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Are You Missing Out On Open-Water Fish? | Outdoor Journal Radio
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Apr 15, 2025
This week on Outdoor Journal Radio, Pete, Steve, and Dean are live from Lake Obabika Lodge to give you a behind-the-scenes look at one of the latest episodes of The Fish'n Canada Show. Topics discussed included: Steve and Dean's new hosting jobs; getting used to fishing with a camera; open water smallmouth; cat and mouse techniques for Lake Trout; unconventional Laker lures; Pete's big laker story; Lake Obabika Lodge; the Near North; entry-level muskie setups; and much more! CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- ► WEBSITE http://fishncanada.com ► FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/ ► INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/fishncanadaofficial/?hl=en ► 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
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this episode of Outdoor Journal radio is brought to you in part by the invasive species Center protecting Canada's land
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and water from invasive species and sale the ultimate destination for your
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Outdoor [Music]
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Adventures On The Road Again I knew you were going to be tapping to that just get away on the road he everybody
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welcome back to the oo Journal Radio podcast uh here on the outdoor J Radio podcast Network on now get that in for
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sure uh and another on the road again segment uh and another one with Angelo
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Viola so as you can tell from this intro exactly Georgie borgie um here this time
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we are actually we're very close to our last on the road again uh podcast that an and I did which was
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on Lake tamag only this time we're North we're Northwest of the of lake tagami on
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a lake called Lake obaba give me a hell yeah yeah and it's a it's very very similar it's called
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near North in Ontario and with me uh along with Dean Taylor who always here is our my good buddy our good buddy
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Steven is Wiki hi folks how you doing and this has been a very uh enlightening
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very Earth shattering event here at Lake obaba because we're shooting fish in Canada
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television here too obviously and uh and we'll get into it in a little bit but um
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yeah it's been something that everybody that's a fan of the fishing Canada show is going to definitely uh experience
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themselves later on in life in the 2025 season uh whenever they listen to this if they're if this is
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pre25 uh but a little bit about the lake and a little bit about the lodge I'll talk about the lake itself the lake ofab
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because typical um I guess it'd be an oligotrophic Lake uh it's a very deep oh
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my L troat style Lake that's the only way I can call that's when when I see or hear and talking to my friends they say
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what you know what kind of lake is this a lake TR T Lake big Rocky cliffs deep water cold water lots of stone and rock
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around it and all that kind of stuff and we've uh We've fish it's got in three parts this Lake uh at the the lodge
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itself there's a shallow end it's like a snowman basically if you look at it on a map almost there's a shallow end there's
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a mid area that's deep and then there's the upper North End that's probably as deep or deeper than that and uh and this
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lake is so far so we'll get into the fishing talk it has been nothing short of unbelievable I agree it's been unreal
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yeah it's it's it's lived up to its uh what we were expecting for sure and then
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some honestly we targeted both smallmouth bass and lake trout and
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honestly we did so well on both species that uh right off the hop I know Steve will say the same same thing we highly
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recommend coming to this lake lake OB Baba Lodge is I think is is it the only Lodge on the lake it is the only Lodge
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on the lake and there's only actually eight properties yeah on this whole 20 something kilom or 30 something
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kilometers or miles I'm sure it's miles or kilometer I'm pretty sure it's 24 km long but it's it's wide and and well
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actually like the Snowman analogy it Narrows in a couple of spots and and you've got everything here and including
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fish schools that are ridiculous yeah yeah it's got It's such a cool so for the small Mo angler first off I'll break
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I'll break down this this trip uh right off the hot I said it was unique I'll get right into it so an uh an Tapped Out
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of This shoot and in doing so we knew that uh Steve and uh Dean were going to
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come on the shoot and V our camera operator um but and gave Steve and Dean took a meeting with Dean and gave Stevie
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a call and said hey boys what do you think about hosting these uh hosting something on your own you know Pete's
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going to go up there but Pete doesn't have to be on camera if you guys feel good about it and and both the guys honestly just jumped at the opportunity
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they said yeah hell yeah coach put me in there give me a hell yeah exactly so uh so we decided to do species wise um so
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Stevie took on the small M bass portion of it because he's got a lot of experience on uh on smalles and Dean
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took on the lake trout uh because he's got some experience on lake trout I don't know how much Dean has or had how would you say a lot Dino or you not in
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this scenario like I lak trout fish when I lived in BC but that was in rivers and it was in the fall when they were
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spawning exactly totally you know not not intentionally targeting spawning fish but out there there's no it doesn't
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close so you can do it in the fall right so we got we're here in mid second week
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of August basically and it is hot as hell here I mean right now we're sitting in the shade right now but honestly if
