This is the time of the year where the theme of cleaning out the freezer is common. I’ve seen multiple social media posts pertaining to eating your freezer empty. In the spirit of this, I went searching in our freezer for meats to use up. It’s also a good time to remember you put those Canadian walleye fillets in the bottom of the freezer when you returned from your trip last year 😊

I love the fall time. For me, it’s the harvest season. During covid, I started a garden and also was keen to learn to eat from the land. Moose hunting and bird hunting are must dos for me each fall. There’s something about going out bird hunting. Walking through the bush and harvesting some tasty grouse to cook up fills me with a sense of satisfaction. Being a cook, I love to experiment with different ways to cook wild game. This method was suggested to me and has become my favourite go to grouse fingers recipe.

Ingredients:

Your limit of grouse (it’s 5 for us in our area)

Mustard

Flour

Fish Crisp Roasted Garlic and Butter Fish batter

Method;

Clean your grouse, remove from the bones.

Cut into fingers

Coat the fingers with mustard

Dust with flour

Toss in the fish crisp batter

Shallow fry in vegetable oil until golden brown

Serve with your choice of sauce: honey garlic, sweet thai or plum

Disclaimer: it’s hard to stop eating these goodies, fresh out of the pan!

Taken from Graham Saunders, Weather Whys, March 20, 2024 Edition

So, a local media headline today is “Spring to begin with abnormally cold weather”. The Spring Equinox took place at 11:06 PM yesterday. If the forecast overnight minimum of -22° takes place, it will be the coldest overnight since the end of February. Brrr, but comfortably above the record low of -28.9° C set in 1965. I usually hold off on weather predictions until the end of articles but here goes: – temperatures in the Thunder Bay area will become seasonal later in this week – the rest of March is likely to be drier and windier than normal. I’ve been talking about global trends in recent Weather Whys columns. I noted that a shift in climatic indicators took place in March 2023. Here are a couple more predictions. – The average temperature of the tropics (latitude 23.5° N to 23.5° S, 0° to 360° E) will likely reach 27° C in a few weeks and peak in early May. This has many implications, including for formation of tropical storms and for global food production. – The global average temperature will continue to exceed temperatures from one year ago for the next two seasons. All or most months this year will be 1.5° C or warmer than preindustrial temperatures (average 1850 to 1900). February was 1.6° C to 1.8° C above preindustrial. The above are my predictions. They are consistent with James Hansen, “godfather” of climatology and co-author of recent “Global warming in the pipeline” and Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Schmidt says, “And we haven’t really known what’s going on since about March of last year.” He has called the situation “disquieting.” Of course, it is speculative what happens at the regional level of Northwest Ontario. I suggest we apply a version of the precautionary principle and assume that the current El Niño and other global extremes are likely to disrupt supply chains. The coming growing season can provide an opportunity to hedge our bets about food availability. Increasing garden planting, planting in pots on decks and balconies and contracting to buy from local farmers are good options. Moving our food systems from “Nowhere” to “Now Here” (title of a recent article by Sarah Siska in the Chronicle Journal and the Climate Times) is prudent even if severe weather is not as I am predicting.

I have written many articles on how to catch walleye over the years. Most of those articles focused on ways to catch a nice feed of eater sized walleye. However, if catching a walleye with an eye the size of a silver dollar interests you, I have a recipe to make that happen. It involves trolling oversized, diving crankbaits with heavy trolling gear and some patience. You will also need to be on a water body in northern Ontario that can deliver a giant walleye. The folks at Wilderness North have already got that part covered.  So you just need to put the other ingredients together and you’ll have a real opportunity of catching the walleye of a lifetime.

I first got onto the big crankbait trolling game for walleye years ago on the Winnipeg River, in Manitoba. Although most anglers were jigging, my angling partner had us on a different program. We were trolling a variety of deep diving baits that could dive down to 20 feet or more. We used large, long rods and bait cast reels with line counters. Using a line counter reel allowed you to know exactly how far back the lure was behind the boat. The bites were few, but when they came, it was almost always a large fish. At one point, we had a double header of 30-inch fish, the kind of walleye most anglers dream about. Both fish had nailed the deep diving crankbaits.

