June 1-7 Guarascio / Podracky trip in photos

The Sweeney Report for June 1-7

Toronto Pearson Airport is absolutely the worst. Last August Steve Schmitt and I got hornswaggled in there and now this year Steve Ciambrone and I were eaten alive. Long story short: don't go out to smoke and expect U.S. Customs to be open past 8:50 when they are suppose to be open till 9. Our flight was delayed till 1 A.M. anyway and United let us change to early morning flight no charge so all was well anyway. Fishing on the other hand showed shades of yesteryear. 711 fish caught by Steve and I skewed by a 190 fish day in Thubin with 9 Trophies.

4 Lake Trout biggest 12 1/2 lbs.
14 Inconnu biggest in the 20-25 lb. range
226 Walleyes biggest 27 1/2 " and 28" (note: some of you know I have been blessed to fish many places all over Canada and U.S.---- Well the 2 biggest Walleyes I have ever caught are on Great Slave Lake NWT) Go figure.
32 Northerns over 41"
1-45 1/2
2-44 1/2
1-44
6-43
6-42 1/2
9-42
3-41 1/2
4-41
Also 5-40's and 7 that fell just shy of the 40" mark.

Amanda and Randy were great in the kitchen and at cribbage. Dean, Garrett, Jimmy, and Morris did a yeoman's job at the helms of the fleet. Thanks Don for floor boards in our 18 footer. Helped stand level and save feet. Nice to meet Jim Schlarb who has experience up in that neck of the woods. But oh those Gurascio's. Fishing machines. Hope next year Herb, Matt, Joe, and Doug are there again. Sure is fun to eat, sleep, snore, and fish with that family.

Hottest lure going - 1 oz. grinder red and silver with matching flashaboiu. Large orange doctors now sporting flashabou. Bulldawg. William's wabler any color as long as it's silver. Thanks Herb and Matt for the Bondie baits catching Lake Trout.

Couple months off and ready to do battle with these toothy critters once again. Can't wait to fish with the August Cronies.

 Rick

REPORT FOR WEEK 8/27 - 9/3/11 By Dale Shinavar

REPORT FOR WEEK 8/27 - 9/3/11 By Dale Shinavar

This year our group of 6 was low on experience but high on enthusiasm. It included one 2nd timer and two newbies to pike fishing. Before going to Taltson these three had caught one 34" pike between them! Many Taltson veterans have had to graduate from entry level pike pursuit to the next level - Northern Wisconsin/Minnesota, then Ontario, then Manitoba or Saskatchewan before ever arriving at Great Slave. Of course now these guys are now totally ruined and will likely turn down offers to head north on a one day drive to southern Ontario for some 30 inchers and a chance at a 38 incher. It is pretty funny to see one of these new guys catch a 38 incher within the first 15 minutes on Day One fishing and rush to take a photo. By the end of the trip that same guy is trying to avoid a mid-thirties fish attacking his Grinder at boat side!



This was by far the wettest and coolest week we have had. We got blown off the lake for two days (went upriver) and put away the sunglasses for almost the entire week. Of course the pike loved this and were cooperative all week. We caught 74 trophies spread though the expected locations - the weed beds, lake side of the islands, rock points, and the river channel. Our biggest fish were caught early in the trip (49", 47", 46”) night trolling a Bull Dawg "Pounder" in the river channel. There may have more caught this way but we only had a couple of these monstrosities and they were destroyed by day two.



A major trip highlight was a most unusual wildlife sighting. While fishing just north of Beck's our guide saw a couple of "moose" on the distant lake shore bluff. As we motored a little closer it became clear that these were not moose. Legs were too short and not tall enough, but too big to be bears. There in front of us (and not fleeing) was a group of 8 musk ox. Musk ox have never been sighted this far south of their normal Arctic tundra range, but here they were. We got some photos and they are posted here.

Another oddity was a trophy “ no spots” pike. There is a photo posted on this one. It did not have the silver/blue color of the blue pike, but more of a bronze/gray color of a musky.



Compliments to our cooks (Tracy & Katya) for excellent food. And thanks to our 3 guides. A basic requirement of Taltson guiding (because there are so many big fish caught), is that fisherman are not landing the fish. Especially inexperienced pike anglers. By the end the week there were only minor finger injuries... no super glue or duct tape needed this time around. No serious hook extractions either. All in all another great Taltson experience.

