Fished le Domaine Shannon, Lac Wahoo again

 A last minute airline change cancelled some of the family vacation plans. With my 14 year old stuck in town with not much to do, I decided to head back up to Le Domaine Shannon for another 5 day trip. After Eli's major success with last month, and the very big pike I lost at boatside, we were hoping for another shot at landing a monster.

Having never been to Lac Wahoo for pike this late in the season, I wasn't sure what to expect. Amazingly, all mosquitoes and black flies were gone, after being the worst I've ever seen there only 5 weeks earlier.

With the current Covid situation, the Domaine Shannon, hast lost a huge part of their revenue for the season. Being family own for over 50 years, it's sad for them, but I'm sure they pull though. With the government paying much of the payroll due to the pandemic, at least the workers still have jobs. They have put the extra free time to good use. Lac wahoo now has a brand new outhouse, a tap with running water in the cabins, and a fish cleaning table with running water outside. With a heavy duty Princecraft boat and bran new Mercury 4 stroke outboard, the place is more inviting now than ever.

Day 1:

We get to Lac Wahoo, and I noticed a slow leak in on of my tires. being 29 km away from the main camp, and with no one else at any of the cabins closer to us, I knew I had my work cut out for me the next morning. 

Hopped out on the lake for the afternoon / evening bite after breaking camp. Trolled until the wind died down a bit, no fish in sight. Casting results were much better, we landed 13 pike. Nothing really worthy of pictures, just quick releases.

I field test my new 3d bat from Savage lures. Did manage anything on it, but I low it's crawling action.

Day 2:

Morning casting bite slowed down considerably after staring off with back to back pike on our first couple casts just before sunrise. Didn't spend too much time fishing, knowing that I had at least 3 hours of tire issues to deal with. Luckily, le domaine Shannon has a small garage at the main camp, they were happy to plug the tire for me.

After we returned, we decided to do some wading. After Eli's leech ordeal last trip, we came prepared with waders. First two casts landed Eli and I a couple nice fish.

Walleye dinner was excellent :) 

After taking a few hours off for lunch and a bit of relaxing, we were back out for the evening bite. Again, mainly smaller fish, that hit a mixed variety of Heddon Spooks, with the original Zara Spook outperforming the others.

Towards the evening, I decided to tie on a special lue. My dad zl hand crafted this topwater lure in his later years. He had never had a chance to use it, and when he passed away, I put it into my tackle box, hoping to land something on it at some point.

The lure doesn't have much action on it's own, I just pop and twitch it erratically to make it come alive. I had thrown it a bit for Largemouth bass at Mijocama, but it seemed a bit to big for bass. On my last trip to Lac Wahoo a few weeks ago, I got many missed hits at it.

Exploring a small incoming river much farther than I've ever gone before, I finally landed a good pike on my Dad's lure!

One of the more memorable moment's of this summer for me, I was happy and proud to finally put that lure to good use in my Dad's memory.

Day 3:

Morning casting bite was very short, we were chased off the lake by rain, which had been forecast for most of the day.

When it finally cleared up, I did some solo wading. Again, the first couple casts throwing a Rapala Countdown were productive. 

That silly looking breathable mask did wonders keeping the biting flies off my face and neck.

With heavy winds, I knew we would be limited to trolling again. Over the years, most of our success trolling bites on Lac Wahoo came in the 12 to 15 foot range. Mainly pike, with the occasional walleye. As the last trip and the previous day's trolling was futile, I decided to switch depths. Keeping the boat in 6 to 7 feet, I ran a spinnerbait on the shallow line right up to the weed edges, and the deeper line running Rapala J-11 or Husky Jerk in the 3-6 foot range below surface.

The trolling move paid off, Eli and I started landing pike again. My first one ended up being the biggest of the trip. Not the monster I has hoping for, but very welcome trolling catch.

After some heavy thunderstorms throughout the day, The sun came out for the late afternoon / evening bite. Unfortunately, the bite had just about died down completely, but I did manage my first pike on this Rapala xr13 topwater lure.

Day 4:

The morning bite was completely dead. Eli had some more success, catching the only fish of the morning while wading. 

Back to shallow trolling in the morning, we start to pattern the lake. I noticed that most of out success came on a small stretch of lake, which had been extremely unproductive over the past decade's trolling experiences on Lac Wahoo. Bening that those trips were always in May or July, that may have explained the noticeable difference.

Eli and I decided to focus on the productive stretch of shoreline, and sure enough, the fishing was easier than the proveriable "shooting fish in a barrel". Over the next few hours, with tallied up about 20 more pike, but they were all very small, with the biggest one maybe reaching 2 lbs. Didn't bother with pics.

Last shot at a casting bite at sunset for pike was not productive at all, but I did manage a very small walleye on my Zara spook.

Day 5:

Another dead morning for casting, not bite or follows. Straight to trolling after breakfast, again, we started hitting small pike on the same stretch of shoreline.

We ended up leaving by mid afternoon, forgoing a few more hours of trolling for hammer handle sized "snot rockets". 

All in all, a very satisfying trip for us, where we had to overcome a crazy tough bite, as well as me being able to test out many new lures. Best of all, was landing my first fish on my Dad's zl handmade creation.

Hope to make it back to Domaine Shannon next June, as that is the only month I haven't been there yet, due mainly to my kids' school schedules. Apparently the best walleye bite of the year, and I'm quite sure it would be better for bigger pike as well.

The Domaine Shannon can really use the local business this season, if any of you are considering a fishing trip between now and mid September, contact them at: http://freshwaterphil.com/ledomaineshannon.cfm