One For The Memory Books

After a brutal 23 hour cross province drive, with no overnight stops, I finally arrived home from my Lake of the Woods fall trip this morning. The drive itself was spectacular along the northern rim of Lake Superior, but Lake of the Woods in the fall was wonderful. I can only imagine what it will look like in another week or two when the temps start dropping and the colors kick in full tilt. We had unseasonably warm temps which probably hampered just about everything, from wildlife spotting to the fishing.

Over the course of the week our boat put nine fish in the boat up to 43.5". Two came casting and the rest came trolling. Our group's big fish topped out at a thick 47 x 23". Lots of pike were caught up to 38" and a handful of walleyes as well. Fishing the lake at this time of year was completely new to me; I have always fished Lake of the Woods in the summer and trolling is not my forte. I walked away having learned a great deal about how to troll more effectively and discovered new details and idiosyncracies about some of our favorite summer casting spots.

When trolling rocky systems like Lake of the Woods anglers often use long, single-strand steel leaders to reduce line abrasions caused by constantly rubbing rocks. During the angling event, esocids will often roll in themselves up the leader and line as they attempt to throw the hook. When these fish roll onto the steel leaders they material can actually cause tremendous damage to the fish, slicing the flesh as if it were scoured with a chef's knife. I witnessed this first hand last week and was appalled by the damage dealt. The alternative is to use long, heavy duty fluorocarbon leaders which I strongly encourage all to use en lieu of steel leaders, for the fish's sake. Fluorocarbon leaders in 150-200 lb test up to 5' in length are incredibly abrasion resistent, offering many of the same qualities that steel leaders do for the angler. In any case, food for thought for those of you considering whether to use steel or fluoro this fall.

The trip wrapped up in two ways. The first was our visit to a new tackle shop, muskie-focused I think would be fair to say, right on the water in Kenora. The shop is called Figure 8 Baits and run by Ryan Marlowe and his buddies. Great prices, great selection, and the guys have great personalities. A win-win for all involved. You can try out anything in the shop down at the dock below them. They've got a great policy when you try their baits out, one I'd certainly be happy to respect if I were ever that lucky! The second and last thing we did was attend the inaugural meeting of the Northwest Ontario chapter of Muskies Canada. There are some very big names associated with this club and it's an exciting time for MCI as folks like Gord Pyzer, Steve Herbeck, Linda Rice, Jeff Gustafson, Jeff Moreau, and Gord Bastable become involved. I gave a presentation to the chapter covering both research initiatives covered under Project Noble Beast.

Enjoy the pictures below!

What's a trip to Lake of the Woods without a shorelunch? It's making me hungry just looking at it! Thanks, Keith for cooking and Ryan and Sean for providing the fish!