Five days in fishing paradise

By Roger Sabota, Rhinelander Daily News, July 20, 2003

The very thought of a fishing trip to Canada has always caused me to become excited and anxious. Perhaps it is a result of all the stories I heard from friends of my Dad or perhaps it is a result of reading many articles about outstanding fishing action.

Perhaps it is simply the thought about getting away from the crowds on a lake without cabins on each point. Perhaps it is the thought of seeing more float planes than cars and trucks.

Most likely it is the result of almost twenty-five extremely enjoyable fishing trips to Northwestern Ontario. Each trip was a bit different from the previous trips and each one has resulted in some special memories.

Two weeks ago on a Sunday morning, well before the six o’clock hour, we piled Bob Pederson’s gear in my pick-up. From there we drove to Mike Cornelius’s house, hooked his boat to the pick-up and loaded his gear. Our next stop was in Minocqua for breakfast where we met up with Tom Cornelius, Dan Krueger and Duane Frey. This was Bob’s first trip with us and Mike’s second.

The rest of us have enjoyed quite a few trips together. In Superior we met Tom Twesme (The Osseo Jinx) and his two sons, Mark and Troy. The Jinx is the organizer of these trips and both of his sons have joined us as often as their schedules permit. Troy is in the Air Force, thus his schedule is a bit unpredictable at best.

Mark has completed two years of college and is working a couple summer jobs to finance his college expenses.

It has become our practice to drive into Canada to purchase a supply of leeches and then on to Kenora where we spend the night. Monday morning finds us back at the breakfast table before daylight and then in the trucks heading northwest.

Just as we finished breakfast our waitress asked where we were going.
She cautioned us that construction work was in progress on the White Dog Dam and if we were not there by 7:00 a.m. we would not be able to cross until 9:00 a.m. With the Jinx in the lead our journey to the dam reminded me of the Dukes of Hazard T.V. show. We made the crossing with 15 minutes to spare.

We arrived at Halley’s Camp, transferred our gear and food into the cabin, unleaded the boats and headed out. Each of us donned rain suits since it was raining a bit and the wind was strong, kicking up relatively high waves.

The ride across the wide part of the lake to the north shore was both rough and wet. We anchored our boats on different pieces of structure and rigged lead head jigs tipped with a leech. My first cast was thrown next to some deep weeds and almost immediately the line began to swim sideways.

I set the hook and did not feel any resistance. The assumption was that a northern cut off my jig.

I tied on another jig while Mike and Bob each landed lunch size walleyes. The regulations on the lake we fished are extremely conservative and as a result the walleye fishing seems to get better each year.

Our limit was two walleyes each, which was also our bag limit. Halley’s Camp requests that all walleyes over 18 inches in length are returned to the water alive.

We try to use walleyes between 15 and 17 inches for shore lunch. My first cast with the new jig resulted in another bite and following a hook set, a tough head shaking fight.

The first walleye I caught on the trip measured 26 inches.

Each day the real highlight is a fresh walleye shore lunch prepared by the Jinx who cooks over an open fire.

The menu consists of raw fried potatoes, onions, beans or corn and fresh walleye fillets. All morning we wondered if the rain would hold off enough for shore lunch and it did.

The weather for the entire five days we fished was excellent. We had some rain each day and needed sweat shirts and wind breakers to be warm enough. The last day we had enough sun that short sleeves were most comfortable.

From a fishing standpoint this was the best weather I have experienced on a Canadian fishing trip. We watched many fronts move through as we fished and put our rain suits on and off frequently. During a trip of this kind there is a considerable amount of kidding and practical jokes that take place. If two anglers from different boats should tangle their lines the angler with the lightest line will usually sacrifice his jig. Both Tom Cornelius and Duane Frey demonstrated how to cast a jig a long distance. The longest walleyes we caught measured a bit over 27 inches. One morning our boat landed 17 walleyes that each measured 23 inches long.

The longest northerns we boated were 34 and 35 inches. As usual we had several hooked walleyes that were grabbed by northerns as we fought them. Mike had a huge walleye grab a smaller hooked walleye while fighting it.

As we told the wardens who checked us, the walleye fishing in that part of northwestern Ontario gets better each year.