An Outdoorsman’s Journal – 7-3-2013

Canadian fly in fishing on Shultz Lake

by Mark Walters

Hello friends,

Thirty-one years ago my brother Mike, my dad, the late Robert Walters, and family friend Elmer Schlief, along with myself flew into Shultz Lake via floatplane for the first time.  Shultz Lake is located 60 air miles northwest of Red Lake, Ontario, Canada and is the truest getaway that I visit.

Our cabin is the only one on the chain of lakes, it is owned by my good friends Peter and Elizabeth Hagedorn www.chimolodgeandoutposts.com and the fishing is excellent. This past week I returned to Shultz Lake with my daughter Selina, My brother Mike, his 12-year-old son Dylan, and my good friend Jeff Moll and his 15-year-old son Grant.

Saturday, June 15th
High 71, low 48

The turbo Otter landed at Shultz Lake around 7:00 this morning and we unloaded our gear and a crew from Mayville uploaded and headed home after their annual getaway.

Crazy as it may seem, fatigue is a big part of this first day as packing and travel, along with a bit of, a we made it shing ding, the night before tends to wear everyone down.

For the majority of this 7-day experience adults would be fishing with their kid and for me, this is Selina’s 10th fly in and we have a blast in a boat together.

Mike and his son Dylan do this trip every other year and Dylan despises trolling and loves casting. Dylan is also, very much, into running the motor and is very close to being an excellent outboard motor operator.

Today, Jeff and Grant, along with Selina and myself, headed north for a day of fishing and Mike and Dylan headed south.

We had only been fishing for an hour and both the Molls, as well as Selina and I, were catching walleye with ease by trolling with 1.5 ounce bottom bouncers rigged with a nightcrawler harness, when my brother Mike showed up without Dylan and told both Jeff and I that Dylan had a large hook in his knee.

We headed back to camp, assessed the situation and it was not good. The hook was from a DareDevle and Dylan was extremely upset.  There was not much we could do but tell the boy to “man up” as we cut the hook off from the lure and then ran it forward through the skin on his knee.

Moments later Dylan was fine and we all went fishing, later we had a fish fry and all was well in our world.

Monday, June 17th
High 75, low 52

Today was a big day for everyone in camp!   Dylan and Mike would fish Shultz and by days end Dylan would land a 37-inch northern pike, which would be winning our big northern pike of the week bet.

Jeff and Grant would make a 7-mile boat ride and then portage to another lake, where they would do some recon work on storm damage, (fallen trees on the trail) and check out a beaver dam that was blocking access to another lake. By days end, Grant would land a 36-inch northern pike and get a hook embedded in his hand.  Jeff videoed the entire removal and Grant removed the hook himself.

Selina and I portaged to another lake with a solid goal and that was to catch this group’s first lake trout ever.   We would be trolling with 3-ounce weights and would be using Red Eyes that were tipped with a walleye gullet.

I speed trolled in 35 to 65 feet of water and just before we were gonna give up and go chase gators and walleyes, a car battery with fins hit my Red Eye.  The fight lasted about ten minutes and when the trout came to the surface, my fishing partner did an excellent job with the net, and after 31 years, the Canada gang had finally caught a lake trout (they are only on one lake and you have to portage to get to it)!

After the trout experience, we went walleye fishing and Selina and I enjoyed non-stop catching of walleye in the 18 to just under 25-inch range.

Today for the first time, in a long time, I was not tired and once again realized what an excellent place this is to go on vacation.

Thanks for reading!  Sunset

THIS WEEK’S COLUMN IS SPONSORED BY: Ormson’s SuperValu