limeyangler

Hi Y'all, It seems like ages since I’ve posted on here, but I only got out fishing again in the last couple of days. Seems like June/July is "be social" time, the whole town here finally comes out of hibernation from winter, birthdays, charity events, dinner invites...did i mention my wife just announced she's pregnant too?...lol....busy ...busy, was great to get out fishing again though...been going a bit stir crazy! JUST ONE OF THE MANY CANADA DAY EVENTS HERE IN DRYDEN (dragon boat races) The last month or so the fishing here on Wabigoon has been very slow for me, apart from doing very well with smb. The fishing in front of the house had all but died and i was beginning to get very frustrated living on a lake with no fish....lol. Even more frustrating is that i was hearing good reports of excellent walleye fishing from many people that was happening. I have never had much luck with walleye, whether on Lake Wabigoon or any other lake and decided i should try a bit harder. I asked the tackle shop owners son Kyle, who had been doing ok with walleye for the last couple of weeks to show me a few good spots and techniques, and like me Kyle needs only to be asked once and he's there...if its fishing! There is a lake called Butler Lake that is connected to the main Wabigoon Lake by small channels about 8 KM due east from my shoreline. I have been wanting to get in there for ages, but wanted someone to show me the way in, so Kyle obliged. 1 mile of weedy channel that connects Butler to Wabigoon <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/1-2.flv"> Kyle fishes this lake often and has always said it holds some of the better walleye on the Wabigoon chain, and it was not long after arriving that we found a few. we started at a place called Dead Man's Island ( some guy buried on there apparently) which is only about 25sqr feet. We had Leeches and Minnows and both seemed to work well. I followed Kyle's lead and we were casting our jigs at the island into shallow water and retrieving. No fish and nothing showing on sonar. We moved off the island about 15 feet away from the weed to the 9' feet deep flat mud bottom, thats when we hit them. We got about 3 each in the space of 30 mins, Kyle getting the best coming in at 20 inches. All my fish were around the 17" inch mark, and i caught my first ever Blue Walleye', really amazing colour on the fish, here's some comparison pics of two walleye from the same spot BLUE WALLEYE....cool Kyle was actually doing a 'Pre- Fish' for his upcoming angler/young angler tourney, so we did not hang around in one spot too long, and we were due back at 1pm anyway as he was being joined by his co-angler, so i was getting kicked out the boat...lol. We managed a few more walleye, well Kyle did anyway and he dropped me home at 1 pm. I let Kyle have the 4 keepers we had as i was gonna go and try myself later on that evening. I did not have to wait for that evening cuz no sooner had i walked in , Dave calls and suggests we hit Bowden Lake. We had both been told by a co-worker that the day before they had been hammering the Walleye in there, and Dave and myself had discussed getting up there at some point so i was not that surprised that Dave called...lol. We were buzzing with anticipation on the way up there, about an hours drive, as we felt pretty confident we were gonna get into some 'eyes! The thing is whenever Dave and i go fishing we seem to be a jinx on each other, we do ok separate, but as soon as we get into the same boat we get skunked or pretty close. We just felt that it was due that we had a good session, and with the reports coming about Bowden we were confident our time had come! We had never been to this lake before but found it no problem, the 'boat launch' lol...well it was a 60 degree angle culvert bank on the side of the road. i had my truck, but being new to trucks ( if you think gas prices are high here, its double the price in England, thats why we don’t drive trucks) i was not so sure it could drag Dave's boat out again...but Dave assured me it would be fine. We put in without a problem and found the entrance to Bowden, we almost had to get out and pull the boat through one section, and headed out to the island we were told to try. Dave had a worm spinner with a minnow on and i had a knuckle head jig on. I dropped my knuckle head jig with a leach down before we even had the trolling motor down and Dave had set up his spinner. No sooner had it hit the bottom...i got this guy........ ONLY LITTLE BUT AFTER 30 SECONDS OF FISHING WE THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE A REAL GOOD DAY! Dave got his line in the water and not long afterwards hooked into a small jackfish. Now Dave is an all out walleye guy, and like many other people i know curses the mighty jackfish...or snakes as he calls them....lol....he did not even want to have his picture taken with it....so i held it up in front of him and took the pic anyway....... DAVE TRYING TO PRETEND HE DID NOT CATCH THIS "SNAKE" After those 2 fish we had nothing for 2 hours. Then i convinced dave to slow the troll down and use jigs as the only walleye of the day so far was at a standstill with the jig. We 3 more small ones in the next 2 hours but by now we were pretty fed up. Dave was making me laugh...the guy who had told us how great this lake was the previous day had said that even his 4 year old was pulling them into the boat one after the other....and Dave was just shaking his head and whispering "even a baby can catch 'em". By now i , not being the greatest fan of walleye fishing was losing the will to live....lol.....and my attention span was drifting away to the beautiful surroundings.....we saw some pelicans which was pretty cool, but dave was on a mission by this time and would not slow down for a picture as we raced to the far end of the lake for one last try before sunset...i did get a shot of this beaver and baby beaver... CANT ACTUALLY HEAR THEM BUT THEY MAKE THE COOLEST SOUND <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/7-2.flv"> We got down to the far end of the lake at about 8pm, Dave says he's hungry and proceeds to take out a bunch of BANANAS!