|
Ontario Fishing Report
June 22, 2011
|
Greetings From Thunder Bay:
Our fishing report this week, continues the  story of the incredible performance of angling for Walleye at Makokibatan Lake, Trophy Pike at Whitewater Lake, and consistent big fish catches at Miminiska Lodge. The "on again off again" nature of post spawn Walleye angling, combined with unusually "hot" weather and clear skies this past week, has produced a challenge to anglers. Yet, despite this great weather, anglers are scoring big. We continue to be amazed at the Trophy Walleye being caught at Makokibatan. This week there were 25 Walleyes over twenty-six inches long entered in the record book. Congrats to all those anglers. The Northern Pike at Striker's Point Lodge, have followed the Walleye to deeper water, and came up big this week. Ken Radar of Kalkaska, Michigan, and his group had a fabulous week - and Ken chats freely about his group's "secret of success" in this week's Podcast. Click to listen. With summer officially here, we expect patterns to change a bit in the coming days, and will keep a watchful eye on the sky - hoping for some cloud and Walleye Chop...BTW on Saturday our Pro Angler Chris Clemmons and his gang will take on Ontario's Whitewater Lake , and we'll report back on his trip soon.
Alan
Alan Cheeseman
|
News From Makokibatan Lodge
|
|
26 More Big Big Trophies at Makokibatan
Makokibatan Lake is a big "open water" lake...and when the winds are from the west, expect a little overspray in the boat. But hey, that's a small price to pay for the results you'll get from such legendary fishing spots as the Walleye Alley, or closer to the
Makokibatan Lodge, The Back Lake Cut.
This past week, eighteen anglers registered 25 Walleye longer than 26-inches, qualifying for the coveted Wilderness North Master Angler Pin. And one lucky angler - Jarett Zieber of Clyde, Ohio - got both a 43.5 inch Pike and a big Walleye - a 26.5 incher.
Jim Kalgren's group, from the Twin Cities, had 6 anglers, and 10 big Walleye among them, including the 28.5 incher caught and released by Steve Allex of St. Paul, Minnesota. Jim had two at 27-inches. Craig Danes, also of St. Paul, had three trophies: two at 28-inches, and one at 26-inches. Randy Nuernberg, of Andover, Minnesota also scored three times: two at 27-inches, and one at 26. Mitch Lance and Dan Goldman, each had a 27 incher. Jigs, dressed with live minnows, leaches, and salt minnows seemed to be the way to get trophy.
Adding to the list of Master Anglers, were Alex and Bryce Meier with 27-inch plus Walleyes, caught on a jig and worm, and a Little Cleo.Curt More had three big Walleyes, using a night crawler harness and a Hot-n-Tot. Ohio's Tom Farris had two at 26-inches with a jig and twister tail. Five other Buckeyes, Ed Yackey, Marty Lang, Matt Johnson, Dio Grant, Tom Donahue collected the Master Angler Pin as well. They too were using, worm harnesses, Hot-N-Tots - and jigs and twister tails. And congrats to Bob Wendt of Kenosha, Wisconsin on his 26-inch Walleye.
A full camp... and lot's of Trophy Walleye. AHHHH...does it get any better than this?
|
|
News from Striker's Point Lodge
|
Pike Masters Get It Done on Whitewater !
This week at Striker's Point Lodge we note that the Pike Master Anglers have landed in full force on Whitewater Lake.
We welcomed the Rader group from Kalkaska, Michgan and Weakland party of Wexford, Pennsylvania to camp.
We had three Master Angler Pikes (see photos on the right) caught and released this week.
Hear about their trip by clicking here.
The first water wolf was caught and released by Scott Rader (middle photo). He found his 44-inch Northern near the islands between the lodge and Best Island. He caught it on an orange Hot-n-Tot in 10-15-ft of water.
The second Trophy Pike, was a 44 1/4 incher caught and released by the islands NW of Best Island, just south of the rock wall by Sean Deneen (top photo). He was using a 6-inch perch pattern Rapala.
Last, but not least by far, was Greg Law (bottom photo) who caught a 43-inch Mr. Toothy on his last night with us while trying the grassy flats in Caribou Bay. He was using a 7-inch Salmon perch lure.
