Well it’s
been a week and then some since I had the chance to write, but things are going
great up in Northwestern Ontario. The weather
this past week and a half has been a mix of really warm & cold and rainy (the
only thing that has been consistent has been fishing and the meteorologist’s
bad predictions) but so far the fish are a little ahead of schedule. The weeds
are starting to grow up pretty thick, smallmouth and largemouth are almost at
the end of their spawn, big northern are still up shallow, and walleye are
active and starting to move to early summer spots.
Walleye has
been great all around. Most of our success has come on a 1/4oz jig and minnow
but I have done rather well on 4” Berkley Gulp minnows. A week ago guest Dan
McFeeders caught a 42” Northern on a 3” minnow bait on 6lb test (it was crazy
awesome). At first it tried to eat a smaller northern Dan was reeling in. Also, Byron has had a lot of success catching
quality size northern on a #5 Mepps. As far as bass go I’ve spent a lot of my time
guiding on Whitefish Bay (Lake of the Woods), Otterskin Lake, Shingwak Lake,
and Lake Kishkutina. In all of these lakes the bass were on beds and as long as
you could get your bait in the vicinity of their bed they would hit it (it goes
to show you smallmouth are more protective of their young than a crazy hockey
mom). We caught the bass on top-water,
Zoom Flukes, Jig Worms, X-Raps, Maraboo Jigs (if you have never used these you
are really missing out), and 1/8 Mimic Minnow jigs with 3” Impulse Minnow baits
(both made by Northland Tackle). My
cousins, Sam Jackson and Cam Mosbeck have also been busting up big smallies on
Clearwater Lake with tube jigs. Bed fishing is a great way to get good numbers
but it’s almost like cheating. I think you could actually catch a lot of these
fish on a bare jig head (trust me it’s that easy).
On that note,
as anglers and hunters you have to take advantage of every opportunity to
improve your chances of cracking “the big one.” Sometimes these advantages come
in small packages but the rewards are amazing. In terms of fishing I don’t know
if there is anything more important than a pair of polarized sunglasses
(especially for bass fisherman). Fishing without them is like fishing blind and
I can’t tell you how many times I have caught fish/big fish due to polarized
sunglasses. In my opinion, polarized sun glasses are one of the most important
things you can have in your arsenal. The best thing about polarized glasses is
that you can find them all over the place and they are super affordable (as low
as $15.00) so if you lose them you don’t feel like crying (I know from
experience). Right now I use Costa del Mar sunglasses but there are plenty of
others that work just fine.
I also have
to send out a special thanks to Matt Foltz for letting me borrow his underwater
camera to shoot some cool footage of bed fishing on Otterskin Lake. The camera
he had was called a “Go Pro” and they are totally designed for the outdoors.
They are so cool I might even be able to talk Kari in to letting me get one.
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