My northern pike with the red-eye wriggler - photo by Tim Mead
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My northern pike with the red-eye wriggler - photo by Tim Mead |
Over the last 45 years of my fishing life I have been generally in pursuit of the mighty musky. Fishing for muskies as a lot of people know, consists typically of a lot of casting and hopefully a bit of catching. Muskies are the apex predator in the lakes they inhabit and therefore are not abundant. It is not uncommon to go days without seeing one, much less catching one. Muskies haven't been called, "The fish of 10,000 casts" for nothing. Typically it doesn't take 10,000 casts to catch one, but at times it feels like 10,000 is an optimistic number.
Like most fishermen, I enjoy catching fish of most any specie. About 8 years ago, Tim Mead asked me if I would be interested in going on a spring smallmouth/pike trip to Pipestone Lake in Ontario. After about a minutes thought, I said, "Sounds good" and it has been an annual outing ever since.
It seems like every year that I go on this endeavor, I find I am missing something with regards to equipment. Having concentrated on muskies my lure collection consisted of 7 or 8 large tackle boxes filled with musky lures. My rods were med. heavy to heavy action baitcasters with high capacity musky reels sporting 50 - 100 pound test line. I did have several spinning rods that were used primarily for crappie and walleye fishing to put fish on the table during our musky outings, but lures for smallmouth and all but the largest pike were few and far between. Over the course of the last eight years I have been buying bass size tackle and now have a fairly good collection of these lures too. This last year I finally broke down and bought a couple of good bass size baitcasters, as it was obvious that my musky gear was a bit over-the-top for smallmouth fishing.
Initially we fished Pipestone a number of years, but after the resort burned down just 3 days before our arrival in 2007 we were forced to look for other alternatives. We stayed on Clear Water Lake, which has access to Pipestone, but it is a healthy ride to get to the Northwest Arm of Pipestone Lake (where we typically fished) from Clear Water. We fished Clear Water and some of the connecting water for a couple of years. Our fishing success on these waters never rivaled what we had done on Pipestone.
I had mentioned to Tim that the resort I stay at for musky fishing (Sunset Cove Camp in Nestor Falls, Ontario) had and outpost camp on a lake called Loonhaunt. I told him that I had heard good things about the lake with regards to smallmouth, walleye and pike and thought that maybe it would offer us a good alternative to Clear Water. Sunset Cove Camp folks, the owners of the outpost camp, had just bought it and had some work left to do, so Tim found out that Ross's Camp, where we had stayed on Clear Water and the night before going into Pipestone previously, had an outpost camp there as well. So the spring of 2010 found us booking a trip into Loonhaunt through Ross's Camp. Loonhaunt is a fly-in lake, although I am told it is possible to get there by boat (but not easily).
If you have never been on a fly-in trip to an outpost cabin there are a few things you need to know. First, there are often restrictions as to the weight of the items you can bring in. Typically it is a 100 pounds per man. The total includes everything you need to survive and fish, including: rods, reels, tackle, clothing, personal items, food, and any drinks, etc. What the owner of the cabin provides varies by the owner. It is my understanding that Sunset Cove Camp, which now owns Ross's outpost cabin (where we stayed 2010), will provide towels, bedding, dish soap and toilet paper (a very small, but essential item). They are also installing an inside propane toilet versus the old rundown outhouse that was 300 feet from the cabin in the middle of the woods which was the case in our 2010 trip. Also in 2010 (under Ross's Camp ownership) we had to provide our own bedding (sleeping bag), towels, dish soap and toilet paper. As with anything, if you want to pay extra for additional weight, it can be done but it is usually expensive. It should also be understood that you will be out of communication with the outside world for the duration unless you have a satellite telephone or an emergency transmitter that are growing in popularity. A good rule to follow, if you didn't bring it, don't expect it to be there! Following that rule, you won't be disappointed. Example: I am still going to bring my sleeping bag and of course toilet paper (just in case) as there are some things you don't want to leave to good intentions or chance.
Loonhaunt, I am guessing, is maybe a 1000 - 1200 acre lake, which is far smaller than Pipestone. The lake, like most in the Canadian shield, has a number of islands. Rocky shoals and weedy bays make good habit for smallmouth and pike respectively and Loonhaunt has these in good numbers. The lake, although considered a fly-in lake, does have a few dwellings on the lake shore, but not excessive. We did see other anglers (although few in number) on the lake during the week.
We found out that our outpost cabin was located on an island virtually in the middle of the lake, which made accessing the entire lake very quick and easy.
Like most trips I have taken in the spring, rain usually plays a big part in the weather. Our trip proved no different in that regard. A rainsuit was almost standard apparel everyday, with a few exceptions. Two of the days during the week we bailed the boats using 5 gallon buckets, finding 5 - 7 inches of water in the boats from the over-night rain. It often rained during the entire day, never really stopping but just changing intensity. We didn't let that dampen our spirits (pardon the pun), as we fished every hour of everyday.
As this was our first trip into Loonhaunt, we started to search for patterns where smallmouth were hitting. It didn't take to long before we found several locations that held smallies. Rocky shoals are in good numbers on Loonhaunt and we did get a number of fish of these structures. We all enjoy a good top water bite, but early in the week the fish didn't want any part of that pattern, preferring to hit minnow baits and tube jigs.
We did search out other patterns including weedy bays and found pike in abundance. As our trip started on June 9th, the water was too warm to harbor big pike in any numbers. The biggest pike that was caught weighed an estimated 15 pounds. The pike picture is nicest pike I caught during this trip, maybe going 8 - 10 pounds. The pike was taken in a weedy bay, in which there were several beaver lodges and a very, very irritated mother Loon. Apparently she had a nest on a small shoal in the middle of the bay that had bullrushes surround it. She gave quite a performance of the wounded bird ploy to get us away from the nest. We didn't know the nest was there, but obliged by leaving the area.
We found the Northern part of Loonhaunt (Squaw Bay on our map), contained vast stretches of pencil weeds (bullrushes). We started to fish these weeds and found that there were some excellent smallmouth bass working among the weeds. A strong line and a rod with a good backbone is a necessity when fishing in this type of weed. You would swear that you were fishing in rebar instead of weeds, as the weeds do not want to let go of a hung up lure.
After a few days of consistent weather, the top water action began to pick-up and soon became the pattern that produced the best both on the rocks and in the weeds. While musky fishing is still my favorite, there is something to be said for getting a 3 or 4 pound smallie on a spinning rod or even a light weight baitcaster.
We had an excellent time and during the week I think the four of us boated maybe 600 smallmouth and a hundred or so pike. We are planning a return trip in 2011. There are many, many lakes that fall into this classification and it is fun to explore and enjoy different ones.
As I mentioned earlier, the folks at Sunset Cove Camp have since purchased Ross's outpost cabin where we stayed, and now have two outpost cabins on the lake. Their website is http://www.lakeofthewoodssunsetcove.com and they can be called Toll Free at 1-888-484-2192.
Click the mailbox to e-mail.
Last updated on ...Feb. 10, 2011
