Shine On

Central Lake evening troll.  Courtesy of Happy Pharwaha

The sun has been shining for about two weeks now on us in the Opasquia Provincial Park.  The lazy days of summer have finally graced us here in the north country.  Thankfully, the warmer temperatures have decreased the bug activity allowing fisherman to focus more on the fish instead of swatting flies. The bugs haven't completely vanished, but the annoying creatures have drastically reduced their assault on us fishermen. 

The current weather we are enjoying is typical for this time of year.  I have always enjoyed the last two weeks of July into the first two weeks of August.  On average, the weather during that time is the most stable and one thing fish love is weather stability.  

The great weather has allowed Dad, Tyrol and myself to complete several summer projects.  The boardwalk at Central Lake has now been completely renovated with pressure treated lumber.  Also, a new 32 foot floating dock is now in operation at the big cabin.  Cocos, Southwest, and West Lake each received a boost in power with an additional 240 Watt solar panel. Furthermore, all three camps refrigerators have been switched from propane to green and economical solar powered Stecca fridges.   

Fishing 

Remington party 30.5" walleye 

Typical summer patterns for walleye and pike are now in play.  Walleye have can be found hovering around reefs and wind blown shorelines in around 10-20 ft of water.  Larger fish have been caught in waters as deep as 30 ft.

The hot lures for walleye are rather simple.  I could stock my tackle box with just a couple of baits.  3/8 oz jigs with a variety of twister tails or gulp would take up most of the space, however I would have to leave some space for Shad Raps #5 and #7. Chartreuse and fire tiger are my favorite colors but they all work.

The Echotails I mentioned in a previous blog have really started to shine now that the walleye have moved to deeper waters.  Of all the six different color combinations I purchased all have been just as productive.  I highly recommend these baits for vertical jigging.  They take a little tuning as I have found the hooks will often tangle.  A simple solution to avoid this is to tuck the rear hook into the plastic tail.

One of 20 South Lake walleyes over 26" for the week of 7/19

Pike have been hovering in the dense weeds as of late.  We are finding at Central Lake the peak bite has been later in the afternoon from 6-9 pm.  Last night for example, we couldn't keep the fish off of Musky Killer bucktails and Esox Assault double blades.  Slash baits like Suicks, Delong Eels and Hellhound are also doing well.  I can't forget to mention Johnson Silver Minnows for those thick weeds, and don't forget those twister tail trailers!

OUTPOSTS 

Burnt Lake
Hotspots #5, 6 and 10 are the place to be for nice pike.  Windblown points are the most effective spots for walleye.
Central Lake
The west portage continues to offer up trophy pike.  Three fish over 40 have been boated in the last seven days.  Trophies are prowling around hotspot #3, one of my favorite weed beds on the lake.  Last but not least is to always take a couple casts on the windsock if you are passing by.
Cocos Lake
A 44" monster was boated and released on the Sagiwitchewan river.  The deeper pools near the Burnt Lake rapids are starting to produce some great walleye action.
Lemonade/Favourable
Hard to make the Lemonade lake reports not sound redundant, but the lake continues to churn out the quality walleye. As usual, fish the west side of the island.  Pike alley gave up several nice 38+" fish over the past couple days.  Hot spots #4 and 12 are great place to focus for those monsters.
South
Two guests, 20 fish over 26" up to 30.5" last week means south lake is heating up with lots of big walleye.  The current guests had 12 over 25" up to 28.5 on Tuesday.  Bigger fish are deeper in 22-30 ft.  Slow jigging techniques have been best.
Southwest
Excellent numbers continue from this body of water.  Watched a guest battle a nice 37" fish on 6 pd test and a jig the other day, nothing more fun to see.
West
Work the upper half of the narrows towards the Fish Bowl.  I guided there on Tuesday and rolled a fish that was pushing 48".  I got a good look at the old girl and she got my heart beating.  Bucktails in the Horseshoe also yielded plenty 30+" fish.

Mad Season

A crisp Central Lake morning

Our summer has been running about two or three weeks behind this year.  Typically these following seasonal events have already occurred.  First and foremost is the mayfly hatch, which has now finally finished on all the lakes.  A typical year the mayflies hatch around the end of June to the fourth of July.  Second, the growth of plants and berries has been at a snails pace.  At the moment wild strawberries have just ripened enough for a tasty topping on pancakes.  I see a great potential for a bumper blueberry crop this year, as there are a ton of green berries throughout the boreal forest.  However, it takes a long time for them to ripen here and I fear we will have our first frost before then.  Finally, the water temperature is cool.  We still have not cracked 70 degrees at Central Lake, and if we do not get a round of warm weather soon it will not happen this year. Keep in mind our warm season ends in about five weeks.

Weather

The weather has been far from stable over the past ten days.  We have transitioned from high pressure to low and back again at a rapid pace this summer.  The past week has been filled with cloudy skies, warm temperatures and thunderstorms.  The forecast for the next several days is some much needed warmth along with variable cloudiness and continued warm temperatures. For updated weather info you can click the Environment Canada weather banner in the upper right corner of this blog. 

Fishing

Nice pike from SW lake. 

Walleye fishing was slower last week as a result of a dense mayfly hatch on the majority of the lakes.  However, camps managed to find some great pike fishing action.  The weeds are not as dense as years past but they are holding some quality pike.  The sparser weed beds are allowing anglers to cast a variety of baits without worries of getting fouled on foliage.

Burnt

The pike fishing was great up in Big Boy bay with several 39+” fish released.  Walleyes were stacked in hotspot #5.  Most fish have been found shallower than normal in around 8 ft.  This has probably been one of the best years for perch fishing at Burnt.

Central

The west portage was hot for pike.  Six fish over 38” were released in two days.  All were caught in the same weed bed, and if you have fished the west portage you know which spot I speak of.  The falls are still pushing lots of water and the walleye have been congregating to the current.

Cocos

A nice catch and release from Cocos Lake. 

The rapids have starting flowing at a slightly higher rate over the past several days.  Great walleye action is still found around both flowages.  The rapids that exits the north of Cocos is one of my favorite places to fish in the entire park.  There is just something about standing from shore and catching walleyes. 

Lemonade/Favourable

Weeds are still pretty spread out on Lemonade so the walleye action has been very active.  The east points seem to have been slightly more active than the rest of the lake.  A nice 43” beast of a pike was boated next to Johnson’s Island last Tuesday.  Trolling shad raps in about 12 ft of water was a great way to locate schools of walleye. 

South

Just last night two gentlemen boated a 29.5”, 27.5” and four 26” walleye in a period of two hours fishing.  The spot unfortunately was kept under secrecy however they said the big fish were boated in 25’ of water. 

Southwest

I don’t think there has ever been a bad day of fishing on Southwest Lake.  It is probably the most productive outpost we have for numbers.  Yes, the fish may lack some size but you will catch more 16-19” walleyes than you can ever imagine.  The points to the east of the camp have been just stacked with fish.  A nice 37" pike was boated on Hot Spot #4. 

West

With the cooler water temperatures the bulk of the action still lies in the Fish Bowl.  Walleyes have been holding on the perimeter of weeds while the pike stalk within.  With some warmer weather the north end of the lake will turn on like a light switch for big walleye.