Hey there
everyone! I’ll start off by sending a shout out to Andy Carlson and Troy Norman
for a great finish in the Sturgeon Bay bass tournament! It’s always nice to see
buddies and great local fisherman do well at high end tournaments. Great job
guys!
OK… Last
week I drug a tree stand through the bush to a new area I found this spring. On
my way in, I realized that I might have picked a spot that was a little too
hard to get to (I’m pretty sure that tree stand is there for life). After an hour of crashing through the
bush/swamp I arrived at my new spot. I thought the tough part was over but I
was way wrong. I took a pole saw and started cutting the branches off the
balsam tree I had chosen for my tree stand. After I figured I had reached well
above 15’ and was covered in sap and needles, I tried to put up tree stand. The
tree that I was putting it up on was on a bit of an incline and when I almost
had it in place I slipped, fell backwards, and the stand fell back and on top
of me (it squashed me like a bug). The only good thing about the whole
situation is that I set my tree stand far enough away from my trail cam so it
wasn’t caught on tape. About 6 tries later I got the stand in place and
strapped down. I’ll be sure to upload some trail cam pics as soon I have a
chance to check my trail cam.
This last
week was my first week of guiding for this season. Needless to say, it’s great
to be back on the water, but this first week provided a series of challenges.
Up until a week ago the weather had been relatively consistent (with daytime
temps averaging in the 70’s) but the day before I was scheduled to hit the
water that all changed. The temp dropped to the mid 50’s, wind picked up, and
rain poured (May in Northwestern Ontario… It will throw you curveballs).
My first day
was spent guiding the Wigle family on Arrow Lake for Walleye. Without a doubt
Arrow is one of the best walleye lakes I have ever fished. As a guide it’s a
great lake to be on because it’s easy for a novice fisherman to come out of
there looking like a rock star. On an average day it isn’t uncommon to put over
75 fish in the boat (I know this might sounds like B.S. but if you ask any of
the guides around Nestor Falls about it they will tell you the same thing) but
my first day out on Arrow was well short of that. We probably totaled around 45
fish, with the biggest one measuring around 17”. Not the day I was hoping for but a good day
none the less. Almost every spot we stopped we caught fish but they didn’t seem
to be holding in big schools. We mostly used 1/4oz jigs tipped with minnows.
My second
day guiding was again with the Wigle family on Loonhaunt Lake. This was a tough
day to say the least. The wind was relentless, the temp hovered around 50
degrease F, it rained most of the day, and fishing was tough. The only thing
that we had a lot of success doing was trolling weighted Rattle Traps along the
shore line for lake trout in 40 to 50ft
of water (this is something Byron and I had a lot of success on earlier this
year out on Kairiscons). The coolest part of the first two days was fishing
with Joe Wigle (a 10 year old kid from Rochester MN). Joe is by far the most
patient kid I have ever fished with and I’m not sure if I have ever seen
someone his age show so much enthusiasm towards the outdoors. Both days we were
faced with some pretty cold weather and harsh conditions but he never
complained once, it was impressive.
Yesterday
Byron and I headed out on Sabaskong Bay (Lake of the Woods) for a day of
walleye fishing. Things were a little windy but nothing that wasn’t manageable.
Actually I think a good strong wind on Lake of the Woods helps you more than it
hurts you. When the wind blows a lot it pushes the water around and creates a
lot of current (in fact the wind will push so much water around that the water
level can change up to two feet in less than an hour). Most of our success came
from these stretches where the wind was pushing a lot of current. We caught the
walleyes form 12’ to 20’ of water on jigs and minnows. We used 3/8oz and 1/2oz
jigs depending on how much current was running through the area.
Anyway over
the next few days I’ll be chasing some smallies around so I’ll be sure to let
you know how it goes.
