Walleyes are Boring (Part I)

    I knew deep in my bones that things would play out like they did but being a fisherman, and I suppose that includes me, is to be an optimist hoping against hope that your best days are right around the corner even when you figure they aren't. 'You never know' is always on your mind Those magical days always come as a rare surprise and a gift but once in a while they do come.  You can try to force them but that's foolishness. When it comes to fishing you're always the visiting team. Of course knowing what you're doing helps, as does experience and being on the right water at the right time. But a little luck trumps them all.     

     Looking back on our week I'd have to say we were on the right water. Kabetogema and Namakan are both killer good when you hit it right. Our problem was being set for northern Manitoba when late July is prime time and instead finding ourselves five hundred miles farther south where water temperatures in the high seventies put the fish in the doldrums. Another was our location. Simply put, we took  the only cabin that was available and found ourselves close to an hour boating time from prime water. We spent near as much time going to and from as we did wetting a line. Live and learn.

     And we were ignorant. About the only thing we knew for sure was that we knew nothing about the fifty thousand acres we were attempting to fish. That's a lot of water to figure out. I did a lot of reading and video watching but not a one was shot during late July. And few of those went into any detail about tackle and methods; 'Fishing Lake Namakan for Dummies' was what I needed and what I got was 'watch me catch a bunch of fish' videos. I suppose we could've dropped four hundred bucks and hired a guide. Smart people would've—I'll leave it at that. So it was bring all you've got, try what you think might work and if that doesn't, try something else. And we did but it didn't seem to matter much.

     My son Allan and I are pike fishermen who occasionally stumble on a few walleyes. When we do, we'll change tactics and play with the easier grabbing pickerel—yes we are multi-lingual and also speak Canadian—for a few minutes. And if we're on bass water, we'll play that game also. As it turned out my grandson Jakob fit seamlessly into our scheme; he's a caster not a troller. And top that off with him being the only human being I know who's caught a couple of gar and has the photos to prove it. So I figured we'd do our usual, cast for pike and bass and if we turned a few walleyes, good for us.