BUSHMAN'S LAC EVANS OUTFITTERS - Northern Quebec's information Source

Has anyone used this outfitter out of Northern Quebec?? Heard about them thru a contact at work and their lakes and fishing sound great.
Our group has fished several good lakes in Manitoba and Ontario and we thought we would give Quebec a try..

Would appreciate any feedback..

This guy is not an outfitter! he is a booking agent. so he is just after a commission check, told us we would get an extra day of fishing and ended up flying us out 2 days early, i can tell you a lot more>>>..... if you like. what camp were you looking at.?

Rogers,

If you have any info good or bad i sure would love to hear it as I am thinking about going with these guys. How was the fishing? Did they deliver what say they would? Thanks in advance for your help.

i am not in the business of "bad mouthing" people, let me know what camp you are going to and i will "fill you in", i heard last year that one of the guides at an outpost got drunk and punched an American out.
Lot of sizzle for this promoter, but again he is not the outfitter, so be aware he is not sympatetic to any complaints, he does not have a nickle in it.
What camp are you considering.

Lac evans. kirk island

different company. www.BushmanOutfitters.com runs Evans. I have been there also, Fishing is more than what they said it was. we had 17 pike over 43 inches, and 2 of them 48".
Curious, why the confusion.? i have an bushLAND brochure from sport show and nothing in it about Evans?

I think the outfitter you are talking about is Bushman
outfitters,not Bushland

your right , different company, again one is an Outfitter
(BUSHMAN) and one is booking agent from Ohio (Bushland), not
associated from what i heard from the owners of Bushman. 
gone with both. the one i had trouble with was the guy from
Ohio, Sari his name was. and i know other groups that had
similar experiances.

Our group has fished on Evans three times including last july.
It is bushman that runs the operation.  They have wood cabins
with bunks abd refridge stove the usual. They also have a hot
shower set up that was pretty nice on the hot days we had last
year. We had our best trip last year on PiKe. The weeds were
up and it was awesome. We only fished for walleyes a few
times and we had to look around but once we found the schools
they bit good. The last trip we got some bad weather but last
july was perfect. I personally got 12 over 40 " with my
biggest at 47 1/2"  Johnson spoons and yellow pork tail 
was the best. We have fished
quite a few places have caught bigger numbers but the average
last year was running around 14 lbs. Its a Pike factory but
you have to release all Pike.

 Rogers;
 
 Thanks for the posts. I definitely would like to get more
information
about Bushland from you (yes the booking agent from Ohio). We
were looking at Lake Clarkie, Lake Rosee or Lake Rossignol.
Bushland is sending me a list of references, but I have more
faith in the information I get from guys who use this board.

 I certainly am starting to think twice about them after
seeing your replies..        

clarkie is in the middle of the new Hydro project from what i understand, the hydro encampment is only a few miles away from lake. know group from PA that went , and got 4 pike for the entire week total ! , we did just a little better 2 years ago, but reports are that Hydro workers have fishing it out.i heard that when i stopped at K381 to get gas and directions. besides that it was some heck of a ride (4.5) hours past Matagami to get to so called base ( a picnic table and dock in the off the road with black flies). We did not do too good there, walleye were nice size, but not many and pike were few and far between, caugght 1 small laker. i heard it was good when it first opened about 10 years ago, but lack of good catch and release policy and small eco system have strained it ( that is my opinion). I know other lakes, i fsihed one and know groups who fished there.. They are run by a french Quebecois outfitter, Mirage. Reference are good , but i have found out from years of good and bad trip, that what is good for some is not good for all. and some reference are usually hand picked and given perks to talk up a camp. i am going to do some research and talk to guys who i know who went also.

what species are you mainly after ?

Rogers;

Thanks for the information. We are mainly walleye fisherman but we enjoy catching lakers and northerns also. Our group is fishing Cherrington Lake out of Red Lake ,Ontario this year and I am really looking for a new place for 2008. Cherrington is a great walleye lake for both quantity and quality, but the laker and northern fishing could be better.(Always searching for the perfect place)

We got spoiled by a lake in Northern Manitoba that had all three species plus great action (Plumbtree Lake) . The only problem was the 24 hour drive and three years in a row we had motors die on portage lakes.. It is frustrating spending a day or two of your fishing trip rowing across a lake instead of fishing.. After the third time we just gave up on the outfitter.

I know there are not many lakes that have the eco-system and structure to support viable popoluations of all three species and that is what drew me to Bushland's. Also, it would be great to catch some speckled trout>. Never fished for them before..

We live in Wisconsin, so most of the guys I know fish the Ontario and Manitoba provinces..Just thought we would try Quebec and see what feedback I could get from WC members..