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you went out in that sun right now and it's it's 5:00 in the in the evening you You' cook yourself out there 29° every
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day and as you can see from the lake behind us it's flat so there's no wind so it's tough out there it's a it would
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be called tough conditions in in anybody's frame of mind and when you're going fishing oh my God it's so tough
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you know you want to overcast you want some wind you want whatever like that and honestly the smalles have been on fire and the Lakers were on fire it was
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it was incredible so we'll get into the maybe the SMY part straight with you at first um breaking down the lake let's
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look at the Snowman talk us talk us through the lake the way you uh experience and first of all um while we're talking
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about this tough weather um we got here on day one and um by the end of this
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shoot I was looking forward to this Flat Water um this hot no wind for one reason
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and one reason only and I've I've experienced it a little maybe on like
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Simco but not like here with clear water
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and seeing the fish it was like that part of this trip was the best part of
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the trip for me so you've never done that on Simco you never sight fished on S absolutely but I've the difference is
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on Simco when you're sight fishing you're actually moving and you're scanning you're scanning shallower water
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for fish and with your eyeballs with your eyeballs and um um
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here we were scanning with the um with the um
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um Liv scope and seeing them and the very unique thing is 90% of these fish
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you'd see on the Liv scope cast to them and go into whatever retrieve and style
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of of retrieve you wanted and those fish 90% of the time followed you right to
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the boat in 65 70 ft of water and you could see them at the side they come in
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like a wolf pack and and again it goes back to the tournament days when you've
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got a a a second bait to go to you pick up another rod and they're waiting for
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it at the side of the boat and there were lots of times where you throw that bait out in that deep water and they're
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attacking it from different directions and um um that was great but the best
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part was the ones that were a little hesitant and you had to do different things with your bait and you could
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actually see how they were reacting to it which then in my mind changed the way
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that I would retrieve that bait and then you would get on to them out there yeah
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that's an easy that's a great a great lesson for everybody to learn what Steve says he watched the fish if one thing
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didn't work you just even with that same bait you know they're interested you change things up as you're going on the
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cuff or off the cuff or whatever you want to call it just you in a natural state okay I got to do something I got
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to do something different watch and you watch that fish and if it commits ah I've got the I've got it I've got it you
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know what I mean so yeah in the moment you're there with with one bait and and we had a number of occasions where the
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smalles would almost hit the The Lure with their nose with a closed mouth and
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bump it and you're like oh my God and swipe at it and then so you switch that
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bait and the thing is they're still there they're they're with the boat like
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there was probably time when for 3 to 5 minutes those fish were within sight of
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the boat and that was the coolest part of this whole experience yeah I I
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compared them Steve's a Musky guy and I compared these smalles to muskies as being were probably the only other fish
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I've ever seen that weren't afraid of a 20ft boat no like they came to the boat and they stuck around the boat like they
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stop when you pull the baits out of the water by the way Stevie did another musky move in the shallow water he
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figure eight at a small mold bass right in front of me just he dropped that Rod tip down there figure eight I said what
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is he doing this idiot Boop I got him I got him that was the best buddy that was cool and you know what that situation
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that Peter just described with him in the seat saying you're an idiot happened
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to me on the first shoot I did at Shier with Angelo Viola and I also I didn't
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actually catch that um SMY but I figured the smallie and an had the same
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reaction now I finally I finally put one I put a small mouth in the boat on a
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figure eight oh that was awesome buddy and that was so that Stevie broke down that the Deep part of the lake so that
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was the Deep North part of the lake and these are these Open Water small M bass that are feeding on this Lake it's
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rainbow smelt is the main forage for these fish so we tried to imitate those as much as we could we used yui baits
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for the most part we did some Ned rigging we did some saning sometimes you have to do that on especially those following fish that going to e something
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else you have to do that right but we want to stick to our sponsors as best we can and Y is a great sponsor so we
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use you popped a big one on a top water we got them on everything like honestly that figure eight was on a jerk bait we
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got them on uh rattle baits we got bait yeah those weighted minnow
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baits that are just hitting the market next year um so we CAU them on pretty much everything out there but but the uh
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that Figure 8 fish came off a sandbar so there's this there's an area that separates the south end the bottom of
