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“Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not the fish they are after” -Henry David Thoreau The History My inaugaral trip to Lake of the Woods occurred late last year, just before summer gave way to fall. That trip was a true learning experience for the six of us who went – Andrew, Scott, Ryan, Josh, Jonathan and myself - as it is a vastly different fishing experience than the Kawartha lakes where we primarily fish. Organic soupy weedlines were non-existent in the far north – and we very quickly learned the quirks of casting to rocky shoals, boulder fields and sand flats. I don’t know how many times we had to rescue our lures from the treacherous granite thieves that hid at seemingly every reef – but miraculously very few of our expensive offerings were lost to these snags. Overall, the six of us struggled badly to catch our target species (muskie) during that week. We lodged at the clear water area of the lake, and saw numerous fish, but they were very shy to eat our offerings. Rough weather also played a part for one of the smaller boats as it severely limited where they could fish over the first dew days. In total, only 3 muskies were landed by the six fishermen during the week, along with a few nice pike. Easing the pain of our esox struggles was some great walleye fishing in the evenings, as well as pretty consistent small pike action in the bays that had some cabbage. We caught lots of fish, just not the ones we were looking for. We were honestly feeling very frustrated until I managed to land a nice 42” on day 6, and then Andrew saved the trip with a 55” giant with only hours left on day 7! That battle is one that I will never forget – have you ever seen the tip of a 9’ St. Croix Big Nasty almost touch its own cork handle? I have… I still consider myself lucky just to have been there to net that giant. All the frustration of the week was instantly erased as soon as that fish broke water, its massive head thrashing back and forth like a sea monster from the dinosaur era. Pete 42” Andrew 55” That giant, along with the raw beauty of the far north was still fresh in my mind earlier this year when I got the call from Andrew to book for LOTW episode II. View from camp The north shore of Lake Superior Andrew and I tried to recruit the same cast members from last years adventure, but life got in the way for the other four of them. We had a few others show some interest in joining, but in the end, Andrew and I were on our own. We changed where we were staying, moving west to the ‘dirty water’ area of the lake. After exploring many options, we decided to lodge at Witch Bay camp – often featured on such fishing shows as Bob Mehsikohmer’s Simply Fishing. The price was right, and they only offer an American plan – so all our meals were taken care of. This plan turned out to be amazing – not only did we not have to lug up coolers of ice and food, but we didn’t have to cook – increasing our time on the water. The food was excellent as well – not to mention wonderful hospitality from our hosts, Steve and Gail Hockett. Fish cleaning service… dock hands… housekeeping… hot coffee delivered to your cabin at Lew O’clock… it was a treat. Did I mention that daily fishing guides in your boat are included if you want them? Seriously – who else offers that? (And they really knew their stuff) If anyone wants all the details of the lodge please send me a message – it was superb in all aspects and I would love to share our experience. Oh yeah one more thing – of the 40+ guests staying there, Andrew and I were the ONLY Canadians staying there (other than the staff)! I don’t really know the reason for this, but if any of you are looking for a trip like this, the AMERICAN plan rocks! The Journey Last year’s 3-truck, 3-boat convoy, along with several wrong turns, had stretched the 1900km journey into a 27 hour ordeal. We were all pretty tired and cranky by the time we had rolled into camp. This year Andrew and I utilized better navigation along with very few pit-stops to trim that down to just under 23 hours. We actually finished our shifts at work on Wednesday early afternoon, packed up and hit the road – and got there just before dinner time on Thursday. This created a bonus evening of fishing! I joked with Andrew “It would be pretty cool if I could set personal bests in 3 categories on this trip – muskie, pike and walleye”. He laughed – but anything is possible on LOTW! We launched the boat, and unloaded our gear into our home for the week, a 4-bed log-style cabin named “Moose Manor”. The dock was literally right in front of our cabin, and we were also in close proximity to the dining hall and everything else. Perfect! We had planned to just