Michael Furtman's Wilderness Walleyes Keeping it Simple © Michael Furtman
Wilderness also has a way of stripping away the excess from our lives. Perhaps that is its greatest value. Far from roads, with all the equipment needed for a week stuffed into packsacks, we discover we are resourceful and that the hype that surrounds our daily lives and our recreational pursuits can stand a trimming. Even our walleye fishing falls to this shearing. This is the lure of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Ontario's adjacent Quetico Provincial Park. Thousands of pristine lakes and hundreds of miles of rivers comprise these largely motorless wilderness areas. It is the most ideal canoe country on the continent and contains excellent angling opportunities. Visiting here forces one to make tough fishing equipment choices. My guess is, once you whittle down your gear, you'll discover how complicated we've made our angling. From sophisticated fish finding electronics to global positioning scanners, the array of gear to which we've grown accustomed truly amazing. And most of it you'll be leaving at home. That doesn't mean your fishing need suffer. The key to any successful wilderness trip is planning, and that goes spades for wilderness angling. With both weight and space considerations paramount, thoughtful pre-trip evaluation is a must. Techniques
will need to change, too. Not that wilderness walleyes
are any less or more intelligent than those near home.
But since you'll not be zooming around under horsepower,
nor have at your disposal every electronic tool, smart
anglers will take the time to adjust not just equipment,
but their plan of attack. TACKLE NEEDS The rod and reel you've learned to love will suit you just fine in the wilderness. For walleyes, this usually means a medium to light action spinning rod, matching reel, and spools freshly filled with premium quality six pound monofilament. Yeah, I know. It is tempting to put on heavier mono, especially when the thought of big northern pike in the bush come to mind. Resist it. Light line means more success with the walleyes. Throw a spare filler spool in the pack. Limit yourself to one rod per angler unless the distance you plan to travel is short. In all my years in the wilderness, I've only broken one rod, and the careful angler should fare just as well. If it worries you, carry your rod in a case, or take just one spare rod for the whole crew. No sense in everyone doubling up. You need to give your lure selection some serious thought - or you can take my advice - but in either case you'll be packing less tackle than you would near home. If you think about it, chances are you enjoy most of your walleye success on just a few favorite lures anyway. Those are the ones that will make the wilderness trip. In most cases a selection of stick baits (Rapalas, Rebels) in perch, silver, and gold finishes, and crankbaits in similar colors, will catch all the walleyes you desire. A few bead chain sinkers in 1/8th and 1/4 ounce sizes will put the fake minnows down to walleye depth when trolling. Though I often use the stick baits to help locate walleyes, it doesn't take me long to switch to something else once we're on top the fish. As you've probably guessed, that switch ends with a jig on my line. Rubber bodied jigs in 1/8th and 1/4 ounce sizes are the most reliable walleye lures. I like those with twister tails, and chartreuse seems to be the top color, especially in tea colored, bog stained, wilderness lakes. Other good colors are yellow, black, white, and purple. Northland Tackle's Whistler Jig has a little propeller behind the lead head that spins and vibrates, and which seems to really produce strikes in dark waters. For that same reason, jigs with spinner blades work well. Toss in
some extra rubber jig bodies in a variety of colors to
replace those that (hopefully) will get mangled by toothy
walleyes. Dousing artificial lures with liquid fish
attractant scents seems to improve your luck. All your
tackle should fit in a small five by nine inch plastic
pocket tackle box. LIVE BAIT There's absolutely no question that live bait will add to your success. The real question is whether you want to haul it on a canoe trip. Much depends on the length and the difficulty of your wilderness trip. Frequent portages and long distances means hauling live bait becomes a real pain in the back. If you'll fish only sporadically, artificial lures should do the job. But if your trip will focus on fishing, odds are you'll make the sacrifice to carry bait. Transporting minnows is a nuisance. Should you deem it necessary to use them, I suggest you carry a small, collapsible minnow trap or a short length of seine to capture minnows along the way. A handful of dry dog food makes good minnow trap bait. Minnows work well in spring and fall, but there are better choices during the summer. Nightcrawlers catch walleyes and are easy transport. The only real hassle with them is keeping them cool. Crawlers cook quickly in the sun, and really should be iced down during the summer. Since ice isn't available in the wilderness, should you bother with them at all? Nope. There is a better choice. Fortunately for us, walleyes love leeches. Fortunate because of all live bait, leeches are about the easiest to keep and transport. A half pound of leeches, enough for two anglers for a four or five day trip, fit nicely in a wide-mouth Nalgene bottle (leak-proof camping bottles available at backpacking shops). Leeches will keep for a week or more this way if you just change the water every four hours and keep them in the shade. Leeches are wonderful for tipping jigs. They are also deadly fished unadorned. To fish with leeches you'll want to add to your tackle selection a few dozen bait hooks, some slip sinkers in 1/8 and 1/4 ounce size, and a couple slip bobbers. If you're looking for a method of adding a splash of color to that leech rig, slip a 1/4 inch of brightly colored fat yarn (such as Glo-Bugs brand) between the snell and hook eye. Not only is yarn light in weight and small for packing, it attracts walleyes in dark water and it holds liquid fish attractant. Toss in a
couple cord stringers, a fillet knife, and a pair of
needle nose pliers. Landing nets are a nuisance on
portages and largely unnecessary. FINDING FISH With so much water and so little time, you need to focus your efforts to find wilderness walleyes. These lakes are typical Canadian Shield waters - rocky and cool. Concentrate on rubble bottom wind blown shorelines and points. Most canoe country walleyes will be in water less than twelve feet deep much of the summer. On days with a chop and clouds, they can be in water as shallow as three feet. Study topographic maps that show bottom contours and examine the shorelines. You're looking rocky shores and bottoms with prominent features such as drop-offs. If weed beds coincide with these features, so much the better. Trolling along shorelines (one person paddling slowly) is a good way to locate fish. Mark the spot where one is hooked. Walleyes are schooling fish, so go back and work that place slowly with a leech or jigs. Though today's electronic fish finders are often amazingly small, battery packs for portable use can be large and heavy. Still, a locator is generally worth its weight. Some locators will run on eight AA batteries, even though the manufacturer doesn't specify so. Radio Shack offers a small box that links AAs to produce twelve volts and a variety of adapter plugs. For the small expense involved, you may want to fiddle with such a rig at home to see if it'll work with your unit. If used sparingly, the little batteries should last for the duration of your canoe trip. Without the aid of outboard motors to zip you from point A to B, good looking areas should be worked thoroughly before changing locations or you'll eat up a lot of fishing time. Slow down and enjoy the relaxed pace of the wilderness. Odds are there are just as many golden walleyes in front of your camp as across the lake. Increase your odds by fishing during the best hours of the day, usually mornings and evenings, and enjoy the other aspects of wilderness during the remainder. You'll find, like many other anglers before you, that fishing is best enjoyed in a relaxed contemplative manner. And that's what wilderness, and wilderness walleyes, are all about. Hey, what do I do with these fish guts? Practice low impact camping while in the wilderness. Never clean fish in camp - it attracts bears and flies. Clean fish at least a quarter mile away. Leave the entrails and chopped up carcass on a shoreline rock for gulls and other scavengers. If they don't clean them up overnight, return and bury them. If you need advice on camping equipment and canoe route planning suggestions, then I've got just the book for you: Canoe Country Camping should be on your bookshelf (or in your Duluth Pack!).
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