Thaddeus Lake Lodge

06/16/07 - 07/01/10

Thaddeus Lake Lodge is about an hour north of Dryden, Ontario. I've been coming up here several times a year since 1999. I fished for a little over 2 weeks.

For the first week, my brother Dave and nephew Tyler joined me for the first 4 days. This was the first time in 20 years that Dave had been up and the first time ever for Tyler. Unfortunately, the weather was a little uncooperative. It was very windy and we never even made it on the water the fourth day the wind was so bad. Fishing was a little slow, but we did manage to catch some nice walleyes. The first walleye Tyler ever caught in his life was 27 inches long, not a bad start. The second one he ever caught went 25 inches. So he got off to a great start for his walleye fishing career. Dave also caught a 27 inch walleye. We also caught several other 25 inch walleyes.

For the second week, Dave A, Tom H, and Tom A joined me. Again, the weather could've been better, but luckily most of the heavier rain and thunderstorms happened overnight. But I think the storms helped slow down the fishing some. One day, Dave A and I took a little excursion through a couple of streams into a more remote lake. The fishing wasn't that good there, but the trip was a lot of fun. On the way back we saw two moose and a very cooperative bald eagle that let us get close enough for some good pictures. We had another day where we watched a heron catch and swallow a smallmouth bass. That was a lot of fun to watch. The smallmouth was pretty good sized, so he really had to hang on as the bass struggled. But he finally got it positioned right and down the hatch it went. The weather could've been better and you always want the fishing to be better. The really big walleyes eluded me this trip, but I caught 6 walleyes between 25 and 26 inches. So I can't complain. As always, I had a great time. There's nothing like sitting in a boat on the lake in the evening watching the sun set, hearing the loon's calls echoing over the lake, and seeing an eagle fly overhead. It don't get any better than that.

Ty's First Walleye Ever (27 inches)
Steve Winker