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Hawk Lake: Its not Just About Walleye
2K views
Mar 26, 2025
On this Fish’n Canada episode, the boys head to a familiar and popular Walleye lake. This time, however, they decide that due to unfavourable lake conditions (turnover) they target Bass instead. It’s a decision that produces great results and a good lesson for all anglers. ► Subscribe http://bit.ly/youtube-fishncanada Don't forget to leave a COMMENT and give us a LIKE if you enjoyed what you saw. SUBSCRIBE for new videos and episodes released weekly! CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- ► WEBSITE http://fishncanada.com ► FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/ ► INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/fishncanada... ► TWITTER https://twitter.com/angeloviolafnc/ One of Canada's longest-running fishing shows, Fish'n Canada travels from coast to coast in search of trophy fishing opportunities. First started by brothers Angelo and Reno Viola in 1986, The Fish’n Canada Show has been on the air for over 30 years. Today, Angelo is joined by lifelong fishing buddy, Peter Bowman, and the pair continue to travel across Canada educating anglers using the experience they’ve gained over the years
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:05
there's one buddy i just want to say
0:06
look at that tree right there nice look
0:08
at that
0:09
that's a fatty fatty
0:13
that's why it's stirring hook is so
0:15
important right there we're fishing in
0:16
cold weather brother worked that boulder
0:18
last year i remember just pounding it
0:20
couldn't get anything off perfect
0:22
spinner bait fish they're so chubby this
0:24
time of year angelo
0:26
he went tick tick tick tick tick tick
0:28
tick tick
0:29
[Music]
0:33
the fish and canada show brought to you
0:36
in part by
0:37
yozuri fishing lures fish the best
0:41
mercury outboards go boldly
0:45
and outdoor canada canada's only
0:47
national fishing and hunting magazine
0:52
[Applause]
0:57
hey everybody on today's fishing canada
0:59
episode we're going to go as they say
1:01
against the grain
1:03
in that we're hitting what is known as
1:05
arguably one of ontario's oh wait let me
1:08
correct that
1:09
one of canada's premier walleye links
1:12
but
1:13
we're not fishing for walleye
1:15
[Music]
1:20
and as per usual there is a method to
1:22
our madness
1:23
we're on this great walleye producer
1:25
called hawk lake but our timing couldn't
1:27
be worse
1:29
over the years we have found that late
1:30
in the season there's a time frame where
1:32
the walleye will almost completely shut
1:34
down
1:35
they seem almost impossible to catch at
1:37
least for us
1:43
so instead of racking our brains trying
1:45
to figure out all things walleye
1:47
we normally bail on canada's favorite
1:49
species and fall back on a great reserve
1:52
species the smallmouth bass
1:55
we're happy to say that during those
1:57
late season walleye lulls the smallies
1:59
don't seem to be as affected
2:02
so for this trip smallmouth it is
2:10
he tapped
2:11
see how long i told you to bite
2:14
so they're biting but they're not
2:16
killing it
2:18
at least they're letting you feel it
2:20
yeah exactly
2:22
versus the mush that was the when the
2:24
water temp was a little cooler or warmer
2:26
whatever it was
2:27
um are you gonna lift him i could
2:30
probably lift them give an attempt here
2:31
to lifting
2:34
don't want to break the rod either
2:37
an attempt we got him
2:41
here's our first first hawk lake rock
2:44
lake of the year fall
2:46
and it's in the fall the last week of
2:48
the year for him for teddy
2:51
fat oh my god this that fall fishery man
2:55
these fish are all just
2:57
the bait's bunching up and the
2:59
and the fish are bunching up as well
3:01
obviously and they're fattening up i
3:02
guess what you call it
3:04
i can see the bottle see these fish
3:05
aren't that deep edge hey yeah we heard
3:07
these fish are acting uh
3:09
pretty aggressively considering the uh
3:12
