August & September reports

August/September reports



Okay, here's the mid August report for the Murphy Group at Taltson Bay.

The trip started on a bit of a sour note, as our new favorite airline, Air Canada, managed to lose two of our rod cases. So, three of the four in our group got on the float plane with no rods at all. Many thanks go to the gents in our companion group who lent us their spare rods, and literally saved our vacation. Thanks again guys.

And the story can now be told, Pat Murphy had a trophy fish yank one of those borrowed rods out of his hands, and into the water it went!!! Talk about Angry Angler! Just as I was strategerizing on going for a swim... Thank the fishing gods for cork handles! The evil-doer went to the weeds, the rod floated up, we chased it down, grabbed it and landed the fish!! Just another ho-hum day at Taltson Bay.

Well, the lack of back-up rods hurt us some, to be sure. The fact that we have never been to Taltson hurt us a some to start, and the weather bit us, just a little, for a couple days. That's all for the excuses. When we got hot, we stayed hot for a good while. I gotta tell you, it was a blast! Once we figured out the weeds, and the key tips that John Mich and Don provided, we caught fire and nailed 'em! This place can be truly amazing. At times, it seems that there are fish everywhere! Another thing, when Taltson Pike are fired-up I have two words for you. Guided Missiles! We had some SAVAGE strikes, right at the boat. Several BIG jumpers. Very, very exciting stuff.

Anyway, here are the "documented" stats for the Murphy group of four. That's right, documented. We kept an accurate scoreboard in both boats. 451 northern pike, 3 wayward walleye (damn good lookin' walleye too), and one extremely aggressive clam. Jim Hickey has now angled a clam in each of his two trips to Canada. We hope he can keep that streak alive next year!! Back to the stats. 48 pike of less than 25 inches. Taltson Bay wigglers. 57 pike at 25-30 inches. Nice fish in Wisconsin. 123 pike at 30-35 inches. Not bad, some pretty hefty 33's too. An astounding 172 pike at 35-40 inches. And 51 beauties at 41 inches plus. No complaints here, mate!

Part of the fun for our group has become keeping an accurate account of our catch and then crunching the numbers. We crunch 'em hard! Jim Petrossi had the best single day with 44 fish. Jim's brother Dom had a day during ugly weather in which he only caught 7 fish. BUT, the last four he caught were trophies! The two Jims tied for big fish with 45's. The day Jim P. caught 44 fish, I only caught 24. BUT, 6 of mine were trophies! At the end of the day though, when I look at the totals for this trip, I'm convinced we will go back to Taltson Bay. Check this out. Just a shade under 12% of our catches were trophy Northern Pike. 38% were Pike between 35 and 40 inches. So, are you tellin' me that almost 50% of all the Northern we caught were 35 inches or better??!! That's incredible. We will be back, and with all our gear next time! We'll make a run at the record!










( editor's note: Taltson Bay Big Pike Lodge has no direct affiliation with Air Canada.)



Here's the Schmitt group report for late August:

The Steve Schmitt group has just returned from the great waters of Taltson Bay. The week was a mixed bag of warm calm weather in the mid 70's then turning to cold windy wet conditions in the mid 30's. The pike fishing for this group was all over the board as one might imagine.

The weeds that have been a staple for any fall junket continued to pump out fish, with a 48.5" being the largest from the weeds and for the group (picture to follow we hope). The trolling was a little off for the group, but still a large percentage of fish 41" and above (trophies) were taken using this method.

The group of six still had in excess of 100 pike 41" and above for this hodge-podge weather trip. The Alien Eel by Savage Gear again was a champ for many of the fisherman.

















( Editor's note: Does anyone else notice the heart shape on the bottom fin of that last fish. Looks like Steve caught himself the Love Fish. That's sweet Steve.)


Here's the report from the August 30, 2008 group:
Our week started off like yours ended – cold, wind, rain Saturday and Sunday. The weather Monday was a little better with no rain but wind. Few trophies Saturday and Sunday but the place turned on by Monday. Lots of trophies. Sunny, calm and warm on Tuesday, so the bite decreased a little. Wednesday thru Friday was very good with temps in the 50’s and enough wind to give us a chop. On Friday a short trip half way up river produced only a couple of trophies. The night channel bite was outstanding on two nights but for the most part but was ending by 930pm. We pounded the weedbeds and did very little off the rock points because the water out there was muddy most of the week. The Horton boat got a surprising number daytime trophies in the channel.
The Horton boat











Total trophy count – my boat 49 trophies. Horton boat 60 trophies.

The number of fish 36-40 was greater than any other year I have been there.. We couldn’t keep them off the hook. Our guestimate for the 2 boats would be 300+ fish

36-40 inches. This is a good sign for 3-5 years from now. The biggest fish was 46.5 inches. A little disappointing and the 1st time in my 7 years a 48 was not caught among the group.