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.. I did check out Bushman's website after I saw the posts and they look like a viable option..

Genet:

it is hard to get a lake with lots of species. and good fishing for ALL. been fishing Canada for 35 years. found that if you get into Lakers , water must be at least 60ft deep, and clear. that throws the Pike and walleye fishing off. and vise versa. Had great trip at Gangler's outpost a few years back. but got a little out of our price range because of the airfare. the Walleye at clark lake were nice size, but tough fishing, and we also gave up on this guy (ohio), . 3 strikes and he's out. we sould have walked after 1st. but we are creatures of habit. and we got a discount on 2nd trip. i have had good luck on Evans. Pike fishing was something your dream and read about, and people there were nice. walleye were fast actions for us mostly 20 to 24 iches. but have heard from other groups that fished one of the other camps there that they get 24 to 32" walleye, although i seem to remember that you had to release the ones over 20". also did well on Gouin for walleye. not too many big pike. Just depends what you are after. my group likes monster pike over 40" and enough walleye action to feed us. and we want to be alone. i fished the other lake you spoke of, rosignol. nice accomatadtions, & equipmetnt, but 140 ft of water proved hard fishing , and the bugs were horrible around the camp area (built in swamp) walleye were scarce, and all 16-18inches. had some lakers and caught some brookies but not enough to keep us happy. later found out that the lake was outfitted for 30 years (not catch and release) by Figaro from Chibougamou or misstasini.

What time of the season do you usually go.?

Rogers,
Sounds like you have been fishing up north as long as I have. I agree with you about the multi species. I have fished at 33 lodges and outposts since my first trip to Quebec in 1963. I fished rossignol 26 years ago with Figaro.It was called the fire lakes then and It was getting fished down then. ( no catch and release) I saw some guys in another boat throw pike up on the bank like they were carp. Sad! If you want real brook Trout fishing go to Minipi. The Seal River above Radisson is good but nowhere near as professionally run. For lakers Athabasca has my vote. As for Pike , which is what I target usually, its a tossup between Lake Evans in Quebec and The North Seal in Manitoba. The average size in Evans is hard to beat. The North Seal has three different outposts that have great Pike numbers. The last two trips to Evans we averaged 33 over 40 inches for four of us with three over 46 each trip. I fished the Gouin res way back when you had to fly in but with no Catch and release
and multiple outfitters it has suffered. Where did you fish when you went to Evans? We have been to Kirk Island and Crow bay. We caught more large fish in Crow but the weather was better than the Kirk Isl trip.
Are you going up this year? if so when.

some thoughts about lac evans for people who concentrate on walleye - this is, after all, walleyecentral. we spent a week at the crow bay camp and everything that has been said about pike is pretty much true - BIG!. however, walleye were dissappointing - i guess mainly because "there just ain't no structure". this lake is in the james bay lowlands - ie: not in the canadian shield - and as a result, you can motor for miles and miles in a constant 3 feet of water. rocks and other associated structure that most of us love (or hate for the snags) that we find in shield lakes are very rare. you have to troll and troll and hope to find a flock. we did lake kesagami in ontario also and it's the same thing - flat for miles and miles and shallow.

i'm not putting thes types of lakes down - it's just that if you've fished the exensive structure associated with shield lake around armstrong, red lake, pickle lake, etc., you'll be in for a big surprise at evans or any other james bay lowlands lake.

phish

Phish,

Your right about Evans not being a true shield lake, but your dead wrong about no structure and walleye. The channel out to the main lake from Crow Bay is 50' deep. You probobly went north on the main lake because there is alot of shallow water up there. If you would have turned south out of the Crow bay channel and looked at your depth finder you would notice the river channel between fish island and the eastern mainland. The water is about 25' deep out there and the channel drops about 7 to 12 feet. All you have to do is set up a few marker bouys on the downwind channel edge and drift through with bottom bouncers and your choice of lure. I advise trolling the edge first to find the fish. Last year the school was about 1/2 Mile longin July. We got eyes up to 27" but most were 18 to 22. Occasionally you will get bit off by a huge Pike or if you are lucky lip hook him. The guy that taught me the spot and how to fish it is from Bradford PA up by Kinzua dam. He and his buddies are expert structure fisherman. He gave me his number if I can find it.
When were you up there?

i think if you read my post it implies that compared to shield lakes there ain't no structure - and just a deep channel does not structure make - i'll stand by my statement. the only places that aren't flat are the river flow areas and that was indeed where we did best on walleye but they were not only few and far between but disappointingly small - a 20 inchers was hugh - even fern - the camp manager - told us not to expect much in the way of size. like i said - i'm not putting these types of lakes down, it's just if you fished for years on shield lakes, you'll be VERY surprised.

