Fireworks!

            July is a special time of the year for many.

West Lake Football

            The gathering of friends and family and celebrations continue to peak here in Opasquia. This week will likely be our busiest of the summer with several groups in camp that are dear friends, many mulit-generational family trips, and some honoring those that can no longer make the journey – bringing granddad’s cooler or tacklebox and some photos of the “old guys” in the “old days” to share also.

It’s an important time for the local eco-system too, as the sun’s energy is turned into biomass at an amazing rate. You can almost watch the trees, shrubs, and grass grow. I’ve had to trim the trees on some of our walking paths several times of the past few weeks - they just keep growing back. The weed beds in the lakes have bloomed like crazy. Every member of the food chain seems ravenous, as many are aware this peak won’t last
long.

To say the fishing has been "great" wouldn’t do it justice. Stories of incredible catches abound from all our locations. I got a hug the other night from a group at Central after they boated their 8^th trophy pike in just two days of fishing.

Central Lake: fish longer 
than the fisherman

Reports of trophy walleye and pike from all the camps seem to be the norm. South Lake boated a 28.5” walleye yesterday. West Lake’s outbound group said their biggest pike was just under 40” and they had numerous 22 – 28” walleyes. I didn’t get tallies from Cocos, but that group of regulars mentioned that “it just keeps getting better.”

Top water lures have taken over as the favorite bait for our pike fisherman with several stories of leaping fish smashing buzz baits and Whopper Ploppers. The old, trusty Silver Minnow has gotten a lot of attention too.

Folks targeting walleye have been finding them in 10 – 15’ of water and have been using medium depth crank baits and jigs / twister tails with great success.

We are fortunate to not have any active fires currently in close proximity to any of our locations, but many fires continue to burn across Canada and a perfectly clear day has been rare as of late. It just depends on which way the winds are blowing as to what fire(s) we are getting smoke from. Hoping for more rain for all of northern Canada sometime soon.

Lake levels have held surprisingly steady. I would say low, but still in the “normal” category.

A hog out of the Fishbowl

            Our mayfly hatch this year was sporadic with the first waves coming much earlier than I expected (end of June), and hatches here and there that lasted for about two weeks. With how spotty they were, fishing did not seem to be affected much.

It’s hard to believe that we are now in the last week of July. Enjoy the peak of summer while you can, everyone – many of us wait all year for this!

Till next time: good fishing and good times, R.

South Lake Sunset