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the Snowman in our case from the middle section and it's a great big giant sandb that everybody knows about the whole
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Lodge knows about it etc etc but this thing loads up in typical small mouth fashion uh in the summertime smalles for
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some reason they are very much attracted to sand and I don't know if there's something in there that they're eating if they like the feel of it on their
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bellies I don't I've never figured something is weird about it but they they load up and and uh and we actually
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the Hotpot on one on the show is probably going to be on that sandb because it was so many in that one spot there but uh that was that's where
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Stevie pulled that figure eight and basically you drive along with your trolling motor and there you don't need your life scope on that because it's
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it's 5T of water you know L yeah it's truly sight and you see a black blob or a dark blob on a light bottom and you
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say okay I got to cast to them sometimes they bite sometimes they won't but it don't but it's a a very unique pattern that happens in a lot like if your leg
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has small mouth and it has sand you're probably going to have small mouth on Sand it happens that often yeah it happens that often so and then this this
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end here that you see behind us for those that are watching on YouTube this is a real shallow and this is almost I'd
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call it almost like a larg mode type type of Lake without all the pads and all that kind of stuff it's shallow a lot of weeds uh the Water yeah Rock
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piles the water's a little dirtier down here and all that and again this was this was a place where we were throwing
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uh you know shallow mow baits uh jerk bait top Waters all that kind of stuff
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and just working Rock like Steve said Rock piles there's a rock coms there and weed Transitions and all that stuff and the Lake's got it all it's it's that
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it's that much fun for for sure especially down at this end there are some isolated areas where you get down
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to 30 ft uh and um uh I caught a a
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couple of nice ones um again with the scope those were deep fish and um I
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dropped down to them and they uh they hit but this end of the lake is is shallow uh for the most part like that
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10 ft shallow that's like different lakes basically gives you you know if you want to go for a a fish after supper
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at the lodge which they which they totally encourage you can go out here and catch tense Momo after supper like
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nothing you know what I mean so easy in the Shell stuff well when we asked where the fish were and we asked a number of
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different people from The Lodge here the resounding answer was everywhere and um
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I I really didn't like I mean that's an answer that you always get um but this
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place truly they were everywhere they really were and and on multiple
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different pattern that was the best part about it we no matter what we really tried as long as we were on fish we were almost catching
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them all right you know what I mean so it was very cool now we could do what do you want to go to next the lodge or do you want to go to the uh the lake TR
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stuff what do you think I like what do you think do you know do you let's let Dino choose he's the he's the talk
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Lakers we can talk a little bit of Lakers a little bit of Lakers okay so Dean obviously when I said an had a
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meeting with the dean and a phone call with Stevie and Dean jumped at the opportunity and says hey do you want to
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do some on camera on your own with no Pete Bowman no Stevie no nothing no an and Dean said yeah I'd like to try that
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so um so that was the second part of the shoot we set it up on Lake troat we knew Lake tro we didn't know what to expect
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we just came from tamogami where we C few fish but they were absolute Giants it was I mean it was a ridiculous big
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fish show we weren't expecting that um because the lake tro fishery has had
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been closed here for 20 years previous to our visit here about two years ago three years ago they just opened it up
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so we knew that this was a a fishery in dire need of help and when they close it down and uh and then so Dino always said
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hey what about lak trout he's yeah I in so uh dino what do you think what was your how did your Lake trouting go in
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your opinion yeah well first like the experience has been kind of weird because well one I never really expected
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to end up hosting like like when I started with you guys I I've just been behind the scenes I've been doing the podcast and stuff so to be thrown into
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the on camera stuff by myself was kind of intimidating at first cuz I never like you're almost talking to yourself
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right cuz you're trying not to refer to the camera operator you're trying not to refer to Peter Steve behind the camera
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so like the thought of out there talking to yourself on the deck cuz because when I go out by myself I'm just silent all
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day obviously right so it's kind of it was interesting experiencing that like actually trying to walk through what
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you're doing and stuff was new right um which was cool actually it was it it was actually felt more natural than I
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thought it would yeah I let me just tell the audience the boys both did a great job because this was Steve's first shot at by himself as well so it wasn't you
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know what I mean Steve's co-host and he's had guides with him so an and Pete weren't with them but he's had guys with
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them so uh easy to have somebody to talk to right and help you carry carry the