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! lol....i've heard they are bad luck in a boat....and was giving Dave hell about this.....Dave thought i was losing my mind...he never heard that before...but it was pretty funny. Nothing was happening here either, although all around us large fish were starting to break the surface. I had had enough and decided to change up to a surface popper and see if i could catch one of the mystery fish breaking the surface. Two or three casts later i hooked into a little bass, and then another...and another. Dave needed no prompting and changed to surface lure too, and in the space of the next hour we pulled about 10 bass from a small area...the best around 17" before calling it a day and heading back before it got dark. FIRST OF MANY......AT LAST SOME ACTION!!!! For me the bass saved what was a pretty poor days fishing, although the company and scenery was excellent. The sunset was stunning as per usual up here, and we got the boat out fine, i was surprised how easily my truck pulled the boat up a very short and steep 60 degree angle....which is great cuz now i know it will handle an off road boat launch i have seen to a lake that holds some huge trout and whitefish...hehe... SUNSET AWESOME AS USUAL THE PICTURE DOES NOT DO JUSTICE TO THE STEEP BANK I WAS WORRIED WOULD CAUSE PROBS FOR MY LITTLE TRUCK The next day i did not get out, but got out again yesterday. I was determined to get some walleye, i had caught a few, but it had been slow...slow...slow....and only a few small ones. I decided to head into Mile Lake and set off from our dock at about 2pm. I stopped at the first little bay on entering Mile Lake, which i always do....kind of a superstition thing now, and after ten minutes of firing out the popper got this guy..... NICE START <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/10-1.flv"> With my superstitious ritual out of the way it was time to concentrate on catching some walleye. I had chosen mile lake because there was a SW wind blowing yesterday, and a little bay i know had been producing in these conditions. I got the jig and minnow on and started my troll. After 2 hours all i had caught was Jackfish, not that big either..... NO WALLEYE, ONLY JACK As you can see from the pictures i was trying every method of tackle/presentation i could think of, i even ended up trolling the deep section of the lake with a deep diver, but not a walleye anywhere!!! Like so many times before i thought i was beginning to complicate the issue, so decided to go back to a plain jig with the little rattle attachment stuck on. I trolled for about 1 mile when i thought i had got snagged.....i was going in reverse on the trolling motor to get behind the snag to get it lose. i realised that even though i was going in reverse my line was remaining tight...hmmmmmmm....maybe not a snag. I cut the motor and realised my snag was moving very slightly along one side of the boat...i knew straight away this was a big Pike....so i set the drag before it realised it was hooked.....it was big...in fact it was a PB 36"............. MY PB PIKE....jeeze this thing was fat!! <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/14-1.flv"> MORE INCHES FOR TEAM#4 On the strength of my excitement in catching that pike the next 4 or 5 hrs went by quickly despite not catching a thing. I was very disciplined as i know i can hammer SMB in this lake but stuck to the task at hand which was to get some walleye. I ended up back in the bay i started in and switched to my bobber...but the wind had picked up and the anchor would not hold, anyway...i had lost faith that i could catch walleye and when the thunderstorm started to show on the horizon, and the sun was setting anyway....it was time to call it a day. On the way back i saw a house boat chugging along and laughed to myself that although i lived "BY" the lake....maybe i needed to live "ON" the lake like those guys if i was ever to get better at catching walleye......i know.......i know.....i have done ok catching walleye before, and i should thank my lucky stars everyday to live by the lake....but my mood was low after such a poor run of form where walleye are concerned. MAYBE THIS IS THE ANSWER? <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/15-1.flv"> The houseboat thing was great, and it lifted my mood considerably, in fact enough to give it one last shot at my favourite walleye spot, i have posted before on that spot, despite having had no real joy there so far this year. The wind had died down as the sun set and there was a nice easy chop on the water. I decided to switch to my "thumper Jig" with minnow and decided to drift past the one point of the island . i knew this would take me over a little hump into a very gradual drop off, despite the fact that i had no sonar now either as the bracket was broke. Ok....trolled up to my start point and cut the motor as the wind was perfect to push me at just the right speed over the area i wanted to fish....first pass over the rocks and on the drop off in about 12-18 fow and THUD!!! yup THUD is the best way i can describe the bite....felt like being snagged with a bit of give. I thought it was another big Jackfish, but something about the way it moved felt different...definitely a fish...but odd. Then it broke the surface and i've never been so pleased that i remembered my net and camera....lol. I caught a walleye on the lake behind where i work a couple months back, i did not have a camera with me or a measuring device and estimated it at 35". I was wrong...that fish was nowhere near 35" just me being enthusiastic. How do i know?...because the walleye i was reeling in on my line now was "only" 30 inches, and way bigger than any walleye i had ever caught. I quickly got a picture and put her back, no way i was gonna kill such a great fish...they taste like garbage anyway when that big apparently. I did not need to keep that one anyway....as the place was on fire!!! every ....and I’m not exaggerating....every cast produced a fish, i stayed for half an hour and had around 15 fish, kept my stringer of 4 nice ones for supper, and headed back with a renewed sense of faith in Wabigoon Lake...lol. I just hope that the pic is accepted for team #4 entry as the wind blew just as i snapped and you cant see the web address for OFC....but i was in a hurry to put her back and only snapped once. MY PB WALLEYE..... SUPPER...yum! All in all a bit of a rollercoaster couple days fishing, but happy endings.