eat some snacks and then head out fishing, but Gail would have nothing to do with that and insisted that we join everyone for dinner. It happened to be steak night, and large T-bones cooked just how you liked them soon came out with all the fixings along with fresh salad, homemade bread… rhubarb crumble with ice cream… I could go on about the food, but this is a fishing report!!! Our cabin and the camp [/url] The scenery Andrew’s boat Hunter or hunted? Later in the week we had just fished a point off of an island when this black bear swam out to where we had been, stood up and looked at us for a moment (I think I heard him say mmmmmm humans) then swam back to shore… The Fishing – Cold front esox A week before, the water temperatures in the area had been over 80F, but the cold front that had moved in (and would remain with us all week) had dropped the water down to as low as 66F. The highest we saw all week was 69F. We had studied a map, picking out likely spots, and also had one of the guides from the camp mark it up for us with some muskie and walleye spots. We finished our steak dinner, hopped in the boat and roared out to start fishing. Less than 5 minutes later, we stopped the boat quickly and looked into the next bay – a WALL of rain was rapidly moving our way, and thunder rumbled in the distance. We laughed at our bad luck, and sped back to camp, just before the storm hit. It came down for around an hour, leaving only about an hour of light to fish. “Should we?” asked Andrew… “Yup!” I exclaimed, and off we went for a second time. With the light failing, we didn’t go far, and stopped at the first ‘fishy’ looking spot we saw, a rocky island with a few points and a protected bay on one side. On my second cast I got hit, and yelled FISH ON! It didn’t take long for me to get the first muskie out of the way this trip! Not a big fish, but we were pumped anyway. As I was dealing with unhooking her, Andrew said “Give me a sec Pete, I have to make a cast – this spot is too perfect!”. Seconds after his lure splashed down, he yelled “Fish!!!” Another muskie – and a good one! After a crazy scrap, we got her in the net – how often do you see a muskie doubleheader??? Insane! Was this a sign of things to come? We finished up the spot and moved to the next – and again within seconds, Andrew had a nice fish on! Three muskies in our first 15 minutes and two were quality fish!!! We had surpassed last years numbers already! Would this trend continue for the rest of the week? Absolutely not. I don’t know if that storm stirred them up on that first night or what, but we worked really hard the rest of the week and only landed 5 more, for a total of eight. We raised well over 100 muskies, with a good number of them chasing multiple times on figure eights – but either our technique was poor or they were just not that interested. Muskies Andrew’s best two came in at 41” and 42” respectively (yup, the two fish he caught in the first 15 minutes!) I landed a 34” to break the ice, followed by a solid 39”, then a 41” that hit on the first turn of my figure 8… and then I caught one more… One windy afternoon, we were fishing a long rock reef which was getting pounded by waves. This reef is surrounded by deep water, and Andrew had a big fish blow up on his lure there two days before. Andrew did an amazing job of controlling the boat, and put me in a great position to make the perfect cast at the end of the reef. As I watched my lure come in, I gasped “BIG ONE” as a submarine came in hot on my lure. As I moved into the first turn of the figure 8, Andrew yelled “She’s got it!!!” I didn’t even feel it – she just opened her mouth and closed it over the lure – but when he yelled I drove the hooks home with a big sideways sweep – and then all hell broke loose. She broke water just like Andrew’s big girl had done last year, and thrashed her head back and forth almost 20 times!!! Try as she might there was no getting off for her – she had engulfed the entire lure. She finally calmed down enough that I was able to guide her into the net! My lure – which was 14” long – was nowhere to be seen – just a fluorocarbon straw coming out of her mouth! As Andrew and I looked at her in the net, we both thought she might be my first 50 – but her big girth made it really tough to tell. It took both of us and my Knipex to cut all the hooks out – one hook was pretty deep but cutting it prevented what may have been fatal damage. A quick measurement – 48” – but she is the heaviest I have ever caught. Here she is. Needless to say, I was absolutely pumped. I could get have got skunked for the rest of the week and still left happy… but thankfully that was not the case. The fishing mojo continued for me over the last few days... continued