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the conversation God and a guy is so perfect for you because he's got all the knowledge of the lick and he's got a
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personality and all of a sudden they bounce back and forth and and experiences and yeah yeah but uh but
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Dino did a Cracker Jack of a job I I told Dean I said okay we have to try our
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best to do yoeri and I came up with an idea I says the only way I can think of this for our vertic we weren't going to
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troll them we wanted to Vertical jig them because we wanted to get put used to the life scope and the Garment stuff and all that and trolling is you know
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it's a hit or miss it's a great technique but it it's not as exciting honestly as vertical jiging so I said
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okay we got a vertical jig let's let's look at the lineup that we have of rattle baits that Yuri has given us to
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to work with and uh I by way yeah bass baits just typical rattle baits what you
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call it what else would it be called lipless crank lipless crank bait yeah so um I looked through the box and uh I saw
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this one model called one knock and uh it's basically it's it's a rattle bait but it's only got one bead in it so it's
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not this rattly type of stuff that they're normally associated with and I looked through the box and it was a nice
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silver one with blue silver one with black back and all that stuff and and there was one there that was purple the
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Psychedelic purple and white and I think a chartreuse belly on it and I says I bet he's going to choose that and Dean says that one right there that purple
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one I want to try that one so we we grabbed it up and uh and uh and doctored
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I doctored it up for him I brought in some lead wrap what do you call it lead is it wrap or what is it no it's uh wire
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wire like a wire that yeah you just W solder yeah it looks like solder so I wrapped each of the hooks in this thing
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and I put two storm uh suspense strips on the belly of it to get it down cuz we're fishing in 80 ft of water 60 ft of
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water sometimes and do you know you chose that bait and oh man work it actually ended up the only thing that
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did work like we played around a little I mean you could get other baits to go eventually but that thing was like if
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that thing was in the water and two others were they were going for that yeah they were they they were they were
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refused I used a black a blue back with silver just to try it out and it worked good in the morning when I the boys I
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dropped the boys off you can talk about that experience too with your uh with the native when you did that thing that was pretty cool yeah yeah but I I went
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out I dropped the boys off to do a thing I dropped that that silver blue back down and I was cracking them good at
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first in the morning but once Dean threw that Mr purple down there whatever the color is called we we'll put it we'll
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make sure we tell it on fish in Canada um man that thing was lights we only had one so Dean had to retie it about and it
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broke off at one point in the net in the net I had a fish in the net that you'll see on on camera that was just making a
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mess and the bait was flying all over in theet somehow stay the that cuz it was the only one we have I don't know why of
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that color but it just that seems to always be the way anything that's on you only have one y always yeah yeah for
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sure so but um so you got well basically tell the technique you you can go through it yeah yeah so we were fishing
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deeper stuff this is kind of how I've lak trout fish in the past but it's never as action-packed as this so
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essentially um we're going out we're looking for like breaks but like deep breaks so if it goes from 40t down to 80
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we're fishing like the wall and trying to figure out what the like what the depth is um but when you're fishing
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traditional normally you're looking for multiple hooks like you would never stop on just a single hook it's never worthwhile almost but this time with Liv
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scope you are looking for those individual marks like the schooling like the schooling ones seem to be a lot
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smaller um and this is kind of what we found in tamogami the bigger fish are on their own they don't want the
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competition um and and apparently they cannibalize each other a lot I was going to say they're bullies too right they'll
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kick the out of the small ones they'll eat them I've seen it in the Great Bear Lake like I've seen 30 lb lake trout with a 10lb lake trout in his
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mouth that's pretty extreme you know yeah no doubt so if you're the little guy maybe it's they don't want to be
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around the big ones probably it yeah so we were trying to pick apart we weren't looking for schools I mean we we sat on
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a few schools just in case cuz we didn't know what to expect out here we didn't think we knew there would be bigger fish
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out here but not tamogami size monsters or like Northwest Territory size monsters at least we thought um because
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when you hear about a big fish here we were hearing 10 14 lbs um we won't reveal what we ended up catching I don't
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think but it was a lot bigger than that yeah do you know found a big fish he put one on camera that looks pretty damn
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good that's for sure so um so the the technique ended up working and this is something that I'm going to replicate as
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like everywhere now I have so many lakes that I've assumed only had small lake trout I mean this one's a little bit
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unique because they did close it for so long but you look at Lakes like lake mccoa or lake Joe or any of like the
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popular like water ski deep Lakes people don't touch those Lakes has got Lake TR
