Bakers Narrows Lodge
Lake Athapapuskow
Manitoba, Canada
September 13-17, 2004

Sabrina and I somehow miraculously won a free fishing trip to Bakers Narrows Lodge the same year through a drawing. She and I flew up in the fall when the days were getting shorter and temperature was much cooler. I had heard Lake Athapapuskow being a very good lake trout lake and I had never caught one. On day one after unpacking and eating dinner, we went out to some islands just north of the lodge and thought we would try casting for pike. Well just as we got there I shut off the motor and thought we would make a couple casts. And then I tried pulling the cord to start the motor. After immensely pulling the cord the unthinkable happened… The cord plug snapped. We were stranded. Helpless. After some serious paddling and cursing a boat flew by,. We yelled and waved with a paddle stick and no response. And then there was hope. A light was heading towards. It was a boat. It was heading our direction. As it got closer we thought this is it we are going home. It was our host Rod coming out to find us as it was getting rather late. They took us in their boat and towed our boat into the dock. What an experience?!

On day two we were out trolling with several different spoons through a narrow channel and had hits but did not connect with a single lake trout. I switched to an original Dance ‘N Eel and wham something hit. I set the hook and told Sabrina to try and net it. After a short battle I got the fish up near the boat and she netted it. It was my first lake trout and length was 25 inches. I was cheering loud. For the next couple days we fished with our guide Jake and we trolled some of the same areas and caught several more lakers and pike. The hot lure of the week was a Mepps Flying C Spinner. On day four we did a fly-in to Waupun Lake. My goodness for the first few hours there we were pulling walleyes left and right on 1/4 oz. jigheads tipped with frozen minnows. It must have been over 100 fish caught between us. All walleyes were between 18″ to 21″. We had a wonderful time, ate great food, had a really nice cabin, and the staff took care of us and were exceptional!