CALLING LAKES MONSTER
Our family has a cottage out on the Qu’Appelle lakes – my wife’s
family has been there for some 70 years. Growing up, our family had
a cottage out there too, and I have been fishing these lakes since
around 1990. Over the last few years I have enjoyed my time on the
water, fishing primarily by myself from 5am to 10am and then joined
by my now 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son from around 10am
until noon. We typically spend a month or more at the lake in the
summer, supplemented by almost every weekend intermixed with
work during the week. I fish roughly 300-400 hours every summer on
Echo Lake and Pasqua Lake mostly, due to our cottage location, but
also spending time on Mission Lake and Katepwa Lake. In 2011, the
year of the floods here, I landed my biggest fish at
that time in mid-June on a jig and leech in 10 FOW
– a 12.75lb beauty, and since then have had the
fortune of catching a handful of nice fish in the 8 to
10lb range. I don’t seem to catch many fish when
the kids are with me as every hook-up is passed
on, alternating between my two kids. I am proud
to say though that my kids are competent even at
their age at baiting, casting, netting, handling and
releasing their fish all on their own. My kids know
nothing but catch-and-release.
I have been catching fish all summer this year
having the best response on jigs and live bait and
deep diving cranks in shallow water (8-15 feet).
Usually the fish have moved deeper by this time
in the summer, but I managed to keep tracking
them down in the shallow water even once the
water had warmed up into the lower 70’s. I hadn’t
had much luck catching bigger fish this summer
bottom bouncing, so I stayed away from it for the most part. Until the
morning of August 12th that is.
I hooked up to this fish in 15 or so feet of water just after 6am pulling
a Mack’s Smile blade rig behind a 1.5oz bottom bouncer with a 36”
lead at 1.2mph. Water temps again were right around 70 degrees at
the surface.
I’m amazed at the size of this fish. I’ve only seen pictures of other
fish in this size class. I think more surprisingly though is the fact that
it came from the Calling Lakes system, which is not known for fish of
this size. I made a few and, as I understand it, this is likely the largest
walleye to ever come from this lake system. How cool is that!? I’m still
on cloud 9, riding out that feeling as long as I can.
Wild Guide
. Fall 2017
64