Day One on Tobin Lake

Day one of our late fall adventure turned out to be just gorgeous, warm and calm. Friend Jim Price and I had arrived the day earlier from Winnipeg on our annual fall trek to Tobin Lake, Saskatchewan. On our trip last year, which you can read on this blog spot, we drove up all night on icy roads. Not this time, it was smooth sailing all the ways up to the Tobin Lake Resort were we met up with all our friends from Carrot River. Given the beautiful weather it was an easy decision to make the twenty two mile boat ride out to the main lake. As was standard procedure, we started out trolling bottom bouncers and spinners along the main lake basin. Captain Boyd Holmen was on the role to start the day, landing six of our first seven walleye. Nightcrawlers hooked behind a pink colorado blade was the ticket most of the day. By three in the afternoon though, things slowed down quite a bit and we decided to anchor up on a point that extended into the main basin. I should clarify the word anchor, because Boyd had the new I Pilot from Minnkota and all he had to do was hit the “anchor feature” on his front troll motor and the boat would stay in position. What a bonus when you are fishing in snaggy conditions or for big fish and not have to worry about an anchor rope. You can get a bit of sway when windy but on this day the boat kept positioned perfectly. We started catching fish right way with Jim hooking and landing six walleye this way. I was also into fish, setting the hook on the biggest walleye of the day, a solid nine pounder on a jig tipped with a Nipawin big chubby minnow which Boyd had brought along. The key for us this whole trip in triggering walleye bites was to hook the minnow up through the back of the head so it pointed straight towards the jig head. After landing a few more walleye and some bonus pike we headed back down the reservoir marveling at the good fortune we had with the weather this last week in October.