I enjoy flyfishing and spend the winter refilling my flyboxes, however, when I am tripping I usually bring a spinning rod as well.
MIke
MIke
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Do you Fish if so do you fly fish,spin cast bait cast of just use a can with string ?
- Thread starter JoeO
- Start date
The Obukowin Lake Pattern
Prior to venturing to this lake I did all the research I could which isn't much considering you have to go through the "Mothers" portage set to get there. Obukowin is usually just a part of the Aikens loop or a second means to get to the Bloodvein through WCPP and the Gammon River. Our adventure was to stop in Obukowin and stay there, which meant doing the Mothers twice in one week.
~ Obukowin Lake is a natural lake that covers a surface area of 18 km[SUP]2[/SUP] (7 mi[SUP]2[/SUP]), has an average depth of 5 meters (16 feet). Obukowin Lake boasts a total water volume of 0.08 km[SUP]3[/SUP] (65,668 acre-feet), and has a total shore line of 73 kilometers (46 miles). ~
Due to this being an exploration and fishing trip, I took the trusty portable depth finder. Don't leave home without it.
We never found water 16 feet deep. The south basin was 4-6 feet. A very large, muddy, weedy flat plain. Tough to fish.
First evening on the south east island once it calmed down enough, we headed out and did what anyone does on new water, we fished structure. A rock wall vertical face had a foot of water. That was odd. The depth finder kept pinging out 4, 4, 5, 4, 6...
Change of tactics. Stick with shoreline structure we moved north on the West side and found 8-10 depths and once we turned a small corner we hit the first fish. Ok, so why did that spot produce and the rest of the almost identical shoreline not? We worked that out over the next few days. 4 pickerel (walleye) that first night along with 3 pike.
Next day was too windy to get out, an issue with shallow lakes they blow up really good. We did manage to catch fish off the island though, which is a common spot of for us since until that trip we had always camped on islands because Christy had convinced me that bears don't go to islands.
Islands are good if there is more than 4 feet of water on one side. We found on Leaf Lake that our island had better structure and a slot on the south side. The fish would either circumnavigate the island or just cruise back and forth along the deeper side so it was just a matter of waiting for them to show up again and we had dinner.
Back to Obukowin. During our stay we had enough down time that I drew the lake in my journal and highlighted where we caught the fish. The second day we managed to get up lake a bit after the wind dropped, we had hoped to see the entire lake but the wind put the kybosh on that. We had gone searching for a camp spot further up and found a decent spot on a much too big island in the middle near the narrows. We caught fish but really did not find the premium structure.
The following day we moved to the spot which opened up more water but it was still only 5-6 foot, but the narrows gave us a 10 foot slot.
The bay around the corner which is where the river flows out into WCPP is deeper and the outlet gave us some decent perch in the 11-13 inch range. Half this bay lies in Ontario and if you want to fish that portion you need an Ontario licence. Most of the pickerel were in the 14-16" range, all good eating size and it was fine considering there is a slot limit in Atikaki where any fish between 18 and 27 inches Must be released. No keepers in that size range.
Once the bear on our big island moved us back down to the first camp, we found more of the structure in a back bay.
Since you are all wondering now, what is the miracle structure that works everywhere we have tested it since that trip?
Rounded rock faces. A flat vertical wall will rebound waves. We figure the rounded rock allows waves or ice to move up the slope then as it retreats it digs a hole at the base. On Obukowin the rounded rock consistently had deeper water troughs adjacent. Since then we have applied that even on water we have fished before and it works. In the generally slow meandering rivers we ply it is a bonus if the rounded rock is on an outside corner. Although an outside bend will always have deeper water in a river, if it has the rock structure it will be deeper.
We use yellow jigs with 3" yellow twister tails almost exclusively.
Prior to venturing to this lake I did all the research I could which isn't much considering you have to go through the "Mothers" portage set to get there. Obukowin is usually just a part of the Aikens loop or a second means to get to the Bloodvein through WCPP and the Gammon River. Our adventure was to stop in Obukowin and stay there, which meant doing the Mothers twice in one week.
