Week eleven greetings from Jim and Julie’s Wabaskang Camp. We saw another great week of beautiful weather and good fishing. Our guests this week were mainly concentrating on the walleye fishing and we had plenty of action to keep our guests happy. The best bite seemed to be mornings and evenings with a jig and minnow or a spinner rig and worm being the tackle of choice. There was also a very good evening bite for suspended walleyes roaming the deep-water areas looking for Cisco’s and other bait fish schooled up in huge schools roaming the open water. Our guests trolled the open water and caught many decent fish using shallow and mid-range running crank baits. Kerry Huck was first on the board this week when he landed a chunky 18” walleye, Phillip Obermeyer brought in a 23” fish and his wife Julie also caught a 23” fish but I believe her fish was smarter and fatter. Barb Lepak released a nice 23 1/2” walleye and finally beat her husband Mike this week. Logan Kleinschmidt was here for the second time this season and his 25” walleye he released was the biggest in his group and that isn’t easy if you are fishing against Mike Pease. Dawn Halla also released a 25” walleye to fight another day. The biggest walleye of the week was caught and released by Vi Medhurst, she caught her fish within shouting distance of camp trolling a homemade Sandcat, great job Vi, don’t give any credit to Jim even though he claims the boat operator should also get credit. Our northern fishing lost a little steam this week after a super week last week. The toothy critters are still roaming the deep weed edges and will jump on anything that is flashy and has a lazy wobble, the best color was black and orange or a brown and red combo. Spoons, spinner baits and crank baits all worked well. Our guests also caught some of the bigger northern while fishing for walleyes using spinner rigs with minnows. Stacy Muhs started things off by releasing a 30 1/2” northern, Geoff Bray released a 31” northern he caught while trolling the deep water in front of camp right before sunset. Matt Jennings released a 32 1/2” northern that was the biggest fish in his group. Julie Obermeyer released a chunky 33” northern to beat her husband Phil once again, Logan Kleinschmidt released a chunky 33” northern he caught trolling crank baits behind planer boards right in front of camp one evening, Dave Muhs finally proved to his family he does know how to fish Wabaskang when he released a beautiful 38” northern, Barb Willer was wore out when her 38” northern was finally brought to the boat, she released her fish after a few quick pictures. The biggest northern of the week was caught by “Old Timer” Jim Medhurst, he still has the nose for northern and his 38 1/2” brute was the best of the week. Our bass fishing was good again this week with plenty of action on crank baits and tube jigs, a bobber and worm also caught plenty of bass right from the dock. Hunter Hood and Logan Kleinschmidt both caught and released bass over 18” this week but the real champion was little Todd Peterson, he was stuck fishing with his parents Ron and Ann all week but still managed to land and release a 20 1/2” brute, one of the biggest bass of the season so far. Todd usually catches big northern but this week his brother Chad wasn’t along to hold his hand and tell him where to cast so a big bass was the best he could manage, still good for the free hat though. The biggest crappie of the week was caught by Craig Jennings, he caught his 12 1/2” beauty in Keynote Lake while fishing for walleyes. Next week looks like more mild weather and dry conditions so we should see very stable fishing patterns and good catches of both walleyes and northern. Remember highway 502 from Fort Francis to Dryden is currently being worked on so my guests are saying the road through Nester Falls and then on to Vermillion Bay is the way to go. I’ll be back in a few days with the week 12 update, for now this is Jim from Wabaskang.
