
My fish is bigger than your...oops! One of our several double-headers

Nice pike: Ted with one of today's many 40-inch-plus fish
As I write this, Iâm sitting on the deck at Lakers Unlimitedâs Spring Bay Lodge with owner Jeff Perela, the guides and the five other guests, comparing notes on the day. All three boats, two anglers each, spent the bulk of today chasing northerns on Maurice Bay, just out front of the lodge. In the few days since our arrival on Saturday, the weed growth has exploded â" and remarkably fast. Where before there were barren sand patches, there are now ever-expanding weedbeds, and theyâre total pike magnets. We pretty sure, in fact, that the northerns are streaming in from outside the bay, attracted by the quickly growing, oxygen-rich environment. Thatâs one reason we spent the day on Maurice. The other reason is that Maurice is where Dave Drobny and Dwight Hottle caught the big pike in camp yesterday.
In the end, Ted and I caught some 14 or so 40-inch-plus northerns, plus an embarrassing number of teenagers. Honestly, we once again stopped counting, but based on a rough calculation, we easily brought in 90 fish between us. Still, we havenât succeeded in our quest to catch a 30-pounder (and my personal goal of a somewhat more modest 45-incher). Nor have we managed to catch Hottle and Drobny. In fact, they pulled out even further in the lead today, when Drobny hammered home his personal best, a 29-pounder. Good going guys. But look out tomorrow â" our last day.
As for playing poker again with those two sharksâ¦
One of the many issues of concern for the fishing and hunting community is recruitment, or, more specifically, the greying of our ranks. In short, we are continually striving to bring new anglers and hunters, particularly youth, into the fold. And more and more, the outdoors community has also been targeting woman as potential new outdoorsfolk of tomorrow. And that’s a good thing. In
Have you made plans for National Fishing Week yet? It’s coming up fast, kicking off this Saturday, July 2, and running through to Sunday, July 10. Even if you don’t participate in an official event, it’s a great time to take a kid fishing or introduce someone new to the sport. That is, after all, the main point of National Fishing Week: to get more Canadians outdoors and
Awesome. Sweet. Dude. Those are the three new words my Dad says he learned during our four days of fishing at northern Saskatchewan’s Milton Lake Lodge (we got back to Ontario on Tuesday). That’s hardly surprising, given we were hanging with Nick Pujic, the hip young principal of Fly Max Films and Fly Nation TV (think surfer culture meets fly fishing), and our guide Naoto Aoki.
Congrats to the winners of the first annual B.C. Loch-Style Fly Fishing Championship, held last Friday and Saturday on Trojan Pond near the town of Logan Lake, B.C. Eight teams of five anglers apiece vied for the top team and individual honours. Among the winners? Outdoor Canada field editor Mark Anderson, who placed third in individual results. As well, Mark’s team (Equipe
Subscribers should be receiving the March/April issue of Outdoor Canada magazine any day now, and among the great features, they’ll find a travel adventure story by yours truly. The subject? Trophy lake trout and northern pike fishing on Saskatchewan’s Lake Athabasca (at Lakers Unlimited’s Spring Bay Lodge). As promised in the article (”A sure thing,”
///// FOLLOW ON TWITTER: @OutdoorWalsh ///// Outdoor Canada Editor Patrick Walsh grew up fishing and hunting in Bracebridge, Ontario, where he began his magazine career in 1983 as assistant editor of Muskoka Life. Since then, he has worked for a variety of media, both in Canada and abroad, earning numerous writing and editing awards. In both 2011 and 2005, the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors named him Editor of the Year, while Outdoor Canada was honoured as Magazine of the Year. Learn more: www.outdoorcanada.ca.