the weather that we're getting right now
3:13
we've had really unstable weather here
3:15
for the last couple of days but
3:17
apparently these fish are on fire
3:18
they're hitting top waters they're
3:20
hitting fast moving baits
3:22
uh like pete just said that one hammered
3:24
his jig
3:25
so it's usually a good sign
3:28
ah this water clarity is perfect too so
3:30
nice nice to
3:33
know the fish will see your bait
3:35
you know 10 feet away easy
3:38
fortunate part is that most of these
3:40
northern ontario lakes walleye lakes
3:42
have also got a great population of
3:43
smallmouth and in the case here at hawk
3:46
lake often smallmouth get overlooked
3:48
because the walleye fishery is just so
3:50
spectacular so when you come into a lake
3:52
like this so it's always a good idea to
3:54
bring in some smallmouth gear because
3:56
sometimes it's a real sleeper you can
3:58
have the fishing trip of a lifetime if
4:00
you just
4:01
focus on smallies a little bit more than
4:03
you would normally
4:04
yeah ted has a lot of customers that
4:06
come up for smallmouth only they don't
4:07
even bother with the wall 30 inch 35
4:09
inch walleye up here and they say no
4:11
we're just gonna do the smallies so
4:12
that's how good this smally fishery is
4:14
too
4:16
okay now we're gonna go for bigger
4:20
seems like they're
4:21
10 to 15 feet-ish
4:24
as we said at the top of the show when
4:25
the fishing is on hawk lake is
4:27
absolutely spectacular for walleye
4:33
we have not been on a better lake when
4:35
it comes to size of the water versus
4:37
size of the fish
4:40
for a relatively small lake it pumps out
4:42
giant after giant every season it's that
4:45
[Music]
4:55
that fish good even fight it firsthand
4:57
he's got some belly to it man
5:02
pick him up
5:05
[Music]
5:07
there's one buddy i just want to say
5:08
look at that tree right there nice
5:13
two of them
5:14
i think i saw another one did you i
5:16
think so
5:18
oh look at that look look look
5:20
oh i just hit one in the head and
5:23
he was following this one no maybe it's
5:25
your fish no let's see if they left your
5:27
fish up
5:30
no there's another one down there oh
5:31
yeah here you go buddy
5:34
there's another one he followed really i
5:35
didn't see him now you see him on the
5:37
live scope right now i i saw him
5:39
try and drop are you down i'm down there
5:41
oh god yeah
5:43
that's cool
5:45
we've got two of them we're playing with
5:46
here
5:49
oh good fish
5:51
he's fighting yeah that one's digging
5:52
same size
5:54
i've lost that other one they get smart
5:57
he'll break me off if i try and lift him
6:01
he may break me off anyways
6:04
get up here let me get it out of here
6:05
hang on it's a good fish yeah he is
6:08
oh yeah
6:09
yeah oh no no no no no no
6:12
pull him coming towards the net
6:15
yeah nice
6:17
that thing was okay
6:19
that was out in open water that's a big
6:20
fish
6:21
but it's not really deep
6:23
it's kind of a flat you know it's a flat
6:26
nice fish bud yeah oops there's buddies
6:29
out there somewhere the water's so clean
6:31
up here and you can see that one
6:32
following them
6:33
that would be cool if we get into a
6:35
school of them
6:41
yeah sometimes they get
6:43
really cranked up and they'll hit
6:44
anything when you drop something else
6:46
behind it but sometimes they'll spook
6:49
boy that's a fat little fish
6:51
they're all like that hey everybody yeah
6:53
they're just gorgeous
6:54
absolutely perfect
6:57
good stuff
6:59
eating you go buddy
7:03
mary's nice a big flat
7:06
what a great bonus having smallmouth on
7:09
a lake with walleye oh my god and the
7:12
wall there goes your fish
7:14
you see him go down there to the bottom
7:15
yeah wow
7:17
yeah it's just a great bonus a lot of
7:19
people don't take advantage of the fact
7:20
that
7:21
that uh
7:23
you've got and while i aren't always
7:24
biting like clearly
7:26
we run into that here today
7:29
yeah exactly
7:31
when the bite gets tough you have an
7:33
alternative right yeah
7:34
[Music]
7:36
