The Dupagne Classic-year 40 or 10

[limacharley]

I’m somewhat of a local guy with a camp on Kipawa. I spend about 20 extended weekends a year on Hunter’s Lake.  As Puckster can attest, you have to find time to fish in between working on the camp. But this particular weekend is reserved for fishing with our sons. My four cousins are city guys who don’t fish a whole lot.

In 1977, my dad and my uncle started a tradition of taking their sons fishing on Victoria Day long weekend. We did that for about 6 years then stopped. When I moved back to North Bay in 2006, I reintroduced the idea to the very same cousins and now we meet with all of our sons. So this year is either our 40th anniversary or tenth, whichever way you look at it. One of my cousins gave us all a t-shirt he designed. 

Eleven people were going in  for the May Long Weekend-Friday to Monday morning…..5 adults, 3 teens and 3 kids (11-12).
Friday morning was a travel day- one truck from Orangeville, one from Peterborough and one from Huntsville.  A  BBQ lunch at my house in North Bay then we set off around 1 pm. All licenses and beer were purchased at Pronature and STOP 102. I had leeches but didn’t even use them.

Two trucks drove into Hunter’s via the Windy Lake road- mileage 22 on Maniwake. I had left a couple of boats there so they could join us on the other side of the lake. My cousin launched his boat at the gov’t wharf and I pulled out of my boat house around 3pm. Everyone was at camp by 5:30.

Now for the fishing and weather:
Friday- the weather was good on the way in but windy. We could feel a cold front approaching after docking---the teens went out before dinner and caught a very respectable lake trout measuring 27 ½ inches but didn’t keep it. We teased them about that the rest of the night.
Our plan for both days was to leave by 7 am, return by 10:30, prepare and eat lunch; some may go out again for the afternoon, others could take a nap or play games,  return for dinner by 5:30 so we could do an evening fish from 7-9. We pretty much kept to that schedule for both days.

Saturday- Woke up to 0° and frost on the dock, lake was calm. It warmed up to +17 in the afternoon. We caught maybe 10 walleye, 5 pike and another laker. We only kept 5 walleye and 3 pike for a Sunday fish fry.  All walleye were males. One pike was 9-10 pound range; we released it to bless someone else another time. We sat around the campfire that evening and laughed. A couple of my cousins are really good story tellers.

Sunday- It started to rain in the night and when we woke up, it was still raining and it would continue to do so until very early Monday morning. That didn’t deter this bunch of city slickers-everyone went fishing a couple of times in the rain. The only time we didn’t was the afternoon as it was now down pouring. The kids played LIFE and cards; the adults drank and told stories.
We caught maybe a dozen walleye and another laker…this one too small, kept 6 walleye in the slot to bring home. The city boys don’t have many walleye dinners….

Monday- The guys that drove in started to pack their stuff while 2 boats went fishing. We landed 8 walleye and a laker at 23 inches. We could only keep 3 walleye. I boated the two groups back to their vehicles across the lake and we parted ways at noon. I quickly cleaned and vacuumed, washed the dishes etc….We left camp at 3 pm to return to my house in the Bay.

The fish are deep and haven’t spawned yet or are in the middle of the spawn. I cleaned all the fish and all the walleye were males. One walleye was full of may flies.  There were no bugs to speak of….a few blackflies on Saturday when it was sunny. My camp is in a bay at the end of the lake and the lot is usually wind swept. I don’t use bug spray.  This year’s derby winner was my cousin’s son Lucien from Orangeville.

[RHYBAK]

Very nice read and an excellent tradition.

Am I not related to you somehow?

[limacharley]

Very nice read and an excellent tradition.

Am I not related to you somehow?

Yes....your my brother from a different mother.

[RHYBAK]

Awesome
, so count me in next year Bro.

[Riverrat]

I agree they haven't spawned yet

[Fort Wisers]

Awesome report @limacharley thanks for sharing.