Canada walleye trip is for the young at heart

By Roger Sabota, Rhinelander Dailey News, July 18, 2004

What do you get when you jam nine guys into three pick-ups for two twelve-hour stints, then put all nine into the same cottage for a week and finally have them in three boats for five ten-hour days? The result of this series of events can be either a disaster or it can be a week to remember filled with laughter, pranks and a lot of fish-catching.

The first paragraph quite well explains the adventure that nine of us experienced beginning on the Fourth of July. Dan Krueger, Duane Frey and “Walking Eagle” (formerly known as Tom Cornelius) were in one boat. The “Osseo Jinx” and his two sons, Troy and Mark, were in another boat. Longtime friend Bob Pederson, Mike Cornelius and I were in my boat. This was Bob’s second trip to Canada with us, but the rest of us have been on numerous trips.

The object of our trip was to jig for walleyes for five days on a Canadian Lake. We stopped at the Angler’s Pro Shop on the shore of Lake of the Woods in Nestor Falls, Ontario to purchase ten pounds of leeches and our fishing licenses.

True to the tradition of past trips we spent Sunday evening in the Anchor Inn in Kenora, Ontario. The Anchor Inn is located on the shore of Lake of the Woods and we always try to get the latest word on local fishing conditions. Frequently we chuckle after hearing reports that seem a bit tall in scope. For the past two years the reports are as much about the deer hunting as they are about the fishing action.

Monday morning we were back in the vehicles at daybreak, heading for Halley Country. The Halley Family has exclusive rights to resort accommodations on a huge flowage on the English River. We have fished this flowage for nearly twenty years and are always surprised at how good the walleye fishing is. The “Osseo Jinx” introduced me to this body of water nearly twenty years ago.

Primarily as a result of the foresight of the Halley family there are extremely restrictive regulations regarding both the size and the numbers of fish that anglers are able to keep. On Umfreville Lake, which we fish, anglers may only keep two walleyes under eighteen inches in length. They have also spearheaded a program called the Trophy Angler for Northwestern Ontario. Anglers who catch and release a walleye that is twenty-seven inches long or longer are awarded a trophy angler hat plus their name is entered in the annual Trophy Angler publication.

We began fishing Monday morning with jackets on and a relatively strong northwest wind. The big water got a bit rough but we were able to hold the boats on the humps with heavy anchors. The first day belonged to Bob Pederson as he landed and released two “hat fish.”

Each year the highlight of the first day in Canada is that first shore lunch cooked by the master of shore lunches, “The Osseo Jinx”. Our menu is not varied but enjoyed by each of us. An open fire on a big rock is started and then “The Jinx” does his magic. Raw fried potatoes mixed with onions are placed in the large pan supported from a tripod. A can of either beans or corn is opened and placed next to the fire. A beer batter is mixed up, and the fillets are coated with the batter. They turn golden brown in the hot oil and are delicious beyond description. Normally we overeat a bit on that first day so the evening meal is snack food.

As described by Mark Walters, there are usually a few pranks pulled on any trip of this kind and our trip is no exception. Troy and Duane seem to have the edge on the rest of us for pranks.

The second day of fishing belonged to Dan and Duane. Duane caught two “hat fish” and Dan caught one. The rest of us caught numbers of nice walleyes but all were under that magic twenty-seven-inch mark. Thursday was our toughest day of walleye fishing for the entire week. The skies were cloudless and there was no breeze at all. Any walleye angler knows that flat, calm waters with clear skies make for extremely tough walleye fishing conditions. That day each boat only accounted for 75 to 85 walleyes. To a seasoned Wisconsin walleye angler that sounds great but on Umfreville Lake that is a slow, tough day of walleye fishing.

One evening we asked Chris Halley, an experienced bush pilot, to take our group for a flight in one of their floatplanes. It was an enjoyable experience to see the lake we have fished for so many years from above.

“Walking Eagle” summed up our thoughts as were enjoying or last shore lunch. He said, “Only 362 more days until we have to eat more walleyes on another rock.”