It finally happened, we had guests opening week walleye fishing at Jim and Julies Wabaskang Camp. Before we talk about the fantastic fishing let’s update everyone on the conditions here at camp. We weren’t able to get into camp until May 10th because of the exceptionally heavy snow this winter. It took our contractor 9 hours of heavy loader work to finally get into camp, the snow was almost 2 feet deep all along the road into camp. We got to Vermilion Bay and found out there were broken poles on our power line into camp and the electricity was out. We were able to get a contractor from Dryden to come the next day and replace the poles. We used our generator for a few days until the power was back on. The snow melt and then heavy rain in late April and early May caused the ice to push up and across my dock and basically destroy all the steel poles holding it in place. Once all the ice had melted, I started slowly taking out the bent poles and moving the dock back into place and then drove new 16′ steel poles to hold the dock in place. Even now the 28th of April I still have one more section of dock to repair and move into position. The water levels here went from the lowest I had ever seen it to the highest I have ever seen it. We have water over the stationary crib the dock ramp attaches to so I built a 32′ long temporary ramp to get our guests onto the floating dock. The lake is all the way across our drive down by the dock and us about 10″ deep right now. Highway 105 still remains closed and our guests are using the detour towards Quibel then back to 105. Our guests appreciate all the effort that is being made to keep the detour open to passenger vehicles. Julie and I were able to get the camp ready by opener and our guests had a week of great fishing. Enough about our opener this season let’s talk about the fishing.
Our guests had great walleye fishing opening week. Most of the fish were caught going south into Ruby Bay or even further south into Keynote Lake. The key to good fishing was finding warmest water you could. Temperatures ranged from 54 degrees in Keynote to 47 degrees in Aerobus Bay. The best bet for catching walleyes was just using a split shot and small hook tipped with a minnow, just cast it into the shore line and slowly drag it back to the boat. Steve Taylor caught a 23″ walleye, Chuck Nass released a chunky 24″ walleye, Dick Dunham released a 25 1/2″ walleye, Neal Kolb released a nice 26″ walleye, and the big walleye of the week was caught by Tristen Kolb, he managed to land a beautiful 28″ walleye he is taking home to gang on the wall, great job Tristen.
Our northern fishing was good all week with most fish being caught while fishing the shallows for walleyes and perch. Austin Erickson released a 29″ northern, Steve Taylor released northerns of 29″, 30″, and a 31 3/4″ this week, Dick Dunham released a 30 1/2″ northern, Chuck Nass released a chunky 31″ northern, Dave Schaller released a beautiful 31″ northern, the biggest northern of the week was caught and released by Neal Kolb, he landed a 39″northern using his light walleye tackle, he released the beauty often a few quick pictures.
Bass fishing was decent with most fish being caught in the same dress as walleyes and northern, close to shore in the warmest water. Jigs and minnows worked well. Tom Streisand released a chunky 18 1/4″ bass but his fish was beat by Chuck Nass, he caught and released a huge 20″ bass that was the size of a football, great job Chuck.
Perch fishing was slow here this week with mist being under 10″ and mainly makes, I believe a few more days and the perch fishing will really take off.
Our guests caught plenty of crappies in Ruby Bay and down in Keynote. Many fish were over 12″ and most were females. Austin Erickson caught a 13 1/4″ crappie and Neal Kolb released a giant 13 1/2″ crappie to have bragging rights as top crappie of the week.
I should mention the trout are very active right now some deep but many shallow, Steve Taylor managed to land a beautiful 28″ Trout while trolling in 10′ of water to win top honors for the week.
Another mentionable fish was caught by legendary Dick Dunham, me manhandled a mean 6″ musky into the net which he quickly released, start small right Dick?
We have another experienced group of fishermen coming in next week so we are excited to see what happens. Remember most poultry products are not being allowed into Canada right now, also no live bait including worms are being allowed across the border right now as well. To all our guests coming up in the future weeks please remember to get your fishing licenses online or from another source before you arrive here as we are not selling licenses at this time. Let’s hope for dry weather and warm days ahead. Talk again soon,
Jim from Wabaskang
