Immediately after launching our boats, Neil Farrington and I are monitoring the structure of Wakami Lake. It’s a warm evening in mid-July as we make our way toward our campsite at the north end of the lake.
After we finish setting up our campsite, Neil and his wife, Melanie, jump in their red Lund to join my wife, Francine, and I over a series of graduated rocky shelves. It’s our first time here and we go with standby live-bait presentations. I’m pretty confident with my slip-sinker rig and fat night crawler, but it’s Francine who sets the hook less than five minutes later. It’s a big fish and I dip the net under our first walleye of the trip.
I photograph Francine releasing a sculpted 28-inch walleye. So far, Wakami Lake Provincial Park is making a pretty favourable impression on us.
Earlier in the day we met Operations Technician Peter De Jong at the park office. De Jong is an angler and suggested setting up at the group camping area at the north end of the park, but he first gave us a quick tour of Wakami’s three campgrounds.
There’s a total of 65 sites serviced by vault privies, boat launch, docks, and fish-cleaning stations, as well as canoe, kayak, and boat/motor rentals.
He did confide that the fishing had been slow lately and we suspected that the mayfly hatch may still be lingering. Indeed, once on the water, aside from Francine’s spectacular first fish, we only catch a few smaller walleye and pike. But it’s only the first evening and, with a 12-kilometre-long lake to explore from shoreline accommodations under towering red pine, we are all pretty optimistic.
We gather around Neil and Melanie’s giant percolator as the morning mist begins to dissipate over calm waters. Francine packs ingredients for a shore lunch and the Farringtons head out in search of fish. We catch up with them a few kilometres down the lake over an elongated rock pile off a sandy point. When Neil sets the hook, we watch intently.
“Another race car,” he says as he hoists a hammer-handle pike.
Just as I’m starting to wonder why there are no fish over this textbook walleye structure, Francine sets into a big fish. Just after I see a flash of white at the tip of its tail, it makes a hard run, putting a worrisome arc into Francine’s rod. She loosens her drag, a bit too much, and a loop of line gets tangled around her tip. The line breaks with an audible snap.
Finally, at 11:30 a.m. I land a 20-incher, and a half-hour later Francine follows suit. We rendezvous on a nearby sand beach and assemble a shore lunch of corn, fried potatoes, and walleye.
This is one of 20 backcountry campsites on Wakami. Although no longer maintained, the sites are part of the 76-kilometre Height of Land Trail traversing the rugged topography of the lake’s wilderness perimeter. We enjoy the tranquillity of the lightly used site as dark clouds roll in from the north.
Eventually pouring rain drives us from the lake.
Neil and Melanie are up early, determined to connect with a Wakami walleye. By the time we join them over a mid-lake shoal, Neil has had two fish break his line. “He almost cried,” Melanie offers. I don’t blame him; the bites have been few and far between from intriguingly strong fish and, with an increasingly strong northeast wind, fishing is becoming difficult.
The next morning is warm, calm, and sunny. Sadly, Neil and Melanie had to pack up and leave and Francine and I spend the misty morning paddling north of the campground, where tufts of spindly jack pine cling tenaciously to a group of small islands.
It’s noon by the time we head out angling, and the walleye are eager. We’re working structure off a main-lake point. I’d found the spot the day before, but it was too rough to fish effectively. Today is a different story; pulling live bait amongst boulders and along rock ledges accounts for a procession of strong walleye up to 24 inches.
We reposition ourselves over what we are now calling “Neil’s Shoal,” and it’s the same story. The fish that were so challenging to catch over the last few days are now cooperative. With the summer sun beating down and a slight breeze moving over calm water, I set the hook on another good walleye and think about how I’m going to break it to Neil and Melanie that they have unfinished business at Wakami Lake Provincial Park.
Contact:
Wakami Lake Provincial Park
190 Cherry Street, Chapleau
705-864-3114
www.ontarioparks.com/park/wakamilake
Getting there: Wakami Lake is southeast of Chapleau via Hwy 129, just off Hwy 667.
Cost: $30.50 per campsite per night
Originally published in the Ontario OUT of DOORS 2018 Fishing Annual
Contact Information
PO Box 2800 / 4601 Guthrie Dr.
Peterborough, Ontario Canada K9J 8L5
Phone: 705-748-OFAH (6324)
Fax: 705-748-9577
Join Our Newsletter
Watch
Shop
Follow