I never forgot how effective that technique was, and have used it many times since, in the lakes and large rivers of northern Ontario. Let’s look a couple of the best deep diving crankbaits for walleye and where to fish them.

Deep Diving Crankbaits

There are quite a few deep diving crankbaits on the market these days and most of them will work when you are targeting trophy walleye. I’ve found the Rapala Deep Tail Dancer 11 to be effective for big walleye just about everywhere. It is my go-to crankbait when I want to try for a giant. The Tail Dancer 11 will get you down deep to 15 feet or more, even with heavier line, and has the large wobble and profile that giant walleye like. If the TD 11 seems too big, a TD 9 will work well. Have a selection of sizes. I’ve also found the jointed Rapala Deep Diving Husky Jerk to be a great trophy walleye lure. The jointed lure has greater wiggle and is a thinner profile, which can be good where walleye are feeding on smelt and shiners.

Speaking of smelt, the LIVETARGET Deep Diving Smelt is another favourite. The LIVETARGET Smelt has a great, shiny finish, suspends when paused and features a knocking sound underwater. The deep diving smelt can get down to 12 feet or more, depending on the line test and speed. That makes it a great lure on long flats where walleye might be cruising. The LIVETARGET Deep Diving Perch is also worth having in your crankbait arsenal. Walleye feed heavily on perch and have a hard time passing up an easy meal wiggling by.

As for colours, the already mentioned smelt/silver and perch are always worth a try, I’ve also had good luck with metallic perch and fire-tiger finished crankbaits. There are a number of glow finishes out there as well. Glow is worth a try in dark water or if you are fishing in low light.

Terminal Tackle for Crankbait Trolling

These days, I troll large crankbaits almost exclusively with heavy, fiberglass or composite rods such as a nine-foot Shakespeare Ugly Stik. You don’t need high density graphite when you troll deep diving cranks. You want a forgiving rod that will put up with abuse but has the backbone to handle a ten-pound walleye. Couple that with a line counting bait casting reel that can hold a couple hundred yards of 30-pound braid. I prefer braid for trolling as there is much less line stretch, but 15-to-20-pound monofilament will also do the job. Use a metal clip to attach the crankbait and, if pike are around, it’s ok to use a steel leader. Big walleye aren’t line shy so running a steel leader will save some unwelcome (and expensive) bite offs.

Trolling speeds can be on the fast side, but they don’t need to be breakneck. I find a speed of 2.3 to 2.6 mph gets the crank moving well and will trigger more strikes. Don’t be afraid to play with your speeds a bit, slowing down or speeding up as you see fit. The fish will tell you what they want. If the rod tip stops wobbling, there is likely weed or debris on the lure. A dirty lure won’t catch fish.

I often run the rods in holders as a crankbait does not need to be worked by an angler. If anything, constantly pumping on a fishing rod may turn fish off. Put your reel clicker on and set your drag so it will slip if there is a strike. A big walleye won’t always pull line if the drag is tight. Play a big walleye carefully, and don’t horse it in. You are not in a race.

Trolling Crankbaits Location

Much of the crankbait trolling I do for big walleye is on large flats of 10 to 20 feet. Flats are prime crankbait locations, especially if there are areas of cabbage weed and structure. The walleye may be deeper than that, but often the most active fish are in slightly shallower water or holding off the bottom a little bit. If there is a main lake point that sticks out onto a flat, it’s going to be a fish magnet. There are loads of reason why points attract fish, but you can assume that if there is a point, walleye will be holding somewhere near by. The larger fish may be a bit deeper, but they will be around. Trolling passes by a point should come at a variety of angles, so that fish get a look at the crankbait in different ways. If a wind is blowing in on a point, so much the better.