Thats a huge crappie!!

Do they have the same scam at CT? we dont have a home depot here

That really is a monster!!

Anatz....i am gonna speak up for ya....being " a person of color" as i was refered to the other day. I am not in a position to say whether or not you were approached bcause you are a visible minority, but given some of my life experiences i would not doubt it! But dood....wont be the first or last time, hope your ma enjoyed the Sunfish

nice bassessesses!

Fantastic report Joey, absolutely lovin' the pictures, specially the island with the wind, the Jumping chippy and the mowhawk. Thats a nice size walleye you got there too.

Great job Cliff.

WOW!

Nice one, goin out tomorrow evening for some smallies myself...hope to get into them like you did. Thanks for sharing

Hey MRM, I can sympathise with you, my boat was under water all day, NE blows right over the trasnsom and the NE wind was howling at 40kmh plus all day with heavy rain. Went out this afternoon and stood in my chest waders trying to lift the transom whilst bilge pump was on, but water was crashing over faster than the little pump i installed from CT could empty it. I gave up after 1 hour, waves had come over the top of my waders too so totaly soaked through, so glad there was a howling wind cuz i was cursing at the top of my lungs and dont think my neighbours could here me over the wind. I'm normally pretty good watching weather report and getting it out before it hits(i dont have a dock to moor it to) but was totally sidetracked these last 2 days with news of wife's pregnancy and work.....lol...i think i was more stressed about the boat than anything else!!! Luckily the motor was not underwater....but its stressful....boy is it stressful...specially since once its under not much ya can do about it.

Thanks for all the good luck and well wishes folks. After the initial shock.....been in a bit of a daze the last 2 days, i'm absolutely buzzing now, very excited. I know it can be a bumpy ride from here on out....lol....and for at least the next 25 years as someone kindly pointed out...but hey....a new fishing partner, well worth it. I see all the pics of you people out with your kids and it looks so great, this kid better like fishing...lol!!!!! Once again, thanks all. Simon.

LOL Jedi....canadians and hockey...lol....love it....i think it was more a case of curving it round the wall from 35 yards with the outside of the boot into the top corner.

well, we have been trying and trying for over 2 years now, god knows how many 'casts' ive made (snigger) but my wife runs into the room yesterday with the pregnancy test kit....HOLY !!!! WE DID IT!!!! she is pregnant....NOW THATS WHAT I CALL A PB!!! Better start working on the plans for a changing table in the boat.....hehehehe.

What works for me is to cast at shore near or on top of weeds with Mepps Comet spinner(dressed is better in my experience). And Lew....i got stuck 3 times like that last week...good job my hooks are pretty blunt...lol...

great report Cliff, congrats Bly on the PB...thats a very fat carp. Quick question for you carp guys....can you get 'Dynamite Marine Halibut Pellets' over here?...the same dynamite brand also makesa good Marine Halibut boilie dip/additive....i have some plans for it next winter when fishing for whities

Very impressive Laker.....where is Big Sand Lake?.....lol

Tbay me ole mucka....like i said...i'm still in shock she got into the fishng so much....i mean she was even getting competitive...gave me a good run for my money too!

