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David W. Reid
2017-10-23 20:33:22

A Trip To Horwood Lake


This pass weekend was opening calf in my division. With the forecast calling for temperatures in the 20's, it was a no brainer what I was going to do when my friend Craig Salmonson called inviting me to join him and his wife, Josee, for a day on Horwood Lake. Horwood Lake offers anglers 14,000 acres of water to chase trophy size Walleye, Pike, and Perch and is consider one of prestige lakes in Northeast Ontario. To get to get to Horwood Lake from Timmins, take highway 101 west for about 47 miles until you see a sign Big Bear Camp. Turn left and follow the signs that will lead you directly to the camp. Since the ride in is about seven miles down a gravel road, Big Bear is the closest boat launch on Horwood Lake with a cement ramp. For a ten dollars ramp fee, anglers that are not staying at Big Bear are able to launch their boats there. After launching the boat we headed to one of the many humps that can be found on the lake. Craig and Josee started off with jigging raps as I worked a Reel Bait Fergie spoon. After snagging up frequently due to rocks on the hump, we switched over to jigs and large minnows. I had brought some leeches which I had left over from the Mattagami Fall Walleye Classic. With the water temperature 50 degrees I thought I would try adding a drop shot hook with a leech above my jig. It didn't take long for Josee to set the hook on her first Walleye of the day. To Craig and my surprise, I caught my first Walleye of the day on the drop shot. Not to out done, Craig set the hook on a beautiful fat 241/2 inch Walleye. After a quick measurement and picture, she soon was on her way back to the depths. As the action slowed down it was time to move and see if the fish were in shallower water. Once at the spot, Craig threw a jigging rap and I opted to cast a Fergie spoon. Both of us casted up shallow and worked our baits down the drop off as Josee decided to drag her jig. Well it didn't take long again before we heard Josee say "I have a good fish on". After fighting this beast for a bit, she finally managed to get it up to the surface where we were able to see that she had a big Pike which we estimated to be around 15 to 18 pounds. Unfortunately the Pike came unbuttoned when I went to net it. Although we were disappointed, we had a laugh when Josee said, "at least I don't have to hold it for a picture". For the rest of the day we jumped around checking different locations and depths. One area worthy of mentioning was a rock we could see that was off shore that was surrounded by deeper water. With the wind blowing in on it, we just had to see what was up on the shallower water around it. After a couple of casts up shallower I landed the perfect tournament size Walleye that measured 18 inches on the button. Shortly after Craig set his jig on a fat 201/2 inch Walleye. Again before releasing her we took a quick measurement and picture. We managed to catch several Walleye ranging between 141/2 to 16 inches before the bite died off in this location. As time was running out, for the last twenty minutes, we hit one last hump. Once again due to snags, we went with a jig and minnow. Here we managed to catch one 16 inch and a couple walleye between 131/2 and 141/2 inches long before calling it a day. Aftercalling it a day, Josee and I started putting rods and tackle away, while Craig was bleeding out the 9 Walleye ranging between 151/2 to 171/2 inches long that we decided to keep. It was quite apparent that I made the right decision to go fishing by all the black flies swarming around us as we were putting the boat travel cover on for the ride home. To say this was a perfect way to end the open water season this year with Craig and Josee would be an understatement. For anyone interested in staying at Big Bear Camp on beautiful Horwood Lake Please visit http://bigbearcamp.ca/
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