July 18 - August 1 Fishing

The last couple of weeks of July were a little quieter for us, but started getting really busy again around the 25th and will be going as such for the next 2 months.

The issue that defined the fishing the last couple of weeks is the fact that our fishermen had considerably strong winds to contend with on and off. The 18th - 21st or 22nd was a period like that....anyone fishing (ourselves included) had to find little inlets....we tried to give anglers an second anchor - which helped a bit. Pete H guided the McKittrick group one day...struggled against the wind but got fish and was able to show them some spots for the rest of the week. We're lucky to be on a system where there re narrow channels and that we're on Banning Lake where the winds aren't as pronounced as they are on larger lakes. You can pretty much always get out  - usually only 1 -2 days / summer where Banning is even too windy  - and people did get out...the strange thing is how it would last for 4 days straight...and not even recede in the evening.

When the winds did recede though, fishing was good. We had a few feeds ourselves. When I (Quent) was out, it was definitely windy and hard to fish, but we were finding walleye at around 22' (before we were blown off those schools. Others went out and had some really good fishing later in that week.

Loris' family was up from Toronto - struggled against the winds, but Wyatt came up and had some really good fishing with them later in the week when the winds died down. We had a great fish fry and lots of action.

The Budrow group were up for their annual trip and did great as they always do....fished out on the Seine and on some downstream "off system" spots.

The Kolhagen's were up for the second time and did very well.

The Rudd's, Handt's, Halgrimson's Miller, Jackie & Buzz  etc were up for their annual trip with their very large group....had some great fishing as they always do. They worked the Seine Chain and a bunch of remote lakes...mainily focused on walleye, but caught bass, pike etc...Jackie got a 37' pike on Pipe - even saw some sunfish on a certain off system lake.  Gene found some crappie like he always does. And they picked lots of blueberries!

The water is still somewhat high....especially for this time of the year...the highest I've seen it at the beginning of August for some time. Not such a bad thing, although there's still a pretty good current going through the narrows, so a little lower levels sometimes translate to a little less current.

Going for the nicer 'eye's in the 25 ' ish ledges...as always, we're seeing a lot of nice bass come out of those spots as well. Still getting some smallmouth action on the banks at certain times - not like June, but particularly on sunny days there's been some nice ones.

Several pike in the 30"-40" ....several bass in the 18"-20" range. Lakers were a little quieter for the ones that went after them. I didn't hear of any "trophy" walleye the last two weeks, but lots of good eaters and several in the low - mid 20 inch range.

As far as canoeing goes, it's been a pretty busy period...troop 206 from MN was in routing through the White Otter area and had some amazing bass action... the Schardt group picked up their canoes here and did their trip near Dryden and had some really great fishing(!! - our canoes have been away up on The Albany River and the Winisk, but this is a first for the Dryden area!).

The Hartnett / Godfrey group was out for the twenty somethingth time and had a great trip on the east side of Quetico. They had some great fishing as always and reported the absolute biggest bass that they have ever seen...Dave caught & released it, but by the sounds of it, it would have been in the record books.

Had a strange go down thing in one area of Quetico recently....there was a "person of interest" sighted...anyway...here's the public advisory that was released:

A person of concern has been spotted in the areas of Brent Lake and Crooked Lake in Quetico Provincial Park.  This person is male, Caucasian, with scraggly red-blonde hair and a beard.  He may not be wearing shoes and is believed to not have a canoe.  If visitors see a man matching this description, please stay clear and do not engage him.  Visitors should note the time and location of their sighting and report it to the Ontario Provincial Police at 1-807-683-4200 and to a Park Staff Member.  Visitors are encouraged to stay away from the areas of Brent and Crooked Lakes.

So they wound up actually closing about 10 or so lakes in and around that area !!

This morning we were advised that the restrictions had been lifted ...that they have found this man and taken him out of the park..

Haven't seen something like that before....

Anyway.....getting ready for a busy August...been out baiting bears and getting ready for that stuff....looking forward to seeing everyone that's yet to come this year!