Awesome August...

It’s been go, go, go since our last post with nary a rainy day to hunker down and write a proper report. 

The second half of summer has been hot and dry with high chances of heavy fish.

Central Lake Trophy Walleye

Lots of great specimens have been boated since our last update. A 44” pike among other tanks out of West Lake, several 40+” pike and football shaped walleye out of Central, photo worthy fish and huge numbers at Cocos and Southwest, and at least FORTY trophy walleye (and several trophy pike) out of South Lake in the last month! Needless to say there’s been lots of big smiles.

The fish seem to be everywhere. Reports of gangbuster catches in anything from 3’ to 28’ of water for both walleye and pike have come in. Walleye have been found on shallow reefs, deep holes, and in the weed beds too. I can attest to the same after getting on the water yesterday afternoon – I was sight fishing walleye on a mid-bay hump in 3 – 5’ of water and then caught them at 22’ a short boat ride away. We also had top water walleye strikes while throwing bucktails and buzz baits for pike. The walleye are hungry! The pike were incredibly aggressive too, latching on to every 4^th or 5^th cast. A pair of brothers at Central last week boated both of these monsters. 

You’ll notice Burnt Lake is left out of the reports. Unfortunately, we’ve had to shut down operations there for the past few weeks as a large wildfire has picked up in intensity nearby. The cabin looks to be safe, but the shoreline that burnt in 2011 (taking the old cabin with it) has reburned along with several thousand acres to the north along the Manitoba border. We are hoping the weather pattern will change by next week and we will start to get some precipitation. Pilot Adam spent much of yesterday washing and waxing the airplane to try and coax in a sprinkle. Also of note, the water is down in all lakes about 4 feet from normal – currently the lowest I have ever seen it.

Central Lake Trophy Pike

The dry weather has led to a bumper blueberry crop, but the raspberries have been almost non-existent.

Numerous wildlife sightings continue with the moose starting to move. Bears have been seen (thankfully) far away from camp munching in berry patches. A troublesome squirrel with a sweet tooth has been harassing anyone with a candy bar at West Lake (rehoming efforts are currently underway). We got a great show of the blue, super moon last night, and northern light sightings are starting to become more common as the days grow a little shorter (current sunset at 8:30 pm with darkness setting in around 9:00pm).

It's hard to believe we only have another few weeks of the season to go. BUT, we’ll look to savor my favourite time of year up here with gold leaves beginning to emerge, some fantastic fishing no doubt, and (hopefully) a few rainy days to quench the fire.

Smoke rises from the Burnt Lake fire. 

Good luck and happy fishing,

Ryan