Here's the final group of 2008's numbers:

boat 1 bob/frank
roughly 550 fish, 109 over 40"
2- 48"
2-46"
2-44"
boat 2 mark/dan
450 fish
70 over 40"
1-45"
3-44"

you can bet that about half to a third of our fish were right about 40"

Group #1 & Group #2 are back

I really hope you are viewing this on a high speed connection because as usual I have a ton of pictures.

I don't have everything in yet as far as photos and videos. Plus I have something special in store for everyone in the form of a feature length video but that's going to take some serious time. We're figuring probably about 30 man-hours to complete it. So you now have something to look forward to.

This report will be revised a couple times as additional info comes in, so please bookmark it and check back often. You'll see new pictures, videos, specs and numbers.

Ok...so on with the Group 1 show!
The players were Jamie Riani & Bill Kallenberg, Dick Kessler Jr & Dick Kessler Sr., and Bob Brenton & John Mich


Great Slave still had a fair amount of ice on it even after we left. Upon our arrival the main ice pack was within 1 mile of us. Due to a steady southeast wind the ice was out of sight in a couple days.



The back bay water temps were generally in the high 40's with the occasional 51 showing up here and there. The main lake water was substantially colder which made ANY area that had warmer incoming bay water an instant goldmine. Some areas had pike,walleyes and inconnu (shee fish) so condensed that you could fish in a 200 yard area all week and do just fine.

Technically we were a couple days early. The first day or two were still the best fishing on the continent, but as the week went on the fishing got better and better. The tell tale sign that we were indeed a little early was the easy with which we found, targeted and caught a couple dozen inconnu. By week's end they had all but disappeared from the shallows.

The spring hot spots (which John can further explain if you want more detail...just leave a comment and he'll read it) were Snuff Channel, Becks' Camp, The Back Bay, Tower Island Inflow, Beck's Channel, Horseshoe Bay and the mouth of the Thubin River.
The Inconnu hot spots were Beck's Camp and Tower Island Inflow.


The walleye hot spots were Beck's Camp and Snuff Channel ( Snuff Channel is about 20 yards wide and 6 feet deep of tea colored water. If you took a sideways slice of Snuff you'd see a layer of dirt/rock, a solid layer of walleyes, a thin layer of pike, and a layer of water over that. I'll put it to you this way: We caught 120 walleyes in 2 hours. Most of the guys swear by a Beetle Spin there. Jamie swears by a Salmo Roach diving crankbait. It was not uncommon to reel in a 24" average size walleye on every cast or two. BUT...regarding baits for walleyes in June, we caught them on bucktails and larger pike plastics just as easily sometimes. So basically you can try anything. They aren't too picky. )


The pike hotspots were...well...anywhere we fished that had water. But seriously, all of the spots mentioned so far. The Back Bay is probably the best option if conditions are right. But Beck's and Thubin and Snuff each had their days were no other water in North America was going to compare.


The lures used: I'm going to change this and update it later with specifics. But for now let's just start with these: Savage Gear 4-Play, Savage gear Alien Eels ( FAR BETTER than a Bulldawg FYI), Dunwright Lifelike Pike 8", Savage Gear Rattle Shad, Bucktails, Bucktails and more Bucktails (save the silver blades please. Whites, yellows, reds, pinks and oranges worked better 10:1) and Doctor Spoons. Again..I'm going to update this so check back.

Koi sushi,anyone? (Savage Gear 4-Pal in Koi pattern)

This 43"er "found" Nemo.

Custom Modified Nemo Slider by Customfish.


As per usual I'm going to start with some scenery and other "interesting" shots.


And now some from the players themselves. The first slideshow is from John and Bob's boat.


Next up is a double slideshow. The first is of Jamie and second of Bill.
Why 2??? Because when you go fishing with Jamie (who co-owns www.customfish.com) you're gonna get internet-famous. There were over 200 pictures and videos taken in that boat with the promise to Bill " I'll make ya famous!". So instead of killing your computer with one massive slideshow I'm gonna split it up into 2.
Here's Jamie:


And here's the star of the trip, Bill!


Numbers! It's all about the numbers baby!
We have the totals for boat #1 and boat #2.
Boat #1 (Kallenberg & Riani) had a total of 594 fish.
Jamie with 302 and Bill with 292.
34 trophies (Pike 41"+). 17 for Bill and 17 for Jamie.
Our largest Inconnu was caught by Bill: 41" / 18lbs.
Most walleyes were in the 22-28" range.
The trophy pike numbers for Boat #1 were: 41,43.5,42,41,41,42.5,46,43.5,41,41,41,45,41,
41,46,43,45,45,43,41,41,41,41,41,41,41,42.5,
43,45,42.5,42.5,45.
Yeah I know. It's just sick. And that's just two guys' numbers.

