Careful What You Fish For…

Central Lake Hog!

Greetings from dreary, ol’ Ontario. It has been a wet, wet week up here at Big Hook with 3” of rain in the gauge and counting. But, this rain was much needed and much hoped for. Our water levels have been historically low and the wildfire situation around Canada has been terrible, as most everyone is aware. Thankfully, the rain hitting us now is covering giant swaths of the prairie regions and NW Ontario. The fires across much of Canada have been nearly licked. This week’s guests at Big Hook are certainly putting their rain gear to the test, however.

Despite some inclement weather, the fishing since our last report has been stupendous. There have been dozens of trophy fish of both primary target species caught and released… and one trophy clam I am told.

Water temps seemed to have peaked sometime in late July or early August in the low 70’s. With the rain and cooler than seasonal weather, the surface temps are now about 66 degrees and trending downward.

2x's Trophies at South

Fish have been fairly deep – about 10 – 15’ is where most are finding walleye, but a few deeper holes have been holding some big and hungry fish. A recent group at South Lake boated an amazing DOZEN walleye over 25” in one DAY!

Pike fishing has been on fire too with a recent Central Lake group that couldn’t keep big fish off the line - boating 12 fish over 36” during their trip. Trophy reports also came out of West, Cocos, and Burnt Lakes.

The days are getting noticeably shorter as we are losing about 6 minutes of daylight each tick of the calendar. I am excited to take in some northern lights whenever the rain clouds subside. The fall-like weather notwithstanding, it is hard to believe that we only have 3 weeks left of our operational season. Summer is very short around here. But very sweet also.

One housekeeping note, our 2026 calendar is filling up quickly! If a trip to Big Hook for 2026 might be in the cards, please reach out
soon to get your choice of week / lake.

All Smiles!

Savor summer while you can – it’ll be over before we know it.

Till next time, R