Wakami

[Master of Bait]

Hi folks,

 

Just sharing a few pics from a long weekend away - way up north. My pal and I drove to Wakami Lake PP using the Sultan Industrial Rd for the home stretch of the trip. What a road, what an amazing landscape. The sky is big and powerful there - it's humbling. The fishing on Wakami was actually a little tough. We worked for a few small walleye on our first day and several veterans were having to work hard for low numbers as well, so we threw in the towel and decided to fish for pike - went for easy fun fishing. Lots of fish but nothing huge, we had a couple of tough break offs, but we had a blast. Should've taken more pics. Explored some back lakes, enjoyed every minute of it. Looking forward to going again some time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chris.brock]

awesome, great pics, it takes me back

 

I think you guys got the "Wakami Vibe", it's a magical little park

[bow slayer]

I had to back out of my trip to Wakimi this year due to time,but I am rescheduling for next July,I did thou managed a couple days at Halfway Lake.

 

Just wondering how is that Sultan Rd.....is it in desent shape for a mini van or suv to pull a boat into Wakimi from 144? thanks

[big guy]

Nice pictures and a couple of pretty decent pike there. Me and my two sons, brother and brother-in-law are heading up next weekend for a week. I haven't been to Wakami in 18 years, but have fished other areas up that way as well and have always had good luck catching pike at least, love the country, quiet and seclusion.

 

We are planning to fish a couple of other lakes between Wakami and Wenebegon while we're there, so am curious which lakes you fished besides Wakami, or did you just explore? Where does that road in your second pic lead to?

 

One thing about up there is that you don't need to stay in the park. Lots of places to park and camp for free and use it as a central base and then fish a myriad of lakes in the area, a different one every day if you want. It's nice to have a lakefront site in Wakami and have your boat in the water all the time, but it's not necessary to pay the park fees in order to have a place to stay.

[BillM]

I had to back out of my trip to Wakimi this year due to time,but I am rescheduling for next July,I did thou managed a couple days at Halfway Lake.

 

Just wondering how is that Sultan Rd.....is it in desent shape for a mini van or suv to pull a boat into Wakimi from 144? thanks

 

The road is fine, you'll sand blast your boat and trailer however unless you keep the speed down.

[big guy]

I had to back out of my trip to Wakimi this year due to time,but I am rescheduling for next July,I did thou managed a couple days at Halfway Lake.

 

Just wondering how is that Sultan Rd.....is it in desent shape for a mini van or suv to pull a boat into Wakimi from 144? thanks

 

If you're trailer lights are exposed in any way, say the side marker lights that stick out to the side, I put a couple of layers of duct tape on the backside of them, part facing your tow vehicle, to protect them from flying stones and stop them from getting cracked/broken.

[Locnar]

Nice pike mang! You're name is hilarious. The Master Baitman.

[Master of Bait]

Hey guys,

 

Thanks for the comments. The Sultan road was great. We towed my tinny using my 2WD Ford Escape and there were no problems. I kept the speed fairly moderate though - 60 - 80 kmh was my range. No point rushing anyway as it's a beautiful route. As mentioned, if it's been dry you'll likely have a nice coat of dust on your rig and also watch for large pebbles as well as the "washboard-like" stretches which cause for a bumpy ride in some parts.

 

The back lakes we fished were in the park, just pike lakes. We spent some time exploring the roads off the Sultan but didn't have the time to get into any fishing on other lakes (next time). The road you mention just leads to a clear cut. Just exploring a bit.

 

Thanks for the plug on my name!

 

Cheers,

 

MoB

[big guy]

Thanks for the reply.

 

We will heading up Saturday, returning the following Saturday, so hopefully we can have some success.

 

What campsite did you stay at? We have #55 booked, the last one in the Browns Bay camping area.

[Renegade67]

Hello All,

Just joined this forum. Been lurking for a bit as I had a problem getting validated so I could post.

Anyway you guys speaking of Wakami sure brings back boat loads of memories. My family travelled around many provincial parks back in the 70's through the mid 80's. Once we went to Wakami we never went anywhere else! I'm wondering what has happened to the place due to the posts here though? We targeted whitefish back then. You went out to the pack in the morning till about 9:30 and the the evening after 5 and usually caught many beautiful whities on swedish pimples. Smoked them in the supplied smokers with cherry wood. We called it making candy. If we wanted walleye we had a couple of locations we hit that always produced. We never targeted and rarely caught a northern. Sorry, but can't imagine making that drive for gators. It was this time of year we visited. Has the whitie population disappeared?

Thanks for taking me back!,

Renegade67

[big guy]

I don't think the Whitefish have tailed off, it's probably because most people will fish for pickerel and pike first. From what I have read the whitefish population still seems to be strong.

 

When I was up there in '95, most of the people that were there were from Michigan and they targeted whitefish almost exclusively. I think most Canadians prefer whitefish fishing in the winter.

[Renegade67]

Thanks for the reply Big Guy.

I was going to mention that probably 50% of the park was filled with Michiganders, even way back then! It was primarily whitefish ppl went for, then walleye. I can understand wanting to catch whities in the winter, especially if your getting them from say Simcoe, where they become rather soft and hard to locate in the summber. Up there though they were quite firm and much smaller. The schools came around like clock work The biggest ones we would get were about 5 lbs and that was very rare. Most were in the 1.5-2.5 pound range. Good to hear that they are still there!

[big guy]

Well like I say, we're heading up Saturday and will be targeting pickerel first, pike second as I have my two sons going and am hoping to get them on to some fast hammerhandle action, whitefish third and lakers in one of the nearby lakes.

 

I've got my Swedish pimples packed and a bunch of other smaller baits such as small jig heads to tip with worms, small twister tails gulp baits and panfish style tubes and meal worms. Hopefully at least one of those will do the trick.