Canada Trip Offers Incredible Walleye Fishing

R. Sabota, Northwoods Notebook, 2009.

If you can, think back on the past 22 years. Many changes have occured over what would be almost a quarter of a century. 

Computers in our everyday lives have changed the way we work, communicate and even shop. Of course, there are many other changes such as automobiles, boats, outboard motors and the electronics in our boats. In the sport of walleye fishing, the changes have to do with equipment and techniques.

The fishing rods we have available today make the rods of even 20 years ago feel like clubs. We now even have electronic devices that guide our  boats back to exact locations were we caught fish in the past.

Something that hasn't changed significantly is walleye fishing success on the English River in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. On my firsts trip to Umfreville Lake, which is a flowage on the English River, ID simly could not believe the size and number of walleyes we were able to catch. At that time, with much smaller boats and motors and relatively primitive depth findin gequipment, we caught large numbers of big walleyes almost every time we stopped to fish.

We laughed at the mention that the walleye fishing was similar to walleye fishing in Wisconsin. The only difference was that in Umfreville Lake there were good-sized schools of walleyes on almost every hump we fished. The nubers of walleyes in Northern Wisconsin were already decreasing 20 years ago.

Two weeks ago, 12 of us met in Superior. We headed north in four pick-ups, each towing a boat. For me, this was the 22nd consecutive trip to Caribou Falls Landing, which is a comfortable fishing resort on Umfreville Lake. There are eight cabins and a recently completed lodge where weary anglers can grab a quick meal or a hot cup of coffee.

We unloaded the trucks on Sunday evening, slipped the boats off the trailers and prepared to fish...

Any fishing trip depends upon a number of factors to be a successful experience. Catching fish is important, as is comfortable weather. In my opinion, the people in the group are the most important factor for a successful trip. This trip was tremendous from all measures...

Monday morning found us putting gear in the boats and dividing the leeches so that each boat had a pound of the effective walleye baits. Bob, Mike, and I motored out to a hump we call the "Outer Hog" and put down an anchor. Bob and Mike were both yelling for a net before I was able to make my first cast, and both landed walleyes about 24 inches long.

The regulaitons specify that only one walleye over 18 inches may be kept and the limit is two walleyes. These regulations have preserved the walleye population for the past 20-plus years. That's one thing that hasn't changed over the years I have fished on this walleye factory.

The weather Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was ideal for walleye fishing. As a result of favourable weather, we were able to catch numbers of good-sized walleyes all day long.

Each day we would throw a dollar into a hat and whoever lands the longest walleye takes the money. The way we argue about who catches the longes walleye one would think that there is a large sum of money in the hat.

The highlight of each day is a shorelunch of fresh walleyes, fried potatoes and onions, and either beans or corn. Tom Twesme is the head cook and he does his magic in a huge fry pan ovr an open fire. The fry pan is suspended from a tripod and can be adjusted for height above the fire. It is diffucult to imagine a better lunch. The entire shore lunch gives us a break of nearly an hour and a half.

As mentioned, the fishing the first three days was simply outstanding. Thursday was sormy and even forced us onto shore twice as electrical storms passed through. The storms were severe enough that we were unable to have a shore lunch. Friday, the winds blew and we contended with 3-4 foot waves. At one point we had to cut the anchor rope because the wind wedged the anchor in the rocks on a rock bar.

We've already made plans to use the same cabins next July.