1st time out with a good buddy

[limeyangler]

Hi Y'all,

 

I bumped into a buddy the day before yesterday on my way home from work at 7pm....well he was actually stalking me LOLOL....he says he saw a truck at the bait shop and thought ..." Nah....that cant be him...buying minnows at this late hour ??" So he came over to see if it was me...lol...it was. Anyway...we had a chat through the car windows....and I says ...come on lets go fishing....to my surprise he says...lets go, so we drove to my place and jumped in the boat and went off for an hour before it started to get dark. The fish were not co-operating very much that evening and we got a couple of very small pike and a couple of sauger and walleye.

 

 

 

 

 

I LOVE THE CAMOUFLAGE PATTERN ON THESE SAUGER

 

 

 

 

When we got back Darryl says to me he needs to get out fishing more often...sooooo....i says "what ya doin’ tomorrow?"....he says....."I’m off work for another week"...nuff said....lol...lets go fishing so we did. I picked Darryl up at the dock in town at 10am yesterday....wow...perfect day for fishing, slight chop on the water, clear skies, no time limits and about 25 degrees c. Darryl has lived in Dryden all his life, but like a lot of the locals has never fished Wabigoon much(Dryden is on Lake Wabigoon). There is a perception that it is not a particularly good fishery, however i think this is a bit unfair. The fishing is 'relatively' poor when compared to some of the other less accessible lakes in the area, but there are a lot of fish , and decent size fish, its just a difficult lake to fish, and can take a lot of effort to work out.

 

 

Darryl wanted to get Walleye, so i suggested we try a few spots I’d done well at , slowly working our way to Mile and Trap lakes, as Darryl was quite excited to go into these lakes as he'd never been to them. So i took him to a mid water reef...and we got one small walleye, and a couple of small jackfish. Nothing to write home about...but a start...and we had the whole day, so i said that we should move on and go straight to the furthest lake(Trap) and work our way back home from there.

 

 

 

DARRYL WITH HIS FIRST FISH OF THE DAY

 

 

 

 

 

It was great to see Darryl’s reaction when we hit the small weeded channels connecting Mile and Trap to the main Wabigoon Lake. He was having a blast, and that made my day! Like i said we headed to the next connecting channel off Mile into Trap Lake. Darryl’s jaw was practically hanging on his chest...it is very pretty in these lakes, and the contrast in water clarity between these 2 lakes and Wabigoon given that they are connected is quite staggering.

 

I had never actually caught a Walleye in Trap lake before....plenty of bass and pike but no 'eyes. That is until 3 days before when Kyle (young fishing pro in the making) took me in there and showed me the only real structure in this small lake(a 20' square mid water reef, that rises from around 25' to 2'-5' across the top, covered in weed). Straight away that day when we hit this reef Kyle hooked into 2 nice bass, but there were no walleye....so we moved to the adjacent shoreline and we really got into the 'eyes...i mean they were schooling against the weedline in huge numbers and hitting everything from jigged minnows and leeches, to walleye spinners cast out with worm, leech or minnow, only thing was that they were all very small, Kyle was looking a bit disappointed as he said he has never caught small walleye there before.

 

 

 

 

ONLY TOOK ONE PICTURE THAT DAY BECAUSE OF WEATHER CONDITIONS...BUT HERE'S A NICE BASS KYLE GOT

 

 

 

 

 

This VID DOES NOT DO JUSTICE TO THE WEATHER 3 DAYS AGO AS IT WAS WAY ROUGHER ON THE WAY OUT...BUT YA GET THE IDEA

 

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Anyway...back to yesterday, so i was telling Darryl about my trip there 3 days ago, he was pumped....doubly so cause he never caught a bass before and really wanted to. We got to the reef and set up with very small black flat jigs and leeches. I was really hoping this was gonna work out and the fish were gonna be co-operating....Darryl was pumped after i had hyped it up and i really wanted to change his perception of Wabigoon lake system. Well happy to say...the fish were co-prating....first cast at the edge of the reef and i hook into a fish.....i look around and Darryl is also into one too........

