Sabaskong Bay Trip

Northbound we headed! Where? My favorite body of water Lake of the Woods and my favorite place the Sabaskong Bay area. I decided to take a break from guiding and took my Dad, Steve, and my Brother, Joe, on this fishing adventure.

Prior to planning the trip I knew we were going to be targeting walleyes. I didn’t know where to take my Dad. I wanted him to have a blast catching fish. I thought about Lac Seul and some of the more renowned big walleye waters but we didn’t have a whole week so I wanted as much fishing time as possible. So it was Sabaskong Bay.



We arrived at Mylies Place and Daryl, Ellen and Justin greeted us as we drove in. They have to be some of the nicest and best hosts around. We purchase our license and got the run down on the fishing from Justin. Talking with Justin it sounded like the muskies were still in transition from their spring locations to there summer home and the walleyes were out on the rock reefs but had lots of forage from the mayfly hatch. I have to admit I was little worried about the bite and not to mention the wind was roaring out of the west!

We headed out fishing right away and I was pumped to be on this body of water. It’s just paradise to any fisherman. On our way out to the walleye spots I knew we were going to pass a few musky spots and I couldn’t resist. “Dad do you mind if we cast a few spots?” I asked my Dad. He just smiled and said, “Yes”. We fished one of my favorite spots and didn’t see a thing. I couldn’t believe it so I talked him into one more spot. I was casting a jointed Super Stalker made by Drifter Tackle and on a long pause I felt my bait stop. Fish on! I handed the rod to my Dad and the battle was on. We landed our first fish of the trip and it was a healthy 40 incher. “OK that’s all I need. Lets go fish walleye’s.” I was pumped! We fished a few mid lake reefs and caught some decent fish on Kenkatch Banana Jigs and a minnow, leech and a few on Berkely Gulp. The wind was cranking so I couldn’t really fish several of the spots I would have liked. It is pretty important to stay vertical while fishing these rock spots because of the snaggy rocks and as soon as you let that jig drift it will get hung up. After setting the hook and catching a few more walleyes we headed in and to unpacked. The cabin was beautiful, clean and right on the water. We cooked some brats and got ready to head back out on the water.

My Dad had the itch for another musky so we went out that evening for a couple of hours and had a few follows and one that almost bit a topwater bait right next to the boat. It was great to see my Dad’s expression after the fish turned away from his bait. “Did you see the size of that?” He remarked. It was awesome!

That night we ran into “Prairie Dog” a local guy who stays at Mylie’s Place. He showed us some spots that were holding some walleyes. I couldn’t wait to get up the next morning to fish some of these spots.



We got up; cooked some breakfast, got bait and gas from Jordan, stud hockey player, and we were off. We pulled up on our first spot and started catching fish right away. We blew up a little on the edge of a reef and as I started to back out Joe set the hook. “This is huge, Jeff, this is really huge!” he said and I grabbed the video camera and my Dad grabbed the net. We didn’t know what it was? I thought sturgeon and then maybe musky but the whole time my Dad said it’s a huge walleye. I mean this fish was doggin Joe and he couldn’t move it. I could have had a cup a coffee and caught a bunch of fish by the time Joe landed this fish. Around and around the boat Joe went. Well final the battle was won and the fish came up and with one scoop of the Beckman Net my Dad captured a 30 inch monster walleye. This fish was built like a tank! We took some great pictures of the fish and let it go! After a bunch of high fives and even a few hugs we got back to fishing. It’s amazing what a big fish does to a bunch of macho men. Hugs? We spent the rest of the day catching walleyes, saugers, a nice pike on a pink Rapala Pink X-Rap and some really nice perch. We had a blast but other then the monster 30 incher we struggled to find the solid 20 inchers. So I had to figure out a different game plan. Went home and cooked some awesome fish but we were a little short on the fish batter so we added some pancake mix and honey graham crackers and let me tell you it was good. I will be trying that again!



We were fishing pretty far West of the resort and I thought for the last day we should stay close. We got up cooked another amazing breakfast and were off. We didn’t go two miles from the resort and started fishing. We still were fishing with jigs and didn’t really find too much on the first two reefs. We went to the third reef and started jig fishing and didn’t have much happen besides a couple of 18 inchers. I was marking a lot of fish about three to four feet of the bottom. I was using my new Lowarance HDS-10 and I can’t believe how awesome it is. I decided to switch tactics and boy I’m glad I did. It was a lesson learned; trust your electronics. Not ten minutes into it my Dad caught a 28 incher (walleye) and after that is was 27, 26.5, 27 and so on. I can’t tell you the exact number but it was gang busters along with several 20 inchers and little ones to boot. We stayed in that same area and put the hurt bag on em’ the rest of the day!



Overall what a trip and what can I say I was proven wrong. This was by far one of the best big walleye trips I have been on and I have fished all over “big walleye” waters. Big walleyes, Big Muskies, Big Pike, the wilderness, great resort (Mylies Place) and only 45 minutes from the border. What more could you ask for?

Thanks Dad and Joe for an amazing trip and thanks Mom and Kristine for letting the boys go out and play.

If you are thinking about a trip to Canada I would defiantly recommend Mylie’s Place. You can find them at www.myliesplaceresort.com Mylies Place Resort