GadgetMan and Chms really wanted to travel to the north end of Kawnipi and hit the Poet Chain of lakes. They really wanted to have a smoke on Have a Smoke portage. Since Kristen_E wanted to try her luck at laker fishing, and SmallieSaver wanted to change his name to LakerSaver, we all collectively decided to head to a known and supposedly guaranteed laker lake. Dave_B and SmallieSaver would take one canoe, and Kristen_E and I would take the other. Keewatin was my idea, and since I’ve had quite a bit of luck targeting lakers in the past, I was put on the spot with regards to sticking and CATCHING some lakers. We would not be disappointed.

I had been to Keewatin before. One of my friends from one of the bulletin boards told me about Keewatin being a decent laker lake. We were able to catch them in Keewatin a few years ago, so I figured we would also be able to target and catch them again this year.

I told everyone in the group exactly what I was planning on using for lakers and how I planned on fishing them……..Trolling and bottom bouncing. I had some great husky jerk rapala crank baits and some 2 oz bottom bouncer hair jigs that I purchased just for laker fishing.

The paddle and portage to Keewatin was not too bad. The Portage is very rocky, but besides that, it is a pretty normal portage.

Once we were on Keewatin, Kristen_E and I setup both a bottom bouncer and a trolling rig for each of us. The crank baits were setup 1 oz lead weight followed by a swivel, and a 2 ft leader, and then the rapala husky jerk crank bait. This would get the crank bait down to the level the fish were located. We would troll at about 1 or 2 miles per hr………We used the fish finder to locate and track lakers and baitfish in 70 ft of water. This was the magic depth.

It is a funny thing how electronics work. When Dave_B and SmallieSaver asked what depth we were at, I kept telling them I was finding fish suspended in 105 ft of water. These suspended fish were suspending in around 85 ft of water. This sounded exactly like what I had expected. Both Dave_B and SmallieSaver told me that my finder was wrong. According to their “back reel” and count the handle rotations, we were only in 65 ft of water. I called bullshit multiple times. Finally, I said “what, rely on my electronics or your count method……..personally I believe I will rely on my electronics”. After a few minutes of discussion, I reached down and readjusted the transducer. It is amazing that a suction cup attached transducer can actually twist up just enough to allow the reading to be incorrect. After readjusting the transducer, I told the guys we’re in 65 ft of water, JUST like I said.

Once the mess with just how deep the water was figured out, we continued fishing.

Kristen_E hooked up first. Initially she was not too sure that she had a fish, but once she had recovered 50 feet or so, she felt the difference between the pull and the drag of the lure. The laker did a death roll at the boat, but I was still able to get it into the boat and on the stringer. Fish one was hooked and on the stringer. NOT BAD.

Kristen_E and I would continue trolling back and forth over this area a few times. After the 4th or 5th pass, we switched to bottom bouncing. We had a couple bumps on the bottom bouncer rigs, but nothing that resulted in an actual caught fish.

This went on for an hour or so. We were both beginning to think it may be a lost cause. Dave_B and SmallieSaver were also having similar results. Two hours into our laker fishing experience we had exactly one laker in the boat, and only a few bites.

Kristen_E and I again switched from bottom bouncing back to trolling and dropped both of our rigs. On the first pass past the submerged reef on the northeast end of the lake, we both hooked up with lakers. I lost mine pretty quickly so I reeled in my trolling line to give Kristen_E a better chance of catching hers without getting tangled in my lines. As the laker got closer to the boat, her fishing rod made a couple really big bounces. Kristen_E kept saying how she thought this fish was not that big……I kept saying “I don’t think so…once this fish sees the boat, it is going to explode”. Kristen_E followed my advice and backed off the drag by a few cranks. We all use fireline, which has virtually no stretch. Since it doesn’t stretch, you’d better have some drag dialed in or you will break a rod or snap the line. We dialed in quite a bit of drag, and once the laker saw the boat it started ripping off drag. After a few minutes, it tired, and Kristen_E was able to recover the line.

To land the fish, I grabbed the fish behind the head, and flipped it into the canoe. At this point it went into a death spiral, throwing the trebles into my thumb. The razor sharp, partially barbed hooks penetrated my thumb, passed through the meaty portion of the inside of my thumb and then promptly pulled out. TALK about PAINFUL. It was a clean rip. Blood was everywhere. Some of it was laker blood; some of it was Geo blood. I finally got the fish under control and added it to my stringer.

This would go on for a few more hours. We trolled and bottom bounced for 3 or 4 hours that afternoon. Kristen_E would go on to catch 4 lakers that day. One of the lakers was very, very small so we let it go. I would also catch 1 laker but it was also too small to keep.

Dave_B and SmallieSaver would not catch a laker, but they would have multiple opportunities that simply didn’t pan out.

On our final pass through the lake, SmallieSaver and Dave_B called us over, and told us they caught a nice little laker. It was a pretty puny fish, and was much smaller than the other lakers that we had put on the stringer. They promptly came clean and told us the laker they had was the one that we threw back an hour earlier. It had died on top of the water, and was floating. Since it had died, we felt obligated to take it and cook it. It was pretty puny though.

Since Kristen_E was the only person to catch a laker that we kept, we dubbed her the “Queen of Keewatin”. We ended up calling her the Queen the rest of the trip…..

Dinner had been planned for promptly at 7:00pm. This would give the guys coming from Have a Smoke portage and Dave_B and SmallieSaver plenty of time to get back to camp. Kristen_E and I headed back around 3:00 or 4:00, since I had fish to clean, and I thought they would keep better cleaned versus uncleaned.

Back at camp, I put the fish in the makeshift live well that was at the campsite. I left them here as long as I could before cleaning and preparing them.

We cooked the lakers 3 different ways, along with asparagus couscous, which was fantastic.

One laker was stuffed by Kristen_E and baked, one laker was drenched in butter and lemon pepper, and the final laker was marinated in an olive oil/Italian salad dressing mixture that SmallieSaver brought exclusively for lakers. All 3 methods were fantastic.

After dinner, there was some more platy skinning and cigar smoking. Did I mention that spiced rum is pretty tasty?