Oh Canada!
Travis Frank
Last week I experienced my first Canadian fishing trip. I can't believe it took me 29 years to make it happen. Well, all the hype about fishing in Canada is true. It's the best freshwater fishing in North America, hands down. My trip was focused on filming a television show so it wasn't like I had free reigns to just fish every day. The trip was very much structured to film specific segments with specific people.
The first two days we filmed walleye segments with a few of the locals. Each trip it was ridiculous how many walleyes we caught. A few things stood out to me while filming the walleye segments. First, Canadians are spoiled by their fishing. If they don't catch a walleye every 5 minutes they consider it tough fishing and start talking about how the weather messed it up. Also, if it isn't over 5 pounds, it's not worth talking about.
I learned that presentation isn't as important up there as it is back in good ol' Minnesota. I'm certain that a few of the lures that we used wouldn't even catch milfoil down here. Essentially, a 1 ounce jig hooked on a bunch of metal swivels, tied directly to 40 lb braided line AND tipped with a sun dried leech, will still catch you a 5 pound walleye. That would never happen on Lake Minnetonka. Also, as long as you are near the reef and somewhat close to the bottom, you'll get bit. No need to worry about specifics.
Walleye fishing is really good up there. So are the sunsets, sunrises and all the views in between.
After the walleye slaughter was finished, I had a day of fishing to myself. My goal was to film a segment based on adventure. Without a guide, or any kind of direction, I wanted to explore waters that I never fished and catch something big. I chose the obvious - muskie!
If I wasn't sold on muskie fishing in Canada before, I am now. It took about 15 minutes to find the fish. It took about 10 more to boat one. Muskies in Canada are not like muskies back home. They don't have the pressure we have, therefore the action is constant. We filmed what I believe will be a very cool muskie piece. We have footage of muskies eating on the figure 8 and muskies completely airborn. We filmed many incredible explosions and mishaps, and what might be my biggest rookie mistake in years. I look forward to this piece hitting the air, and will post an air date when I know more about it. Until then, here's a couple of shots to show you why a trip to Canada is something that you have to do in this lifetime. Minnesota is a wonderful place to fish, and we are blessed by what we have, but I have to say that Canada is still one up on us. Until next time, keep on livin' the dream!