limeyangler

i'm about an hour and a half drive from Shoal lake...heard some good things too...but only ever ice fished there for whitefish.....which by the way was spectacular...we limited out within an hour......i look forward to finding out how ya did...and if i make it up there before you next summer i'll be sure to post a report anyway....good luck.

Hi Y'all. Well its been an eternity by my standards since I have been fishing...close to 3 weeks. Anyway got out the day before yesterday with my buddy Dave. We decided to try a nearby local lake we had never fished. When we got there the boat launch was a clay bank(very steep) just past the bridge over the creek you have to travel up to hit the main lake. As soon a i saw it i thought there was no way the truck...let alone the truck+boat + trailer was gonna make it back up the slimy muddy/clay bank. Being new to this though i took Dave at his word that it would be fine. I had got 10 feet down the 20 foot slope when i had to change angle to swing the trailer round a bend on the slope, that’s when the passenger side rear wheel hit a large tree stump and stopped me dead in my tracks. Wheels were a spinnin ...we were going nowhere. Luckily the slope was right by the side of a slash off the main logging road and there were plenty of hunters around and it was only 20 minutes later that a truck was hailed down, we attached the only short bit of rope i had and we pulled the truck back up. The trailer however was at the bottom of the slope and we were gonna need at least 50' of tow rope to get it up. So we ended up doing a 90km round trip to town to buy some tow straps and back we went. We got the trailer up no problems, and i guess the tree stump was a blessing in disguise because had we made it down the slope we would never have got back up without another truck, it would have been dark, there would have been far fewer , if anyone around, and it is about a 30km walk through the bush back to my house. It was getting dark by the time we got everything sorted out so just headed home. I promised myself i would in future trust my own instincts more....at least learn something from my mistakes. Anyway, i was still desperate to go fishing so arranged to go the next day(yesterday) with another buddy Adam. Adam has also grown up here in Dryden, and is a real outdoorsman...hunting ...fishing etc,...etc. He found my story funny as we headed out to another different lake a lot further away, he assured me we would not risk anything like that today, and he was pretty certain his own experiences would help us avoid any mishaps. I was a bit nervous already however as one question he asked me before we left was..."the route in to this lake is pretty remote...we should be fine though". When we got to the 1km track down to Bluet Lake i had that same feeling as yesterday...we may make it down but we wont get up, Adam assured me it was fine despite the three feet deep ruts, washed out banks and boulders, mud puddles and clay slopes, and downed trees blocking our way, he said the incline was not steep enough to cause us any trouble. As it happens he was right, i did spin a bit on the way up but managed to get out, white knucklin the steering wheel all the way ...Adam laughing at my expression all the way up. THIS PICS ARE ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL>>>>IT GOT MUCH>>>MUCH>>>MUCH WORSE. OK...so we got back up ok...but what happened between going down to the lake and coming back up was another thing all together. The launch point is a sandy beach, nice gradual slope into the water. I got into the boat and Adam backed us into the water. It was very shallow and Adam kept reversing to try and get the boat to float of the trailer...it wouldn't budge. I could not work out why Adam would not just move forward to help the boat slip off....until i heard the wheels spin and the water and sand start to fly. OH crap!!!!!!! stuck again.....this time though we were in a bit of a serious situation...well I’ll let this pic speak for itself....... I THOUGHT YOU WERE MEANT TO LEARN FROM MISTAKES!!!! After an hour of trying to get out....and at least we had tow straps now after the mishap the day before, we decided we better start the 30 km trip back through the bush to the main logging road, see if we could find help...worst case scenario we would have to walk at least 40kms to where the guys were working at the railway tracks. Luckily after hiking about 10 kms we stumbled upon some hunters who helped us out................... PHEW....LUCKY THESE GUYS CAME ALONG <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/4444.flv"> To cut a long story short...we got out, thanked the guys for everything...really nice guys too.....and changed into dry clothes and headed back towards town. I still wanted to fish....and like me...so did Adam. We spent the hour drive back to wards town trying to figure out somewhere to put the boat in that would be decent, in the end I suggested Beaver Lake...as it was on our way back...i had fished it before, and knew there was nowhere to get stuck...lol. Adam surprisingly had never fished beaver lake...surprising as it is only 10 kms out of town on an actual road. He was pretty convinced it was not gonna be any good, but i assured him we had done ok there before...nothing of memorable size, but we were sure to avoid the skunk...and hell...just fishing was all i wanted after all the drama. We put into the lake at around 3pm. It started off slow, loads...literally hundreds of jumbo perch nailing every minnow we dropped down, to make matters more difficult, the spot where we were marking fish was right in the 25km wind. Anyway...after an hour of catching perch we were marking a lot of bigger fish and Adam landed the first walleye....... 1ST OF MANY <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/5555.flv"> It went a bit quiet for a while, mostly because we were struggling to stay on top of the fish in the wind, but after that i netted what we hoped was gonna be a monster walleye, but turned out to be my PB pike...a beauty at 41". I kept having to move it down the boat so it would fit sideways across the bow for the piccy...hope the tourney is still going cuz its another 5" for team 4 ANOTHER FEW INCHES FOR TEAM #4 About 15 perch later, the wind dropped down, i could hold dead still in reverse on lowest idle...and that’s when we started to nail them....we got our limit but we must have thrown back at least 15 fish over 20 inches, the best one i got which was just over 23". I had done well in this lake before....and despite seeing another boat get a 26" about 3 weeks ago....the biggest we had caught was around 19".......seems like the lack of people fishing the lake over the last month(everyone here seems to put their boats away at the start of hunting season) and the pre-winter feeding frenzy had brought all the big ones outta hiding........... WE CAUGHT A LOT OF NICE WALLEYE JUST DROPPING THE JIG OVER THE SIDE OF THE BOAT AND LIFTING IT 1' OFGF BOTTOM IN 10-12' FOW Adam said he was "blown away" by the fishing in this very small, easily accessible lake....a lake he never knew was there despite it being no more than 8 kms from where he has grown up all his life.....which was pretty cool.....especially after the morning we had had...to get into some nice walleyes felt like perseverance paying off.

