Wabaskang Report 6/23-6/30

[UKBDM]

Thirteen of us were at Jim and Julie's Wabaskang Camp last week and had a great time. Six adults and seven kids is quite a group but we managed to survive. Eight of us traveled from the Indianapolis area and we made the decisipon to go up thru MI and Sault Ste Marie because of the flooding in Duluth. We had heard it was a scenic route and enjoyed that part but didn't enjoy the extra 4 hours of driving. We returned via Duluth and had no problems.
Arrived in camp Sat evening around 6:00pm and unloaded everything in a cold drizzle. Launched the boat just as the rain was letting up and had time to make a few trolling passes along a weed bed just north of camp. Picked up three walleye very quickly on a firetiger hot'n'tot and noticed lots of mayfly carcasses.
Slept in until 7:30am or so on Sun and went up into North Bay to hit a couple smallmouth spots with my 13 year old son. Caught 4-5 and then headed back to camp to pick up my daughter and head down to Keynote for some perch fishing. This was her first trip and I wanted to keep her engaged. Never did get into a mess of perch that day or any day. Checked all my good spots but never found the number of jumbos that we usually get into.
Mon evening I went out with son and nephew and landed a 38" pike which is my personal best. I used some tackle and strategy that Big Mike shared with me so a big thanks goes out to him.
Walleyes were hit and miss for us all week. Guys in camp were catching them in 12-15' of water on crawler harnesses but we had little luck using that strategy. We did best with chartreuse jigs and white grubs tipped with a piece of crawler. We are relatively new to walleye fishing and have a lot to learn. Nephew did catch a 26.5" walleye trolling for lake trout with a three way rig and an old Mann's 35+.
Had good pike fishing all week with many 27-33" fish caught by young kids which is a lot of fun.
My son had the big smallmouth for the week with a 18.5" fish. Close to five lbs I would guess.
This was our third year at Wabaskang and we have never been dissapointed. Warm and windy a couple of days but that is the breaks.
Big Mike is up there this week with some other guys who have been fishing the lake for 15 plus years. They really know the lake.

[jsmyers]

Glad you had a good trip.

Did you catch any trout when you were going for them?

BTW I caught my first big smallmouth in either north bay or close by Jim and Julies in around 1994. The fish darted out from underneath a upright log and nailed an extremely worn out nickle mepps #5.

It was 16.5" and really chunky. Before that, we only caught a few random ones that were small. I feel bad that I kept it. My dad had never seen one even close to that size and was at first all excited to mount it. We ended up eating it that night.

[UKBDM]

We don't target them a lot but my BIL likes to say he caught five species of fish on the same trip. The walleye, smallmouth, pike, and perch is fairly easy but adding trout or whitefish or musky is a little tougher.

Wabaskang has turned into a tremendous smallmouth fishery over the last 10-15 years. I never keep one due to how long it takes for one to reach even 12". That 18.5" that my son caught was probably over 20 years old.

Are you headed up there this year?

[jsmyers]

So you got a few trout? Good for you. I'm still troutless, but we caught a couple in 2011.

Unfortunately we're not making the trip this year. I just started a new job, and my wife and I are expecting. My cousin (the other instigator) is going through a lot of changes and pressure in his job. It sounds like it will all be good for him in the long run, but it has meant a lot of travel away from his wife and two-year-old

We are starting to plan a trip for 2013 however: might be going to Wine Lake Camp.

We'll be back to Wabaskang. I was just talking to my wife about maybe making it a family vacation in 2014 or 2015. I first went to Wabaskang when I was five. My daughter will turn five in June 2014. She landed a ~11" largemouth on Sunday. (I hooked it.) Unfortunately I was a dunce with my cell phone, so the great picture I took of her lipping it is lost forever. She'll have the fishing bug if I have anything to say about it.

[Swifty]

Thanks for the report. I assume that the mayfly hatch is winding down? We're heading up there with 8 adults and 8 kids the end of next week and can't wait. We'll be staying at Gawley's.

I have a 6 year old and 11 year old. I had the same idea trying to find some perch in the afternoon. If you don't mind my asking, how do you target perch in Keynote? Nightcrawlers? Weeds? How deep? Last year was our first year up there and we found a few but never really got it figured out. We had a camp boat last year without any electronics so was a little tougher. Could care less if we catch jumbos just want to keep them busy.

[UKBDM]

jsmyers - No, we didn't catch any trout. I have heard a lot of good things about Wine Lake.

swifty - we usually use a slip bobber with a chartreuse 1/16th oz jig and a 2" white grub tipped with a piece of crawler. Downsize to a 1/32 oz jig if you don't mind the little ones. Maybe a split shot 12" above the jig if windy. Weed beds are the key but we have found weed beds near inlets or outlets seem to be better.

Look for cabbage in 8 ft of water and use slip bobbers with crawler pieces or light jigs (1/16 too 1/32oz.) You need to cabbage hop until you find them...from Gawleys, I wouldn't go far...straight north to the back bay, if I remember right, has plenty of cabbage or turn the corner west and there is plenty of cabbage there. While the kid's are perch fishing, throw top water and spinners for pike

[ILScott]

Maybe some of the trout catches are coming from other lakes but are being reported to be caught on Wabaskang. I have seen boats portage into the lake I stay at to fish for lakers. Not discounting Wabaskang because I have never fished it but just a thought.

Scott

[Big Mike]

Well I returned from another fantastic trip up to Jim and Julies as well. We were up from June 30th until July 6th. We really struggled to catch "eater" walleyes as there were thousands of mayflies early in the week. However, the big walleyes were still very aggressive. We caught big numbers of walleyes over 24 inches in the numerous cabbage weeds in all areas of the lake. Most of our fish were caught on larger musky baits or rapala/husky jerks casted and retrieved slowly...especially in the evenings. We had a very good open water/reef crankbait bite as well. Others in camp did well towards the end of the week as the mayfly hatch ended by using spinners/crawlers. My biggest walleye (28") was caught on a spinner/crawler. I can honestly say this is the best trip I have ever had for large walleyes as we averaged 5 or 6 a day over 24". Big northern were equally impressive this week with our biggest coming in at 43.5" and several others in camp catching 43" fish with a 44.5" monster being the biggest. The weater was great...a few days of heavy wind that helped the northern bite and a few days of clouds that make everything bite well. I will be back up later this month and give another report...Mike