Careful What You Wish For...

Well, we asked for warmer weather and we got it! Suddenly the camps of Big Hook are filled with swimmers looking to beat the heat. It was only a couple weeks ago we were battling snow on a Saturday change-over. Warm and dry is about all that’s in the forecast. Since I seem to have a “weather-wisher” that’s working well these days, I’ll now hope for a good, long, soaking rain (just not on a Saturday – but now that’s getting awful picky).

Water levels remain VERY low throughout the park. Docks have had to have extra steps installed and water pumps have had to be lowered so they are drawing water and not air. A huge thanks for our guests who have piloted their boats extra cautiously, our motors (and I) really appreciate it!

With the dry conditions, forest fires are sparking up all around Northwester Ontario. While we are not under a burn ban yet, conditions are listed as “Extreme.” Please employ an abundance of caution any time fire is involved if you are due to arrive at Big Hook soon.

Fire just south of Sandy Lake

With the air, water temps. are also on the rise. Guests on Central saw surface temps. climb from the upper 50’s to mid-60’s in just a day. With this uptick, fish are moving slightly deeper, but 5-10’ seems to be the number to find schooled up walleye. The suckers have also begun their spawning run up the streams. Walleye, northern (and bears!) have been stacked up doing some fishing of their own. Several bears were seen on portages and creek mouths throughout the park this week.  I was taught a new sing-along while going to investigate one sighting – it’s always good to make noise just so there are no surprises.

The fishing remains superb. We had the chance to catch up with the guests at South Lake this week at length. They have boated several nice trophy sized fish including one northern just north of 40” and one walleye that was JUST short of 30” (I’m told no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t quite stretch her that extra ¼”). She was released safely and should be above that magic number by the end of the summer (don’t think that counts for his replica mount, however). Those fish were caught on a William’s Wobbler and undisclosed crank-bait respectively.

A beautiful day for a boat ride

Central guests have described great numbers above and below several rapids and “fish a minute” type conditions. Several mid-20” walleye and 35-42”pike were caught between the two groups currently at Central. Jigs tipped with Gulp-Alive and Berkley RippleShads of various colors have been the preferred presentations.

Aidan has taken care of most all the other camp checks this week, but guests all around have reported good fishing with several big pike at Burnt and huge numbers of walleye at Southwest (thousands).

The other exciting news around camp:

Our PouchCouch

It was decided the one thing missing around Big Hook was a hammock. We ordered one from PouchCouch that arrived recently. While I haven’t had the chance to enjoy it myself just yet, both the other staff and guests can’t get enough of it. I have to admit it looks quite idyllic.

That’s it from The Park for now. Thanks to everyone that cares to know about the happenings up here. For those of you who have recently made your own pilgrimage to Big Hook, please email or tag us your photos so we can share some more fish-tails!

Happy fishing,

R.

Cold, Cold Go Away

Mr. Chicago meets Ms. Pike

It's been a bit of a weather rollercoaster in the Opasquia Provincial Park. Summer has had a hard time getting going up here even though some guests experienced highs in the triple digits one their travels through Winnipeg a week ago. While the day time highs push into more normal numbers, the nights have brought the return of freezing temps almost every night this past week. Our chainsaws have been working overtime trying to keep wood piles full. 

The cool weather and late spring has delayed the normal progression of the local ecosystem. Bears are still being seen chasing after beaver pups in their dens - often by now they'd have moved onto fishing for suckers in streams as their spawning runs begin. Likewise, water surface temps have failed to get above the mid to upper 50's on any of our lakes. 

Cold water and variable weather has seemingly led to variable fishing. Some groups haven't been able to keep fish OUT of the boat, others were finding the fish less receptive. The outgoing guests at Cocos this week reported some of the best fishing they've ever had, and one member of their group has been coming up since the 70's. Likewise, West Lake said just about any bait, any color, presented anyway seemed to entice both Walleye and Northern. They boated several Walleye in the mid-20" range and several Pike in the mid-30's. Favorite baits included perch colored and blue / orange crank-baits set to dive 5-10' and small jigs tipped with black twister tails.

I had the opportunity to spend a few days fishing at Central and Southwest this past week. We were targeting Walleye almost exclusively and had great success on just about any wind blown shore or island, but again the fish were shallow with many being picked up around 4'. 

Moonrise over XZK

With warm days in the forecast, we'll see if water temps. come up and the fish go down.

Speaking of water levels, the lakes are now WAY down. Many of the typical problematic rocks that we mark at Central are now well above the surface. Other ones that are not usually an issue may become so. For guests coming up to any of our lakes soon, please exercise caution while boating to avoid a rock strike and drive with the trim/tilt tab in the DOWN position while traveling forward to lessen the effects of an impact should one occur. 

We're excited to have the next group of fishermen and women (several this week!) in camp as of this afternoon and will update as we get reports from them. 

Happy fishing everyone,

Ryan

Nice Central Lake Walleye

Shore Lunch!