Fish Catching Travel.
I get lots of questions but the one I get the most is how hard is it to do a blog. Well the first answer is it is hard when you have been fishing all day, you are tired and hungry, there is boat and tackle stuff to do, and you just want to hit the chair and do it tomorrow. Last night was one of those times. It was late by time we did all that and I just could not finish before I collapsed.
And to add to the confusion on a trip like this, no matter how tired I am, I wake up early. It was after midnight last night when I finally hit the sack. So here I am finishing last nights report at 5 am. If you have read this drivel for a while I wrote a piece about how I must be crazy for this fishing. Today is a perfect example.
One of the things that makes Canada a fishing paradise, besides the fishing, is the fact that it cracks daylight at 4:45 and stays fishable light until 9:30, awesome for a fishing lunatic like me. But I have that internal fishing clock that wakes me at daylight. So here I sit, the other 3 maniacs are snoring the siding of the walls and will be for the next 2 hours until I roust them.
To give you an example, we did not make the trip with John and Clyde last year so they brought another guy with them. By time they got done with a week of it he said he would never come back with them. Why? Because he said he thought this was going to be a leisurely fishing trip. He could not believe how hard and long they fished. Well this will be day 7, and it will be another 10 – 12 hour day on the water with 7 more hard days to follow. Want to come with us? Put on your big boy pants and suck it up. This is not your momma’s fishing trip.
So to finish yesterday’s report here are some of what I failed to finish. When I say it was tough, it was not the fishing but the weather conditions, I mean it was ugly. When we hit the water it was still raining and wind was blowing 20 – 30 out of the NW. We could not get at the good fish we caught the day before so we had to explore.
One of the things about Lake of the Woods is with all the islands it is hard to differentiate between a cove and a channel between a couple of islands. Our track on the GPS was still there from last trip and we headed to an area out of the wind. It was a huge cove, so big when we put the trolling motor down and went to casting. We did not pick it back up for 5 hours, and that is one cove. It was big.
If you are a hard core fisherman you know that one of the toughest times is after a big cold front where it blows off and is clear and cold. The fishing usually sucks right? Today that was not what happened. As it cleared off the sun came out and that actually started to warm the water, and shallow they went. Both boats found them really shallow and as the afternoon wore on, the bigger fish started showing. Some really large pike were in 1 foot water around weeds. All I can say is look out this afternoon, it could be ugly.
Folks that is a good largemouth where ever you are fishing.
We were pretty excited when Shoedog whacked this one. Then he caught another, and then I lost the big one. The one I messed up on by lifting it in the boat was a whole lot bigger than this one. It was like all the bass up here, a flat out toad. We will be stopping there later today when it really warms up. Like I told the Shoedog, all this way and here we are catching largemouth. Crazy.
I did want to show you just a few pictures of what Lake of the Woods looks like.
If you see this, cast that jerkbait in front of it and hold on.
There are beavers here and some of those houses are decades old and really huge, and so are the beavers. We saw one last night out on the bank and at first we both thought it was a small bear cub. There things are huge. And the cover usually extends way out from the house and you can never tell what may lurk in the logs scattering the bottom, we have taken some good fish out of them.
To go along with the beaver houses there are trees in the water everywhere.
You just never know what will come out of the tress like this. Maybe bass, pike, muskie, and even crappie. With all these toothy critters it must be tough being a crappie!
A cool water fall, to bad the picture does not due it justice.
There was quite a bit of water running in the lake, which was just a little cooler than the lake. When I say it poured, trust me it was tough. But the good thing is later today when it warms it will bring those big pike seriously shallow, and the anticipation is what wakes me up so dam early.
I wanted you to see this, a cove.
Now in some places this would be a small lake. The reason I wanted you to see this is it was actually one arm of 4, in one cove. This cove took us 5 hours to fish and we did not get it all done. So what is the big deal? This is just a SPECK on the Lake of the Woods map. This is one big mofo.
The rocky points are beautiful.
The running joke around here is the answer to the question – where did you catch that fish? And the answer is – that rocky point with trees on it. One thing that makes Lake of the Woods so spectacular is a point like this may have 3 foot of water on it, or 60+. This is one deep lake. You have to be real careful, and the GPS mapping is invaluable. While it will let you get away with running some, you have to be cautious every second. There are rock reefs, underwater islands, and points that may or may not be visible. Countless lower units are trashed here every year. And that could lead to a long night before anyone finds you. And even if they did the mosquitoes will have drained you dry of blood. They can be vicious. Good thing I brought a couple of buffs, they work great for the sun, and sure do help keeping those little blood sucking beasts from eating you alive.
Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about.
This is a channel marker on what poses as the main channel. There are a few of these, very few, but they help you get around. Notice it is siting on a small island or reef. They are everywhere and here by the thousands. But with a good GPS and card you can get around. A word to the wise, after running up the channel if you want to fish a likely looking spot off the channel, idle in. You never know when there may be a rock reef 3 foot deep, in the middle of 60 foot of water, or near the mouth of a cove, or even in the cove. The good thing is at times they hold fish. I would not want to scare you, you just have to be careful. I would suggest if you ever want to come here have Paul from Muskie Bay Resort guide you for a day in your boat. Tell him besides catching a few fish you want to make a long run to get a track. Believe me you do not have to run far, from there you could not fish the water off that track in a decade. I know I keep saying it but this place is a monster. You think Falcon, Amistad, Bull Shoals are big? They would be nothing but a fly speck if you placed them in Lake of the Woods.
So what next? First I am going to put line on a few reels and organize tackle. Then I will start some bacon, that will get those panty waists up. Then the plan is back to Lake of the Woods for a morning of walleye trolling. We will actually do that until noon, and then it will be another 8 hours of casting till you drop. Saturday is still up in the air as the weather may be bad. But since we are on Crow Lake we can always sneak out there if even for a little while and catch some bass or lake trout. Man I love this place.
Clyde has been telling me about this other smallmouth lake that it even better than the one we went to the other day, which is downright scary. He brags about catching well over a hundred fish on topwater. Now you know how fisherman are, sure you did. Well last year John and his friend followed Clyde there, you actually get to it off Lake of the Woods and pass through 2 more lakes to get there. John said before the morning was out they just quit counting at 75, and continued to put them in the boat the rest of the day. This is a fishing paradise. Hell, the day we do that I will probably wake up at 3 am!
Today I am going to catch that big pike if it kills me. I want one pushing 30, if my arms fall off so be it. I want a monster. With 8 days left to fish I should get the job done. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
(I know the editing and spelling on some of these posts is not up to my usual poor standards. Sorry, but you just have to get over it.)
Good Luck and Tight Lines
