'Nother Nip Report

[Northhunter]

Lots of good reports from Callander / South Bay. Now for something closer to Lakair.

 

Headed down Friday night. With the full moon on and a warm week to get the water temps up I was wondering what the bite would be like. Got across to the camp kinda late, by the time I geared up the boat it would have been near dark so I stuck to casting off the docks (uneventfully) until the mosquitoes chased me in. We were down until Tuesday.. no worries. Determined the shiners headed out for deeper water during the week - they're usually around a bit later than this.

 

When I went back out about an hour later these little guys were all over the door and the side of the camp. Early for them, too. With the shiner bite likely over and the mayfly hatch on, the full moon phase was a little less promising.

 

Some personalized spinner rigs waiting for action.

 

These blades will turn at any speed. The lead and trailer hooks are tied to the same length of 35lb. Seaguar - if any harness is a perfect mix of finesse and indestructibility, this is it

 

I'm an insomniac, so this is what the moon looked like at 3am:

 

Outside was nuts. Up the lake there is a weedy bay that leads into a beaver pond. You could hear the bullfrogs from about a mile away (early for them too). Spring peepers, tree frogs, loons were all making noise as were 2-3 owls on the shoreline opposite the camp hooting/barking back and forth. Fish could be heard sucking mayflies off the surface all over as well.

 

I went back in to finish watching a movie and tie some leaders (the camp TV gets 2 channels - when a decent movie comes on, you seize the opportunity and watch it lol). I grabbed a rod and fished off the dock for a while around 4, but it was a different world. The breeze was gone, the moon was on its way down and everything had seemed to go to bed for the night.

 

Geared up the boat and hit the lake for a troll Saturday night. I'm not a fan of the midday heat and we had a late supper, so I wasn't on the water until about 8.

First 30 seconds and I had this little guy on:

 

A short while later this jumbo hit.

 

3rd fish:

 

What everyone is after:

This guy hit harder than the snot rocket and put up a good fight. My hand dwarfs it, but it was a decent slot fish. Took him off the edge of small silty bay where I saw a couple mayflies come up out of the water.

I trolled about another 100yds and picked up another jumbo and an OOS smallie. I was back in the cabin for the 2nd period of game 3. Not bad for 50 minutes of fun

 

Sunday night wasn't too eventful. A couple boats were working spots along my usual run so I was neglected to working this channel. Woe is me

 

It was overcast but nothing was happening walleye wise. Landed about a 3lb northern, a couple OOS smallies and a few perch. Heard someone in one of the other boats say they had an 'eye follow their bait in, but if anyone was landing anything they were keeping quiet.

 

Headed in for the night and these guys filled the sky back at the camp.

There was hundreds upon hundreds of them moving up and down en masse with the breeze. The flash from the camera would light up an entire swarm, which was something to see in itself but it was hard to get very many in the shot.

 

By Monday I killed the one good battery I had brought, and thinking the other was good to go left the charger at home. So that's it for pics.

 

It was quite a bit cooler and rained most of the day monday, but I got out for another evening fish. Had the lake pretty much all to myself but didn't bring anything in trolling raps. Lots of dinky perch pecking at the shad rap but that was it for the first 90 minutes or so. I went to a spinner rig and started picking up small 'eyes along the same run. I had one on the stringer and game 4 was under way - I was facing a major dilemma; head in and catch the game or stay out while the bite's on... then I remembered the am/fm pocket radio I had stashed away in the Plano and in no time I was catching 'eyes and listening to the Sens school the Ducks in the 1st I boated 3, lost one or two. The bite was soft to begin with, but then the wind switched as a front moved in and the fish reacted. I had to work another 30 mins or so to boat another - even with the light action St. Croix and 10lb. PowerPro it was getting harder to detect a fish. I set the hook a couple times on what felt like bottom/weeds only to have the drag slip and lose the minnow. The last fish was a 3-4lb northern that mouthed the bait and fought nothing like a pike.

 

Tuesday I never even tried. At 3pm there was still fog/mist coming off the water. A few hopefuls were out giving it their best but I figured a 20 degree+ drop in temperature from Sunday afternoon to early Tuesday morning would have killed the bite for sure. From heat so intense it gets the shadflies and bullfrogs horny way ahead of schedule and chases minnows out of their early season haunts, to a day so cold it feels like duck season in June. What a year it's been.

[ccmtcanada]

Wow Northhunter....great report and pics. I like your writing style too...makes you feel a part of your trip! Great pics...love those in the water action shots!

[lunkerbasshunter]

great report! is that normal on that side of the lake to get a may fly hatch? Normall around north bay and callandar the hatch is around canada day.

[Northhunter]

We get a hatch every year, but nothing like North Bay. They are early this year.

 

They seem to show up on this side earlier than on the big lake, but I think there's 160 different species/subspecies.. so that could maybe have something to do with it

[mattyk]

great report and really cool pictures. THanks for sharing with us.

[Smokey]

Great report. Thanks

[tbayboy]

Great report and really great pics as well. Gotta love showing up during a mayfly hatch though At least you got to mix hockey and fishing at the same time.