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in a quote Lake tro are in our Lake yeah they they're got to be some big fish down there and and again I'll go back to
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it most people troll for these fish right there's not a whole lot of people that and down yeah down R troll yeah so
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but um when you lay that lives SC boat there I'm telling you and I know we keep harping on it an and I are the worst for
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and harping and harping harping but I'm telling you what it's not only is it extremely effective not only does it not
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catch every fish cuz everybody thinks you do but I'll tell you when you do catch fish it's the most fun you're going to have fishing as you guys both
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saw it is even for the Smallmouth and especially for the Lakers um I know when when we were doing the the Lakers stuff
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just getting onto it at first um Dino was coaxing some and he was doing the jigging thing and all that stuff and I
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had a tip from my all my buddies they said reel that bait away from if he's chasing up don't let him catch up to
20:48
your bait just reel it away from him re keep reeling it away from that fish which is so unnatural to do so I saw one
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coming up on Dean's bait and he did a couple like that I said Dean reel it up just keep reeling it and the first time he did it boom he goes oh my God and he
21:00
just spped he set that hook into that fish and that was the technique of the week from after that Dino just did it on
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almost everyone one fish came down after the bait one fish was above it and came down out and that was a competition
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today that if you can get a bunch eating then it seems like it doesn't matter what you do but because they're they're
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competing for the bait and you're going to get whichever one is just more aggressive to take it but if it's just
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the one if you stop the bait they totally lose interest they don't want it or even shake it or do anything
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different all you have to do is reel it straight up and bring it right to the surface and I swear to God it's freaky
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technique and you might have to repeat it like five or six times like the big one we got we probably had it come up
21:39
you know five or six times before it eventually right aot ofing you took you took a lot of time on that fish so and
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we got by the way when this fish when this legoat portion of the show airs on fishing Canada hopefully we got the
21:52
recording so we recorded our our garment screens we have that active captain and so we're going to try and insert that
21:58
get Joe the editor to insert that into the show cuz I think it's going to just show people it's going to blow their minds how this works right it's just
22:05
going to blow their minds how this these late trout are so they're so predictable almost like the ones that are hot are
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very predictable and I'll tell you what you think a trout is a finicky finessi
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fish uh-uh we're throwing fast rattle baits and and and reeling it up at 10 m not 10 m hour but one mile Hour 2 m an
22:23
hour and they're cracking it and and hitting it so hard they're crushing it right so the thing that cuz I'm always
22:29
like a tube jig guy like I love fishing big tube jigs but the thing that has kind of convinced me with the rattle
22:35
baits is that you don't have to be on them because what we do find a lot is they get spooked by the boat so if
22:42
you're trying to be right on top of them with a tube or trying to cast out and trying to be accurate it's a lot harder
22:47
than if you can be like 40 or 50 feet away and call them in because we were calling these fish all the way across
22:54
the screen like the range on these is like 110 ft and you'd see him Cruise all the way in yeah which me Dean means that
23:00
rattling part of that whole deal is they might not see it they might be faced the other way even if they're 30 ft away
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they won't see that bait if they're not looking that way when they say you give it a couple of good shots and all of a sudden oh my God he's starting to come
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over it's like you watch like completely stop and turn yeah it's so fun and the beauty of a rattle bait too let's let's
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get we'll get technical here versus let's say rattle bait versus a tube nothing against a tube because it's a great it's a great lake tro lure but a
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tube normally to work properly it spirals down down it goes down in a big circle and spirals down well if if L
23:33
Trad are off even a little bit from what I've heard from a lot of people they don't like that spiraling down they
23:38
don't they'd rather have it going straight down it's super unnatural it's super unnatural and they have a harder time hitting it too now it's going in
23:44
this weird pattern that's going down these rattle baits go straight down and they also shimmy on the way down they go
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to this little all the way like it looks like a bait fish that's been injured so um and I don't I know people do use
23:56
rattle baits like walleye guys through the ice and L trro guys some of them but not a lot do through the Open Water
24:02
season and all that I think we we're going to open up a lot of eyes with this one you know what and the other thing I will say cuz the reason I avoided it in
24:09
the past with the rattle baits when you jig them straight up and down you tend to hook yourself but the lead wraps on
24:15
the hook especially a lead wrap on the back hook yeah it like I don't think I Tangled myself
24:20
once smoo because that's the worst when you drop 880 ft down and you jig up and
24:26
there's no you're like oh I just wed minutes getting down there I never experienced that in 4 days we were here
24:31
we need to get we need to get Chris at yui to make us a an ounce and a half in a kind of a compact rattlebait size
24:39
almost that same size maybe a little bigger they might have to go a little bit bigger but there's got to be a way of of waiting one down you know that you
24:44
could buy for lak tro you know what I mean because that would in Canada that'd be a big seller I think oh my God we just saw I'd buy 100
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of them yeah exactly so um and it goes back to the live scope like I'm sitting
24:57
here to you guys talk and um everything that you've said happens on the live
25:05
scope because on traditional like I've fished lak tro for for years uh not for
25:12
a few years but in my younger years we used to fish Lake Trout all the time and you'd look for the hooks right but and
25:20
then you would drop the tube down or drop a flutter spoon down and you'd be jigging away jigging away number one
25:26
that reel when you retrieve it back and it's and that's what it is it's it's a
25:32
horizontal retrieve and you imagine that you're a bait fish in a spot you don't
25:39
want to be and then you actually watch the reactions of those fish and that big
25:45
fish that you caught you said it I coaxed it back three or four times Well