and who could turn down smallmouth
7:37
fishing as an alternative not i
7:39
no we love it
7:42
something that ange and i always
7:43
consider when going to a lake with
7:44
multiple game fish species is to bring
7:46
extra rods reels terminal tackle and
7:49
lures as a backup in today's show had we
7:52
only brought walleye gear we probably
7:54
wouldn't have done near as well
7:55
[Music]
8:00
what are you dragging buddy uh craw just
8:02
a little crawling on the heavy head yeah
8:04
let me get
8:05
get you let's see what we got
8:08
it's a smallmouth
8:11
and
8:12
not a bad one oh nice not a bad fish not
8:14
bad fish at all
8:16
oh yeah he's got some belly to him
8:19
he's not huge but i'll tell you what in
8:21
this wind
8:22
thanks and this wind will take
8:25
today
8:26
don't take him believe me here he comes
8:32
take him up
8:36
yeah yep
8:38
nice that fish angelo
8:42
he went tick tick tick tick tick tick
8:43
tick tick tick tick tick tick tick perch
8:46
and how many times did we drag and cast
8:48
to that area with fast base both of us
8:50
with fast baits yeah
8:52
they are so chubby this time of year
8:55
that is fantastic
8:58
look at that
8:59
lovely
9:01
lovely smallie
9:03
yeah
9:05
so that just shows you a neat bit are so
9:07
funny like that was a perch bite to me
9:11
crazy
9:14
okay
9:14
all right well hopefully that's uh belly
9:16
the belly button indication maybe we can
9:18
get some
9:19
big girls dragging
9:22
the problem with that gets snaggy too
9:24
right in these northern ontario lakes
9:26
it's so snaggy rocks wood like that all
9:29
over them oh you're gonna go through a
9:30
lot of baits but
9:32
come back and see boulders right now
9:34
but it could be worth it
9:36
some weeds up ahead
9:38
oh nice
9:39
a weed bed that's a good thing
9:44
not a bad one oh nice that's a good old
9:46
small mouth they're very lethargic i'm a
9:49
bad fish not bad fish at all oh yeah
9:51
nice wow you got one here buddy
9:58
on this day pete and i relied heavily on
10:00
plastic baits reason being they're
10:02
extremely effective when the water
10:04
temperature is dropping
10:05
that said i love when anne's tries
10:07
something that comes totally out of left
10:09
field something that we haven't used all
10:11
day
10:13
there he is buddy guys right here at the
10:15
boat
10:16
right at the boat nice annie let me look
10:18
at him let me look at him before i grab
10:20
a net he's pulling pretty good he's
10:21
pulling nice let me see
10:25
buddy that's a good that's a good old
10:27
small mouth yeah on the spinner bait
10:29
we're gonna net him
10:33
once you get him up here again
10:35
you ready yeah i'm ready whenever you
10:37
are nice i got him
10:40
that's a good fish brother and he got
10:41
stinger hook thank god oh yeah
10:44
i totally
10:48
and look at this right
10:49
right perfect eh oh my god to the top
10:52
that's that's why a stinger hook is so
10:54
important right there
10:56
i would have never got that fish without
10:57
one that's awesome and that's advantage
11:00
and
11:00
it's a nice bit you might not have heard
11:02
earlier on i was fishing it without a
11:04
stinger hook and i said to pete i said
11:05
you know i really should put a sticker
11:06
hook and i and i said ah nah and he said
11:09
you better put one on
11:12
look at the gut look at that show the
11:13
camera that belly in that fish
11:15
that is a fatty
11:17
that is cool
11:18
perfect perfect spinner bait fish yep
11:22
and a good point here that water's 61
11:24
degrees you think the spinner baits are
11:25
only in warm water bait no no no 61
11:28
degrees they'll pound us so
11:30
up you go
11:31
nice job buddy yeah spinner bite boy
11:34
they're pretty far between on this on
11:36
this shore we came in on this side
11:38
because the wind's been blowing at it
11:40
pretty much all certainly most of today
11:42
and some of last night the wind's been
11:44
blowing up against the shoreline which
11:46
generally means
11:47
that the majority of the fish in the
11:48
area should be feeding aggressively here
