I put off writing my final fishing report until I could say something along the lines of, “well folks, the fishing has slowed down and I am off hunt grouse.” Except I haven’t been hunting grouse. I have been fishing.
It is only beginning to feel like fall up here at the camp. The leaves are finally starting to turn colour and very few have fallen, the pine trees are just starting to loose their needles, the water temperature is still 65 degrees, where it is usually in the mid 50’s by now. Today starts the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and the opening of the rifle hunt for moose, and I could still swim to the island, if I was taunted enough.
But, even more amazing is that the walleye fishing has been incredible! I have never seen fall fishing as good as it has been this year. Jigging a worm in 30 to 27 ft of water on the edges of our favourite shoals and reefs in the late afternoon has been consistently producing great catches. Put it this way: every time I have been out over the past four weeks, I have, alone, caught and released at least ten walleye—usually within an hour. (Remember though that I get to pick my days, so I don’t tend to be fishing on the “off” days.) Now, somedays they might be on the small size, yet other days, like the twelve I caught and released yesterday, were all nicely in the 15 to 18 inch range.
I don’t know how much of this is due to the spectacular fall weather this year, or how much has to do with an improving fishery, but I do believe that the slot limit that we have on the lake will only help improve the fishing even more. Given the rapid growth rate of walleye, it won’t take long until we see the results.
Next year we plan to stay open an additional week, so check with us for availability if you want to experience some great late season walleye.
We are off hunting moose now, so that will be the end of this season’s fishing reports. Thank you everyone for another great season. Julie and I are fortunate to have such wonderful clients and feel lucky that we can share this special place with our guests.
Till next year,
Dave and Julie Morin