Uncle Mark’s Outpost LOW — Jay Siemens

A group of 11 of us just returned from LOW and we stayed at Uncle Mark’s outpost and I’d like to share some info because I know there are a lot of fans of Jay’s here. First of all the cabin is in a great location. Not a lot of traffic and about 2 miles south of Wiley pt lodge. The cabin is fantastic. As you may all know or could see from the website there are very nice kayaks and a canoe you can use. 2 of the “kids” took them out in a bay behind the cabin fishing muskies one night and landed a 37 inches. I saw the pic and they definitely measured wrong it was 39 every day of the week. The night we arrived one guy got a 47 in the bay 100 yards from the cabin.
We ended up with around 1500 walleyes for 3 boats. Last 2 days were beautiful but Friday was leaving day so we didn’t fish. Otherwise weather was meh and when they say wind at 5 gusts at 9 they are full of $hit.
We did have some issues with the cabin when we arrived but nothing that would have hampered us. The solar system shut down so all the batteries were dead but there were generators and brought us extra gas. The other was the incinerating toilet wasn’t working but there is a pretty nice outhouse. We did fix the toilet.
Great cabin, great location, great views and a really fun time. I had battery issues with my boat. Must have lost a cell in the battery magically on the way up so that really sucked. Really held my boat back from being able to do what we normally do.
My Lawrence cmaps are essentially useless for contours but hazards are accurate. The other guys had Birds and they’re spot on. The one guy looked at mine for one of the new spots we tried and he said I don’t know how you even do it. Yep, me either LOL

I will say plan ahead for a trip like this with enough gas. It’s a 25 mile boat ride from Sioux narrows. I got back with only 2 gallons remaining. 41 gallon tank, 3 5 gallon cans. Between bait and gas I spent 598.

1500 walleyes? So like 500 per boat? Amazing! Can you get gas at Wiley Pt lodge if needed? Thanks for the report.

How long was your trip ? A week I would assume ? What was the average size walleye ?

We arrived last Saturday and left a day early Friday. It was a day longer than our typical trip. Yeah Wiley’s is close and has fuel as does big narrows just about a half mile further away. Wiley’s is like 3 dollars Canadian per liter but big narrows charges everything in American and is 12. It would be like 11 Canadian at Wiley’s per gallon I think if my conversion is right. Fun time and definitely plan to go again.
Average size for us was probably close to 14 or 15. The other guys had a lot more small fish than we did but they did better on big fish as we only had 4 over 20.

That’s pretty cool you stayed there. I watched him build that and it’s on a pretty wild spot. Glad to hear they tried to take care of you even when things weren’t working. Don’t know if Jay was there or not but he’s genuinely a great guy so I’m glad to hear this went well for the most part.

We were in contact with Jay and Spencer all the time. Great guys! The guy who delivered the gas I think was Scott another great dude. Scott said if he was back in the area he’d bring me a couple new batteries but it didn’t work out. I didn’t want him to make a special trip and we managed ok. Thankfully I have a stealth dc alternator charger so I just idled the outboard while using the trolling motor to keep us going a few times. It would fully charge over night either.
They have a very nice dock and power to it for charging. At least I think it was their cord but bring a 100 footer to be safe. The bay is sheltered so boats are very protected only and east wind would come in there and it would have to be gnarly to bounce the boats around.

Is this the cabin that Jay was part of building last year or a couple years ago ?
Sounds like a fun trip overall. Sucks finding out issues when your on a trip.

Yes that’s it! They finished it last year and rented it most of the summer and into fall. They may even do it in winter not sure.

Yeah I checked everything over before I left and the batteries checked out fine. Must have dropped a cell on the trip out because it was dang rough. The batteries are old though too.

What a great trip, that is a really cool cabin. Did you fry any fish in Catch & Cook, Jay’s product?

Gregg Gunter wrote:

What a great trip, that is a really cool cabin. Did you fry any fish in Catch & Cook, Jay’s product?

Yes we did! We all really liked it way better than shore lunch IMO. I like chef Roberts too but this is neck and neck with it.
They have burners outside to use but you’d need to bring a tank and oil obviously. Also a fry pan because I didn’t see those. We brought all that stuff because we are used to it.
Mosquitos were ridiculous! Also ticks were super bad. Next year we will bring a Stihl fogger and go around the common areas and knock that stuff down.
There are bears around and we had one 30 feet away so be sure to put cooking oil and any food away. It tipped one cooler over but didn’t do anything else. We saw it swimming to another island a day later. It’s a beautiful area!

That’s awesome. I had literally just watched a video of jay and his uncle walleye and pike fishing up there right before you posted this. They were fishing some current edge with seemingly endless walleyes and had a big pike try and eat one.

Man sounds like a great trip and very jealous! I watched those cabin videos and it looks like a nice spot to stay. I gotta look up his site and book a stay. Any pics from the trip?

I only took one pic all trip I’m terrible at that. My son got a 24.5 but it was fat and 6 pounds.