25:50
in traditional um uh which there's a still a place for it but with the
25:55
traditional sonar you would have never never coaxed it back three or four times
26:00
because you didn't know it was there good point that's in the past the traditional sonar is that hook that
26:07
you're looking at your sonar which is now in the middle of your screen because it's a piece of paper scrolling by you
26:14
basically what's live is right at the front as it's moving by with the live
26:19
scope it's totally not that and you'll see in the in when we cut it together I
26:25
certainly hope that we can get Jo to to to do that because or just go to YouTube
26:31
I'm sure we'll find it you can find stuff like that there too oh for sure but the coaxing of these fish it was I I
26:39
love catching fish but I got to tell you it was as exciting for me to be standing
26:46
behind the screen in the back of the Boat watching Dean coax this fish in and
26:52
then it was like oh my God here it comes again and you see it swipe at it and then and then Dean oh no no no he didn't
26:59
touch it and then he Coes it back and Coes it back and and then you hear oh here it goes here it goes here it goes
27:05
and he's got it on and you see it all unfold and that is the magic and the
27:12
power of this technology um and and not only that it's it's picking out those bigger fish too
27:19
uh because again that big fish it was it was there might have been one or two
27:25
that we stopped on and then it and then it and then it appear CED right or but
27:31
you wouldn't do that normally no no oh God no that was the biggest fish we saw too on on the screen for sure it looked
27:37
like a salmon like the way you can see the way we've been able to tell size is you see the body like you do every other
27:44
fish like a pretty distinct blob but if you see like a faint one that's coming in and out behind it that's normally the
27:50
uh tail and if it's big enough to be a Mark it's a big fish like you can see it like fluttering yeah you can actually
27:55
see him waging like not waging waving the tail it's like sing swiming if you can
28:01
disting the head from the tail on a Mark it's [Music]
28:13
big we interrupt this program to bring you the much anticipated bonus code for the latest fishing Canada giveaways this
28:20
week's code is ler all caps l a k e r
28:26
Laker aka the lowly old gray lak trout just type that in the bonus cach section
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of the contest and receive 100 free entries towards all of our current giveaways for those of you who aren't in
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yet what are you waiting for head over to fishing canada.com while you listen to the rest of this episode click
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contest and sign up for all the latest fishing Canada giveaways and now back to the
28:49
episode I'll tell you guys an experience tonight I don't know told you guys this story one of my very well probably my
28:55
very first jigging Lake TR experience we were up on uh SN Lake uh which is on
29:02
Northwest Territories uh Northwest Territories uh
29:08
maybe nun of it now I'm not sure but it's on the border on one of the maybe Manitoba Northwest anyways it's way up
29:14
there and uh went to Sone Lake Lodge and um did the trolling thing on and the the
29:19
big fish we did back then we did the trolling thing with the with the three-way swiel rig and if Poor Man's down riger and all that stuff and that's
29:26
we did catch our biggest fish by doing that but the guide there said um you want to go catch a bunch and we said yeah sure why
29:33
not Reno and I we said yeah let's go let's catch a bunch and uh we get there
29:38
and he says okay there's there's going to and he had back then was just traditional right that's all they had he says we I'm going to put you over about
29:44
a 100 fish right now I said what he going to put you over about 100 fish right now dropped down he said what are
29:50
you throwing I said I threw a a Mr champ spoon and Reno threw I think a tube jig
29:55
we dropped them down and we were jigging on the bottom jigging on the bottom bottom and we're not getting anything We're saying you're full of there can't be 100 fish here and he says okay
30:01
and watch and he took him this is where I learned that retrieve that first retrieve we were talking about he took about an ounce and a half to 2 O
30:07
Bucktail jig put a I think he put a it had rabbit fur on it I think he put a
30:12
piece of rabbit fur on it or something like that and he just had a bait caster you push the button and the thing drops
30:19
straight down you know it's 100 feet of water remember this distinctly a 90 to 100 ft don't matter where we worked around that area th the thing hit the
30:25
bottom he clicked his bail gave it about one or two jigs put his rod down on the gun the boat and just
30:33
went all the way up to the top right to the top so he could see his bait nothing cliss his button exact same thing on
30:40
that second or third time he just that thing stopped about 10 ft below the
30:45
surface he just I said what in the I couldn't believe I said what I this is not real fish on 100 ft of water and
30:53
this guy caught a fish in 20 ft of water how that how is that possible takes it off he starts laughing does it again
30:58
boom boom after about 10 of these fish we said okay obviously we got to start doing this so we I think we moved around
31:06
to different types of baits and all that but honest to God and then every time you do that with every third reel in it
31:11
took forever if you had a SL small bait it took forever to get down so that's why he used that big jig it got down real fast you'd peel that thing up and
31:18
every third cast those things Chase it up so fast and that's the only time they'll hit it it's on the way up and like like it's escaping like dea saying
31:24
on a on a or Steve was saying what you guys said that on the yeah horizontal on the lift it's like it's it's leaving it
31:30
just it fools them it it horizontal into biting you know it's getting away and it
31:36
is so effective so just keeping that in mind when you're when you're leg trout fishing if you're jigging for leg trout
31:41
you don't have all this fancy stuff that we're using I highly recommend just reeling
31:46
straight up 3/4 of the way up at least so you can see your you see your bait and then dropping them back down it sounds like a waste of time but and you
31:53
don't have to do it real fast just reel it up at a decent pace not slow at a decent pace like it's trying to get away
31:58
from the bottom and you're going to catch leg tro for sure well when you think about it if you're a a a a school
32:04
of bait and there's lake trout underneath and the lake trout want to start to feed on that bait and they come
32:12
up what naturally will the bait do when something's coming from the bottom
32:18
they're going to go up yeah right yeah true true yeah yeah but that's not to say all they Dr hit like that because a
32:23
lot of them eat off the bottom they're a scavenger too right they will eat well
32:28
de BB big time and the dead Herring tricking exactly all that stuff so I think it's almost like there's two like
32:35
types of lake trout you're probably right because you do find the ones that like if it's not below them they won't pick it up and other ones that you
32:41
cannot be on bottom like it's it's just weird yeah it is it's like these small Mo here you got two types of smalles
32:46
here like you really do you have two distinct types of you have the Open Water pelagic fish that are after these rainbow smelt and then you've got the
32:52
typical small Mo that we had some kickish and stuff like that so is that's typical let's go down to uh Lake oaba
32:59
