As I cut the speed of the motor, I simultaneously turned on the Eagle Ultra Nav. Earlier in the morning we’d been looking for good concentrations of walleye, but had only marked a few scattered fish. The spot that I’d stopped at had just been picked on a hunch. A rocky point of land that broke off into deeper water seemed to have some potential. The liquid crystal graph confirmed my suspicion that the area might hold some fish.

As I let the boat drift to over 30 feet of water, a number of marks of different sizes started to appear on the screen. Most of the fish appeared to be in the 20 to 30 foot zone. After deciding to go with a proven technique, a slip-rig, I put half a dew worm on a chartreuse Mr. Twister floating jig head. The slip sinker was set for a four foot lead and the offering was free spooled to the rocky bottom.

I didn’t have to wait more than a couple of minutes for a light tap. Unfortunately, being a little overeager, I tried to set the hook too early. The end result was a jighead devoid of any bait. Impaling another half a dew worm, the slip-rig was dropped to bottom once again. Another minute resulted in a second soft pickup. This time I waited to a count of five before setting the hook. I had a fish, but it certainly wasn’t a walleye. With little resistance, I reeled in a yearling 4 inch perch. Trying again produced an almost identical twin. The smaller marks on the screen were perch, but what of the bigger marks? They had to be walleye that had migrated to this area in search of the thousands of perch that were their forage. Fortunately, we’d thought to bring along some 3 to 4 inch minnows that the perch would ignore but would be easy prey for the walleye. Starting the drift over again, we made a pass from 20 to 40 feet but didn’t have any takers. Although it was three in the afternoon, I couldn’t see how we could go over that many fish without connecting.

The next pass, however, was a different story. Instead of a tap, a solid thump was telegraphed up the line. Counting to seven, I fed line to the walleye before connecting with what I knew was a good fish. From 30 feet of water the 3 pounder put up a good fight. This is why we’d come to the West Arm of Nipissing. Another fish shortly thereafter, and we knew we’d found our pattern for the weekend. Earlier in August, an invitation had been extended to me to sample the fishing at Lake Nipissing’s extreme western end. Although I’m no stranger to Nipissing, I’d never fished the secluded bays and channels west of Highway 64. Angela and Gary Martin, the new owners of Welcome Lodge, were very enthusiastic about the ’ potential of the area, and asked me to come up and sample the walleye, musky, pike and bass fishing in the area With Angela’s blessing, my wife and myself invited another couple along for a weekend in late August. If you can think back to last summer, commonly referred to as the year of no summer, you can imagine my relief when informed that even under the worst weather conditions the near- by narrow bays and channels were always fishable. Little did I know that we’d be putting this claim to a test. On our drive up on Friday afternoon the weather did not look at all promising. Sheets of rain and blowing wind had followed us all the way up from Toronto. Following Highway 69 from Toronto to Sudbury, we turned east at Alban onto Highway 64. Total driving time was approximately four hours. From either North Bay or Sudbury, driving time is about one hour. Welcome Lodge is quite accessible, located less than a minute off Highway 64. When we arrived, we were given a tour of the main lodge and overview of the facilities. The area itself was first opened up as a result of forestry and logging operations. Welcome Lodge itself was built in the 1940s and catered to a number of sportsmen from the United States and Ontario. In the early years, the ’50s and ’60s, the musky was the king of fish. It’s little wonder that the road leading to the lodge is called Musky Island Road and the big island in front of the lodge is named Maskinonge Island. All of the cottages are housekeeping, with screened porches and western exposure to take advantage of the afternoon and evening sun. The cottages have been recently renovated and one of the cottages has wheelchair access capability. The marina is fully equipped and includes a launch ramp, extensive docking facilities, gas pumps and a wide range of live bait. The latter is critical, since the lodge is one of the few in the area to sell minnows. Fishermen can even custom order large sucker minnows if they phone well in advance.

One of the most important features for fishermen is the fleet of magnificent 18 foot cedarstrip boats that are available. These were custom built for Gary Martin by the famous Geisler boat company in Powassan. With all of these amenities, it’s little wonder that Tourism Ontario has rated Welcome Lodge as a four-star housekeeping lodge. Our conversation with Gary Martin focused on the unique fishing opportunities of the area. As indicated on the accompanying map, the extreme end of the western arm is made up of an extensive number of channels and bays that run in a variety of directions and possess different structural features. West of Highway 64 there are easily 40 to 50 miles of water to explore. A hydrographic map is a must for the area, copies of which are available at the lodge. One of the most scenic runs is the 5 to 6 mile section from the lodge, south past Round Bay, Pike Bay, The Elbow and Deer Bay through to Warren Bay. Average width of the channel hem is half a mile, and depths extend to over 50 feet in spots. Any of the bays that run off to the sides are shallow, filled with weeds and ideal for northerns or largemouth. Our plan of attack was to fish fairly close to the lodge the next morning if the wind was still blowing. Within 300 feet of the dock there’s a deep, 40 foot hole that holds walleye and, about half a mile to the east, extensive weed beds hold good numbers of northerns. Sure enough, breakfast brought high winds at 40 kilometres plus lots of rain. By 9:00 am. the rain bad let up, but not the wind. The main part of Lake Nipissing was running 4 to 5 foot waves, but in our protected water we had a 2 foot chop in the walleye hole and reasonably flat water on the lee of the island in the pike flats. The walleye hole didn’t produce much action, but drifting and casting on the weedbeds coughed up three northerns and two more hookups.

