Hunting & Fishing Enthusiast By Roger Wiltz

At 3 AM Wednesday morning August 3rd, Francis Doom and I began our thousand mile trip to Pickle Lake, Ontario. We arrived in Pickle Lake around 7 PM. Francis owns the only cabin on remote Kwinogans Lake, a walleye-northern pike paradise. We would fly into his lake cabin on Thursday morning. Francis also owns a small cabin in Pickle Lake where we spent Wednesday night before flying to the Kwinogans cabin.

In preparing for bed Wednesday night, I stubbed my right foot big toe on the edge of a carpet and had a severe fall. The fall resulted in a broken toe and a bloody gash across the top of my toe. The bleeding was profuse, and Francis immediately went for the local EMT’s. On the arrival of Beth Broderick and Tina Koval, the two women took a photo of my toe and sent it to the Sioux Lookout Hospital. They then stopped the bleeding and bandaged the toe. The Sioux Lookout Hospital responded that I should be brought to the ER immediately. The two EMT’s offered me an airplane ride to Sioux Lookout or a three hour drive by ambulance. I opted for the ambulance ride. Beth and Tina were extremely caring. In the meantime, Francis offered to return to Wagner vs finishing our fishing trip.

After dodging moose and black bears on the trip to Sioux Lookout, I was admitted to the hospital. At 2:30 am one of Sioux Lookouts excellent doctors administered an antiseptic solution and put 10 stitches in my broken toe. I was released from the hospital about 10 am Thursday morning, and Donna and Mark, a couple sharing our fishing trip, picked me up at Sioux Lookout and returned me to Pickle Lake for our fly in to Kwinogans in a venerable 1940 vintage DeHaviland Otter. Asking me to choose between fishing and returning to Wagner was a no brainer. Donna and Mark were invaluable partners on this fishing trip.

The fishing was perhaps the best I have ever experienced as we caught hundreds of walleyes and some very large Northern Pike. Although big Northerns were the highlight of my trip, I had a very unusual incident with a Walleye.

While we were at the outlet on the northern end of Kwinogans, I was in the process of playing a 17 inch walleye. While attempting to reel in the walleye, a 24 inch Northern Pike made a pass at my walleye as he was looking for an easy lunch. After landing the walleye, I immediately lowered it back into the lake where the toothy Northern grabbed it with his jaws. Then I yelled to Donna, one of my fishing partners, that in my experience the Northern was not going to let go. After a brief fight Donna scooped up both fish with the landing net.

Another high point of the trip was Donna’s 18 pound Northern Pike. As Donna fished for walleye with a quarter-ounce jig tied directly to the end of her line, the big Pike grabbed her jig. When fishing waters inhabited by Northern Pike, one always uses a steel leader as pike teeth will fray the line. Donna’s pike was hooked on the edge of its jaws and the line did not pass through its toothy mouth. After a five minute battle the giant pike was landed. This rarely happens when a steel leader isn’t used.

Big pike also made this trip for me in spite of my injured toe. Within five minutes of each other, I caught both a 16 pound 38 inch pike and a 14 pound 36 inch pike. Northern pike generally average 2-3 pounds and 22-24 inches long. Along with these catches, I also enjoyed Francis’ mastery over catching a great number of walleyes.

In contrast to the scorching weather in South Dakota, we enjoyed cool temperatures and sunny days. We also enjoyed many suppers of fresh walleye filets.

In next weeks column, I’ll talk about my strategy of catching big pike in Canadian wilderness waters. See you next week.