Absolutely awesome bass...thanks for sharing.

Congrats on the PB.

nice one woodsman...a nice mixed bag for sure......that sucker looks perfect for Laker bait!.....you southeners basking in sunshine still....lol.

with my mind wandering to the hard water season i stumbled upon this blog/article.....having read it i'm ready to go!!! THE BEST ICE FISHING ARTICLE EVER!!!!

cant help you with an answer to your question jordan, butyou're in the right place to get some answers, just like to say WELCOME!

WOW...absolutely awesome ehg....what a great days fishing, that musky is great...caught so casually as well...lol. The weather looks great too. thanks for sharing.

Great report as per usual cliff....love the muskies you catch....i'm still a virgin (catching muskies that is.....otherwise my pregnant wife has some explaining to do)

Hey Firecat, try this....it calculates best fishing and hunting times for the specific date you enter, it also connects to google earth so you can pinpoint the location you are calculating for.....i dont think it has a chart per se of lunar phases...but when you do a calculation it gives you the moon phase for the date you are calculating. click on the link below....hope this helps fishbyte

Hi all, Finally made it up to Williams Bay (Lac Seul). Tried going last summer on Canada Day , but blew a trailer tire (did not have a spare...nobody open on Canada Day)...that was a long day. This time we made it but I am beginning to think Williams bay is a jinx for me. I went up with my buddies Matt and Dave. We were taking Dave's boat and my truck and between the 2 machines we had a host of problems...lol...sheesh! After messing around for the first hour replacing Dave’s trailer light plug with a spare i had we finally headed off about 2 hours later than we wanted. WE FINALLY ARRIVED 2 HOURS LATER THAN WE WOULD HAVE LIKED After putting the boat in, i went and parked the trailer and walked back down to the lake. I was expecting to find Matt on shore holding the rope on the boat and Dave sitting in his boat. Instead i find Matt watching Dave floating down the river cursing....lol. Dave paddled to shore to tell us that he could not start the engine. We all got in anyway, and i suggested that Dave take the cowling off to see what we could see.....not that i have a clue what to look for. Myself and matt were not too worried as even if we could not get the motor going we had my spare battery with us fully charged(even though i had forgotten the wing nuts) and so had enough juice in 3 batteries to just fish the landing bay on the trolling motor.....not ideal...but we were determined to fish. Matt and i were so determined to fish, we were already casting while Dave was cursing at his dead motor....lol WE GOT A COUPLE OF SMALL NORTHERN WHILE DAVE WAS CURSING T HIS DEAD MOTOR After 20 minutes of Dave's cursing...we decided we should help a bit...lol...and i took a look as did Matt....we all decided that it was probably a fuse...and after about another 20 mins of trying to locate one Matt found it...and yup it was pooched.....we had another fuse ...put it in....the engine fired up.....WOOOOHOOOOO!!! we were off! I had never fished Williams Bay before but Matt and Dave had, so we went to one of Dave's favourite spots first. The whole area was basically a sand bar between two weedbed points, and after a couple of tiny sauger and a northern we were moving to one of Matt's spots, he knew of a midwater reef off an island about 500 yards away. We were there for about half an hour...could not find the structure and caught no fish...so we headed off again. It seems that the further you go from the landing up the bay the less sand there is and more rocky/mud bottom areas you get to. it was also a lot deeper out here. We went to a little rock pile off an island point, with a 5' plateau gradually getting deeper to 35 FOW. Lots of snags later i hooked into what i thought was a pike by the way it was fighting.....turned out to be a nice 24" Walleye. I got a couple of nice 17" eaters and a big pike, the other guys just watched...lol....they were not catching a thing. I was using a white/chartreuse 1/4Oz jig with a little rattle attachment.....the guys all borrowed a rattle thingy from me and that seemed to work...we added a couple more eaters. Despite catching now we were all a bit disappointed because normally on Lac Seul its difficult to get fish hat are NOT in the slot...where were all the nice big ones? FIRST NICE BIG WALLEYE OF THE DAY We spent the next 2 or 3 hours trying different