Armed Forces Day on Lake of the Woods

Saturday, June 12 was a special day on Lake of the Woods as the town of Kenora hosted an Armed Forces Day to acknowledge the efforts of a number of Canadian Military personel who have recently returned from Afghanistan.  Local guide, John Monteith arranged for 12 guides to volunteer their time to take these veterans fishing for the day on Lake of the Woods and treat them to a traditional shorelunch.  The day was a great success...everybody caught fish, enjoyed a great shorelunch and had fun. 

The team of guides...(From top) Jeff Gustafson, Gerry Gosnell, Howie Adams, Bob Kozminski, Dave Bennett, Duncan McEwan, Jim Adams, Gord Adams, Jim Gustafson, Bill Straight, Ryan Haines, along with two members of the Canadian Navy.  

One of many nice walleyes caught on Saturday.

The entire crew after shore lunch...thanks to everyone that made this event possible!

Fly-in fishing

This past week I went on a fly-in trip with some buddies to one of Getaway North Outposts lakes in Sunset Country.  Along for the trip were Marty Hanson, Dallas Mosbeck and Ian White. 

We had to battle some tough weather but managed to enjoy some great largemouth bass and walleye fishing.  Thanks to Randy Hanson for letting us use his camp and to Chuck Mosbeck from True North Air Service for flying us in! 

If anybody wants to experience a couple days of AWESOME largemouth fishing, get a hold of Hanson's at http://hansonslodges.com and they will hook you up.  They have access to lakes with so many largemouths in them, it will blow your mind!!! 

Ian and Jeff with some nice largemouths

Dallas holds up a couple nice ones while Marty drives

Some nice eater walleyes for dinner.

A tired crew on our way out.....a great trip!!!

Got your boating license?

Canadian residents now need a Pleasure Craft Operator Card to drive a boat or they risk getting a $250 fine.  If you don't have the license yet, click this link and get it done! 

Everybody can take the test and you do not have to pay for it unless you pass.  For more information or to take your test online, go to www.boaterexam.com

   

Emo Walleye Classic

Fished in the Emo Walleye Classic this past weekend and I think maybe I should just stick to bass tournaments!  Fishing was ultra-tough and we only managed to catch a couple small keepers.  The winners were Bill Godin and Ralph Galusha who had a two-day total of 11 pounds for 8 walleyes.  The combination of the early spawn and the low water in the river seems to have caused a lot of the walleyes that were in the river earlier this spring to retreat back out to Lake of the Woods.     

On Sunday I decided to hit up Rainy Lake and catch a few bass to make myself feel better.  We fished the north arm of the lake and had a good day.  Caught some nice smallmouths, some really good walleyes and a few pike. 

 

John Peterson and I with a nice Rainy Lake smallmouth caught on a Northland Slurpies Dip-Stick Worm  

The walleye bite is hot!!!

Fishing has been excellent on Lake of the Woods over the past week, especially the walleye bite.  Guide trips have been good and in between I've been enjoying all the great weather with my friends.  In the past week we've taken fish up to 32 inches as well as good numbers of eater sized fish under 18 inches. 

Crappie fishing has been good as well, we have had good luck catching them on Northland Slurpies Panfish tubes rigged up under the new Northland Lite-bite Slip Floats. 

Here are a couple walleye photos from today courtesy of my friend Davis Viehbeck from Thunder Bay. 

Davis Viehbeck with a nice Lake of the Woods walleye caught on a Rapala Flat Rap, a new shallow water bait that skinny water walleyes love!

We caught a lot of our fish this weekend on Northland Crawler Harnesses that we trolled behind bottom bouncers.  We used real night crawlers as well as a variety of Trigger-X and Slurpies worms on these rigs to find and catch fish. 

I'm not an expert at fishing spinner rigs behind bottom bouncers but they are very effective baits for finding and catching walleyes on Lake of the Woods.  They do a good job of covering water fast.  I like to fish them on a 7'6 Shimano Cumara spinning rod, Shimano Stradic 2500 reel and 10 pound Power Pro line.  If you are planning a trip to Sunset Country this summer, you need to get yourself some Northland spinner rigs and some bouncers.