Nope, that’s the flaming red hot fishing in the Pasha Lake Region of Northwest Ontario. Seriously folks, this is getting borderline ridiculous!
As we started last week, I can remember thinking to myself, how can fishing get any better? But now that I look back, I was asking the wrong question. I should’ve asked, how long can this crazy fishing last?
Handed to me last night was a well thought out point system created by the Bill Conklin group of Ohio. Bill has been coming here for over 3 years and competition among his group members to gain points during their week here, is fierce. As an example of possible points earned, a 39” and larger pike gets you 5 points, a 26”or bigger walleye the same. Smaller fish are awarded points on a sliding scale. One is left to imagine how many points were earned collectively among their group given the fact that I handed them two, not one, but TWO Pasha Lake Trophy club hats this year. By weeks end they landed two pike 40” or better, multiple plus 20 walleyes and that doesn’t even include the MONSTER that eluded the net and left them shaking in their boots. Next year guys… you’ll get her!
“Take care of business” – words used by Justin B in reference to fishing the Pasha Lake region of Ontario. If you remember back two years ago, Justin downed an IMPRESSIVE 360# boar during his bear hunt. A touch shy of 24 months later, he’s out on Onaman Lake crushing 24 and 25 inch walleyes like they were pop cans! Justin has truly been bitten by the bug of all things possible when it comes to fishing and hunting in this region. Congrats kind sir, you boated some impressive fish this week. In fact, shortly before he departed home, he was quoted as saying “this has been the best fishing of my life”. Justin, I agree!
So what is causing all these fish to jump in the boat like Asian Carp? The preferred method of choice has been the jig and minnow, although we are starting to pull spinners around on a crawler harnesses, both seem to be equally effective. Depths are ranging from 5 – 15 feet of water, but there is some variance depending on what water ways you’re fishing. For instance, Onaman Lake is producing action from 5 – 10, but smaller lakes are seeing walleyes in the weeds as shallow as 5fow.
The big pike bite is also on. With water temps getting warmer every day, the big females have started their slide to deeper haunts, especially breaks near weed beds. They can be however, and frustrating to anglers, be as shallow as 5feet in depths of 60fow when there is a significant bait fish run. That happened a couple of times last week where guys trolling shallow for lakers hooked into a ginormous gator patrolling the upper water column for feed.
This week we welcome July and both Canada and the US independence days. You can find us down on Lake Nipigon come Monday enjoying some water fun, fireworks and, of course, good fishing. Weather wise, things are very pleasant although we could afford to have the bugs to take a vacation.
Oh, and almost forgot. The Walleye Dream Trip is a go! I was up there on Tuesday and the fish are slowly starting to stage in their preferred summer locals. It wasn’t exactly WDT caliber yet, but it should only get better in the days ahead.
I would first like to thank Chad for the fishing adventure of a lifetime. He is not exaggerating a bit about the “ridiculous” fishing at Pasha Lake Cabins. I will give you a short rundown of our trip last week and I assure you that it was nothing short of amazing.
We spent our first and last days of the trip on Onaman Lake. This lake has to be one of the best walleye lakes on the planet. My buddy Justin B and I smashed huge Walleye on both days. There were numerous times where we doubled on 24 plus inch fish. It is a bit of a hike to get to the lake, but the walk is quickly forgotten once you start catching the Onaman donkeys. Also, these fish do not fight like normal walleye and they had the drag smokin’ in the Shimano on several occasions. Seriously, these fish fight more than Mike Tyson in middle school.
On day two, we fished South Beatty. The walleye action on this lake was steady all day and we boated over 50 fish. These fish averaged around 17 inches which made for a phenomenal shore lunch. The lake is very easy to get to and you even enjoy a nice trip down a stream on your way in.
For day three, we fished Northwind and absolutely smacked the marble eyes. Many of the fishermen in camp said that they had the best fishing of their lives on Northwind. We easily boated over 100 fish which included several beautiful blue walleye. The fish on this lake averaged 19 to 20 inches with our biggest being a 25 inch white tip. Although we couldn’t find the huge fish, the word in camp was that three 30 inch fish had been caught at Northwind over the last week and a half.
This lake also is very easy access and is well worth trying out.
For day four, we decided to fish Beatty to check out the Pike action. The adventure into Beaty is worth the trip in itself and once there the action is fast and furious. Although we didn’t catch any huge Pike, we did boat a couple over 30 inches and we were catching fish all day. There were two gators caught over 40 inches while we were in camp and this lake has to be one of the premier pike fisheries in Canada.
On our fifth trip we decided to hit Elbow Lake. Chad’s friend Jim suggested the lake and stated that it was one of his favorite lakes. Jim was very knowledgeable about the area, and was an absolutely awesome man to be around, so we decided to try it out. We were only the third boat on the lake this year and the fishing was simply redonkulous. Our biggest fish out of this lake was a fat 26 incher and the action was hot all day. Although the fishing was great, the best thing about the trip to Elbow was the shoreline wildlife. We saw 6 moose while on the water, including two massive bulls. Being from Southern Illinois, I had never seen an animal of that magnitude and these sightings alone were worth the drive to the lake.
I can honestly say that the fishing at Pasha Lake Cabins has to be some of the best fishing on the planet. Chad simply runs a world class fishing camp and if you are planning a trip to Canada, Pasha Lake would be my number one choice.
Pretty awesome
glad you got to see so many bulls moose. They are cool except when you see a “ditch donkey” coming down a Canadien highway 