2 days fishing, 2 PBs

limeyangler · July 6, 2008

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

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

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

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!!

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?

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.

July 6, 2008

Looks like a great day of fishing with some good quality fish. Congrats on your 2 PB. Thanks for sharing!

Edited July 6, 2008 by Johnny Bass

danc · July 6, 2008

That's quite a report. Congrats on the pb's. If I can stand the heat, I may get out this evening for some Walleye. You have encouraged me. Thanks for sharing..

lunkerbasshunter · July 6, 2008

awesome thanks for sharing and congrats on your PB's

CHeers!

Mike the Pike · July 6, 2008

Excellent report and pics awesome thanks for the details and video's.

I know its takes long to write a report like that one much appreciated.

Congradulations to you and your wife on your future child :clapping:

Get some sleep now because in 9 months you won't

:clapping: :thumbsup_anim: :Gonefishing: MTP

mattyk · July 6, 2008

thanks for the great report, some nice pics!

danbouck · July 6, 2008

Very good Report!

And congrats and best of luck with the future baby.

ehg · July 6, 2008

Thanks for the great report! Excellent pictures and the videos are a nice extra addition.

When i was a kid Wabigoon was famous for musky fishing, ever hear about folks catching muskies?

Congatulations on the wifes pregnancy as well.

Great effort. Thanks,

ehg

tbayboy · July 6, 2008

Great report as always Limey. That pike sure is fat - they aren't having any trouble keepign themselves fed I guess. And congrats on that walleye - 30 incher - wow.

limeyangler · July 7, 2008

Thanks for the replies guys,

Ehg, yup there are musky in here, i got a smallish tiger lst year but still want to get a a pure bred...lol...if thats what they're called. And dan....congrats to you too on your recent bundle of joy.

Joey · July 7, 2008

Great report Limey.

You're just adding up those points for our team :thumbsup_anim:

So what are the exact inches of those fish?

Thanks

Joey

Victor · July 7, 2008

Congrats on the 2 PBs! As always, great report! Keeps me sane during the week

ccmtcanada · July 7, 2008

Fantastic report again! Congrats on those PBs...something tells me we'll be seeing a few more PBs this summer!

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2 days fishing, 2 PBs

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