Whitefish Bay tradition continues to draw many Rainy River anglers

Ken Johnston
Editor

Some traditions just get better with time and the annual trek to Whitefish Bay by so many area anglers for trout is no exception.
This year 16 anglers, including this writer, made the journey to their favourite fishing hole on Whitefish Bay on Lake of the Woods.
The trip was a bit different this year in that traditionally it was a macho “men only” trip. Four youngsters were added to the group and all of them earned their keep; one, Ernie Drennan, reeled in a 10 lb. 13 oz. trout to capture the biggest fish of the weekend title!
The trip lasts for about two days but the planning goes on for weeks in advance. Most of the planning is done by camp masters Dan Godin and Bennett Drennan.
They carefully plan the meals for the weekend, make lists of supplies needed and get everyone who is going to bring what is needed.
Everyone gathered Friday morning to depart for the government landing in Nestor Falls. A pre-trip breakfast was held at the Border Gasthaus and then everyone was off.
This year the weather was fantastic on Friday, May 16th. It made for an amazing boat ride. Calm and low waters made for some amazing scenery along the 20-25 minute ride.
Setting up camp took nominal efforts as Dan Godin had enlisted the help of Roger Neilson of Baudette and gone out the day before and set up.
The main group erected the rest of camp, setting up a kitchen. Since live bait and barbed hooks were not allowed until the next day, the rest of the day was basically used to socialize.
With a ban on open fires due to the dry weather, everyone just gathered around on the rock, told tall tales, some of fishing trips gone by and sipped on a few cold beverages.
About half of the crew fishing departed for the main-land just before dark to their lodging at Bull Moose Lodge. The rest of the party camped on the island.
After dark and several tales later, the oldest member of the crew, Bob Locking, 73, decided to pick things up a notch. As tradition would have it, Bob brought his harmonica along and played up a storm for us and guests who arrived on our rock from a couple of islands over. “Harmonica Bob” as he has become known amongst us played requests as well as some of his favourites. When he stopped the chatter among everyone stopped and “What happened to the tunes?” was blurted out. Harmonica Bob, thinking no one was listening, started playing again to everyone’s delight.
Bed time came early for some and late for others. Morning came early for everyone.
With the return of the mainland anglers, lines were run out, breakfast was cooked.
Dan Godin had pre-tied rigs for all the anglers. A treble hook was inserted into the side of a sisco, the bait of choice for the weekend, and then the line was loop-knotted around the tail of the bait.
The lines were run out about 400 feet from shore and dropped into about 50-60 feet of water.
It takes several minutes for the bait to sink to the bottom of the bay, so anglers have to work their rod and reel for a bit. Once on bottom all the slack is taken up on the reel and the gearlock is released so that if a fish takes the line on a run the line will go out with the fish. Another trick of the trade is the use of a small piece of styrofoam with a slit cut into it. That is slid onto the line at the tip of the rod so when a rod has a hit the anglers can see the foam go out.
This year the kids were on center stage showing all the adults how to fish. They did well on the weekend, better than three other members of the party; all of who got skunked (including this writer).
Saturday night the crew separated again for the night and again the male-bonding took center stage.
Rain came early Sunday morning and so did the leaks in the tent. Bill Shack of Manitoba got it the worst as the water ran down the length of the tent and down a wall into his bed. He ended up with about an inch of water in bed. So everyone got up early, donned rain gear and started fishing.
With rain right up until mid day, the island anglers were unsure if the mainlanders would return. They decided to wait the storm out a bit and eventually made the wet trip across the lake.
Fishing was fairly good on Sunday and by lunch time it was time to take down camp and head for home.
Just about every other rock along the way had people camping on them, many of them from the Rainy River area.
It was another great catch and plans are already underway for next year’s trip.