If you have the ability to mark reefs and rockpiles on electronics with GPS, it will help you map out trolling routes.  Make passes around the reefs and along the edges of them. Unless the reef is deeper than 10 feet or more, you may not want to troll right over it however. Deep diving crankbaits have the nasty habit of digging into rocks and cracks and that can mean lost lures. You will lose lures trolling, but the modern deep diving crankbait is not a cheap lure, so you won’t want to leave them all over the bottom. Using heavier line will help your retrieve more lures from snags, but it will also impact how deep you can get.

Give trolling with a mega crankbait a shot this season, you might catch the largest fish of your life.

Working at Wilderness North has always been an adventure in itself; from flying guests into Miminiska Lodge, to delivering supplies to our local northern communities, every day is exciting and different from the last. But the adventure doesn’t always end at work.

This March a couple of my friends and I got the opportunity we have been waiting for when Krista invited us to stay at one of our outpost camps for a truly unforgettable fishing trip.

The journey began with a lengthy drive up the Marten Falls First Nation Winter Road, where we arrived at our entrance point and unloaded the snowmobiles. From there, it was a 2 hour ride through a chain of neighbouring lakes, occasionally broken up by a narrow access trail. The journey in itself was fun enough but we were eager to get our camp set up for the night and get onto the lake for some amazing fishing.

Even in the winter months the Ogoki Lake outpost camp was more than hospitable, (once we got a fire going) and we knew this was going to be one of our more comfortable ice fishing excursions.

The following day we were out on the hard water and were experiencing one of the best days of ice fishing we had ever had. The only difficulty we faced when fishing Ogoki Lake was trying to find walleye under the 18 inch mark. Even still, we kept our limit of fish for a shore lunch and dinner that evening, but were not done fishing for the day as we were in search of big pike that afternoon. Sure enough, we hooked onto multiple 40+ inch pike using nothing more than a simple jig and a minnow. Truly unforgettable fishing.

After another night and day of fishing, we were ready to pack up and close camp. None of us were all that eager to leave. We are all very fortunate to be able to take advantage of the amazing area we call home, and the great resources we have working at Wilderness North which made a trip like this possible.

I am looking forward to seeing Ogoki Lake thawed out and green this summer and cannot wait for the good times ahead, but secretly I’ll be thinking about it frozen over and covered in snow more than most.

KC’s Moose Curry

A family favourite of ours, it’s one of the first things we make after we get our moose (or this year, get gifted some).

The moose can easily be subbed with venison, elk or even beef. For years, when the kids were young, I fooled them into thinking they were eating beef. I made stews, pot roasts and spaghetti sauce with moose meat and they thought it was beef 😊

I find using moist heat methods best for cooking moose and making sure it’s cooked low and slow.

The key to this recipe is to get all your prep done first. You will need the following ingredients:

2-4tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, medium diced

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced ginger

2lbs cubed moose or meat of choice (I used a sirloin moose steak)

¼ cup curry powder

2tsp Kashmiri Chili powder

½ can Beer (drink the rest while cooking)

1 can coconut milk

3 tomatoes chopped (small dice)

1tbsp tomato paste

3 carrots chopped (medium dice)

2 cups cauliflower (fresh or frozen)

1 cup green beans (fresh or frozen)

**Can also use potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash

Salt to taste

Method:

Put a liberal amount of olive oil in a dutch oven, heat on medium heat (use a bit more that you usually would as you need to not only soften the aromatics, but also cook the spices).  Add onions, garlic and ginger. Sprinkle with about a tsp of salt. Cook until translucent and soft. Add curry powder and cook until a paste forms. Add your cubed meat and brown. Add the tomato paste and tomatoes. When things look brown and lovely, open your beer and put half into the pot. Chug the rest and open another to cook with. Stir so everything is incorporated. Cook for an hour on low heat. Add the coconut milk and cook for another half hour. Next, add vegetables based on how long they take to cook. In this case, I added the carrots and cooked until they were just starting to soften. About 10 minutes before serving, I added the frozen cauliflower and green beans. Cook until tender crispy. Adjust seasoning—adding more salt if needed. Serve over steamed rice with mango chutney and warm naan.

