A Good Start

We are off and running here at Big Hook Camps.  The Hartle family and company made land fall in the Opasquia Provincial Park on May 18th and have been frantically opening up main camp along with all of the outposts.  In comparison, we arrived last year on May 9th.  Aside from today, we have been fortunate to have some terrific weather for start up.  Sunny skies with highs in the 70's have warmed the water considerably.  Just yesterday some black flies popped out to annoy us during our projects and we even witnessed pollen blowing off the trees which is earlier than normal.  

Aside from numerous fallen trees at Central and one malfunctioning windmill, everything weathered the winter rather well.  I have spent most days hauling considerable amounts of necessary freight back and forth from Sandy Lake. Last Thursday, with the help of Showalters Beech 18 we moved around 8,800 pounds of goods to Central Lake.

Cocos Lake trophy walleye 

Catching pike in the setting sun. 

Unfortunately, I have only made it out fishing for a total of 30 min one afternoon last Tuesday and had some great success.  The walleye were still spawning and the bite was rather light.  We boated about 20 walleye on small 1/8 oz jigs with three inch white tails.  Talking with the guests at West lake yesterday (5/28),  they confirmed all of the walleye boated had finished spawning but the bite was still light.  Walleye are typically sluggish a couple days after the spawn.

The water is a bit on the low side for this time of year and conditions are dry here in the north woods. Only about 1/4 inch of rain has fallen in the days since our arrival.  Please be diligent when having shore lunch during these dry conditions and make sure your fire is completely out when finished.

We have a new pilot working with us this summer.  Luke hails from Brighton in the United Kingdom and is hoping to learn all about the boreal forest here in NW Ontario.  During his first fishing outing he managed to pick up the technique rather quickly and out fished everyone in the boat.

Luke with his first stringer of walleye 

Looking forward to seeing everyone for the 2017 season and good luck on the water!
-Nathan
www.bighookcamps.com