we were there in july 1998 - the water was very low and very warm. you're right about that we went north outta the channel towards the theodat river inlet. i though my sounder was broken when i saw 3ft indications for miles and miles in the middle of the lake - simply no structure. at the theodat river inlet, we caught numerous walleye and the "typical" 40" pike - but there was nothing over 18inches.

i guess i'd stack almost any of the wilderness shield lakes up against evans for walleye and the shield lakes would win hands down. will NOT say that about pike though!

phish

Ok ,
I hear your points but the four groups I know that have fished there a few times including our group seem to do pretty well on the eyes there. Sounds like you hit a bad week with low water. Have you ever fished Lake Erie? If you like coolers full of big Walleye its hard to beat.

silver m, - yah, fished erie a few times in the last few years. i live just outside of pittsburgh and have a few friends with boats large enough to chance it on the big lake. we've only hit the PA area north of presque isle but have done OK - no real coolers full of 10 pounders but usually enough to keep us happy. i just don't care for the techniques required to catch fish there which is troll, troll and then troll some more. for my money, you can't beat a trip to northern ontario where you can find a rock pile, river inlet or other structure and jig and cast and pretty much catch walleye to your heart's content!!

besides, if you've ever noticed the northern ontario walleye are all steelers fans - sporting the rich black and gold colors!!! seems the erie eye lean more towards the cleveland browns!

phish

rogers and anyone else, could you tell me more about your dealings with bushland adventures? i have been going to evans for the past 10 years and recently learned that the owner of bushland adventures, jim saari, is in the process of acquiring bushman outfitters and rights to lake evans. before we book with mr. saari i would like to know a little more about his business practices before dropping at least $2000 into it.

dear d dog. look , been around alot. and learned the hard way not to deal with booking agents who are all over the place, and i know i should not say that, becuase i do understand from some of my friends that use them for big hunts, that they do a great job, thinks hear is this one can seem to be upfront, he says he is the outfittr and that is not true, call Mirage, ask them is he is the outfitter, they will tell you, but my experiance with this one your asking about is that he is full of BS, told us anything we wanted to hear, promised us extra day of fishing then radioed into camp and told us to get out or else. one year told us no propblem on weight , when we got to Rouyn, had to leave most of gear behind only alowed 60 pounds and Saari was no where to be found to handle it, had to deal with Propair frenchman. just recently went back to look at site after year, #### ; 4500 + tax to go to quebec to fish trout. heard he always had proplems keeping the camps he books open for some reason, he promotes lakes that he can not even put you into and uses bait and switch. from my understanding from travels north, (i did fish evans last year too with dave), Kamwak and pukuch are closed. have been for awhile , and he, saari, still promotes them so he can talk you into another camp. understand clarkie has hydroquebec project near it and big mine going in there. promised a group i know from Toledo area that they would have guide and cook last year, when they showed up, no guide or cook, but he had their money and Mirage was the outfitter not bushland, and could not do anything, these guys were flyfisherman and do not cook, so they were PO'd.( i do not think anything to do with mirage, it was saari who kept the money they told me) heard all the rumors over the years, and never bothered with that, but know that Evans has roads , that is fact i know, flew into Crow last year, and a group from State College pa that goes in and Group from NY that drives in and told me roads will be expanded this year and over next 5 years big time. we did ok last year on Evans, always had good time, but fishing is down, and did see other boats and cabins on lake. there is a reason that business is closed. knew the guys who ran it greg, dave and elizabeth. and always upfront with our group. we were not planning there this year becuase of what we saw with roads and mud in lake. sorry to be long winded, but before i send any money to any agent, you better make sure this guy has insurance or bonded and make sure you see his permits or licences, really heard some bad stories last few years at sport shows of guys taking deposits and not producing. i guess that leads me to another story, heard this bushland booked a group at one lake and then week before trip told them the camp was closed and swithed them to another lake. you know, if you book evans , send your money and that happened, what do you do , you know your not getting your money back and have to go to one of the other lakes. bait and switch ! that is all i have to say, all those lakes he promotes can not all be booked up and good, like i started with, i have been around.

rogers, thanks a lotfor the info, this guys been lucky so far no one's caught up to him yet. really a shame about evans, great fishery, always produced bigtime for us but now it's just not worth the risk of getting screwed over. leaning towards wilderness north(www.wildernessnorth.com) or mattice lake outfitters (walleye.ca) for our next trip. know anything about them? appreciate any help. thanks again!

