Thaddeus Lake, Ontario

08/25/12 - 09/12/12

I spent two and a half weeks staying at Thaddeus Lake Lodge. This year is my 30 year anniversary of Canadian fishing trips. Unfortunately, most of my fishing buddies are no longer able to join me. Luckily, Dave and his wife Nancy were able to join me for the second week. Dave and I were two of the three guys who originally started doing these trips.

Unfortunately, the fishing was not up to the normal Thaddues Lake standards. Fishing was slow and the number of bigger walleyes was down. However, I still caught a reasonable number of fish with the biggest walleye coming in at 26 1/2 inches and a good time was still had by all.

Dave and I had an awesome experience one morning. I heard a noise above the sound of the motor and I could tell that Dave had heard it as well. I turned the motor off and for the next two or three minutes, we listened as a group of wolves howled and yipped on a nearby shore. The shore was overgrown, so we never did get to see them. A few minutes after the wolves went silent, Dave hooked into a 34 inch muskie. We landed and released it. Dave then made another cast and caught a 41 inch muskie (see photo below). As muskie fishermen will attest to, muskies can be very difficult to catch. So catching two of them on consecutive casts is quite a feat. These two muskies were not that big by muskie standards, but two muskies in two casts is still pretty darn good.

Every year I come to Thaddeus Lake, it seems like there's more bald eagles around than the year before. So I usually get some good opportunities to photgraph them. I also found a pair of beavers that didn't seem to mind me being around as long as I didn't get too close. Thaddeus Lake also seems to have a fair number of colorful sunsets, and this year was no execption. Enjoy the photos.

Two Beavers Snacking

Steve Winker