Start by taking the average temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) over the past 24 hours. Let’s say that the daytime high yesterday was 30° F and the nighttime temperature last evening was 20° F. This means the average temperature was 25° F. Now, subtract the average temperature (25° F) from the freezing point of water (32° F) and we get 7°… or more importantly, seven freezing degree days (FDDs).

That was simple, right?

Now, everything kicks into gear when your favourite lake first develops a thin coating of ice. From this stage on, the ice will typically increase in thickness at the rate of one inch per 15 freezing-degree days (FDDS). So, if we go back to our example, this means that if there were seven FDDs over the last 24 hours, the lake added about half an inch of ice.

Of course, we know that ice builds up more quickly when there is a slight to moderate breeze, no snow on the surface, and clear skies. Snow, in fact, acts like a thermal blanket and serves to keep the frost from penetrating the surface of the lake and the ice. As a result, deep snow cover will slow down the ice formation process significantly.

Small and moderate size stocked trout lakes usually offers the best early-season bets for the eager ice angler.

Indeed, as I’ve mentioned in the past, this is why lakes in the high Arctic don’t freeze into a solid block of ice. At some point, the snow and thick ice act as a down jacket to stop the water from freezing any further.

Here is a formula that keeps track of how much and how fast ice is forming on Ontario Lakes. The detailed diaries using the chart below use data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The good news is that many of the lakes across Northern Ontario are now beginning to be covered with ice. And if you keep track of the high and low temperature each day, you can accurately determine how fast it is building up.

Lake trout are a species some anglers visiting northern Ontario for the first time may not have ever fished for. Lake trout are a native species to the province and are also one of the larger sport fish out there. Some anglers use a contraption called downrigger to get these fish, but there is some extra rigging involved. In my estimation, the best way to appreciate the feeling of a large lake trout putting the brakes on a bait is to go old school. This means using weights, large lures and some medium to beefy rods. There is something supremely satisfying bait catching trout this way. Here is how to use old school tactics to catch lake trout.

 THE THREE-WAY RIG

          When it comes to fishing on bottom and keeping direct contact with it while trolling for lakers, the three-way rig is the way to go. It’s a low-tech rigging and requires some preparation to do properly. The basic three-way rig is this: A three- way swivel, with dropper and weight off one eye, and leader and swivel off the other. For most of the lake trout fishing I do with three-way rigs, the dropper is about three feet long, and has a weight that varies from three to eight ounces. Most large lead weights are long and skinny, although round weights are my preference. The heavier the weight, the more vertical the presentation to the trout. The leader to the lure should be the same length as the dropper. This will make it much easier to handle and allows you to land the sinker and the fish at the same time. Matching leader and dropper may not sound important, but a six-ounce weight that is not in control when you have a large fish flopping in the net can become a potential problem.

          As for the test weight of leader and dropper, a lot depends on what you are running as a main line. This type of fishing requires a stout baitcasting rod and reel. I use a rod that is about seven feet long with a large capacity reel.  The main line is 20-pound test monofilament. The leader and dropper are both 15-pound test. Top grade, ball bearing snap swivels attach both the sinker and the lure.

          Lures used for three-way rigging should be large, light and flashy. My go to spoon is a Willams Wabler in silver (hammered or smooth), silver and gold, or silver and blue. The Williams Whitefish is a longer profile option, and I’ve caught some nice trout on it as well. Other good three-way spoons include the Toronto Spoon, Doctor Spoon and Canoe Spoon. You can also run a large crankbait like a floating Rapala or Rebel Minnow.

          Trolling with a three-way rig for lakers requires a slow speed, under two miles an hour. Check the action of your spoon with the speed you are trolling before you drop it down. Let the weight go right to the bottom and lift the sinker off just enough to touch every once and a while. This lift/drop action can trigger a strike.