This site says I’m blocked from posting pics for some reason. It was a beauty.

Sounds like a cool trip. We used to do a boat in to a island cabin that a friend had on LOW. He is getting to old and probably selling it soon, we have not been up since Covid for one reason or another. Fishing was always amazing up there.

Sounds like a Great trip. Did you try fishing the walleyes at all without live bait? Where we go I can’t see the fishing being any better with live bait than with just a jig and twistertail or a paddletail. Then again I’d guess most if not all of the fish where we go has probably never seen another jig in its life. Just curious if live bait would be needed on a trip there. What type of live bait did you use and where did you purchase it?

One boat tried plastics for a while and caught fish. Ironically they caught their biggest fish on plastics, but definitely not the numbers like live bait. One other boat has tried those gulp leeches a few years ago and did really well with them. Hasnt used them since however. We ended up with a ton of leftover bait especially leeches. Crawlers had issues because the new crawler box let water in when it rained one night and a bunch died. We still ended up with extra. For reference each boat had a half flat of crawlers and 1.5 pounds of leeches.

Is this cabin the only one on the island? Looks like the current cost for 7 days is about 481.00 a person if you have 6 people. That seems more than a reasonable cost. Will have to see if a few buddies are interested and maybe book a trip. Any idea of what time of the year would be the best to book a trip. Mostly or the waleye, but also a chance to fish some musky.

CaptainMusky wrote:

We ended up with a ton of leftover bait especially leeches. Crawlers had issues because the new crawler box let water in when it rained one night and a bunch died. We still ended up with extra. For reference each boat had a half flat of crawlers and 1.5 pounds of leeches.

I assume you purchased the bait someplace across the border, If so where did you purchase from

We got bait from swensons in Sioux narrows it’s right by the public landing where we launch. I reserve the bait for everyone ahead of time to make sure we have it.
Regarding cabins, Jay and his group have just one cabin but I think there may be a couple others and one being built by other owners as it’s a private island. I think we saw 3 other plots but no one was there.
Pricing is far better than other options around there. Granted those have amenities this one doesn’t but we don’t need any of that. Wiley’s is like 1100 a person! We stayed at big narrows last year and it was 525. Not worth that. It was decent but you had to walk a mile to the boats.
We had 11 guys and had to bring a few cots and paid 350 per person. Definitely worth it!

CaptainMusky wrote:

We had 11 guys and had to bring a few cots and paid 350 per person. Definitely worth it!

That is a way cheap trip for a week. Everyone says a Canada trip is so expensive. I pay more for our fall fishing trip to leech lake than I do for either out spring or fall Canada trips. Other than Gas that is anyway.

Yeah it was a great deal but don’t tell them so they raise rates LOL. Between bait and gas I spent 600 so it’s still not cheap when considering everything but lodging was great! I’ll get reimbursed for the 600 split 3 ways so not terrible.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that in the past we camped on an island on Crown land so we needed camping permits. I think those alone were like $100 USD for the week. For a bit more we have a dang roof over our heads, stove refrigerator air conditioning and an indoor toilet and shower along with one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept on. I havent slept that hard in probably years. The skullscrew ear plugs probably helped. LOL

Did you look into going out of The Angle instead of Sioux Narrows? Little shorter boat ride, just not sure how crossing by boat and then staying in Canada complicates things

No we didnt consider that. Its a gnarly boat ride from what we have heard due to rocks and the last two years we have been in the area we have seen multiple boats getting towed because they destroyed the lower unit on the way in. That is also not considering the long drive on gravel that the sparkly boat owners would never want to drive on. I dont either, but they surely would never do it. I think the only thing would be you have to call border patrol wherever that is at the angle to report. Other than that I dont think its a big deal.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Its a gnarly boat ride from what we have heard due to rocks and the last two years we have been in the area we have seen multiple boats getting towed because they destroyed the lower unit on the way in. That is also not considering the long drive on gravel that the sparkly boat owners would never want to drive on.

I’ve made the boat ride from the Angle to Big Narrows/Wiley area dozens of times and there’s nothing gnarly about it, well marked channels and easy to follow. There’s a pile of boats that make the drive back and forth every day. Most walleye guys I talk to in the summer are making the run to Skeet Island area daily. Based on your description it sounds like the outpost is tucked in between those two areas

“The Road” sucks

I have never done the drive from the angle but these guys that keep hitting something must be real knuckleheads then LOL.
I believe the island it is on is Kennedy Island so real close to Skeet like you said.

tswoboda wrote:

Did you look into going out of The Angle instead of Sioux Narrows? Little shorter boat ride, just not sure how crossing by boat and then staying in Canada complicates things

Not complicated at all. All you need to do is get an RABC to cross the border and touch land in Canada, then check in with US customs via an app when you return. Our boat-in resort in Canada actually submits the US customs stuff for us when we check out on the last day, we just give them our passports and info and they take care of it.