“Louisiana’s Buddy Oakes Heads to Canada with the Aglia, the Syclops and the Marabou”

Part 2: Pike, Walleye and Shore Lunches

Editor’s Note: How do you learn to catch walleyes and northern pike when 99.5% of your time has been spent catching saltwater fish like speckled trout and redfish? Why do you take your wife and your friends to Canada to catch coldwater species when you’ve never fished for these fish previously? How do you learn to fish for fish you’ve never had the opportunity to catch?

To learn the answers to these questions, we asked Buddy Oakes, marketing director and guide for Hackberry Rod and Gun in Hackberry, Louisiana, to tell us about his first northern exposure and the role that Mepps played in the success of his trip to Angler Rapids Wilderness Lodge (www.anglerrapids.com) in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Question: Tell me about the type fishing that you and your party found when you went to Angler Rapids Wilderness Lodge in Canada?

Oakes: On her ninth cast, my wife Marsha caught a 36-inch pike on a Mepps Syclops. I thought that fish was going to pull her out of the boat. She started screaming with excitement and had one of the biggest grins I’d ever seen on her face. The first afternoon we fished, we each caught 10 or 15 northern pikes or walleyes.

Question: How did you fish for your walleyes?

Oakes: We were bouncing the Mepps SpinFlex on rocky structure that came up off the bottom. That was really a lot of fun, and we caught a lot of fish. After the first day on the water, we got back to the lodge about 5 pm. After getting cleaned-up, we had a delicious dinner and a relaxing evening. Now one thing I learned about fishing in Canada is that the lodge we went to was much-more relaxed fishing than what we had at Hackberry Rod and Gun.

Our fishermen in Louisiana like to get up at first light, be on the water to watch the sun come up and get that first speckled trout or redfish bite of the morning. But at Angler Rapids Wilderness Lodge, we didn’t have to go out fishing until we decided we wanted to fish. We usually started about 8 or 8:30 am instead of before daylight.

We had the same three guides every day. The second day, Earl Austin and I teamed-up and fished together, and our wives fished together. The guides were really good about teaching our wives how to cast and fish with the Mepps lures and how to catch fish. That first day, we must have caught and released at least 100 fish. We’d started out fishing for pike with Syclops spoons and the #5 Marabou – what I called my fuzzy bait. Earl and I probably caught and released 25 or 30 pike on these two lures. I couldn’t believe that those toothy, snakelike fish would eat-up those baits like they did.

At Angler Rapids Wilderness Lodge, you’re awarded a medal for every pike you catch that’s over 40 inches. On that first day of fishing, Earl caught a pike that was 39-1/2-inches long, and our guide wouldn’t give him a medal. But when we got ready to leave, Earl gave his guide a rod and reel and did get his medal.

Question: How many walleyes did you catch your first day?

Oakes: Somewhere between 30 and 40, I think. We caught most of our walleyes on the Mepps Aglia. Between the three boats, we were catching and releasing between 100 and 150 fish per day. The action was just nonstop. And what made the trip even more fun was not only were we catching tons of fish, we kept a few of those walleye to eat, and the guides made us a shore lunch.

Now, I’d never had a shore lunch before. The lunch we have at Hackberry is set out on a table in the lodge because of the heat, and the fishermen sit-down in an air-conditioned room and eat like they will at home. But I really enjoyed our shore lunches. At 11: 45, all three boats showed-up at the same island at the same time. We all got out of our boats and sat in the shade drinking Cokes, while our guides started filleting walleye and getting out skillets, pots and pans and cooked fish, hash-browned potatoes, bread and pork and beans. The meal was delicious. None of us wanted to bring fish home, so each day we’d only keep enough walleyes for our shore lunches.

When the guides got ready to cook the fish, they brought out square boxes of pure hog lard, melted the lard and fried-up the fish. That was some of the best fish I’d ever eaten in my life. After lunch, I looked around and just about everyone in our party was taking a nap – so I joined them. About 2 pm we got back in the boats and headed out to fish again.