BANANA WEIGHT TROLLING

          Banana weight trolling is most often used when fishing off the bottom. The cool thing about banana weights is they are streamlined and troll well with a wide variety of lures and presentations. Most of the banana weights used will be between two and six ounces. I use line counter reels for this technique as they allow you to get very specific about where your sinker is in relation to depth. This may involve some trial and error, but in time you will have a good sense of what depth your gear is running at when you let out say 75 feet of line. Then, if you get a fish there, the line counter reel can get you right back to that depth quickly. Run a three-foot leader of 15-pound rest monofilament off the banana weight and attach a metal clasp. Super simple but deadly.

LEAD CORE LINE

For those who prefer not to use heavy weights, lead core line is an option. This line, as the name suggests, has a lead core covered with a coloured material. Every 30 feet of line the colour changes. The cool thing about this is that each 30 feet of coloured line equals a depth of five feet down. So, if you let out four different colours of line, that equals 120 feet of lead core line. That four colours of line will put your lure down 20 feet. This simple equation allows pinpoint trolling. I don’t suggest lead core if fish are super deep, like below 40 feet. Often you can troll lead core at 20 feet in the summer and fish that are holding off reefs and points will swim up a grab the lure. Lead core is also super effective in late spring and early fall when lake trout are not yet shallow but have begun moving up from deeper water. Use a large bait cast reel and a softer rod for lead core as there is no stretch. A lead core line of 18 to 20 pounds will be fine in most situations. Use about four feet of 15- 20-pound test monofilament as a leader. Any lake trout lure already mentioned will work.

 Old school lake trout fishing requires a little more hands-on work along with some trial and error. However, if feeling the strike and the first few headshakes from a big laker do it for you, this is the way to go. These techniques are classic, exciting, and very effective. What more do you want out of your fishing day?

Sidebar: ELECTRONICS

There is nothing wrong with kicking it old school, but having some form of electronics will help you. Seeing the depth, reefs and humps, and any fish on them, will make an astounding difference to your success. I highly recommend having a unit with GPS capabilities. You can mark any hump or structure as well as groups of fish that may be on flats with a way point. Marking fish is also a key. If the fish are hugging bottom a three-way rig and spoon will usually dredge them up. Fish five to 10 feet off the bottom are very active and liable to chase a lure that us tolled higher in the water column via banana weight. I often use a split screen and set one to zoom.

Walleye Chowder 

Ingredients 

• 8 slices thick sliced bacon  
• 1 large onion, chopped  

• 1 stalk celery, chopped  
• 1⁄4 cup flour  
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced large  
• 1⁄2 cup white wine  
• 2 cups fish stock or 2 cups chicken stock  

• 2 cups milk  
• 1⁄2 green pepper, chopped  
• 1⁄2 red pepper, chopped  
• 1 cup frozen corn  
• 1 bay leaf  

• salt  
• pepper  
• 2 lbs deboned walleye or pike fillet, diced large,same size as potatoes  
• ½ cup croutons 

Directions 

• In a large saucepan, saute bacon until crisp. 
• Remove, drain, crumble bacon. 
• Set aside. 
• Remove bacon fat from pan, leaving one tablespoon in pan. 
• Add celery and onion to pan. 

• Saute until tender. 
• Sprinkle with flour, stirring constantly. 
• Cook 3 minutes. 
• Add potatoes, stock, wine and bay leaf. 
• Simmer until potatoes are barely soft. 

• Add all remaining ingredients. 
• Cook until the walleye is just tender. 
• Do not overcook. 
• Sprinkle crumbled bacon and  croutons over the top and serve. 

Dr. Jeff Wells is carefully watching the aftermath of what is now the few remaining embers of the attack by wildfires in the Boreal Forest. His podcast is enlightening as we know our Boreal wilderness is home  to millions of migrating and breeding birds.