Drove up north this weekend to a friends place in Authier-Nord, Québec. The plan was to go ice fishing most of the weekend wich is what we did!
The drive from Gatineau, QC to Authier-Nord, QC:
On friday, we fished on lake Macamic. It was quite cold, and we were happy to have a shack to shelter from the cold. We managed to catch a couple Walleye and kept 6. We were fishing with 15 lines.
Lake Makamic
View from inside the shack with a friend checking the lines
First Walleye of the weekend (Stizostedion canadense)
One of my nicest walleye of the weekend. (Sander vitreus)
On Saturday, the fun started! We went to fish on the river Wawagosic. It is located in the Bay James territory. It was also pretty cold with some pretty intense wind. But we had the forest to shelter from the wind. We installed maybe 30 lines. We caught about 30-40 fish, mostly Walleye. Only 3 walleye were kept. We also kept 5 northern pikes including a nice 8 lb one! Good day.
This is the lake and river Wawagosic:
Dom and Jo catching some nice fish
Me with their catch! hehe
Saturday night, intense filleting...
Now Sunday... Oh boy, I was not mentally prepared for that. My friends had to drag me at the end... I didn't want to leave!!
By far, best winter day of my life!! The weather was amazing. About 50 F, no wind and not a cloud in sight!! But the fishing, holy cow!! We drove up to Lake Wawagosic, and then did a couple miles on the skidoo. We were alone on the lake and we stayed there from 11 to about 6 pm. The final count was close to 70 northern pikes all in the 3-4 lb range with only 4-5 smaller than that. 70 pikes!! We couldn't keep up with the fish, and eventually had to reduce our number of lines from 21 to 15. Crazy! We had built water holes to keep those we caught alive. We had kept 31, chose 20 and released the rest. The 20 pikes we kept were filleted. Hmmm the pike in the north taste good!!
Photos:
View after arriving on the lake
When we arrived on the lake, Ben started drilling the holes, I was installing the lines and Dom was installing the minnows. He was lowering the first line in the water and he didn't even get the time to let the line go that he had this 3 lb pike at the end. A good start to day!
Lines installed the fun started!
Building a well to keep the fish alive
First pike of the day for me
A nice 4 lb 14 oz one
And another one
3 big ones
Putting the well to good use
You gotta love being on a lake with that weather and with plenty of nice fish! Can't beat that!
Eventually, we had to build a second well...
The girls put their effort into this snowman
31 pikes that we kept throughout the day, the final selection was 20 so 11 got lucky and were released
Sun going down... and the end of a wonderful day!
The 20 pikes filleted and packed! We ate a few and winter pike is amazing!! Better than walleye if you ask me.
