Big Ab fishfest, PB hardwater northern

Friday lunch time myself, my nephew and brother in-law and another buddy took a road trip to Abitibi for the weekend. We fished Saturday and Sunday and went in on the Munro Lake Road. The road ended up being drifted in resulting in an 18 km sled ride into the lake instead of the normal 8 km.

Saturday was -16 and probably the worst wind conditions i have ever fished in using a pop-up. We set 12 anchors - not enough. The wind was fine at setup but just kept building all day until the anchors failed at about 2pm. We managed to hold on with the 4 of us until a brief lull when i went out parked the sleds strategically and than strapped the pop up to the sleds. With the extra straps tied to the sleds and a reset of the ice anchors we managed to hold on through the rest of the afternoon.





Sunday the weather was cold in the morning but warmed up fast to plus 2 so we fished open air for the day. There was some wind but nothing like Saturday.



Fish wise we managed a 4 man limit of walleye (16 fish) all in the 15 to 16 inch range and a few more that went back:



3 ling:



Also half a dozen sauger that went back and about 20 goldeye for the smoker:



But best was saved for last when Sunday afternoon yours truly tied into a 38.5 inch 16 lb northern with my panfish rod set up for 1/2 pound goldeye. That fish almost spooled my reel 3 times plus multiple runs where he took out half my line before i coaxed him through the ice.



He did however try to take his pound of flesh:



This post has been edited by Species8472 on Apr 03, 2023 - 10:41 pm

OUCH on the hand. Great report on the fishing.

Sounds like you had an awesome trip...the battle wounds make for some great story telling.

Nice report, and some tough wind conditions there

Those are some of the most pale fish I have ever seen. I’m not familiar with where you’re fishing, what’s the water clarity/colour like there…that’s unreal having ling (and walleye and pike) that colourless

Water clarity is probably the lowest i have ever seen. it is a shallow muddy lake with like 3 inches of visibility - very turbid.

Trips like that add character to the character you already have....great report thx for sharing.

Arnie

Great report, thanks for sharing, have been very interested in fishing Abitibi for years, family cottage is in the Matachewan area but havent been there yet, need some more gear.

Nice pike, May as well be 30lbs on a panfish setup. Those gold eyes scream smoker to me.

Great times! Congrats.

Looks like you had lots of fun, fantastic report

Great outing tobad weather wasn't better

Well consumed all the smoked Goldeye from my March trip but not to worry. Got another batch in the brine tonight from this trip. Should be even better than the March batch as as i learned a few things from that first experiment:



Finished off the last of the walleye from that trip tonight - damn was good.