Canada trip is on!

I just booked a week at five lakes lodge on GullRock Lake, Ontario for the week of 4th of July! I’m pretty excited, it will just be the wife and I and a full week of fishing!

I’m already starting to prep by buying more fishing stuff than I will need, I realized over the weekend that I have really good setups for just about any type of walleye or northern fishing I like to do. The problem is I only have ONE of each setup. Some of my rods can multi-task, but I don’t want to give my wife a crappy rod to vertical jig while I have a nice one(or vice versa).

Anyways, I’m making a list of things to buy/bring up with us, looking for suggestions on those items I might forget if I don’t write them down. Stuff like a fan, bug spray, drift sock, portable rod holders, etc.

Give ’em to me guys, I am counting down the days and this will help!

Good quality rain gear
Bug spray x 1000
Gulp alive (watermelon pearl)
Jigs…and lots of them (lots of rocks)

I bring 4 rods to CA with my each year:

1 for vertical jigging
1 for pitching jigs and small cranks
1 for slip bobbers
1 pike setup

And a ton of beer and you’re set.

I bring 3 rods and reels all set up, 2 walleye jigging and one heavy club for Northerns. Lots of steel leaders, Skip bug spray, get a couple thermo cells… not only for in the boat if needed, but next to the bed at night. Stringer, jaw spreader, hook remover, filet knife, rain gear, good pair of polarized glasses, bluetooth speaker and beers. And HAVE FUN !!! I leave in about 2 weeks for N. Manitoba

I like salted minnows just because they reduce the hassle of keeping live bait in the boat. Also a lot easier to transport up there. They’re also tougher and stay on longer.

I might be buying beer/liquor in all the wrong places, but holy crap does it seem expensive in Canada. I bring every can/bottle I’m allowed.

In addition to rain gear, I have a pair of Gore-tex light hiking shoes that are terrific to wear in the rain. Nothing worse than being clad head to toe in a $500 rain suit and then standing there in soggy shoes and wet socks.

Bring a really good cooler for in-boat. I like to just put the cooler in there and than leave it and just add ice and drinks as needed, so it has to be a good one to take sitting in the sun like that.

I bring a high-quality portable radio because I like some music and news and unless the lodge has free wi-fi, cell phones are not reliable and streaming eats a ton of data even if you have cell service.

If using phones and tablets, have the old school “lighter plug” chargers as well as the USB ones. Gives you an option to charge from a boat lighter plug.

Extra sunglasses, broad-brimmed hat, extra hat in case previously mentioned blows off and is lost.

With fillet knife, also bring a sharpener.

Personally, I’ve been trying to bring less rods, not more. I don’t fish pike, though, so I can see how this would be challenging in your situation.

Grouse

big_g wrote:

I bring 3 rods and reels all set up, 2 <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye jigging and one heavy club for Northerns. Lots of steel leaders, Skip bug spray, get a couple thermo cells… not only for in the boat if needed, but next to the bed at night. Stringer, jaw spreader, hook remover, filet knife, rain gear, good pair of polarized glasses, bluetooth speaker and beers. And HAVE FUN !!! I leave in about 2 weeks for N. Manitoba

Oh, thermo-cell is a good idea, I wouldn’t have thought to put one by the beds. I think I have everything else on your least, where are you going in N. Manitoba(I think I might have asked you this in another thread already).

I’m really hoping it will be easy to find fish and vertical jig, as that will cut down on re-rigging or needing different types of rods. One thing I want to do is build more confidence with some baits I don’t use as often(rippin raps for example), so it can be nice to have another rod rigged up for a couple presentations.

We will also be getting an 18′ boat and there’s only two of us, so we should have some space.

I’m running out of things to do, I re-spooled all my reels, I suppose I could clean all of them out? I do need to pickup a few more spoons/spinners for pike, any favorites you guys have?

Bring a 5 of diamonds. Red & white Daredevil, 1oz rattletrap. Leave the rest of the crap home.

Dutchboy wrote:

Bring a 5 of diamonds. Red & white Daredevil, 1oz rattletrap. Leave the rest of the crap home.

I’m with you on tackle… you don’t need much variety. I bring jigs (2 different colors) and two different color rapalas. 90% of both northern and walleye are caught on unpainted jig heads! Yeah, it’s that good up there! Have fun.

1 ounce rattle trap caught the pike in my avatar on a Canada fly in a couple of summers ago.

I leave the jiggin raps and rippin raps at home because the lakes we fish are too snaggy. Mainly jigs and a few plastics but you really don’t need plastics or raps but it’s kinda fun to pitch early and late. I wouldn’t forget slip bobbers. Super fun in the evenings too drink a beer and watch bobbers go down.

