HOWARD’S CANADA FISHING TRIP

WHERE? : Keeper Lake, Ontario, Canada. About 52 air miles NW of Red Lake Ontario. Red Lake is about a 200 mile drive into Canada, north of International Falls MN.

WHEN? : August 21 thru August 28 – the latest week we have gone there in the last 4 years.

THE WEATHER? : It was cooler than past years. Most days reached high temperatures in the mid 50’s and it was overcast most of the week. A couple of days we fished most of the day in the rain.

THE FISHING? : Great ! We caught more, bigger fish than any of the other times we fished these lakes. We caught two Walleye pike each day per person for consumption, and walleyes are the best tasting freshwater fish you can find. We used light gear to catch the walleyes – light or ultra-light rods with 6 or 8 lb test line. The walleye range from 14 to 24 inches, but you can only keep one per day above 18”. You can find drop-offs all over the lakes and catch walleye all day if you want to.

But we spent most of our time trolling for Northern Pike. The Northerns are a very aggressive species which will strike at anything that comes near them – often they strike, not because they are hungry, but because they are mad at the lure. Small Northerns will strike at lures that are nearly as big as they are ….. and they will often strike a second or third time on the same retrieve if they miss the lure the first time. For these fish we use heavy duty Musky rods and lures. The line is at least 25lb, and some of the guys use that nearly unbreakable braided stuff – even then we use steel leaders of 60 or 80 lb test strength.

This year we had only 5 guys on the trip, but everyone caught at least several Northern larger than 36”. Two years ago, the “biggest fish pool” was won with a 35” Northern and that was the only one, of that size, caught all week. This year my brother-in-law and I shared the pool – we each caught a 40” Northern and here’s the proof:
CAN’T WAIT TO GO NEXT YEAR !...
.Howard Elz