Fishing on Gouin

Did I mention that we did some fishing? No? Strange, that was the main reason to go so far north. We sought the northern pike and walleye of Gouin Reservoir.

Every time we go we learn a tiny bit more about jigging for walleye. Joe, David and I have made 10 trips to various Caesar’s outpost cabins. Over the years, others have joined us. This was John’s second excursion. The four of us didn’t exactly slay the fish this trip, but we did do better than previously. We split our time looking for the very elusive “trophy” pike. (The best we could do were four or five fish that stretched between 32 and 35 inches. Last time we were at this particular cabin we managed to boat three pike that we taped at 40+ inches. I have a feeling that the lower water levels may have impacted that particular fishery in the bay in which we were located.) Our second goal was to increase our take of keeper sized walleye. We found plenty. In half a dozen holes we jigged up 140 walleye that were all keepers. We didn’t keep them all, of course, just enough for one meal and two limits (8 fish each) to take home.

I paired up with John, while Joe and David manned the second boat. They managed to boat the largest walleye (6-1/2 pounds and 26 inches) as well as the largest pike (around 9-1/2 pounds and 35 inches). They also managed to have a bit of a Nantucket sleigh ride from one pike they never did get to see. Based on the tale Joe told, it probably would have topped 45 inches. You can’t tow one of these big plywood boats without having some real shoulders on you.

John holds up one of the smaller walleye we caught. Most of the fish were slightly larger measuring 18 to 22 inches and perhaps 2 or 3 pounds.

Pike were a target species, too. But we were looking for something much bigger than this.

John caught what has to be one of the smallest pike I've ever seen. It measured just over five inches and was barely larger than the top-water plug John was using.

The tally for our trip was just 315 fish, of which 175 were northern pike and 140 were walleye. We probably could have caught many more but we were there to relax, too, and didn’t really push the issue. Despite having daylight from 4:30 AM until 9:30 PM, we were on the water only about half that time.

When Friday rolled around again, we were satisfied with our experience and looking forward to getting home. But that's another story.