locations trying to find fish. Apart from a couple of small ones, like 5 or 6 inches that was it. I wanted to try some rockier marks....as this is where we had caught the only big fish of the day....and i suggested we try a midwater reef you could see about half a mile away...so off we went. We drifted around the rock and Matt got a hit but it got off. Literally seconds after a nice Bass (sm) chased my jig and minnow to the boat but got off too. After half an hour and no fish apart from the missed bass we decided to move again. When we arrived at the reef we were leaving it was covered in seagulls. As we got about 200 yards away, going full tilt Dave suddenly cut the power to the engine and we came to a grinding halt! Dave had spotted some seagulls on the water and thought we were about to hit another reef...lol...but both matt and I immediately looked at the fishfinder and noticed that a reef had suddenly come up from 40 FOW to 15 FOW.....so as Dave prepared to move off again we were like...."No....wait......this looks really promising!" The reef was about 20 feet across the top then gradually then dropped off quite steeply to around 42 FOW. The fish were at the 30 FOW range.....and the next couple of hours were great....we got our limit and lots of slot size (18 - 21") even more 24 and 25" fish and Dave got the best one of the day measuring 26"...YEAH!....that’s what we came for! Here's a few pics and video i took of the boys at the honey hole we found..... GOT LOTS OF EATERS GOT LOTS OF BIGGER FISH TOO <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/g7.flv">'>http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/g7.flv"> WE MISSED A FEW BIG ONES TOO......DOH! <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/f6.flv"> DAVE GOT THE BIGGEST OF THE DAY AT 26"....NICE!] <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/g7.flv"> WE EVEN GOT A FEW SMALL SMB...THIS WAS THE SMALLEST....LOL After about 2 hours the fishing died down.....and the sun was getting low....so we made our way back to the bay in front of the landing, being die hard we fished the sun down in front of the landing , a couple jackfish later we decided to head in. NICE SUNSET Oh dear.... the motor died again!!!!!! We started to paddle ashore, and had got a few 100 yards when Dave found a reset button and we got power back. COME ON MATT...PUT SOME BACKBONE INTO IT....LOL <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/n14.flv"> We got the boat on the trailer and set off. We had gotten about 3 miles down the logging road when my low tire warning comes on......we get out to check and its about half way to flat on the front passenger side. That’s ok we though...brand new truck...all the tools and spare tire re there...should not be a biggy. Huh...that’s what we thought. To lower the spare you need to insert the tool through the rear bumper...into the 'Guiding funnel' that locks the key into place. that would be fine if the guiding funnel actually guided the key into place. We ended up trying to remove the guiding funnel so we could lower the spare, but catch 22......the spare tire blocks access to the funnel. WILLIAMS BAY IS DEFINITELY A JINX IT SEEMS In the end we decided to just get back as best we could before the tire was completely flat, as none of us had a cell phone, and it probably would not get reception even if we did. We were about 50 kms down the logging road....middle of nowhere. We thought we had lucked out when we came across this guy at kilometre 38 as we thought the service truck would have a compressor on board. AHHH....WE'RE SAVED <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/p16.flv"> Unfortunately there was no service truck around...so we thanked the guy and headed off at a snails pace again...not before noticing my right hand tail light on the truck was out....as were the tail lights on the trailer. We hit civilization about 2 and a half hours later, the tire held up ok considering we were on logging roads all the way back....lucky they are still hauling outta there otherwise the road would have been far worse and i don’t think the tire would have made it. We drove the last 4 miles through town with our hazards flashing...but the OPP were nowhere to be seen...lucky for us . A great days fishing in the end....even with all the breakdowns and drama. I would like to also just say that while I have been sat here typing this, GM called and my truck is ready, although the truck should not have these problems...they have excellent customer service...which is rare these days.

