How do you enjoy Northern Ontario fly-in fishing without a taking plane? On a boat-in adventure!

Boat-in packing is a lot easier, since weight doesn’t matter (as much)

For obvious reasons, floatplanes have very strict weight limits. If you’re over your allotment, you either leave gear at the airbase or pay more—sometimes a lot more—to fly it in. In fact, I’ve been known to weigh all my gear at home (and demand that other anglers do as well) and enter it all into a spreadsheet, to see how we’re doing.

Boats do, of course, have weight limits, but if you have a giant stack of tackle, food and accessories (especially heavy stuff like, er, liquid refreshments), you just keep making trips back and forth until you’ve moved it all. For me, at least, not having the strict weight limits took a lot of the stress out of packing.

In addition, my group of four are all dedicated kayak anglers. We planned to fish out of our own boats—which are highly customized with sonar, rod holders, comfy seats and more—as much as possible. In the past, we’ve flown kayaks into our outpost. It’s doable, but also kind of a headache for everyone involved, including the aircrew. This time, we just towed them in.

Although I said weight doesn’t matter, that’s not totally true. Your gear may not be going in a plane, but do you still have to carry it around, which leads to my next point…