Sioux Lookout Part Two
Day three promised more great weather, but this time the wind was to be a factor in fishing success and location. After some discussion with the guides at Moosehorn Lodge, Jim and I decided we would trailer the boat to Big Vermillion Lake. This was only a short hop from the lodge, one of many lakes in the region that hold multi species.
TROLLING FOR TROUT
On this particular day we wanted to try for the lake trout that swim everywhere in this relatively large and deep body of water. Since the surface water temperature was only about 46 Fahrenheit in the main lake we figured the trout would be at all depths. Still, we wanted to let the fish tell us what they wanted so we started out shallow, working bays next to deeper water.
Jim was long lining a #7 Flicker Shad in the minnow colour and I was using a side planner which behind trailed a # 9 original floating Rapala, also in the minnow colour. It didn’t take long before we had our first fish, this time on Jim’s rod.
Our next fish hit on a rocky shoreline point, but unfortunately I was in the middle of a bathroom break and couldn’t react in time. As we headed to a set of narrows that accessed the main lake, Jim started marking quite a few fish in 22 feet. We decided to start trolling the back side of the narrows, an area that was seeing some nice current flush from a strengthening west wind. Bam, a bigger fish had just slammed my lure again, and this time it stayed hooked up.
Okay, Jim it’s one/one! We spent a half hour in this area, with two more decent sized lakers landed.
As we wended our way through the narrows, the wind continued to increase in intensity until we were dealing with a 40 kilometre an hour breeze. As it turns out, this wind was to be our friend. We had decided to try fishing a long narrow, shallow bay on the south end of the lake. The guides that this bay held a ton of smallmouth at certain times of the year. As we headed into the start of the bay, we continued to troll but I had changed over to the new Shadow Rap from Rapala.
This was the first time I had tried the lure, and it wasn’t in the water two minutes before it caught a fish. Surprise, surprise it was a beautiful lake trout caught in seven feet of water! Talk about fight, this thing ran all over the place in the shallow water. This was to be the start of a great pattern as we landed seven lake trout from this bay, all in water less than eight feet. With the wind howling, these fish were not spooked by the boat and many of the fish hit with a short 50 feet of line out. We also managed a perch and two healthy pike from this area but nary a smallmouth to be found. No matter, this incredible lake trout fishing more than made up for it.
