Fishing Canadian Walleye

By Roger Sabota, Rhinelander Daily News, July 24, 2005

For many persons who love to fish, Canada represents the land of dreams. While growing up in central Wisconsin the stories we would hear from anglers who were returning from north of the border sounded too good to be true. The outdoor magazines contained stories about lakes teaming with large northerns and walleyes. During those years all I was able to do was dream about a Canadian fishing trip.

About 18 years ago the Osseo Jinx (Tom Twesme) phoned and told me to mark out 5 dates in my date book. When I inquired why he responded, “You are going on a fishing trip with us to Canada.” That first Canadian fishing trip still remains vivid in my memory. We caught walleyes all day long and many of them were large walleyes. Since that first trip we have continued to go walleye fishing in Canada during July. We continue to go to a resort called Halley’s Camps, which is the Caribou Falls Landing on Umfreville Lake just above the Caribou Falls Dam.

Umfreville Lake is a huge flowage that was created when the dam was built during the 1940’s on the English River. The waters from this dam flooded a series of natural lakes that are now incorporated into this huge flowage.

Our group for this trip included Bob Pederson, Duane Frey, two Cornelius brothers, Tom and Mike, Dan Krueger Sr., the Osseo Jinx, his younger son, Mark and Tom’s son-in-law Fernando Tobian and this writer. We traveled in 3 pick-ups, each towing a boat. As has become our routine, we spent the first night on the shores of Lake of the Woods in a motel in Kenora, Ontario.

Early Monday morning we were back in the pick-ups heading for the resort. Much to our surprise we were halted by some Native Canadians and had to pay a toll to cross the Reservation Lands. We know that our cabin would not be available until 3:00 pm but we arrived at 8:00 am and put our boats in the water.

Just as we were ready to head out an intense thunderstorm hit the area. We sat in the Lodge for the next 2-1/2 hours and watched a colorful electrical storm. We then spent a brief time bailing the boats and became aware that the mosquitoes were healthy and extremely active.

By 10:30 it appeared that the electrical storm was over for a while. We donned rain suits and headed out to fish for walleyes. Our technique was to anchor the boats on bars and fish with a jig and leech casting toward the top of the bar. It was our hope to catch enough walleyes for shore lunch. The challenge was to catch the fish and have shore lunch before the next rainstorm hit. Bob, Mike and I were kidding each other that we were going to wear the rain suits out from the inside taking them off and putting them on as the squalls frequently hit.

After fishing for two hours we decided to pull the boats up on an island and have a shore lunch. Our group has been together so long that we have the shore lunch process very organized. Mike and I fillet fresh walleyes, Dan, Tom and Duane slice potatoes, while the Jinx gets a fire going. Bob, Mark and Fernando gather an adequate supply of firewood.

Each year that first shore lunch is special and we each overeat a bit. The menu is simple and includes raw fried potatoes mixed with onions. There is either a can of corn or pork and beans on the side of the fire heating and of course freshly caught walleyes fried to a golden brown. Each member of our group recognizes the Jinx as the master shore lunch chef.

We fished until 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. and then moved into our cabin. In spite of the adverse weather we had no problem catching walleyes. For the remainder of the week we did not have to put rain gear on but we experienced some of the heat that also hit the Rhinelander area.

Each day we headed out shortly after 7:00 a.m. and arrived back at the cabin near the dinner hour. As one may expect there is a bit of competition among the group and everyone wants to win the pool for the longest walleye of the day.

We caught walleyes almost at will and knew that we were only able to keep two. There was a lot of catch and release being practiced each day. The restrictive bag limits have helped to keep the fishing excellent over the years. Dan caught the largest fish of the week, a trophy 40-inch northern, landed with spinning tackle with 8-pound line. After a few pictures the northern was released alive. We also caught 8 trophy smallmouth bass, which were all released alive.

Plans have been finalized for another trip to Halley’s Camps during July of 2006. When fabulous fishing is combined with very good long-time friends, the result is an excellent trip.