Minor Bay Lodge, Wollaston Lake

April 5, 2010

Although we are still a couple of  months away from the start of fishing season on Wollaston Lake I did want to give an update regarding the weather this spring.  We have been enjoying above normal temeratures in the Prairie Provinces for the past month or so.  The winter was also relatively mild with below average snowfall.  The lack of snow should help the ice melt this spring. 

Temperatures in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan have also been in the range of normal to above-normal, so that bodes well for an early ice-out this spring.  Temperatures are predicted to reach 46 F later this week on Wollaston.  Normal highs for this time of year are around 34 F.

Our first trip into the lodge will be June 10th, so based on the current weather conditions and long-term forecasts we shouldn't have any worries about ice this year.  Predictions are for a hot, dry summer on the Canadian prairies.  That will be a nice change after last summer's cold, wet weather.  It will be wonderful to be able to fish in a tee shirt and shorts instead of floater coats. 

If you would like to track the weather conditions on Wollaston you can just click on this link:  http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?sk-30&unit=i

I'm looking forward to getting back to Minor Bay after a hiatus of several years.  I definitely need a "Monster Pike" fix! 

Randy Duvell

June 10, 2010

The opening crew arrived at the lodge the evening of June 6th.  It was an uneventful drive from Saskatoon with no flat tires or other vehicle problems.  Including a stop in Prince Albert to do some grocery shopping for for the staff, to tide us over until our first freight delivery arrived, the trip to the lodge took about 14 hours.

While we experienced cool weather and rain from Saskatoon right to Brabant Lake, once we passed the turnoff to the Southend of Reindeer Lake the weather turned warm, sunny and clear making for a good drive to the lodge. 

With the early spring this year was completely different than 2009.  Wollaston Lake was completely ice-free on the south end of the lake where we do the majority of our fishing.  If anything we could do with a little rainfall as it is very dry in northern Saskatchewan and a good rain would go a long way to reducing the threat of fire. 

June 15, 2010

The weather for our first trip of the 2010 season has been ideal with sunny, warm days and light winds.  Fishing is off to an excellent start with guests catching and releasing 175 pike over 36 inches.  Ken Conley recorded the largest pike of the trip with a health 48-1/2" pike.  Dave Lentz takes top honours for the most "Monster Pike" with 26 over 36" and 11 over 40" during his 4-day trip.  Dave's largest pike was a 47-incher on a fly.

The pike are still being found in the bays, but the cabbage weed patches are already starting to come up in the south end of Wollaston so the pike will be moving into transition from their spring habitat to their summer hunting grounds fairly soon.

June 23, 2010

During the two trips from June 15 - 23 a number of great fish were caught and released on Wollaston, at our daily flyout lakes and at our Spence Lake outpost camp.  The Durose party, who spent the week at Spence Lake reported catching good numbers of pike with the largest of the trip being a 44-incher caught by Bill Johnson.  The walleye fishing on Spence was exceptional with many walleye in the mid-20-inch range caught and released. 

The largest pike during the June 15 - 19 trip was a 44-1/2" pike caught and released on Poulton Lake.  Fishing at the flyout lakes was very good with loads of 40-inch-plus pike caught on Cairns Lake, Wayne's Lake and Poulton Lake.  Briggs Lake produced both some good high 30-inch pike and some nice lake trout with a fat 39-inch laker caught and released by Don Plumpton June 18th.

Don Alger and his son Andrew both topped the "Big Pike Log" with 42 inch pike caught on Wollaston. 

From the 19th to the 23rd the Brackin group took over the camp.  They had excellent fishing both on Wollaston and at the daily fly out lakes.  Chad Murphy caught the largest pike of the trip with a fat, 47-inch northern.  Chad was followed closely by Courtney Brackin and Troy Jack who both caught and released 46-inch pike.  On a daily fly out to Wayne's Lake Trevor Nutt caught and released two 16 inch grayling as well as a number of smaller fish.  Trevor also caught a 41-1/2" northern on his fly out trip.

During their 4-day trip the Brackin party caught and released 68 "Board Fish".

June 27, 2010

All the fishing was done on Wollaston Lake during the June 23 - 27 period.  al Owens and Diane Harrison shared top spot with 45-1/2 inch northerns.  Our guests are catching and releasing loads of mid-sized (30 - 40") pike, but the real "hogs" haven't been very active.

Mepps and Blue Fox spinner baits have been proving the most effective lures to entice the pike to bite. 

Our guests have also been hving good success catching lake trout.  We have some good trout fishing only a few minutes boat ride from the lodge.  Guide Dave Keen took brothers Matt and Trent Kusar on a bit of a boat ride to spend a few hours fishing Trout Narrows.  Both brothers caught lots of lakers with the largest trout being several 29-inchers, which they caught and released.