Hogman...i'm in ZONE 5 OF ONTARIO and LMB and SMB is open all year here.

I have a 1 year old husky lawn tractor...i thought it was pooched...kept stalling....worked out in the end it was cuz the grass was too thick and wet. lol...i'm too new to all this kinda thing.

Hi Y'all, Went back to my bass haunt, this time my wife wanted to come with me. She does not fish very often, but likes being in the boat to read and catch some sun. She does however like fishing for Pike, so i promised her we would go for some. We headed off at about 2pm, round the corner of our bay through the channel and into Mile Lake. It has almost become tradition for us to anchor up first in a little weedy bay at the entrance to this lake (not much weed there at the moment though) and have a few casts. Erika(my wife) has been secretly stocking up on Mepps spinners...lol....and produces a few before we left...saying she wants to try them...as the colors were so pretty. Now I’m not going to be condescending about what could arguably be described as more ‘feminine’ lure color selection process, because it has proved to be a very effective technique in the past...for example....whilst in France a few years back, we ...or mostly me...were float(bobber) fishing for CHUB ....she chose a float because it was round, stubby and "cute", I was pretty mean at the time and scoffed dismissively.....but it was the float that worked best, lol...would she let me try it...not likely! serves me right. We were in the little bay for half an hour...me with a topwater...and my wife with her new Mepps. Well after half an hour it was 3-0 to my wife...lol...she always does that. ONE OF 3 PIKE THAT MY WIFE CAUGHT <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/Picture024.flv"> SHE AINT SQUEEMISH EITHER, GET THOSE HOOKS OUT GIRL!!! <a href="http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/?action=view¤t=Picture001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/Picture001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> After that half hour it went very quiet, so she suggests we try for some of the bass i had been catching recently. I suggested we try Trap Lake behind Mile Lake connected by another weedy channel. I had been into there once this year, but it was pretty dead as far as the fishing went, but the water had warmed since my last visit and weeds are starting to grow. I had caught a few bass in there last year, and was eager to test the rocky shorelines in there as this is where thefish were holding up in numbers on Mile :Lake. I was very hopefull because Trap Lake has more of this shorelinde feature than the Lake we were on. We headed off and started at a long stretch of rocky shallow shoreline....not a sniff in the first hour...but we persevered and were rewarded....Topwater lures were the hot lure...with shallow crank baits working well when we knew a fish was there but had hit the topwater a few times and was a bit spooked. I am gonna use a cliche now and let pictures and video paint a thousand words...all in all non stop action...at least 30 fish in the 4 hours we were in there. VIDS OF THE BASASSSESESSESES <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/Picture029.flv"> <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/Picture028.flv"> <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/Picture027.flv"> <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/Picture026.flv"> <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/Picture032.flv"> <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/Picture030.flv"> AND HERE'S SOME PICS OF THE DAY..... <a href="http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/?action=view¤t=Picture002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/Picture002.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/?action=view¤t=Picture004.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/Picture004.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/?action=view¤t=Picture010.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/Picture010.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/?action=view¤t=Picture006.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/Picture006.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/?action=view¤t=Picture007.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/Picture007.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> all i can say is this was an awesome day!!! i. A lot of my buddies wife's give them 'the look' when they ask PERMISSION to go fishing...not my wife...she tells me its a thrill to watch me enjoy something i'm so passionate about...and that she will always know where i am....lol... feel blessed to be married to her.

Chug Bugs are awesome!!! and topwater fishing is definitely one of my favourites....great for pike too...love seeing a pike launch 2 feet outta the lake to whack the lure!!!

Nice pics, great report. I had a day like that last year...we trolled for lakers for 6 hrs with one 9 incher all day...we then headed off for some bass fun for an hour before we packed up...my buddies son absolutely killed the bass on a large twity grub he only had one of...we just sat and watched him pull in fish after fish...lol...good fun Thanks for sharing....the guy snoozing is scary...lol

Hey Mike....i'm new to fishing over here...and am still amazed at the colors of lures that catch fish...i mean since when was there anything orange and pink that glows in the dark to be found naturally in any habitat ??? coming from a backround of sea fishing...the species i was used to catching required as natural a looking bait as possible if not a live bait...this has been a steep learning curve for me. Nice thread Thanks...lemme know how you get on.