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Nakina area Pike & Walleye chatter
Some people are looking for a Eddie North fix and some are dreading yet another coerced, paid advertisement for the relatively new guy on the block.
Well sorry to disappoint both groups but I hope this report addresses more the technical side of my trip to Eddie North’s Beteau Lake in August 2011 by inspiring some chatter about lures, terminal tackle and fish catching tricks and techniques. But I will start by clearing a few things up that have disturbed me a little about the forums lately. My adventure to Beteau Lake began when I read a report posted on here by SoloPaddler regarding a trip he experienced to Eddie North’s. I followed up with Mike personally, asking him a few questions about the camp & the fishing. Next there was an exchange of emails with Eddie, the very same exchange of email I have had with all of the outfitters I have previously fished with. Also as with previous outfitters, I attended the Toronto Sportsman Show where I was fortunate enough to meet Eddie in person and ask a few more questions. I also dropped in and enjoyed time with Remi & Michelle of Arctic Watershed Outposts who are old friends and also run a great operation out of Nakina Ontario (and whom also don’t pay me to say nice things about their camp). Before diving into the tech stuff, let’s clarify that my party of six fished Eddie’s this past August for the first time and caught many a spectacular Pike and several personal best Walleye. The fact that Eddie runs his operation different from some of the other outfitters in the area is here nor there when it comes to the fishing. The fact that Eddie was at the camp during the week we were there was only a bonus. The fact that Eddie is a down to earth, nice guy only adds to the experience. The peace, serenity and beauty of Northern Ontario is priceless no matter which outfitter you go with. The fishing at Beteau is fantastic…period. For those who are complaining about the number of Eddie North posts on the forums this year I say only one thing, where did you fish? Tell us, show us a report!! Because as I said in the beginning, reading a report on these forums is how I discovered Eddie North’s and other outfitters I have fished with. I can tell you that reading another report on here will most certainly have a bearing on where I might fish in the future. Moving on to hopefully some meaningful discussion about catching large Pike & Walleye in the Attawapiskat River system or anywhere else in Northern Ontario. I reference a trip to the Attwapiskat in late August this year where the conditions were a little unusual with the lake level being down about six feet. The weather for the week was a mixed bag with a few nice, warm sunny days and a few windy, rainy days. During the week my fishing partner and I caught many a hefty Pike with a variety of lures including a Live Target Bass lure which I personally believe produced the best for the both of us. Trolling the Live Target and a floating original jointed Rapala proved to be very successful for several big toothies. In somewhat deeper water, dragging around a floating perch colored Believer and a medium diving Live Target Herring produced Pike in a variety of sizes from 36” to 50”. Due to the low water conditions fishing the typical back bays was not to be as there were essentially no back bays there. However biffing out silver Williams Spoons into shore where drop-offs did exist, worked some of the toothy critters into a feeding frenzy. Although I wasn’t armed with one, another party fishing on the lake swore up & down that the Mepp’s Cyclops, silver and blue and silver and yellow was the hot ticket. In the drops and shallows I rigged a Warbait weedless jig with a 7” Don Iovino Reaper and bounced it across the bottom getting a few Pike excited. For the topwater action the tired & true assortment of frogs & mice worked well in heavy cover with white leading the color selection. The new Live Target frogs worked well and stood up to the beating dished out by a few large pike. Before leaving to head up to the Attawapiskat I managed to track down a Dahlberg Diving Frog which worked very well in heavy cover and proved to have spectacular action. Top water Pike action with this frog is the best and I will be definitely be picking up a few more of these lures for next year. A selection of Rods accompanied me this year, including a couple of medium/heavy Fenwick bait casters paired with a Abu Revo reel, a Shimano Clarus 7’ medium heavy spinning paired with a Shimano Stradic, a Bass Pro ultra lite c/w a Diawa for walleye. Unfortunately rod manufacturer’s have gotten away from making 2 piece rods and finding a good quality 2pc. Heavy action Pike rod is getting harder every year and as many of you know, traveling with long one piece rods can be a challenge. Generally medium heavy to heavy action rods will do up there but one thing that is critical when fishing Pike in Northern Ontario is to have heavy duty, quality terminal tackle. The Attawapiskat is not the place to go cheap or light on leaders, snaps or line as a few of my buddies found out. I used braided line exclusively except one spool of light Fluro on an ultralight rod and reel for jigging walleye. Braid in the 30-50 lb range and green in color was the order for the day for me. I made some leaders using 50 lb. Seagar Fluro and 75 lb Sampo swivels and snaps but I also purchased a six pack of 80 lb Fluro leaders with 100lb. Springease swivels and Stay-Lok snaps. I did not lose a single fish due to failure of this equipment but a couple of the guys in my group using cheaper Bass Pro leaders did experience failures in the snaps and subsequently lost fish and lures. Although the Stay-Lok snaps can be a bit of a pain if you are changing lures frequently, I can’t say enough about their quality, and positive holding power. Another must have is a pair of long needle nose pliers and I’m not talking 7” long! I'm talking long... One large pike I caught inhaled my prize Live Target lure and the 7” needlenose pliers weren’t even close, unless fully inserting my hand into a large mouth full of razor sharp teeth was to be considered, that lure wasn’t coming out. The very next day I borrowed a set of 11” needlenose pliers from Craig (our camp attendant) and had no problems the rest of the week. Another item on the “to buy” list for next year! A few other items worth noting, a good pair of fishing gloves with lots of grip is a must for handling large slimy Pike. Although I did have a tape to measure the giants we caught, I didn’t have a digital scale to weigh a few of those bad boys, a mistake I will correct next year. When handling large toothy fish with large sharp hooks, things can happen so it never hurts to have a set of mini bolts cutters with you. Don’t rely on standard side cutters to get through any hooks of size and if using large Pike lures forget those light duty cutters, they won’t help, you will need bolt cutters. A large sized and quality jaw spreader is another must have for the large Pike and a non-pointed version is the best way to reduce damage to a Pike’s mouth. Lastly, because it makes handling large fish that much easier which in turn helps reduce mortality, I will be de-barbing most of my hooks for next year. The turning point for me was a 35” Pike that swallowed a jointed Rapala and buried all trebles halfway down his gullet. After a long and gingerly attempt to remove all those hooks with 7” needlenose pliers, it proved to be too much for the fish and it didn’t survive. With all the advances in fishing, the invent of heavy braided line, quality terminal tackle, heavy gauge hooks, top notch rods and reels, I feel that de-barbing my hooks will give fish a considerable better chance of survival by ensuring they can be released quicker and with less damage. Besides I think we seriously have the upper hand in this now and by de-barbing the fisherman will have to play the fish accurately so not to lose it. I invite one and all to throw in your two cents. What lures, what rods & reels are you using? What experiences have you had fishing for Pike and Walleye and any tips or tricks you care to share. It can be a long winter and a little fishing chatter may help us all get through it in one piece. Fish On! Rob & the Walleye Wanderers |
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Nakina area Pike & Walleye chatter..
