Trip Into The Backwoods

During the winter months, anglers living in Northeastern Ontario can venture back into the numerous backwoods lakes they couldn't get into during the warmer months. Many of these little gems are located near rivers, large lakes, or reservoirs with feeder creeks or streams flowing into or out of them. Game fish can access these lakes throughout the seasons, which ensures these lakes are always being replenished. Since these lakes receive little pressure from anglers, the bite can be hot and fierce, making for a fun day of non-stop action on the ice. Wednesday morning saw Craig, Perry Harvey, Dan Roy, and myself headed out to fish one of these backwoods lakes, being mindful of all the covid guidelines currently in place. Although Wednesday morning greeted us with a crisp -17C as we unloaded the snow machines, we weren't concerned as the forecast was calling for -5C later in the day. As we navigated our way through the twisty windy trail that was just wide enough for the machines to get through, we finally reached the lake. Craig and Perry fished this lake the previous weekend with "FISH ON" host Paul Ethier so they knew the area we would start the morning off at. We just finished drilling the holes when we heard Dan yell "Fish On," and the first decent walleye of the day was on the ice. Within the first hour, both Perry and Dan landed a couple of walleye and pike. Craig and I only managed to ice some pike. With the action slowing down, Craig decided to try another area of the lake. After half an hour, I drove over to see how he was making out. When I reached him, he had two decent walleye on the ice. He told me that he caught three Pike and the two walleyes on a hair jig and minnow. I recalled him telling me that he forgot his jigging raps the previous outing, and Perry and Paul were nailing walleye on them. He went on to tell me that it wasn't until he tied on a hair jig that he started catching walleyes at the same pace as they were. After joining Craig, the walleye seemed to disappear, and all we were able to catch were Pike, so Perry headed out to try another area. No sooner did Perry finish drilling his holes in the new area, he landed a couple more walleye and was yelling at us to get over there as he was marking all kinds of fish. Once we joined Perry, the walleye actioned died. We found this odd as this was the second time this had happened. After landing some Pike, the walleye finally showed back up when Perry iced a fat over slot Walleye. Not much later, Craig landed another nice walleye on a bucktail jig and minnow. Then it was the Perry show, as we listened to the play-by-play on how the walleye were following his jigging rap off the bottom only to swim back down to the bottom. After several walleye following his jigging rap up, he finally triggered some to bite. It was getting late in the day, and I was the only one that hadn't landed a walleye all day. Although I caught several Pike on a VMC bucktail jig throughout the day, I decided to give it one more try for walleyes. Being late in the day and minnows were getting low, I grabbed the remainder of a minnow after Perry took the head for his jigging rap. It didn't take long before a seen a mark enter my cone. As I slowly raised my hair jig and minnow off the bottom, I could see the fish following it before turning and going back down. After watching this happen a couple of times, I added a little Liquid Mayhem Minnow scent to my line. The next time I saw a mark following my bucktail off the bottom, I stopped reeling and slightly quiver my rod tip. This seemed to trigger them as I managed to ice two decent walleye before we called it a day. To say It was an action pack day would be an understatement. Although we missed several fish throughout the day, we managed to keep ten Walleye between us and six Pike for Dan. All others were released to be caught another day. I look forward to experimenting more with VMC Bucktail jigs throughout the ice season.