Lodge Ste Stevie you're a lodge an ex Lodge owner you know all about this give us the lowdown what do you think about
33:05
this place well first and foremost um I just want to mention the
33:10
fishery itself and the small melt fishing and lake trout fishing here I
33:15
think from opener to close is hot man there's no opener on sth it's open all
33:22
year buddy remember that hey I'm not used to fishing that yeah that's even better right spawn here would be insane
33:28
it would be insane can you imagine and and the visibility like you could see you could
33:34
see beds from half a mile away yeah yeah prawn oh my God the amazing part too I
33:40
don't know when Lake TR open up here probably the Trad open is normally end of April but at that time of year you
33:45
might get smalles and lakeart actually mixed in the same schools oh I think you would because because right now you have
33:50
them in the same areas but not in the same like location in the water right at that time of year you might well you'd
33:56
have Lake trod up in the you know right after the right after the turnover for
34:02
sure but yeah so I just want to I just want to say this Lake above any that
34:08
I've seen um I don't think it matters when you come from from when they open
34:14
the doors here to when they close the doors here yes Lake tro Clos on Labor Day but but you still have a small am of
34:20
Fisher if they stay open beyond that yeah so I mean the smallies in the fall here would be incredible like as long as
34:26
they stay open here at the lodge you'd have a hay day so and there's and and the thing is too um there's there's big
34:32
fish here no doubt but the average size fish is a lot bigger than the average
34:39
Smallmouth anywhere that I've been like I mean consistently you can go out there and catch 2 and 1 half to three and A2
34:45
Pounders consistently and high numbers y um but so I just wanted to mention that
34:52
um number two this place is as close to
34:58
and this is what I like to say about Shier when I owned it it's it's a it's as close to a fly out fishing experience
35:06
that you'll get with I had boat to access which was very short this has
35:11
Road access um and and the the road in here is it's a long road it there's only
35:18
two Launches on this Lake and one of them is is at obaba and the other is at
35:23
one of the six cottages on the whole lake right next door shares the same same basically the same
35:31
laneway so you are buried in the north and not only that the north end of it is
35:37
on obaba Lake Provincial Park which is some of the only old growth forest left
35:44
um so the the feel when you're here is is very isolated and secluded yeah yeah
35:53
and it's a good thing that that road is that dirt road you always say oh my God this road is taking forever that's a
35:58
good thing folks because it keeps a lot of the Riff Raff out it keeps a lot of you know guys that want to come up from
36:04
let's say I don't know how far is North Bay from here would they make that a day trip so some people could do make it a day trip but when you add in that long
36:10
long uh dirt road it keeps a lot of people out you know what I mean so it's not it's it's a nice private feeling and
36:16
the boat ramp here by the way is not publicly access is private so don't come all the way down here and hoping to
36:22
launch your boat yeah there's nobody here to take your money and you're not getting in you stay at the lodge for a
36:28
day or two then you're which you definitely should it's yeah more than welcome to and and now I'll get into the
36:34
nuts and bolts of of this place um the
36:40
accommodation is really outstanding oh God the Cottages here are beautiful on
36:46
the outside they're beautiful on the inside and um the one that we're in um
36:51
and I think they're all the same they're they're they're full log cottages and although we've told you that it's
36:58
you know the last 3 days have been from 25 to 30° during the day and uh the
37:04
first day we come back we walked in and um it felt like we were in air
37:10
conditioning so the cottage was cool um beautiful they're appointed beautifully
37:17
um they do both housekeeping and uh American Plan the food has been
37:23
outstanding um Scotty and Jill they're they're running um they're running the
37:29
place and managing it and honestly last night we told uh we told Scotty that
37:34
we're we we were thinking about going out early and not to worry for breakfast and and we said you know what we'll just
37:41
skip breakfast 5 minutes later Jill was at our front door saying hey guys uh
37:46
listen I can I make you anything St your fridge yeah I'll make it for you right now and I'll put it in your fridge so
37:53
you can take it with you in the morning and we were worried about vaa and uh we were going to wake him up and
37:59
everything but we just said no no we're good because we were going to come back in for lunch so don't forget Mike too
38:06
Mike the dock the do guide and everything here he he makes the coffee in the morning
38:13
for us he just a super guy man super guy and he knows his he knows his fishing really well that guy you want to talk
38:19
fishing when you come here make sure you talk to Mike because he knows this Lake real well he knows the species really well too so I want to give him a shout
38:25
out for sure and and Chef Daryl oh my God the food has been has been the only
38:31
East coaster we know that doesn't eat seafood he doesn't eat anything from the water he can go won eat it that's right
38:37
um so as a as an experience as a whole um I can't say enough about um Lake oaba
38:46
Lodge yeah yeah it's fantastic we've had a great stay here yeah and and you know it's always it's always hard because
38:53
we're not a typical guest right um but it we've seen other people here and
38:59
we've heard what they say and and my good buddy Tommy Boy and Nolan back home they've been they've been coming here
39:05
since the show the air days um and um they've told me over and over you got to
39:11
get to Lake obaba you got to get to Lake obaba you know and finally I'm here and
39:17
um I certainly wasn't disappointed so this is a great place a we highly recommend this place I mean there's no
39:23
doubt about it this is one of those places we can skirt around a lot of places that a little bit iffy a little bit this that and the other you know
39:29
what I mean if maybe the accommodations maybe the meals maybe the fishing but this place has got it all so it's got a games room we haven't been in there yet
39:35
no I know I hear it and all of the uh The Woodworking and and details everywhere have been uh have been great
39:43
like it's it's really a it's really a beautiful spot do you know what else you want to talk about aside from this
39:48
before I get to this so before you get to that I think there's there's so there's two pieces of paper in your hand
39:54
and I do want to get to that now because we've talked about a bunch of baits right now that and we get people writing
39:59
in all the time that hey you talk about thei baits but where do I buy them and we do have a spor on board now that
40:05
where you can buy them Beauty you want to do it Stevie uh I can give her a shot absolutely Bud all right now everybody
40:11
watching I am reading here so uh this is uh this has been sprung on me but we'll
40:17
see how it goes head to your local sales store today or book their web bookmark
40:24
their website at sale.ca for up to 50% % off selected items that sounds pretty
40:30
good buddy you are a reader man I'm I'm going to I'm going to bookmark that in my phone right now because I got to go
40:35
buy some yoour baits there baby I know de's going already too know he was asking about it I know by this by the
40:43
time this airs keep an eye out for some start of the Season hunting sales there
40:48
you go folks thank you very much to sale obviously thanks Stevie for reading that no problem sale for being a great sponsor but that is more than an ad
