A follow up on my thread “Who wants to go to Canada? Apparently, nobody.”
Well, this year, they really missed out.
After an overnight last Thursday in the fine city of Frostbite Falls, we started out early Friday morning. We made our way to the end of the road in northern Ontario, but not without a brief stop to change a flat tire caused by an arrow head of Canadian shield granite. Not my first time at that Rodeo, nor probably my last.
After launching the boat, we proceeded by water and were settled into the fine log cabin by 2:00. Well, well, what should we do now? Hey… how about some fishing.
It didn’t take long to find them and get things dialed in. Dad and I were finding a groove and getting some nice fish, 18+ inches. Then it happened! It always happens! Even in the middle of the freaking Canadian arctic. I throw a marker out to mark the start of the drift and–can you believe it–this guy in a Wetliner comes skipping across the lake and starts fishing the drift right at our marker.
Oh. Wait. It’s KWP! Small world.
After a nice afternoon session and a nice Saturday morning session, the real game was afoot.
KWP has wanted for some years now to cross a portage and go into a seldom-fished lake that rumor has it held great promise–let’s call it Noname Lake. Noname Lake is a modest size and as with most lakes in northern Ontario, it’s really part of a river system.
So we packed up the gear and KWP and I started off with the instructions to my dad that if we weren’t back in camp by 7:00, come looking for us.
The first hurdle was finding the portage to Noname Lake. We ground our way into a back bay that got narrower and shallower. Finally, when we could almost go no further back, a likely spot appeared to hold the beginning of a trail. We tied up the boat and shouldered all the gear including a 3 HP Johnson outboard.
I should pause here to explain that temps were in the high 80s and northern Ontario had been baking for the previous week. Once into the deep spruce trees, it was like portaging through an oven. This was made worse by the fact that there is no longer portage than the one that you know not where it ends.
After about 30 minutes of sweating, swatting, and KWP swearing he’d never carry an outboard over a portage ever again, we finally saw lake through the trees. We had arrived at Noname Lake!
The next step was to find the boat that was supposed to be hidden and waiting for us. Things proved to be exactly as explained by KWP’s sources so we found and readied a small 14 foot boat, started the outboard, and off we went. After scouting the lake for 15 or 20 minutes, we found a set of 2 islands with long rock reefs trailing off their points like comet tails. The islands were separated by a deep trench.
What transpired over the next 3 hours, my friends, I can only describe as epic. Everyone has heard about lights out, slam-dunk, Canadian walleye fishing. Well this was three steps beyond even that.
We HAMMERED them. And not just lots of fish, but fat, slob, fratboy, pizza-eating, beer swilling walleyes with big shoulders and big guts to match. It was beyond belief! 18 inchers. 19 inchers. 23 inchers. And one after the other, after the other, after the other.
In the blazing sun and 90 degree heat, we pitched twister tails on top of the rock reefs. The walleyes were laying in the deeper water below–or so our theory goes–looking up and watching for minnows among Noname’s rocks. We gave them what they were looking for in spades! We blew through the century mark and kept the pedal to the metal. I could not believe it. Every time we thought we had exhausted the fishing, we simply repositioned the boat and it was game on again.
Finally we HAD to quit to get back to camp as we had promised. How many Noname Lake walleyes did we catch and release? You would absolutely not believe me, so I’m not even going to bother telling you. What I will tell you is that even KWP, who has vastly more experience in Canada than I do, said simply that it was, “The best Canadian walleye fishing I have ever had. Both size and numbers.”
It will surprise you not at all, then, to tell you that we were right back at it the next day. This time dad made the trip over the portage with us.
And what happened? We hammered them again, of course. It took a while for the bite to get going. The Noname Lake truth is stranger than fiction. The walleyes of Noname Lake appear to prefer bright sun and intense heat! As sun and temps claimed, the bite got better and better. Go figure.
The water and sunscreen supply ran out at 3:00 and by this point we had savaged KWP’s entire stock of twister tails as well. When’s the last time you went through dozens of twister tails? In a day! Yeah, it was like that.
The portage out was hellish again, but we had the winds of Noname Lake at our back this time in the form of two of the best days of fishing I’ve ever had. The volume and size simply were beyond belief.
Who wants to go BACK to Canada? I do!
My very special thanks to KWP for the generous use of his cabin for years now. Not to mention his sharing of equipment, knowledge, and now of this very special lake.
Grouse
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