July 1, 2010

Weather during the the last trip of June was unsettled with wind and rain predominating.  In spite of the weather several large pike were caught and released by our guests.  Jim Neubauer set the standard with a 48" pike caught on a red and white Daredevle.  Not to be outdone, Gene Wise caught and released the largest pike of the season on June 29th - a healthy 49-incher, on a green and silver Little Cleo. 

Fly angler Vincenzo Peneriani, who was attending a conference in Canada, took a little time to head north and indulge in some fly fishing for Canadian pike.  He and his companion, Maria Delgado, were rewarded with a number of "Board Fish" -the largest of which was 46 inches caught on a streamer.

July 8, 2010

We had a little bit of a break the first week of July as there were only a few people in camp.  Pat and TJ Folliott had the lodge to themselves the first half of the week and enjoyed the experience of having the south end of Wollaston Lake almost exclusively to them selves.  They took advantage of this opportunity by catching 26 "Board Fish" with the largest pike being a nice 47 inch hog caught by Pat on July 3rd.  TJ had a number of nice 44 and 45 inchers, but yielded the 2010 fishing crown to his father Pat's 47.

Three generations of the Theilen family also enjoyed the solitude of our Spence Lake outpost for the first half of the week, then joined Pat and TJ at the main lodge to fish Wollaston.  Spence was productive for both walleye and northerns.  Many of the walleye were in the mid-20-inch size range.  The big pike weren't co-operating on Spence, but Rick did record a 40 incher.  The Wollaston Lake pike proved to be more accommodating as Jon, Rick, Ron and David all caught and released 44 inch pike.  Between them the group caught 35 pike over 36 inches with 21 of these over 40 inches.

July 12, 2010

Our daily fly out lakes were busy during the July 8 - 12 trip with multiple fly outs every day.  The fly out lakes were productive with many trophy pike caught and released, however Wollaston produced the largest fish. 

Ted Northam took home the cash for the largest pike with a 46 inch fatty caught on Wollaston Lake.  Jim Glen was just a hair's breadth away from sharing top honours, having caught and released a 45-1/2" pike on Wollaston the same day Ted caught his 46.  Tied for third place were Barney Cotton and Tom Smith, both with 45 inch pike.  Tom's was the only one of the top pike caught at a fly out lake - Cairns Lake.  Scott McLean and Tom Smith set the bar for the most pike caught in a day with close to 300 pike in the range of 32" to 39" caught and released on a daily fly out trip to Umpherville Lake.

The fly out lakes did produce some very nice walleye with good numbers of fish in the mid 20-inch range.

July 16, 2010

Guests have been catching large numbers of pike in the mid 30-inch range and also seeing lots of big fish, but most of the big ones haven't been on the feed.  Even with a small group in camp a number of 40-inch plus pike have been caught on Wollaston with the largest being 44 inches.  

Mike Langbehn and Scott Finner decided to try their luck on a fly out to Cairns Lake on July 13th.  They had one heck of a day's fishing catching over 200 pike and walleye with the largest pike being 47 inches.  Fifteen pipe were over 40 inches and many of the walleye were 24 inches plus.  Just to prove that the great fishing on Cairns wasn't a fluke they flew back the next day and had an almost repeat performance catching about 150 pike and walleye with 15 pike over 40 inches - the largest being 46-1/2".  Many of the big pike were caught on the "Buzzin' Frog" topwater lure and the guys had great fun watching the big pike hitting the top water bait. 

2010 Trophy Fish Log

Our 2010 season has produced some great fish both on Wollaston Lake and at our flyout lakes and outpost camps.  Our guests have caught and released good numbers of trophy quality pike, walleye, lake trout and Arctic grayling this season.  We'll try to keep the "Big Fish Log" current so watch for new fish to be posted weekly.

June 13, 2009

There is still lots of ice in Minor Bay, but the weather is warming, plus we've had wind and rain which should speed the break-up along on Wollaston.  Our first guests of the season arrive on June 15th as we've had to cancel our first two trips due to the late ice-out.  We understand that this is the latest ice-out on Wollaston since they started keeping records in the late 1800's.  So much for global warming in our "neck of the woods".

The ice has left our daily fly out lakes and the trophy pike fishing at our flyouts is exceptional - especially right after ice-out.  We will hve enough open water to fish Minor Bay Creek and South Minor Bay which are dynamite big pike areas early in the spring, consistently producing monster pike in the mid to high 40-inch range.

The staff has been in camp for a while and are anxiously anticipating the arrival of our first guests.  With the cancellation of the first couple of trips the staff had lots of time to get the camp ready and were able to pay attention to even the smallest details.  Our next update will fill you in on the first week's fishing.

If you are taking a trip to Minor Bay and want to check the weather conditions just follow this link to the Accuweather weather forecast for the Wollaston Lake area:
http://www.accuweather.com/canada-weather-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&postalcode=S0J%203C0&metric=0

2009 Trophy Fish Log

To check out the trophy fish caught and released by our guests this past season just click on the link below.  Come visit us at Minor Bay and add your name to the 2010 Minor Bay "Wall of Fame".