When I say August is on fire, I’m not referring to the weather. The weather to be honest has been refreshing and unseasonably cool. Daytime highs mostly in the 60’s and 70’s have made way for great comfortable fishing conditions and certainly excellent sleeping weather. Perhaps starting to sense the potential early arrival of fall, the bigger northern pike have really started to turn on with a lot of guests catching fish in excess of 30 inches, highlighted by Dan Rembold’s 42″ monster and the one that got away, Tony Schippers report of a big pike that T-boned a 19″ pike he was reeling in that he swears was an upper 40’s beast. Quite a few pike over 30″ have been caught here recently with some other notable ones being: George Pondo’s 34″, Kent Kahl’s 38″, Tim Vandyke 31, 30″, Hannah Vandyke’s 33 1/2, 32 1/2, 31″ northerns, Vayla Vandyke’s 32,31″ northerns, Tom A also had a 39″ northern last week. Jeff Chamberlain had a personal best 38″ hog here a couple of weeks ago too.
I’d say that the walleye fishing has been outstanding, but that would probably be an understatement. To be honest the perch bite hasn’t been too far behind either with our Indiana (well mostly Indiana) regulars easily filling their six man limit of 300 perch, while eating perch a bunch while here. The Gramann crew of three last week stopped at 147 perch just to have some “breathing room” in case there was a miscount. Back to the walleye fishing…MOST everyone in camp has been just slaying the ‘eyes noting how they are catching fish just about everywhere and continuing to be impressed with the quality and numbers of walleyes over 18″ with a bunch of 20″+ fish in the mix. The biggest was a beautiful 26″ ‘eye caught in the narrows last week right in front of camp.
Todd Pinegar who many guests know as one of the best walleye fishermen in camp each season, brought two new guys this year along with five women (his wife, daughter, mother-in-law, sister-in law and a family friend). The ladies did very little fishing to be honest, mostly here to enjoy the scenery and the solitude of camp but they did “pitch in” some in helping to hit 500 walleyes for the week right on the nose. Hell bent to catch that 500th walleye they were out Friday afternoon scrounging around in the bottom of the boat looking for ONE more minnow to use. Todd rigged it up, dropped down, and viola the 500th walleye was in the books in about 30 seconds!
Not to be outdone, a week later, Andy Augustine’s crew of three managed a whopping 1,024 walleyes for the week. Included in this total were two trips to Lost Lake, where on Monday Andy, Mel and Jeff boated around 150 walleyes on the day. Two days later, on a return trip to Lost (Andy stayed here on Wabby to pike fish) Mel and Jeff boated another 155 walleyes. So 1,000+ walleyes for the week, approximately 300 from Lost and the balance from Wabaskang. As I said, walleye fishing has been outstanding, and yes these guys do fish hard spending a lot of the day on the water.
The above are the outstanding stories of the past two weeks. Suffice it to say, just about every group in camp (while not catching 500-1,000 walleyes) still caught a lot of them with plenty to eat, take home limits, and many releases of fish including good numbers of 18″+ walleye which has been the trend all year. All I can say is, if you are fishing Wabby and not catching walleye, you might consider a change in tactics. Fishing has just been too darn good to not be CATCHING.
Tim Vandyke was here with his wife and two adult daughters during the past two weeks and they released 51 walleyes >18″. A couple of trips to Lost Lake certainly helped boost this number, but many of the releases were from here on Wabaskang also. Overall not too bad for a first timer and we thoroughly enjoyed their stay with us. Another great family taking advantage of the awesome combination of remoteness and excellent fishing we offer here in camp.
It’s been a great late summer bite and week 15 is underway with guests reporting good success walleye and pike fishing yesterday to kick it off despite maybe our windiest day of the season (with perhaps today now surpassing it). Despite the windy conditions, the bite continues!
If you haven’t tried Wabaskang in August, give it some consideration. We have a few openings for 2020 still and I really think you will be impressed with the quality of the late summer/early fall bite.
That’s all for now folks, another great week in camp is underway!