Boat #2 (Mich & Brenton)Had even better numbers. They caught 143 walleyes, 648 pike and 4 inconnu. They had 33 pike over 41" (trophies).

Here's some of my personal trophy numbers that I kept track of on the water courtesy of a golf scorer and a Sharpie Marker.


( Those numbers were only as of thursday. We still had a way to go.)

Here's some of the baits that really kicked ass. Take a close look at them and notice the teeth marks. These baits were responsible for hundreds of big pike.
The Customfish Malawi Bucktails.
Before:


After ( That's the 3RD tail on it!)


Before:


After:


Savage Gear 4-Play: Let me stress that we had every intention of bringing back these baits in pieces. We expected the paint to be taken off by the hundreds of pike that were caught on them. But as you can see, even after thousands and thousands of teeth biting into them they are in suprisingly great shape. We give the hardware and paint a 4 star rating and recommend this bait as a mainstay for this trip. The only thing we might recommend is that the hooks be changed out to a size larger due to the sheer number of fish on this particular excursion.











One of my all time favorites, The Salmo Roach: This one bait has been one of my top muskie producing baits. It took a Trip to Taltson Bay to put this bait into retirement.



The Storm Kick'n Minnow: This bait held up suprisingly well and withstood dozens of fights from pike, walleye and inconnu.



The Savage Gear Alien Eel: Keep in mind that this ONE bait caught over 20 big pike before it was broken in half! The average Bulldawg lasts 1-2 fish. This bait really took a beating and a hell of alot of punishment. You'll see it hanging from the mouths of big pike in some of the previous photos...and it's all the same bait. I brought ONE on this trip and it paid off BIG!



Group #2's trip seemed to be pretty spectacular!
I havent heard the numbers but I did manage to get a hold of one of Group #2's fish.
A 50" MONSTER!
When I get more from the group I'll put it all up. Keep checking for updates please.
(If anyone wants to send info/pics, please send to jamie@customfish.com)


HOLY %#@&!

June 1st trip update

For those going on the may 31st-June7th trip here are the sunrise/sunset times for the first week:
Jun 1, 2008 3:57 AM 11:16 PM 19h 18m 36s + 4m 07s
Jun 2, 2008 3:56 AM 11:18 PM 19h 22m 35s + 3m 59s
Jun 3, 2008 3:54 AM 11:20 PM 19h 26m 25s + 3m 50s
Jun 4, 2008 3:52 AM 11:22 PM 19h 30m 06s + 3m 40s
Jun 5, 2008 3:50 AM 11:24 PM 19h 33m 36s + 3m 30s
Jun 6, 2008 3:49 AM 11:26 PM 19h 36m 56s + 3m 20s
Jun 7, 2008 3:47 AM 11:28 PM 19h 40m 06s + 3m 09s
Jun 8, 2008 3:46 AM 11:29 PM 19h 43m 03s + 3m 03s

the weather temps for the area have been steadily rising and are expected to be in the 40's-mid 50's all week. High accumulations of snowfall are melting in Alberta. The fishing in back bay areas should be prime, weather permitting.

Please remember to check on the main site for packing instructions. CLICK HERE

Lure recommendations for early june are:
Bucktails,bucktails and more bucktails,
Sluggo type lures
Doctor spoons & Johnson silver minnow spoons.
shallow diving cranks (8"long or less)
your favorite topwater lures
Salmo Slider
Mepp's #4 & #5 Aglia

We're also recommending lures from Savage Gear for pike and walleye fishing. We've been testing out their line of products and have found them to be excellent so far.
Click the banner to see the lures available.

Contact Stuart Green at the Montgomery,IL facility for ordering instructions:
Stuart.Green@svendsen-sport.com

Please remember to bring a quality digital camera, rechargeable batteries and at least a 1meg memory card. We will be posting photos here on the site regularly.
Use the highest settings on your camera so that if you need the services of Customfish for your trophy, it'll look great!
Click THIS banner!


If you have any trip questions please feel free to send John Mich an email at trophypike@gmail.com.

<*)))))))))><
One final note:
The trips that the Taltson alumni embark on quickly reach legendary status. I think all of us have seen the look of astonishment from the other people that we tell our tales to. I have a solution for that problem.
On our last trip we had 5 people. We fished for 6 days. We landed 1,043.
It's that 1,043 number that is hard for people to grasp. So I say show them all 1,043!
Feel free to share this visual aid with your audience members.



Have a great trip everyone! See you up there!

signed,
Jamie Riani
Webmaster & Taltson Pro Staff Member


To return to the homepage just click here

The 2008 season is about to begin!

The first group is scheduled to be there in the first week of June.
You're going to want to check in and see what happens. We're going to be adding alot of new video, reports, pics and stories about monster pike and walleyes.
The last-week-of-August-2007 group landed 1,043 in a week between 5 people. This time we are shooting for the 1,500 mark for 4 people. So stay tuned....this is about to get scary.