Hello again from Jim and Julie’s Wabaskang Camp. Week seventeen of our 2017 season is in the books so let’s talk about what went on. The walleye fishing was good for our guests this week with most of our guests fishing deep water with a jig and minnow. There was also a shallow water bite along the weed lines and shallow rock piles that kept our guests busy casting crank baits and spinner baits. Water temperatures continue to fall with surface temperatures already below 60 degrees in many parts of the lake. The walleye are transitioning down to deeper water where the schools of bait fish are moving to and if you find the bait fish you will find the walleyes. Scott Willms had a great week here at camp, he released a chunky 25” walleye early in the week and rumor has it maybe one even bigger later in the week, great job Scott. Dave Kohrt comes here from Michigan to harass me about our Iowa sports teams but he does know a little bit about walleye fishing, he managed to land a beautiful trophy sized walleye he plans on taking home and hanging on the wall. The biggest walleye of the week was caught by the youngest angler in camp, 12-year-old Walt Martin Snodgrass landed a 25 1/2” walleye to take top honors for the week, nice fish Walt. Our Northern fishing was good this week as well with plenty of action for our guests almost any time of the day. The big brutes are chasing Sandcats, Suicks, crank baits, and massive spinner baits right now and our guests had plenty of pictures of the toothy critters to prove it. Mark Zender got on the board early when he released a tiny 34” fish, Guss Zender jumped into the spotlight when he released a laughable 34” northern, Steve Young never likes to brag but his 37 1/4” northern he released sure was the main topic of conversation in his cabin, Thomas Sandt came to play and he released a 36” and a 39 1/2” northern to clobber the “old timers” in his group. The biggest northern of the week was caught and released by Tyler Evers, he landed a 41” monster that easily took top honors in camp this week. Bass fishing was slower this week than most weeks mainly because our guests are concentrating on walleye and northern, some big bass were caught and released this week by our guests while walleye fishing in deep water. Marty Robbins landed a chunky 18 1/2” bass, Charlie Zender released an 18” and an 18 1/2” bass that he caught while casting crank baits for northern, Larry Dufel drove out of camp wearing a new hat after he released a beautiful 19” bass that he probably wasn’t even fishing for. Brett Langfritz came into camp mid-week but it didn’t take him long to catch and release a chunky 19 3/4” bass once again a complete fluke. Only one crappie big enough to brag about this week, Tucker Martin Snodgrass was fishing Keynote Lake when he landed a 13” slab-sided crappie, the fish won him a free hat and plenty of smiles from his family. Only one trout to talk about this week, Marty Robbins was lucky enough to land a beautiful 29” trout that was easily the biggest we have seen in almost a month, Marty caught his fish in 20’ of water while fishing for anything that bites! Next week we have a camp loaded with good ole Iowa boys so we expect to have plenty to talk about, for now this is Jim from Wabaskang.
