Presented by Garmin
This shoot took place on a portion of the beautiful Albany River in Northern Ontario. This nearly 1000 km long monster is primarily known as a Brook Trout (Speckled Trout) river. What many don’t know is it’s a Walleye and Pike factory as well.
Steve Niedzwiecki joined Pete on this shoot and they both had the distinct pleasure of having Kyle Polesky (owner and operator of Brace Lake Outfitters) as a third participant. Trust us, having a knowledgeable guide who can also cook not only great suppers but shore lunches as well, is a luxury in northern Canada!
Steve and Pete started fishing in typical Walleye fashion, casting and drifting jigs with plastics. Once they found the spot on the spot, then it was game on. They clocked ’em really good. Lots of Walleye and some good ones to boot!
The wind was howling and Steve & Pete were catching!
After a great shore lunch prepped by Kyle, a storm started to roll in. Kyle took our cameraman Vova back to the outpost camp while stupid Peetee and Stevie decided to flirt with the weather. Well, friends, our two dumb dumbs turned into angling geniuses as they drifted and trolled Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow Deep Diving Walleye baits (see feature image) out in the abyss and lit ‘em up again!
The only thing we love better than catching open-water Walleye trolling cranks, is the look on guys’ faces like Kyles after we tell them the pattern and they just look at you and say “no way… 40 feet of water?!?!?!”
GARMIN MOMENTS OF THE MAKOKIBATAN SHOOT
This is a very typical piece of structure in northern Canada, a hump with some weeds on it. Although the extreme northern reaches of the country harbor much less “weed growth”, it doesn’t take much to draw fish in. On a lake like Makakobatan, both Walleye and Northern Pike will lock onto a spot like this one… as long as there’s food for them there.
In reality for this shoot, we relied mostly on our traditional fish-finding screen along with the GPS. We Quick-Drew our own maps of the areas we were fishing and then just keyed on fish-holding hotspots. Simple is often the best.
Here’s an interesting scenario we have found when Walleye fishing in the north country of Canada. When we encounter this, we just keep moving on. Although it looks like the mother load of all fish… unfortunately that’s just what it is… fish. And We don’t believe they are Walleye (just our opinion).
When Walleye stack up in big groups, we have found them to be much more sparsely spread apart. They are still in schools, but under “normal” circumstances, not like the above Garmin traditional screenshot. That said, when they school up in smaller groups, they seem to form more of a ball or round-shaped school than this long line.
One last point on this one… we “dare” you to bypass a school of fish like this if you encounter it… trust us it’s almost impossible to do. Our human instincts say “let’s give it a shot”… we’ve done it time and time again!