~ Obukowin Lake is a natural lake that covers a surface area of 18 km[SUP]2[/SUP] (7 mi[SUP]2[/SUP]), has an average depth of 5 meters (16 feet). Obukowin Lake boasts a total water volume of 0.08 km[SUP]3[/SUP] (65,668 acre-feet), and has a total shore line of 73 kilometers (46 miles). ~
Due to this being an exploration and fishing trip, I took the trusty portable depth finder. Don't leave home without it.
We never found water 16 feet deep. The south basin was 4-6 feet. A very large, muddy, weedy flat plain. Tough to fish.
First evening on the south east island once it calmed down enough, we headed out and did what anyone does on new water, we fished structure. A rock wall vertical face had a foot of water. That was odd. The depth finder kept pinging out 4, 4, 5, 4, 6...
Change of tactics. Stick with shoreline structure we moved north on the West side and found 8-10 depths and once we turned a small corner we hit the first fish. Ok, so why did that spot produce and the rest of the almost identical shoreline not? We worked that out over the next few days. 4 pickerel (walleye) that first night along with 3 pike.
Next day was too windy to get out, an issue with shallow lakes they blow up really good. We did manage to catch fish off the island though, which is a common spot of for us since until that trip we had always camped on islands because Christy had convinced me that bears don't go to islands.
Islands are good if there is more than 4 feet of water on one side. We found on Leaf Lake that our island had better structure and a slot on the south side. The fish would either circumnavigate the island or just cruise back and forth along the deeper side so it was just a matter of waiting for them to show up again and we had dinner.
Back to Obukowin. During our stay we had enough down time that I drew the lake in my journal and highlighted where we caught the fish. The second day we managed to get up lake a bit after the wind dropped, we had hoped to see the entire lake but the wind put the kybosh on that. We had gone searching for a camp spot further up and found a decent spot on a much too big island in the middle near the narrows. We caught fish but really did not find the premium structure.
The following day we moved to the spot which opened up more water but it was still only 5-6 foot, but the narrows gave us a 10 foot slot.
The bay around the corner which is where the river flows out into WCPP is deeper and the outlet gave us some decent perch in the 11-13 inch range. Half this bay lies in Ontario and if you want to fish that portion you need an Ontario licence. Most of the pickerel were in the 14-16" range, all good eating size and it was fine considering there is a slot limit in Atikaki where any fish between 18 and 27 inches Must be released. No keepers in that size range.
Once the bear on our big island moved us back down to the first camp, we found more of the structure in a back bay.
Since you are all wondering now, what is the miracle structure that works everywhere we have tested it since that trip?
Rounded rock faces. A flat vertical wall will rebound waves. We figure the rounded rock allows waves or ice to move up the slope then as it retreats it digs a hole at the base. On Obukowin the rounded rock consistently had deeper water troughs adjacent. Since then we have applied that even on water we have fished before and it works. In the generally slow meandering rivers we ply it is a bonus if the rounded rock is on an outside corner. Although an outside bend will always have deeper water in a river, if it has the rock structure it will be deeper.
We use yellow jigs with 3" yellow twister tails almost exclusively.
If I fish, it's mostly for Trout, sometimes Bass, in the Adirondacks. (I live in bass heaven, but they're wormy and I won't eat anything but sea fish or farm raised catfish locally.)
I use a small rod, about 4'-4.5' long (idk for sure) with a small bait-casting reel on it. I carry a tiny Plano tackle box with a very limited selection of plain hooks, spinners and jigs, which bass and trout love. I'm not all that serious about catching anything, mostly looking for a way to pass time constructively (or at least appearing to be doing so.)
The rod straps conveniently under the seat and thwart of my canoes, out of the way during portages, handy when needed while underway. The small tackle box fits in a cargo pocket, thwart bag, or pack pocket with little bulk.
I use a small rod, about 4'-4.5' long (idk for sure) with a small bait-casting reel on it. I carry a tiny Plano tackle box with a very limited selection of plain hooks, spinners and jigs, which bass and trout love. I'm not all that serious about catching anything, mostly looking for a way to pass time constructively (or at least appearing to be doing so.)
The rod straps conveniently under the seat and thwart of my canoes, out of the way during portages, handy when needed while underway. The small tackle box fits in a cargo pocket, thwart bag, or pack pocket with little bulk.
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