After lunch we headed about a mile from the lodge up the west side of Maskinonge Island to a mid-lake rock pile. Topping out at about 6 feet, the shoal drops off quickly to over 30 feet. It’s a popular spot for walleye and over the years has been a consistent producer of musky. Drifting and casting with bucktails, it took about ten minutes to produce the first hit. Peter leaned back on a heavy fish, the rod bucked under pressure and the line parted. Our first and last shot at a good musky that weekend. Only a few weeks earlier a 26 pounder had been caught nearby. We’ll never know bow big our fish was, maybe only 8 to 10 pounds, but then again? We marked a few more scattered walleye and then made the decision to explore the channel known as the Elbow. That’s where we found our walleye mentioned at the beginning of the article. We returned to this hotspot again Sunday morning and gave the women a chance to show us how to catch a walleye. A few more northerns in the afternoon and we were ready to head home. Let’s go through a rundown of how to pursue the different species. Although we didn’t go after smallmouth, they are found throughout the area.,The best spots to look for them are the rocky dropoffs and shoals. Early in July they’ll frequent the 5 to 15 foot depths and, as the water warms, movement occurs to the 10 to 30 foot depths. In the evening the smallmouth will generally move up into the shallows to forage for minnows or crayfish. A good way to find the fish is to troll the shorelines with diving crankbaits. In addition to smallmouth, incidental pike and walleye will also be taken using this technique. Once a decent fish is caught trolling, the area can be drifted and fished with jigs such as Berkley Power Grubs, Power Shads, Power Tubes, Power Craws and Power Leeches.

As a field ambassador for Berkley, I’ve had the opportunity of using the aforementioned Power baits under a variety of conditions. Their scent and flavour characteristics definitely enhance the feeding activity of fish. Also effective are the Breck’s line of Mister Twisters, Sassy Shads and Tubes. The different shapes of these baits has as much to do with results as does the colour choice. Favourites for smallmouth are smoke, black and pumpkinseed, but don’t be afraid to experiment with others.

For largemouth, one of the best bets is Deer Bay, a 3 mile long narrow, weedy bay. Other weedy back bays and river mouths also hold good populations of fish. Traditional shallow water techniques such as spinner baits, plastic worms, slugs and jig and pigs can all be used. One of the most sought after fish is the prolific northern pike. These fish spawn shortly after ice out and stay for a couple of weeks in the shallow back bays. They take up residence here due to the warmer water temperatures and the availability of young perch for forage. Fishing with a float and large, live minnow along the edge of a shallow weedline or casting back into 4 or 5 feet of water with a spinnerbait usually does the trick. In June, as the fish move out to deeper water, they take up residence on weed line breaks in 10 to 12 feet of water. The smaller northerns will associate with shallow water, but the real bruisers favour roaming the weedlines like wolves hunting down their prey. One of the regular visitors to Welcome Lodge is pike fanatic Leroy Privatt. He knows his business when it comes to northerns, since he used to manage a fishing lodge on the French River. When I spoke to Leroy before my trip, his advice was to find a weed line with a 10 to 12 foot hole located in nearby proximity. He suggested anchoring and using a float and minnow combination. If small perch were in the area, that was ideal. Two key factors, however, had to mix into the equation, large minnows and patience. Leroy often orders four dozen 8 to 12 inch suckers for a couple of days on the water. 7his perhaps gives you an idea of the number of fish he connects with. A big northern simply can’t resist an easy meal. Why chase small perch and use a lot of energy when a slow moving sucker presents such an easy target?

The other factor is patience. First, when anchored in a good-looking spot, be prepared to wait at least two hours. Let the fish come to you. Secondly, when the fish does arrive and takes the bait, let the northern run until it turns the sucker around in its mouth. Usually this takes a few seconds. The other option is to use a quick strike rig. Either way, hang onto your hat when you set the hook. If you feel that you can’t sit still and prefer to be more mobile, then casting into the 10 to 12 foot depths with a large spinner such as a Mepps Musky Killer or a large diving plug such as a Luhr Jensen Power Dive Minnow will also work. The walleye seem to favour deep water structure from 20 to 40 feet. Take a hydrographic map and pick six to eight likely-looking spots. Take into consideration what the weather forecast predicts regarding wind direction and speed. If wind could be a factor, save your leeward spots for the end of the day. Go with your intuition. If you’ve picked a spot and other boats are there, so much the better. If you see boats on structure you didn’t fish, mark it on your map as a possible. But don’t worry if your chosen spot to experiment doesn’t have any traffic. Many times, including this recent trip, my friends and myself have found good action off by ourselves. One of the best techniques to consistently catch walleye in 20 to 40 feet of water is by using slip-sinker rigs. When walleye are bottom oriented they will rarely pass up a dew worm or minnow slowly dragged in front of their noses. If there isn’t much wind, drifting is the logical way to present the bait, but in any amount of wind back- trolling is the best way to maintain contact with the bottom. Using a 3/8 ounce jighead and a minnow bounced off bottom will also produce fish.

Based on my limited experience fishing the West Arm of Lake Nipissing, I’d definitely recommend it as a destination. Five potential species of gamefish, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, northern pike, musky and walleye, are all available. If you’re taking a short vacation and want to be assured of maximum fishing time even during inclement weather, then the narrow channels and bays of this part of Nipissing will meet that requirement.