 

 

 

FIRST CAST......DOUBLE HEADER!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

After that it was non stop on the reef for the next half hour, the time it took for us to get our limits, so Darryl is straight on the mobile phone whilst reeling them in telling Lindsay(his wife) that she should bring the kids over to mine tonight for a fish fry....lol. The fish were all in the 16" and above so we had to throw a few back that were in slot, i got the best one of the day which was 23", but lots between 18" and 21" went back. These walleye fought really hard, and Darryl, and myself kept thinking we had hooked into either bass or pike as we were reeling in...great fun. I did manage a few small bass of the reef, which only fuelled Darryl’s desire to catch his first bass.

 

 

 

1/2 HOUR OF NON STOP WALLEYE....NICE SIZE TOO...MMMMMMM....FISH FRY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I GOT 3 SMALL SMB LIKE THIS ON THE REEF

 

 

 

 

 

Now the 'pressure' was off, cuz it was only 11:30 and we had our walleye limit. So i suggested we try for some bass. I got another small one after an hour using a walleye spinner, we also tried the Mepps comets(yellow/black spots) but not much else than a few small pike , Darryl had another couple walleye. So we headed to my favourite weedline in the next Lake up (Mile). I had lots of pike in the first hour of working the shoreline, but Darryl was struggling a bit with technique, he had never used mepps before. We worked our way round to my favourite weedline and i hooked into 2 nice smallies while we were there. I could feel Darryl getting frustrated, but could not really do much to help...i suggested he try a topwater.....and he got a nice hit from a bass which leapt clear foot out of the water. That was good cuz now at least he had confidence that he was doing it right, not long after that he switched back to the mepps and got a solid hit but lost what seemed to be moving like a bass, which also got him pumped....but after another hour or so of me catching pike, and him struggling to adjust to a new technique i suggested we come back another day and spend it targeting SMB to get him his first.

 

 

 

 

MY TWO BASS IN MILE LAKE

 

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We got back home at about 5pm, after i did a quick tour of some other good reefs in the main Wabigoon Lake(we did not fish), and we ...or i....cleaned the fish, Darryl’s wife and kids showed up, my wife also got back around 7pm and we had a really good supper. Darryl said that that was the best fishing he had ever experienced on Wabigoon, and could not thank me enough, which was nice....so i have to say a big thanks again to Kyle for sharing some of his ht-spots with me, so i could pass the knowledge along the line. Kyle is in the Red Lake Tournament this weekend and him and his dad have invited me up to do the pre-fish with them on Thursday...cant wait......feel very privileged to get the chance to fish with these guys.....they are very good fishermen with a wealth of local knowledge.....plus they own and run the best tackle store in Dryden

 

 

 

 

GREAT AFTERNOON OUT WITH MY BUDDY DARYLL

 

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Great Report and thats a monster smallie!! You are truly lucky to be living up there!

[bbog]

Nice report and pictures. what the heck!

[Headhunter]

I love your reports brother! Keep up the good work and man, that smallie was a football!

HH

[Leecher]

Great report and pics limeyangler

 

You guys sure had a beautiful day of fishing and that SM pic...man it's huge

 

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[corvette1]

what a great day on the water

[tbayboy]

Cool stuff Limey. Funny how locals always think their own lake isn't a good spot to fish isn't it. Of course when your as spoiled for lakes as you are in your neck of the woods I guess I can understand it. Thanks for the great report as always.

[Bly]

"The fishing is 'relatively' poor when compared to some of the other less accessible lakes in the area, but there are a lot of fish , and decent size fish...."

 

 

"After that it was non stop on the reef for the next half hour, the time it took for us to get our limits"

 

 

 

Uh huh, terrible place to fish, remind me to never ever go there LOL Thanks for the read, enjoyed it and congrats on the day

[Greencoachdog]

A very fine report, pics, and vids... with some "sweet fish!!!

 

Good on you for getting Daryl out and showing him the ropes!!!

[Handlebarz]

great report and some very nice fish there guys