Check your passport and the expiration date asap!

Driving to Lynn Lake, then flying 1/2 hour north to a lake called Carlson. 6 of us for 7 days. Every night I fire up a thermacell and put it by my bedside, priceless up there. Here is my must have tackle…

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Don’t forget a camera…man I’m jealous…never been to Canada before. Good luck!

I’m also doing a fly-in trip north of Red Lake Canada this August (first time). So taking a few notes from this thread… biggest thing is staying under the weight limit for me. I tend to pack heavy Can’t wait though

big_g wrote:

Driving to Lynn Lake, then flying 1/2 hour north to a lake called Carlson. 6 of us for 7 days. Every night I fire up a thermacell and put it by my bedside, priceless up there. Here is my must have tackle…

Nice! I’ll definitely be picking up a thermacell, any recommendations on which one? Amazon shows a bunch of options. What size leaders do you like for pike up there? I’ll probably have 20-30 lb braid on my pike rods if that makes a difference.

lindyrig79 wrote:

I’m also doing a fly-in trip north of Red Lake Canada this August (first time). So taking a few notes from this thread… biggest thing is staying under the weight limit for me. I tend to pack heavy Can’t wait though

Awesome, what lake are you going to? I’ve wanted to go to http://www.boois.com for a long time. It’s like a 15 minute plane ride from Red Lake probably, but looks like a really fun lake to fish.

I run 20 lb leaders, never had one break with over 20 lbers on????

20# braid with a steel leader and you’re all set.

I suggest if you are looking for big Pike use crosslock steel leaders. Be sure to check the snap and bait after boating every fish. Lots of power thrashing around on the end of the line. Educate yourselves on using big nets. Keep the fish in the net in the water as long as possible before the photo & release.

Just a little to get you guys fired up…. Buddy Joe with a 40″er last year…notice the lure…. the best one for us.

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I leave for Lake Minnitaki near Sioux Lookout next Friday and my go to for big walleyes and pike are a musky rod combo and an 8″ Phantom lure in the walleye pattern. I got this 45 incher last time up there.

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We’ve been going to Procyks which is on two island lake. There is a small channel that connects two island and gull rock, so we fish about 80% of the time on gull rock. I fish for walleye but a couple buddies fish hard for pike. You can pm me for details

Sending a PM now!

Have Fun! I booked my first ever trip to Canada this year for the week of June 23rd. I severely injured my knee at work on March 6th. Had to cancel as I am still in a wheel chair with limited Weight Bearing status. I got to keep my leg so it could have been worse. Enjoy the heck out of your trip for me!!

DRH1175 wrote:

Have Fun! I booked my first ever trip to Canada this year for the week of June 23rd. I severely injured my knee at work on March 6th. Had to cancel as I am still in a wheel chair with limited Weight Bearing status. I got to keep my leg so it could have been worse. Enjoy the heck out of your trip for me!!

Holy moly, hope you recover! ‘Got to keep my leg’ sounds like a pretty serious injury.

Those are some nice pike big_g, 31lifer. My wife has never caught a pike of any size, so I’ll be happy if she can put a few 34+” in the boat later this month.

I really enjoy pike fishing, so I think we will split our time 50/50, will definitely play it by ear up there though. Something like this:

morning: try to find some walleye to jig up. Hopefully find a few productive spots early in the week that we can run back to every day.

before lunch: depending on walleye bite, stay put or switch to casting for northern.

Lunch: slip bobber for walleye and relax and eat some lunch(if we don’t go back to the cabin).

After lunch: keep casting for some pike.

late afternoon/early evening: find some more walleye to jig/lindy fish.

sundown: Keep jigging, or troll stickbaits shallow for walleye. This is one of my favorite walleye techniques and has produced some really nice fish for me in the past. Anyone else do this?

I don’t like to plan things out too much, but I think that’s my general game plan.

big_g: looks like interesting terrain in that picture, are you far enough north where it starts to turn more to tundra?

Just above the 57th parallel… sundown is about 11:00 pm and sun up about 4:30am… doesn’t really get dark. We are up there !!!

philtickelson wrote:

sundown: Keep jigging, or troll stickbaits shallow for walleye. This is one of my favorite walleye techniques and has produced some really nice fish for me in the past. Anyone else do this?

You’ll figure out what’s working(hopefully everything ) and probably stick with the hot pattern.

If it’s a calm evening I love standing and casting for the last hour. Depending on where fish are locating you may have a chance at a good mixed species bite. ex. Rapala shad rap, husky jerk, etc on shorelines can easily hit walleye, smallie, or pike

I’m one of the few that’s biased toward pike. My favorite is when a big one erupts close to the boat in the quiet evening. Even better when using shallower lures like spoons or bucktails