GREAT REPORT Joey....really cool pics, that looks like fun and then some. Had me chucklin' at a few of the pics....and i especially like the ' Lew 'O'clock' expression.

Really good report hearingfish, 10 outta 10 for perserverance....even with the energy drinks( i'm a Red Bull drinker myself) i think i would have called it quits long beore the 2nd 2 hour drive, thanks for sharing.

Great pics...nice wallys you guys got there.

Welcome Laker!!!!! lol...i know exactly what you mean about counting days to hard and soft water...i'm the same, look forward to your reports.

Fantastic report, those are nice fat 'eyes, thanks for sharing.

hey johnny, i dont think its too early to think about icefishing....personally i cant hardly wait to walk out on the ice! Anyway.....i have never used a baitcaster before so i would have to say spinning reel...lol. I do however prefer rear drag systems, especially on the ice where my usual target is large lake trout and whitefish. I like to leave the rear drag setting on its lowest setting which has the effect of freespool...so when the trout hits it can take line.....the ratchet whizzing off line is my bite indicator (love that noise!) and because i tend to use circle hooks on my dropper line set ups, you just pick up the rod without spooking the fish, gradually tighten the drag....the circle hooks set themselves....and there ya have it , trout for supper. As its not uncommon for me to be out there in -40 degrees C (i cnt afford an ice shelter yet either ) trying to adjust drag is easier with rear drag when wearing 10 pairs of arctic gloves....lol. CANT WAIT TO DO SOME OF THIS <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/MVI_0233.flv"> MY FAVOURITE "DROPPER LINE' SET UP Tanks for posting this topic.......cant wait!

that is a real hippo....lol......nice fish....congrats

Hey Codered, I know exactly what fish you are talking about...i caught (or my buddy did i should say) one this summer i i posted a pic to see what pewople thought it was...heres the link to the post http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...;hl=silver+pike

awesome fish...thanks for sharing.

great report.....i have had the same 2 different stories from MNR guys before...its like...if they don't know....how the hell am i supposed to...lol

Great report, nice fish too....lol...i'm scared to even try a baitcaster.

great report Cliff....and oh yeah....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!.....i saw the post wishing you happy birthday and was just about to say so in a reply...but got distracted and never got back to it...better late than never i guess

Wow....great walleyes you caught.....real nice.

Nice boat...CONGRATS!!!