11:50
with with all the bait and everything
11:52
being pushed but
11:54
no we're not seeing a lot of bait you're
11:55
not seeing a lot of bait not seeing a
11:57
lot of anything if it was bait here it
11:59
was out at that point there still wasn't
12:00
a lot of smallmouth you could you could
12:01
see a couple on the live scope but they
12:02
wouldn't go so
12:04
we're just going to keep working we'll
12:05
work down this bank and if it doesn't
12:07
work we got a lot of lake to push right
12:09
so
12:10
tons of water do we ever
12:13
[Music]
12:14
how about that one
12:19
nice smalling yep
12:22
so they're gonna hit a few things buddy
12:23
that's a nice fish that's a nice fish
12:25
bud
12:29
that's good we can see if we can get
12:30
them on active stuff they're active
12:32
easy there cowgirl
12:35
let's see if they got around the net oh
12:38
this is heavy duty line i mean this is
12:40
real heavy line on this one
12:46
that 15 is my light stuff
12:51
yeah not bad
12:53
you know
12:54
a good sign the fish's body
12:57
is warmer than the air
12:59
what is that telling us
13:01
we're fishing in cold weather brother
13:04
oh god on a chatter bait with a stinger
13:07
hook i just telling angelo i have such a
13:09
hard time hooking fish on a chatter bait
13:11
i must be doing something wrong
13:13
oh there's that now i'm really doing
13:14
something wrong my chip my stinger
13:15
hook's gone
13:16
hello goodbye
13:18
so i don't know if i got fish i don't
13:20
even know if i got the fish on the
13:21
stinger or not it was on there when i
13:22
started so
13:24
maybe when he jumped it threw it off
13:26
what do you got you got one that one out
13:28
wrapped that rock buddy where
13:30
you called it
13:31
well we couldn't get them last time we
13:33
were here we got him oh whoa a small one
13:35
is that yeah a little wee small one
13:39
he was off the rock yeah right off the
13:41
rock the cat's a sister
13:45
like tiny tiny or yeah tiny tiny still
13:48
don't want to lift them i got that light
13:49
light on
13:58
tiny
13:59
but
14:02
how's that wind edge my hat's gonna blow
14:04
up
14:06
oh my god
14:08
we have hit a nasty day
14:12
got that one on a ned
14:15
the nederick's small tiny little fish
14:16
though
14:18
that's cool
14:19
still trying it's kind of neat targeting
14:20
a boulder like that and throwing one on
14:22
there we
14:23
we uh we saw it from just the other side
14:26
he said there might be somebody there
14:28
well you remember it from last year yeah
14:29
last year
14:31
we worked that boulder last year i
14:32
remember just pounding it couldn't get
14:34
anything off it looked so good
14:37
but we were in walleye mode last time we
14:39
were down here true
14:41
true for sure
14:49
this episode's hot spot is a fast
14:51
breaking shoreline on hawk lake the
14:53
waypoint on your screen puts you in the
14:54
general area
14:56
there's about 150 meters of shoreline to
14:58
work this hot spot is pretty much on
15:00
fire throughout the season
15:02
during the warmer months all the usual
15:04
smallmouth fishing tactics will work
15:05
here come the cold water period though
15:07
soft plastics definitely take over
15:10
you can start by casting the shoreline
15:12
and working from shallow to deep if that
15:14
doesn't work then slowly drag your bait
15:17
parallel to the shoreline with either
15:18
your electric motor or with the aid of
15:20
the wind
15:21
dragging plastics is deadly for
15:23
smallmouth bass and don't worry about
15:25
the boat drifting directly over the fish
15:27
they don't seem to mind it for more hot
15:29
spots like this one check out
15:30
fishingcanada.com
15:34
[Music]
15:38
that's a big small one a nice smelly
15:40
buddy really nice once you got the 30
15:42
feet that's when that fish hit chunky
15:44
cool that's huge
15:50
[Music]
15:54
[Applause]
15:56
[Music]
16:00
got one answer right here at the boat
16:02
well you're down 30 feet the right of
16:04
the boat
16:05
wow slap the boat any size oh nice not
16:08
bad
16:10
not at all chunky
16:12
