Hawk Lake Lodge – “The eyes are glowing”
Wow! The eyes are glowing! (Early Season Walleyes at HawkLake Lodge)
I’ll start out by saying my true fishing passion was ignited by chasing walleyes around WI / IA / ON. After literally dozen of trips walleye fishing at a fly-in West of Red Lake and catching 100s and 1000s of 16-23 inch walleyes I needed a change. That is when I found HawkLake Lodge. I couldn’t quite believe the reputation that the lodge had for turning out trophy-sized walleyes but I had to give it a shot myself. So I plunked down the $400 p/d and convinced my dad to join me and I signed up for opening day 2014 for 4 days. As it turned out that wasn’t meant to be as 2014 had an extremely late ice-out and I had to wait for 2015 to begin my HawkLake quest for big walleyes. So I fished my normal week in June West of Red Lake and waited.
Finally 2015 opening day rolled around and my dad and I experienced something really special as both of us landed a29+ inch walleyes within hours of each other on our first full day fishing.
I was hooked on the HawkLake experience. I returned in 2016 twice and broke my personal best with a legit 30in monster. I returned again in 2017 and experienced a 23 fish at and over 26 inches during my 5 day trip. I was very fortunate to get these experiences and I thought 2018 wasn’t meant to be.
My daughter was graduating from college and I had sort of over-committed to a few other trips. But, at the last minute Ted came through with a slot for 3 days that fit before the graduation and after walleye opening day. So with less than a month before the trip I was thrilled to be going back.
This year the ice out was later than 2017 but the overall weather was better. Where would the fish be and what would their attitude be. I only had to wait a few weeks and there I was driving down the gravel driveway to HLL May 21. The sun was blazing overhead the and temperature was pushing 80 degrees F. I was about to find out what this quick 3-day trip was going to produce.
The staff at HLL saw me drive in and quickly rushed my luggage to my room while I chatted with Ted. As usually his enthusiasm was contagious. I hustled down to my room, rigged up my two rods and headed for the dock. I quickly cruised out on the lake and started at one of the walleye spots that worked well early in the season. The water rose from 49 at the dock to 54 in my back corner of the lake. As I started jigging and drifting I was marking fish. A lot of big fish but only managed a couple of very tentative bites in 2 hours. This was going to be a challenge.
That first evening I enjoyed hor d’vours (excellent!) on the deck with a really nice group of fishermen on their first trip to HLL. After chatting for an hour or so we wound up eating dinner together and fishing the next two nights together. I’ve always enjoyed helping new guys on my lake outside of Red Lake so I figured why not help the new guys here. I wish I could say we killed them that first night but we didn’t. We had another 6-7 tentative bites that even resulted in a couple of partially hooked fish that were lost.
The second night with the new guys we finally had some luck. We hit spot after spot for 20-30 minutes each looking for active fish. We had a few bites and no fish. We also changed up presentations (jigs Minnow / Floating jig heads worms / Shot and hook with leach / bouncing / slip bobber) Then at about 1030p in near darkness one of my new friends (Nick) did something I hadn’t even remotely thought of. He grabbed a rod he had been using earlier in the day for Smallies and casted a Flicker Shad to shore. When I say shore 12 inches of water and 1-2 ft. from the bank. He started it back and he was immediately hooked up to something good. In the dark we were both guessing a nice Smallie until my headlamp showed those big beautiful glowing eyes. After a nice fight that included runs towards the trolling motor / main motor / anchor we netted a gorgeous 30.5 inch walleye! After a bunch of pictures and a fight to get trebles out of the net in the dark we decided to continue in total darkness. Two casts later he hooked up to another 28-inch walleye in 1-2 ft. of water. A thick healthy fish that had a HUGE girth! Now, who would’ve thought post spawn walleyes that wouldn’t take a minnow on a slip bobber would chase a 3+-inch flicker shad. The lesson I take away from this is not only do you need to change spots and techniques when looking for fish, you need to think outside the box sometimes. If nothing else is working you might as well go for the crazy.
The next morning I headed out alone and started in my warm water spot. I managed a quick 27-inch walleye to break the ice. Then I proceeded to pick up a couple of smaller fish. By 1030a I was ready for a change. I cruised around the lake to see if I could find the smallies. HL is well known as a fantastic smallie lake and I need a little more action. I quickly figured out the bass were not deep in the bays making nests yet. They were off main lake points and schooled up pretty good. So I rigged up with my favorite smallie bait #3 Blue fox spinner with blue body and red blade and begun hammering the bass pretty good. After a bit I decided to see if they would hit jigs so I went to a plain jig and craw colored Power Bait, which worked equally well. I proceeded to nail 20+ bass up to 19 inches in a couple of hours. I was feeling pretty good.
The last day was more of the same. All the Smallies I could handle in the 15-17 inch range. Fantastic food. Really nice weather. Overall a very pleasant day.
For the three days my best fish turned out to be a 27-inch walleye and a 19 inch Smallie. In ~8 hours of Smallie fishing I wound up with at least 50 very nice healthy fish (and a sore elbow) from all the hard hits and fights.
Thursday am I had a quick breakfast and drove the quick 3 hours back to Winnipeg and flew home in time for dinner.
Overall a really fantastic quick trip. My thanks go out to the HLL staff! The lodging, food, and boats were excellent as usual!
Thanks for having me Ted!
Brett