A Family full of Fishermen

October 20, 2018

What’s not to love about Cairns Lake located a 180 miles North of Nestor Falls? The lake has some of the finest Walleye and Northern fishing in all of Northwestern Ontario. The Hartquist family has been fishing with us for over 30 years – and we’re so thankful for their patronage. We always say one of the best parts of this visit is that we get to make lifelong friends and see families grow up together.

Even after 30 years, this trip to Cairns brought a lot of new experiences. Not only did they see snakes, but Randy’s 12 year old grandson was reeling in a Walleye, and a Northern came out of nowhere and grabbed it! While they were all very surprised, they were able to bring it into the boat, and it measured at 44 1/2 inches. There’s always something new to see out in the Wilderness!

This year they released so many fish that they couldn’t even keep count – though they said that they easily released more than 100 per day. On their last day on the lake, Randy & his son-in-law released more than 160 fish, and Randy’s grandson released more than 200!

The largest Walleye was 27 inches and the next largest was 25 3/4 inches they had several in the 18-22 inch range. It wasn’t just the big Walleyes that were biting, they managed to catch 4 trophy-size Northern Pike in the 42 inch range, 43″, 431/2 and 441/2.

All their Northern’s were caught on jigs – sometimes with minnows and sometimes with crawlers, but they all seemed to be at the bottom under about 15 or 20 feet of water. Randy thought they were deeper this year due to the hot weather and the lower water levels. Keep that in mind when you’re heading up to Cairns.

Escape to the Wilderness!

Dave & Michelle