The report from Group #2 ( early june)

Attached are pictures of our fish from this year. I have more pictures that I will attach in subsequent emails so I don't overload your server. We caught so many big fish this year (over 41 inches) that we didn't bother taking pictures of most of them. After a while, if a fish wasn't 45 inches or bigger, it went right back into the lake.

A group of four of us went up the first full week in June, including one rookie making his first ever fishing trip to Canada. We met John Mich and his group as we arrived at camp and they told us they had huge success in the back of Taltson Bay. Naturally, after storing our gear, that's where we headed first. While we caught a mess of average fish, we didn't catch many monsters. So in the afternoon, we came out to the rocky shore and fished around the islands where we did considerably better. After dinner, we tried trolling in the channel, again with limited success. By the end of the first day, we had boated a combined 15 big fish, hardly what I expected, but we were just warming up.

Sunday morning, we again spent time in Taltson Bay and Snuff Channel, and caught a few more big fish. By afternoon, the wind had shifted and the entrances to the Bay became muddy. So we head out to Thubin. Best decision we could have made. We hammered em. Hour after hour. In that four hour stretch we boated 27 big fish, including Chico's 50 inch monster, the biggest fish my group has boated in 6 years at Don's. We trolled a bit more in the evening and caught a few big fish, but the guys were pretty tired so we called it a day around midnight.

The next morning, we packed a lunch and headed back for a full day at Thubin, and the big fish were still there, in droves. It didn't matter whether you threw a doctor spoon, an in-line spinner or the wackiest thing it your box. They hammered everything. We couldn't move from one location to the next without screaming at everyone NOT to cast, for fear they would catch another fish and we'd have to stay a while longer. Not that that was a bad thing, we just wanted to try other parts of the Thubin river mouth. By the time we headed back for dinner, we had boated an incredible 36 big fish...all in and around the mouth of Thubin.

Tuesday we had planned to go up the river to show the rookie the falls, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. Not because we caught a lot of big fish, we didn't, but because everyone was fairly well spent from battling gators the last day and a half. The trip was enjoyable as we saw dozens of eagles and assorted other wildlife, but the water in the river was so low we could not get past the falls. We caught 13 big fish during the trip up and back, mostly where Snuff came in, but by and large, it was a resting day.

Wednesday we headed back to Thubin, but the winds had shifted turning the water a lovely shade of chocolate brown. We hi-tailed it out of there after about a half hour and headed over to Beck's where we had had only limited success the days before. That all changed. The wind was coming from the SW and they were stacked up like cordwood The entire bay to the south of Beck's was loaded with big fish. They seemed to particularly like the PapaDoc bigger doctor spoons that could be slow rolled closer to the bottom. We went back to Beck after dinner and slayed em again until we returned to camp utterly exhausted at about 11:30. All-in, 31 big fish on Wednesday.

Thursday was a travel day, so we got up late and fished around camp until about 2:00 pm. We caught eight more big fish, but it was mostly a chance to have a beer, smoke a cigar and regale stories of the incredible fishing week we just had.

In roughly five full days of fishing, including the "resting day" up and back from the falls, we boated 110 pike over 41 inches. The largest was Chico's 50, followed by two 48's, three 47's and more 45's and 46's than we could count. This was my first June trip up to Don's. Our previous trips had all been in August. I have top tell you, I don't know which one I prefer. The fish are obviously in different places at different times of the year, but they're there. And Chico's 50 inch monster shattered the myth that all the big fish are caught in August. The debate is on as to when we come back next summer, but one thing is certain, we'll be back. Without a doubt, Don't has the best big pike fishing in North America.


Rudy (Four Poles) Radasevich
Chico (Set the Steel) Albert
Bill (Gator) Thompson
Paul (Structure) Himes

























** Editor's note: Hi all. Jamie here. As the guy who runs this site I take certain liberties. As you guys know I like to have fun. So...I thought you Alumni Members might enjoy this.
We get alot of photos. Over 1,000 this year so far. And of those 1,000 there are 2 that are the most "honest".
Here they are:

They gotta start here....


to get to be 50"!