       LAKE MACSMITH 2004      LAKE MACSMITH 2005