hey d dog, came across this site that may help you

WWW.BUSHMANOUTFITTERS.COM

Good luck ! and good fishing, if you do get to evans let me know, ill keep you posted on this site, but think the bushmanoutfitters site ansers a lot. also found a mining company site that owns lake evans.

rogers, thanks for forwarding the info. i do have some info about evans and the new onwer of bushman and yes it is jim saari. spoke with him yesterday and he said the deal was final and he was booking trips. he also answered alot of the questions i had from the other negative post from this site and muskiefirst.com. be happy to forward any info he gave me along to anyone who is looking.

hi deputy dog; happy to hear any info you can pass along, thought i would add that i stopped by this sarri disply on sunday at sport show. do not see anything about lake evans, did see alaska, mirage outfitters, lake erie walleye fishing, and lots of caribou hunting. stopped just to get info, becuase i absolutly will never go anywhere with him again. the only think missing at his display was cotton candy.

rogers, i spoke with mr. saari on friday and he stated that the deal was complete and he was booking trips to evans. also heard from another angler that stopped at his booth and talked about evans and booking trips for this year. after weighing the negative posts i have read on this site and other sites and after talking with jim, my party has decided to give the guy a shot for this year at evans. i brought up some of the "accusations" and concerns i read about with him and he explained or discussed the concerns i had. after speaking to jim i feel comfortable booking a trip to evans this year. i figure i'll give the guy a shot and if we get screwed it's my fault and we'll look elsewhere for '09, we've just had too good of luck at kirk island not to give him a shot. our trip is for the last week in june and upon our return i'll post how the trip went for all to read and hopefully it will help other guys with their decision about whether or not to go with mr. saari. thanks for all your input and info about this topic, i really appreciate it.

rogers, one other thing, the web site for bushman outfitters is somewhat up and running with a message board should you want to follow it on there. www.bushmanoutfitters.com.

hi deputy dog, thank you, ill look at that site. it is not evans i was knocking, only knew it with old owners. did see and hear about roads, and other cabins on lake. but the experiances i had with sarri agent were not good, LOTS OF BS.
WILL tell you ANYTHING you want to hear to book a trip ! Good Luck , i look forward to getting some more info from you as you learn it

Fellow Outdoorsman,

Another fisherman told me to check out this site. It seems there are many questions and quite a bit of confusion about Quebec fishing areas, rules, air services, outfitters etc. If you need questions answered truthfully by a fellow fisherman I would be glad to help. I fished and explored my 41st and 42nd lake system in Quebec this year since 1964.
I keep abreast of the air services, game and fish regulations, water levels, and anything else that pertains to the fishing areas.
I was a partner in North American Bushman Inc.up until five years ago when I retired so I could do more hunting and fishing trips. I had great fun in the business but it was time to fish more.
I know how important it is to have the correct info before putting your hard earned money down. I just booked an Elk hunt and it took a year of educating myself before I made the decision.
I would be glad to help anyone who is serious about fishing the more virgin type lakes that are still available and open to the public.
Some are with a licensed outfitter, some would be do it yourself trips
which of course, require you to have your own equipment ( boat/motors, camping equip). The lakes are still up there, you just need to know some simple info to put a trip together.
If you would like to see how we did the last couple of years I can email pictures.

Happy fishing trips to all of you!

Greg

hey genet , where did you go fishing last year,??? looking for new place, see if you have any input.

rogers, do you have any more info on jim saari or bushland adventures? my group is seriously considering booking with him but are a little leary because all of the negative feedback. hoped you would share what you know so i can pass it along to my group. thanks

Rogers:

We used Loon Haunt out of Red Lake and we are booked there again this year.. The walleye fishing on the lake is really good and we did catch some nice northerns in the 34"-38" range. We ended up with five lake trout and one was 32" long.. It would be nice if Cherrington had some more Lake trout, but we are primarily walleye fisherman and you can expect 50+ fish per boat (2 guys per boat) with a chance at some decent size fish.. Our largest walleye last year was 27" and we caught numerous fish in the 22'-25" range..

The cabin is real nice and their boats and motors are always in good shape. Last year we had a storm that came in on Tuesday night and blew over some tree's on and around the cabin.. Bill was there the next day to make sure everything was OK.. This will be our third year with them and I have talked to several other guys who have fished other lakes with Bill.. Everyone always has nothing but nice things to say about the operation..

Bill and his wife are actually tying to sell their business and they thought they had found new owners last year. Things did not work out so they still have the business this year and we are looking forward to our June trip.. Here is their website www.loonhaunt.com..

You can see my brother and his lake trout along with pictures of the cabin after the tree came down last year.. Would be happy to answer any other questions. Good luck with your search.

GeneT