First off Rob great post I was in the group that fished Eddies river camp the week right after you thank you for your days of fishing at Eddies crammed into 20 min while the plane was unloaded and loaded. We caught fish where ever you marked on the map you left us. We caught enough Walleyes for eating when ever we wanted. The NP fishing was the best my group has ever experienced in all the years of going to Ontario. I am going to say we caught NP and we got to the point that anything we thought was 35 inches or less we did not measure. Fish that we thought were 35 or better we measured and the two boats together we caught around 50 for the week give or take a few on either side. We trolled all week using crank baits and silver spoons. My PB NP was 42 inches however my boat partner hooked one that when we got it along side of the boat looked to be 48 in or better the mouth when opened looked like a opening of a 5 gal bucket. You are right about the snaps and leaders being strong as this one broke the snap just as we tried to boat the fish. The camp was great and Eddie was there every evening to make sure everything was ok with the camp and make sure everyone was off the lake. We also had talked with ( Solopaddler ) and Mike gave us a run down on the fishing we were going to be into at Eddies. As far as the camp goes what more can you ask for when you are in the bush and be able to call home or send emails with what is happening in camp. As far as Eddie himself you are not going to find a more easy going person. The only thing I can say is don't knock it until you try it. I have not heard or read a post of anything bad about Eddie or his camps. Hats off to Eddie for making our stay a real treat. C U in 2013 Eddie.
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Quite a post Rob!
Regarding the release tools it's a really good idea to tie the pliers and especially the jaw spreaders into the boat. One trip at Eddies I lost 3 sets of spreaders before I finally smartened up LOL! When you're handling that many large pike stuff just seems to happen. A cradle is imo an absolute must. Not only does it subdue the pike perfectly boatside, but it rolls up and stows away much more compactly than a suitably sized landing net. When you want to weigh your fish just leave the pike in the cradle (you can zero the scale with the cradles weight). Much less damage to the fish. Barbless is a great idea as well. People may not agree, but when you're talking large numbers of big very old fish it just makes sense. I've been to Eddie's 3X now and the vast majority of my fish have come casting. But then I never faced quite the same conditions your group did. Nice to see you guys adapted. |
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Thanks for the great report, for many years now I have used single barbless on all my spoons, I leave the fish in the water and with one shake it's off. Even on crankbaits, once the fish show a preference, I replace the treble with a single hook. How important to have proper terminal tackle.....I killed a beautiful Northern years ago because of not having the proper tools necessary to release properly, after 1 hour of trying to revive her, she would not go upright...........still bothers me. Single hook and a good side cutter, problem solved. Eddie is doing the right thing, by allowing zero Northern taken, to insure future generations great fishing. There are numerous great lakes/ outfitters in Ontario that's for sure. I would hope other outfitters would follow suit, as there are many of us that would like the opportunity to fish Trophy waters.
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The Best
The above posts are so correct. Eddie runs a top notch camp. When we were there, he made us feel like friends from 30 years ago. I can not say enough about him and his camp. If you go there and are disappointed, maybe you should not fish anymore. Everything ran perfect, and when it didn't, he fixed it. I required 9 stitches in my hand, which were done on a island. When I got back to camp, Eddie said that he could have done them, he has all the supplies. He is looking to buy a AED for CRP purposes in the future. To me that is priceless, since we fish with some older guys whom have had heart issues in the past. He has a great camp try it, we did and we go back in June 2013.
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Single barbless is a great idea
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Jaw Spreaders
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Greta(that's Italian for great) informative post!
I fished Eddies this year 3rd week in july, water level 3-4 ft lower than normal. Eddie and camp assistant were great!
I landed my heaviest pike, only 43 1/2 in but at least 25 lbs. I have caught 3 47's elsewhere and none were as heavy as this one. |
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You guys have to stop posting about Eddie's North! I have drool and slobber all over my keyboard and it is getting hard to type!
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Thanks.....
Rob,
Thanks for your post and informative information.....appreciate you taking the time to do so. I also enjoyed reading the other posts.....we're getting snow here in east central Ohio this evening, so a good time to catch up on the Walleye Central Canadian posts, eh ? Rich B |
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