LOTW 2013 trip

[Fisherpete]

“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

Edited August 17, 2013 by Fisherpete

[Rizzo]

oooh can hardly wait...lots of big toothy fishies I hope

[Fisherpete]

part 2

 

Now let’s get back to talking about that cold front for a moment. In mid-summer when water temps get high, big pike typically go deep. Well this cold front had certainly changed that around a bit… because we had an incredible week of pike fishing. They were in the same spots as we were seeing muskies – and hitting the same big lures! For the week, we landed 10 pike over 38”, with several over 40” including my personal best at 41”! It certainly kept us going when the muskie fishing was slow.

 

Pike

 

On our last day of fishing, we had been pounding musky lures for the first 5 hours of the day with only a few follows to show for it. We sat down to eat our lunch – and I have to call out the sandwiches here that came daily in our pack lunches – they were HUGE! Piles of ham, roast beef or summer sausage on home-made bread with whatever toppings you wanted on them – amazing. I felt like I had accomplished something significant every time I finished one! Anywayyyysss… we were drifting slowly while eating, and the fishfinder lit up on the bottom. Looked like walleye – and lots of them. We had brought the walleye gear out, and dropped down… and sure enough got into the walleye right away. As a bonus, a number of jumbo perch were mixed in with the walleye – and we finally decided to keep some fish. In an hour of catching and culling we had our limit of walleye and around a dozen perch up to 12”. We did a bit more muskie casting with no success and headed in to the lodge for dinner.

 

After dinner, we headed back out again – and were a bit torn what to do… so we did both. We started with muskies – nothing – then went back to jigging for walleye again. It turned out to be a great decision… we caught a bunch, and even a few smallies and pike mixed in, then I hooked into a fish that just felt different from what we had been catching. Big headshakes… I would bring her up a few feet then zzzzzzzzzz… the drag screamed and she was back to the bottom. Bring her up again, then zzzzzzz… I looked at Andrew and said “Pike?” He said “Nope – bet it’s a big eye… that’s what they do – they just want to get back down to the bottom!” She did it to me over a dozen times – then finally came up enough that I caught a big gold flash of her. It was the biggest walleye I had ever hooked! No horsing her as I only had 8lb fluoro on... a few more runs and in the net she went… and I completed the hat-trick with my third PB of the trip – a walleye just under 28” and over 8lbs. Just awesome.

 

Walleye & Perch

[/url]

 

It was a great trip and I would like to thank Andrew for setting everything up – including choosing Witch Bay camp for this year. I really had an amazing time and caught some great fish with an even better friend. To the Witch Bay staff – you run a top-notch operation from top to bottom. I will be back! Oh - I almost forgot to mention – Bob Mehsikohmer arrived at camp to film on the first Sunday and was a very nice guy – he has been a Witch Bay regular for over a decade and has caught some giants there. Throughout the week we chatted about fishing often and saw some of his lure prototypes – very cool stuff. I actually bought one of his inline spinners and tried it out on the last day – I hooked (but lost) a nice muskie on it. Pretty cool technology on his film boat as well. Hope he got a big one for the show!

 

By the way - that first quote - Thoreau certainly has a point. Despite all the fishing success, it was amazing to just escape from work - no cell phone signal meant no texts, no emails, no 3am phone calls... the body may have gotten tired from fishing muskies for 8 days straight but my mind was certainly refreshed

 

Hope you enjoyed the report!

 

Pete

Edited August 17, 2013 by Fisherpete

[Joey]

Now that's a report

 

Awesome stuff pete. Just some gorgeous fish

[Pikeslayer]

Perfect summertime evening read .

 

Thx Pete !!

[Gregoire]

Great report Pete. Thanks for putting it together.

[Dontcryformejanhrdina]

Great report! Can't beat 3 new personal bests!

[landry]

Love that fat 48. Nice job!!!

[adempsey]

Holy smokes, what a bunch of brutes! All four species were just pigs. Looks like an amazing trip for sure. Thanks for putting that together and posting it. Great photos as well! Taken with an SLR?

[lew]

Great early morning read Pete, thanks.

 

 

Looks like a fantastic trip with some good fish to boot !!

[Roy]

A beautiful time with your bud. Thanks for sharing it with us. Some heavy duty catches there...I suspect you'll be back up there sooner than later and you might even shave another hour off the traveling time. Great photos also, thank you!

 

Edited to add: And you turn a mean phrase as well, Pete.

[Rich Clemens]

Fantastic report !!!! Two in one net ... Don't see that very iftem. Thanks for taking the time to put this up.

[RickOnt]

Fantastic trip and a great report!!!

 

Thanks for taking the time

Rick

[Moosebunk]

This is one from you Pete I'll remember for some time. You and Andrew crushed it out there... and to think, six guys three fish the year before, to that!!! You've done your homework, changed the plan, built on previous experience and I can imagine next years trip will be something even greater to enjoy here. Well done and solid 48 dood.

[MCTFisher9120]

Unreal report, what a nice pile of Pike, Musky and a few Eye's thrown into the mix. Awesome report and pictures!

 

Thanks for sharing

[Sinker]

Nice mixed bag of toothy fish! Best part: NO BASS

 

Right on guys! Good work!

 

S.

[Musky or Specks]

This is an awesome report Thanks. That Superior pic looks like Katherine Cove Beautiful beach. One of these days I'll have to get to LOTW but everytime I think about it Georgian Bay and Nipigon are closer and get in the way.

[Walleye72]

Awesome report guys! I'm not sure I could take a 24 hour drive towing my boat all that way. Maybe when the kids are all grown up and doing their teenage thing.

 

I have a question for you: Andrew's boat has a 115 hp Mercury. Why is there a photo of you with a 150 HP Yamaha motor in the background mixed in with all the Merc pictures?

[4x4bassin]

Great morning read , looks like you guys had a blast !

[bigbuck]

WOW, nice report!!! I miss LOTW. Witch Bay goes into _____ Bay. An unnamed big bay on that magical lake that has a couple of spots where we have absolutely NAILED the walleye. I caught my first ski up there and it started my passion. The in laws were up on Route Bay, about 35-40 mins from the camp. I spent a fair bit of time bending Gord Pyzer's ear and also Bob Mehsikomer's as well a couple of years ago at the Odyssey. I am hoping to get back up there in the next year or two.

[cowanjo]

Thats awesome Pete - Lotw is amazing and you guys did awesome on multiple species

[mattyk]

Truly amazing report and trip! Thanks for sharing!

[spoon]

Congrats Pete

[Fisherpete]

Thanks guys - can't wait to do it again. It truly is a special fishery. I didn't even mention in the 3 or 4 hours that we jigged for eyes we caught well over 100 of them, not to mention the other incidental catches (pike, smallies, perch, rock bass, and even my first sauger). Our walleye hotspot was actually located in ________ Bay LOL!

 

FishLogic - nope, not a digital SLR, just a point & shoot Panasonic Lumix (but it is the one with the better lens, I forget the name of it).

 

Walleye72 - The Yamaha 150 was on one of the guides boats up there - we went out in his on one of the days.

 

Pete

Edited August 17, 2013 by Fisherpete

[kickingfrog]

Very nice. That princecraft looks real nice to. What a trip.