40:54
because in Canada unfortunately it is actually hard to find the product yri is very hard to find s does have it their
41:00
online store Now is awesome I mean Yi is obvious obviously trying to get in as many places as they possibly can we
41:06
found that the sales store in Ashawa that their uh wall has tripled in the
41:12
last year or so ever since Ang and I have been pumping it out on on fishing Canada for sure and it's just getting
41:18
better and better and more and more baits all the time so and we highly recommend them and go to sale to buy them so uh fan question of the day
41:25
brought to you by Fish Finder M come on my friend yeah they're in they're in we should talk about that too
41:33
how about after this one we'll talk about that very quick but um oh this is a good one for uh for you Stevie I'll
41:39
ask this to you this is from James rle from Pennsylvania via email uh info@ fishing canada.com for those that want
41:45
to send us an email question or Facebook or Instagram Pages fishing Canada
41:51
Stephen what's your equipment advice for firsttime musky fisherman
41:57
oh uh James that's a great question honestly um my advice for firsttime
42:04
musky Anglers um number one you need to decide uh whether you want to troll or cast because those are two different
42:11
rigs alog together um and uh I do a lot of trolling I've got my kids I've taught
42:17
them to troll throughout the years number one you want a good um um setup
42:23
uh 9ft Rod but the and and a and a decent you don't have to go out and
42:28
spend break the or spinning uh always bait well I always go bait casting um
42:34
you can get spinning rods but for trolling I would I would stay away from a a spinning rod um bait casting good
42:42
heavy trolling rod um fiberglass are are good uh for that and you need a 9-footer
42:49
really I you know no you don't but it depends for for for it depends what
42:55
you're doing if you're going to be by self in the boat and holding on to the rod no you don't need a 9-footer if
43:01
you've got three or four kids like me and you're trolling with multiple rods
43:07
it's nice to have your outside rods being a little longer to spread your your baits um so but again that's for
43:16
trolling uh and and that's not the the real piece of advice that I want to give
43:21
you the real piece of advice that I want to give you is don't cheap out on the terminal t
43:28
um your snap swivels your leaders your line all of that stuff is crucial
43:34
because when you start to get into this type of fishing your shot is just as
43:41
good as any shot of catching a you know the fish of a lifetime and you don't
43:48
want to hook up with that fish of a lifetime and be battling a a 52 or 55 in
43:55
you know 40 lb musky and then all of a sudden with all of the excitement the line just
44:03
goes and you reel it in and your and your snap has opened so you know and and
44:09
it happens believe me oh my God it happens it happens all the time and then and then you look at yourself and you
44:15
say I just invested you know anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple
44:20
thousand doar in in equipment rods reels baits um your boat your everything thing
44:28
and I just lost the fish of a Lifetime on a on a 50 c piece of equipment so my
44:35
my real the the real advice is look after the terminal tackle make
44:42
sure and and make sure you've got the proper tools um with these big fish you're dealing with big hooks have bolt
44:49
cutters in the boat because sometimes it's it's it's far better to cut the
44:54
shank of a hook if you can't get it out of the fish and just leave that bit of hook into in its mouth and put them back
45:01
that way because you do you can do a little bit of damage to those fish by
45:06
tearing and yanking and and you know you can always replace your hook you can't replace a 50-inch musk if he dies right
45:12
no and and it and and those though they'll back out they'll they they they'll be okay so your your your tools
45:21
your terminal tackle and uh and one more line give me a line give uh James line
45:28
James so for line typically I would I would buy a re a good uh floral carbon
45:35
uh leader uh 120 lb test um Yi makes that by the way yes yoer hey yoeri makes
45:42
all this line the line that I use by the way uh and then I usually go with um 80
45:48
to 100b braid uh and then and and that's that's what I use for trolling um and
45:55
and I run that the nice thing about the braid especially is uh I run planer boards on my two wide um lines so that
46:04
braid you've got good contact with those fish and you want good contact with
46:09
those fish let the hooks do what they're made to do and uh let the speed of the troll typically anywhere from you know 3
46:17
to 5 m hour um uh that braid sets right into those fish and uh and and let the
46:24
rod do the stretching and work like the like your you know a lot of guys will
46:30
talk about Mono and how they like the stretch of the mono situ in this situation you want
46:36
your braid you want to get that great hook set and then let that that rod do
46:42
the work like the 9-footer I was talking about like a a SF footer whatever those rods are built to take the the the um
46:50
the force of those fish let the rod do that make sure you've got great line yoeri 80 to 100 pound test 120 PB floral
47:01
laders great snaps and and you'll do just fine there you go James remember
47:06
the big thing he said there don't cheap out if you're going to buy don't buy 10 liters buy two really really good liters
47:12
or whatever just don't cheap out on it cuz it's a it's a life altering moment when you lose that end of the day it's
47:18
really it's really not that expensive when you look at it you know if you spent $10 on a liter you know how some
47:26
of these baits are $150 $200 $300 for a bait you know there's guys out there
47:33
that that have that setup just so they don't lose the $300 you know bait on the end of your
47:40
line yeah and they won't lose that bait and and if you're starting out you're not spending $300 on a bait don't get me
47:46
wrong um Drifter you know buy a stalker a Believer nice L yeah those are great
47:52
price absolutely y thank you very much I'm sure sale has them too yeah they do sale has everything they have a great
47:58
selection of musky stuff actually that's from Jame James rle from Pennsylvania again info offish canada.com fishing
48:05
Canada Facebook Instagram uh what do we got what is it called at fishing Canada fishing Canada official yeah fishing
48:11
Canada official and Instagram and send us in questions and we will hopefully get to read yours um and thank you for
48:17
that so anything else boys before we wrap her up as there anything else we need to to cover oh I think we're good
48:24
yeah I think we're good thank uh we'd like to thank also um go fish in Ontario
48:29
cuz this is one of our Ontario segments so we can't forget them they've done uh they've been with us for a long time too so uh uh and they're you know supporting
48:36
us well this is one of our one of our destinations that they they help us so destination Ontario Go Fish in Ontario
48:42
so um they're on Facebook as well so Carol Caputo the queen Carol we love Carol the car I love you Carol I love
48:49
you here we go there's our music folks thanks very much for listening in and watching and if you're watching us thanks to Steve n Wei and de Taylor our
48:57
newest fishing Canada hosts not co-hosts hosts and we will uh talk to you next
49:07
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
49:23
time this episode of Outdoor Journal radio has has been brought to you in part by the invasive species Center
49:30
protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species and sale the ultimate
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