I can honestly say I ‘fished on the pot of gold’ for walleye this past summer on a trip to Ontario’s Algoma Country.
Visiting with the gracious owners of Whitefish Lodge near Wawa, we had the opportunity to spend a morning fishing for walleye with lodge owner ‘Coop’ Cooper at one of his ‘magic spots’ as he tells me the afternoon of our arrival.
Whitefish Lodge and Outpost Camps Ltd is owned and operated by William Cooper (Coop). During the spring and summer months, most of his efforts are dedicated to fishing in those remote areas of Ontario Canada. Coop has personally hunted and fished this area for over twenty-five years. The lodge is as impressive as it looks.
Some of the camp amenities include a camp firepit, Boat rental, On-site boat launch, New docks with power available, 1-person and 2-person kayaks and canoes, fish house with cleaning station including cutting boards, filet knives, and sharpening stones, Free WIFI, bait, fuel, and ice available for purchase. The cabins feel like home with everything you would even need to enjoy a vacation with lake views and porches to relax after an excellent day of fishing.
This camp takes pride in what they have built and ensures visiting guests are treated right.
The beauty of Whitefish Lake spans more than thirty-five miles of the Shikwamka/Michipicoten River system including Manitowic Lake which offers hundreds of miles of pristine unspoiled shoreline. Scenery at Whitefish Lake sightseeing is a must with so many waterfalls, cliffs and panoramic views that are waiting to be discovered.
Our adventure began at five a.m., just as the sun was rising and burning off the last fog of the cool morning to one of ‘Coops’ magic spots as he tells it as we turned a rocky point to a small set of rapids and creek mouth at the back of one of the many bays on the lake system.
Coop positioned his boat just below the slow-moving rapids in approximately eight to ten feet of water and set the trolling motor to hold us on this exact spot while we set up our rods with a combination of small jigs with leeches and split shot rig with a tiny orange hook.
It didn’t take two casts to the side of the boat to hook into our first of many walleyes to start the morning. Impressed, yes. We made short casts to the sides of the boat, behind the boat and dropped jigs right below the boat and caught walleye everywhere our baits were cast or dropped. This incredible action continued non-stop for close to three hours! How many walleyes were positioned below this creek mouth? Coop and I traded turns netting the above-average eighteen- to twenty-plus-inch walleye and released them back to sustain this incredible walleye fishery.
Coop actually mentioned this is only one spot of hundreds on the lake system that held numbers of walleye with countless other spots on the system that are more geared toward the big walleyes like main lake points, reefs and rock piles.
I couldn’t contain my excitement as our cameras rolled, this felt so easy. Like two buddies just enjoying time on the water, not another boat in sight and just having a blast catching fish after fish in these unspoiled wilderness surroundings.
Whitefish Lodge is definitely a bucket list location for not only anglers but families as well. Check out the website and consider fishing at a ‘pot of golden walleye’ on your next vacation to Northern Ontario.
http://whitefishlodge.ca
Tel: (231) 878-8450
info@WhitefishLodge.net