The Pike were more aggressive the last days of their trip. At the beginning of their stay, they were catching Pike in 26-ft of water and by week's end, they were moved up into 10-15-ft of water. Honourable mentions this week are from Mick (Grand-pap) from the Weakland Party with a 32 inch northern and Greg Law with a 38-inch and Ron Mahrt with a 39-incher. Ken Radar's 23-inch Walleye was the group's largest Walleye for the week.
|
News From Miminiska Lodge
|
Miminiska Scores Trophies ... Paul Hickling and friend Ross from Scarborough, Ontario, enjoyed long sunny days on the water, shore lunches and easily 100 fish per day. Most of the Walleye and Pike were caught on simple jigs - 3-inch black jig heads with chartreuse single tail. Occasionally spinner baits were successful especially #5 Mepps with silver spinner and brown bucktail which landed a 38-inch 13 pound Northern for Ross up at Ferguson Bay out of Miminiska Lodge. Larry Dinardo and son Jack visited from Chicago, Illinois. Jack landed a beautiful 18-inch Brookie, about 4-5-ft. deep with his fly-rod using an olive and white double bunny. Not to be outdone, Larry got his Master Angler pin for a 26-1/2-inch whopper Walleye on the last evening out! These guys truly enjoyed their stay. Mike Kammerer of Montgomery, Texas has been coming to Mim for years and says this is the best and most productive Walleye fishery he has experienced in a lifetime of fishing lodges. Mike and Gene became Master Anglers with 40-inch and 42-inch Northern Pike on yellow jigs. Mike says "There isn't a non-productive spot on this entire lake." In their words, "To me the scenery is the real Canadian Shield with lots of elevation changes." Mike was also able to pull his second master angler here by landing a 26-1/2-inch Walleye. Ken Teppo, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, son John and grandson Ben brought three generations to Mim Lodge. If you think that a fishin' hole called the "walleye mine" is a rich vein motherlode of big fat walleyes, you wouldn't be wrong. Ben was in charge of counting the fish caught and said, "We caught over 100 fish in the morning with the largest at 23-inches." Triple headers were common. John and Meg Dovich of Cincinnati, Ohio were first time guests at Miminiska Lodge. It is always a thrill when that little Pike you are reeling in gets attacked by a big sister. Meg was able to land both of them. John's most productive lure for Walleyes was a Mepps Black Fury with a brown bucktail. |
|
Graham Saunders Weather Ahead
|
|
Summer is Here - At Last !
 The previous week featured sunshine and warmer than seasonal temperatures on most days.
Forest fire danger rose with these drying conditions. Clouds and a few showers on Sunday and Monday slowed this trend.
The Short Term Forecast
Today and tomorrow will be mainly sunny with light winds becoming moderate in the later afternoon. Expect more clouds as the week unfolds with some showers likely on Friday or early Saturday. Temperatures will be 70 to 78 F (21 to 26 C) most days; normal for this time of the summer.
Speaking of summer - it officially began yesterday at 1:16 p.m. for people in Eastern Daylight time Zone, and a hour earlier for those in Central Time.
Wilderness North Weatherman Graham Saunders teaches weather at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and writes a weather column for the Thunder Bay Chronicle. |
|
PHW Countdown
| |
On July 8th, soldiers who have been wounded in battle will arrive in Thunder Bay for a little peace and quiet as our guests for our annual "Salute to Soldiers" event.
Both U.S. and Canadian military men and women who have been injured while defending our nations, will climb into our float planes with fly rods in hand, and enjoy the natural beauty of Ontario's Boreal Forest.
To learn more click here, and if you can make a financial contribution to the event, please click here.
Project Healing Waters- is our way of saying THANKS to those who serve.
|
PHW Photo Gift
| 
The call came out of the blue. Just like many of our Project Healing Waters gifts do. This time it was from Laura Hughes and Ken Postema of Lowell, Michigan. They run a business called Freeze Frame Publishing, that converts digital photos into memory books. They told us, that they will create a PHW Memory Book, for each solider - as a gift - because they believe everyone can give a little to say thanks to the men and women in our armed forces. You can learn more about this gift and their company by heading over to their website. Thanks - Ken and Laura...we are very grateful.
|
|
| Worth 1000 Words |
The photos above prove the point. A picture IS worth a thousand words.
We love it when guests share their photos with us. You can send them in an e-mail. Click Here to start the e-mail.
There are a few rules.
All trophy fish pictures should be of the fish in a horizontal format. Our belief in "catch and release," has taught us that the highest survival rate for fish is the result of carefully landed fish and for fish that are always handled on a horizontal plane.
Take the photo with the sun over the shoulder of the photographer, shining on the angler and the fish.
And leave plenty of space around the angler and the fish, making cropping for our use that much more successful.
Then carefully release the fish into the lake or stream, so that it can swim off.
Keep the fish out of the water for a very short time...just enough time to get the photo.
If you plan to have a trophy for your den, take the photo to a taxidermist (we can send you a brochure on a company we really like) and they will create a beautiful replica for you, painting the details from your photo on your trophy mount.
|
|