while there is like 27 30. yeah wait
16:14
when we get into this bay easy girl you
16:16
want to grab them well might as well i
16:18
can try and get them to you that's a fat
16:19
fish bud
16:23
that is a fatty
16:25
not very long but
16:27
no it's a nice fish
16:29
that's cool
16:31
[Music]
16:32
worked all that bank i just wanted
16:34
nothing uh 200 yards of bank nothing in
16:37
the companies it was shallower once you
16:38
got to 30 feet that's when that fish hit
16:40
well that thing wasn't going anywhere
16:42
man oh yeah oh
16:45
it wasn't getting off that's nice i like
16:47
when that happens
16:48
thank you on that crowd boy that thing
16:50
has caught you a lot of fish this
16:51
weekend
16:53
wow
16:53
i just saw the box that came out there
16:55
too
16:57
nice
16:58
thank you sir you're right place at the
16:59
right time for yeah i might just sit
17:01
here and wait well if i get another one
17:03
i'm gonna probably call you up for
17:05
another
17:06
and just help me out here here we go
17:09
now it's getting shallow right moving
17:11
starting to get shallow so that deep
17:12
water did nothing this bank started
17:14
shallow went deep to 50 feet and then
17:16
back up and then he bit right there who
17:18
was 30. uh it was around 30 that he bit
17:20
in yeah
17:22
and it was a very subtle bite again
17:23
again very
17:25
pre-fall
17:27
you know
17:28
i'm gonna try this
17:30
creature looking deal
17:32
the sancho yeah yeah why not
17:35
it can't hurt
17:39
to get to today's fast smallmouth bass
17:41
action we first drove north on highway
17:43
400 to highway 69. we then took highway
17:46
17 northwest all the way past dryden and
17:48
just east of kenora
17:50
we finally turned south on hawk lake
17:52
road taking us to the beautiful hawk
17:54
lake lodge
17:55
this award-winning facility is the
17:57
epitome of you gotta experience this at
18:00
least once in a lifetime our past trips
18:02
i put a bunch of gigantic walleye in the
18:04
boat but the smallmouth fishery here is
18:06
also second to
18:13
holy none
18:14
that's huge oh he's coming up
18:17
that fish didn't even fight it firsthand
18:20
he didn't
18:21
i thought he had a log almost
18:23
he's really done
18:26
i thought i had a little you had me
18:28
believing you didn't have a fish the way
18:29
you talked that's a big smile it's a
18:30
nice smallie buddy really nice
18:33
whoa
18:35
here he comes here he comes
18:39
oh yeah nice
18:46
that's a fatty fatty bite right under
18:49
the boat under the boat under straight
18:50
under the boat
18:53
what a gorgeous fish
18:57
right under the boat just working over
18:58
towards these little weeds is what we're
19:00
doing
19:00
look at that
19:05
okay get her go
19:07
there we go
19:08
see ya dude that fish was just
19:11
they're very lethargic i mean they are
19:13
so lethargic right now it's
19:15
i mean it's hard to predict what they're
19:17
even doing we're just we worked like i
19:19
said 200 yards of bank and we finally
19:21
pick up a couple fish
19:23
so wow that was fun though but he had to
19:25
be fooled that's a smallmouth bass that
19:27
had me fooled usually
19:28
usually you know right off the hop but
19:31
cool
19:37
so just to reiterate when you're on a
19:39
lake and your target fish is essentially
19:41
turned off don't be hard-headed about it
19:44
switch gears and take advantage of the
19:46
opportunity to enjoy another species and
19:48
make the best of every fishing trip
19:52
the fishin canada show brought to you in
19:55
part by
19:56
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20:00
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20:04
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20:08
and ontario canada in partnership with
20:11
destination ontario
20:13
[Music]
20:14
closed captioning for this episode is
20:16
brought to you by fishingcanada.com
20:18
the gateway to your next fishing
20:20
adventure
20:27
[Music]
20:35
in canada
20:36
[Applause]
20:37
[Music]
20:49
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