Someone do a rain dance

Sunrise on Central 

Calling all professional weather makers, we could use a rain dance or two for our area here in the Opasquia Provincial Park.  One sprinkle of rain is all we have received the past three weeks, and more warm dry weather is on the way according to forecasts.  The forest are extremely dry and customers should avoid having outdoor fires at this time as the fire hazard is bordering extreme conditions.

Jigging up walleye with an echoltail 

The weather has been stable up here, albeit hot and dry.  With stable weather patterns comes great fishing.  Pretty much every camp has reported excellent results this week with both species.  Central is currently in the lead with the biggest pike for the week boating a dandy 44", while South is leading with a 30" walleye.  A special note should be made for South Lake, as of yesterday they had boated and released 43 walleye over 25" topping at 30".  21 of those fish were bigger than 27".  That's some hot walleye fishing indeed.  Burnt lake has also been boating plenty of 25" walleye over the past five days.  Guests noted the north end of Burnt was holding more quality fish.  SW guests were all smiles catching plenty of walleye and some very healthy 12" perch.  Cocos had several 39" pike boated along with some healthy walleye over 23".  They noted the water was as low as they have ever witnessed and it was getting tricky navigating up the rapids into the Sagawitchewan river.  West lake once again was out fishing every day I visited this week.  Guests from the previous week noted large walleye were holding on the north end, especially reefs around the only island.  They noted the
SE portage lake was excellent for numbers.

Camp dog Shadow helping me find blueberries

Coupled with the lack of rain and above normal temperatures, the water levels have dropped dramatically and are still falling.  We are approaching two feet below normal water levels.  Surface temperatures are hovering in the mid 70's range.  The warm water has most of the big pike in search of cooler water.  Most of the trophy fish being caught are holding off of deeper weed beds directly adjacent to deep water.  Shallow weedy bays are only holding small fish at the moment.  Jigging with a wire leader has been very productive for pike on deep reefs.  Bucktails, top water baits and silver minnows are still my preferred the baits to toss, maybe toss in a deep diving crankbait.

Walleye are in their typical late summer spots.  Most rock piles and wind blown points ranging 15-25 ft of water will be your best areas to attack.  Vertical jigging or dragging crawler harnesses will yield best results.  Walleye will ascend the water column on cloudy days into 5-10 ft of water, trolling crankbaits can be effective then.  Consistent wind is a key to finding the bigger schools of walleye.  If the winds have been blowing into a certain area for a couple days, concentrate your efforts there.

Keep on sending the great pictures everyone and good luck to you all on the water.
-Nathan
www.bighookcamps.com