2012 Episode Synopsis
by Charlie Wray

Episode 211: French Walleye and St. Clair Muskie

Today the Mercury Marine destination takes me up to the French River for Walleye, then down to Lake St. Clair for Muskie.  This is actually the first time I have been to the French, and I was absolutely shocked at the size of this water system.  Staying at Chaudiere Lodge, this central area of the French River was more of a lake than a river with water depths that went from 2 feet to 160 in seconds. The owner of Chaudiere Lodge (Steve Niedzwiecki) www.chaudierelodge.com (705)-763-2220 offered me the use of his Navionics card this trip, without it, it would have been challenging to navigate outside of the channel markers.  The Navionics card was bang on with every rocky point, shoal and shallow area.  Well worth the investment if you want to cover lots of water safely.  Loads of back bays and arms gives unlimited choices to fish, and I am anxious to go back this coming year to learn it more. I also must say, the cabins at Chaudiere are some of the nicest I have ever been in, clean and comfortable and great meals and lunches supplied.

My Humminbird 1198C fishfinder/GPS was well used this trip, exploring new waters, and with them being vast new waters, it was more than comforting to have an accurate GPS to guide me back, not only marking my safe routes, but new hot spots! With so many great spots showing up on the Humminbird, and the Navionics card sharing structure that locals took decades to find, it didn’t take long to get into some Walleye. This trip, I had my 1850 Crestliner Raptor with 175 Mercury Verado. This was a perfect sized boat for this waterway and handled the chop when it blew wonderfully, and the Verado continues to amaze me at how fuel efficient it was, even with the long runs I did covering water.

Crestliner has been making premium welded boats for over 40 years, and until you ride in one, you truly can’t appreciate the smooth dry ride and solid feel. I turned this ideal fishing boat into an even better one with the addition of the Minn Kota I-Pilot! This amazing feature allows you to record a track so you can repeat it exactly. Spot lock works just like an electronic anchor. Cruise control so you can present your baits at precisely the correct speed, despite what the winds and currents are doing, along with advanced autopilot with GPS accuracy. Talk about a perfect system for trolling wormharnesses for Walleye. Record a track for a perfect repeat of a successful path, and cruise control was awesome!

I took advantage of these wonderful features, and dropped my Spin-N-Glo wormharness down to the bottom. While better known as Salmon and Trout lures on the West coast, these        Spin-N-Glo’s are making history in Ontario as a perfect addition to a wormharness, and a replacement for the blades.  Not only do they give bottom clearing buoyancy since they float, but come in a wide selection of Walleye colours and subtle flash from the mylar wings.  I tie mine up with 15 lb test Seaguar Fluorocarbon for an invisible, abrasion resistant rig, and I use the size #4 Spin-N-Glo’s. I find these the perfect size for northern Walleye. I start the rig by first snelling a size #2 Mustad Ultra Point Octopus style hook, leaving a tag long enough to tie on a Mustad Triple Grip treble on the back.  This triple grip has amazing holding power, even on the short hitters, the unique hook configuration really locks in, and is harder to shake out. The new Okuma Trio spinning reels offer a new Crossover construction, a combination of lightweight graphite materials on part of the reel, and aluminum on other parts to balance strength and light weight features. It gives this 10 ball bearing reel a solid but lightweight feel.

For the second part of the show, my wife Terri joins me with buddy Jim Fleming on Drifter II Charters for a day on Lake St. Clair trolling for Muskies.  A quick run down the 401 hwy in the RAM and we are ready for fun on the water. I am glad I have so much room in my RAM, since I bring my own equipment, all it takes is a quick fold of the back seat, and I have room for everything! Sometimes I feel spoiled, but I love having the room and couldn’t imagine a smaller truck for my fishing equipment.

Jim has been doing this for years and knows the lake like the back of his hand and always has produced numbers of great fish for me. Jim is about as honest as a person can be, so if fishing has slowed or weather is looking poor, he will phone and cancel a charter rather than simply take your money.  Jim is out to give you the best he can.  Drifter II Charters (519) 845-1115.  This is trolling in 10–18 feet of water at 4 mph with planer boards and long rods. For those of you that don’t like trolling, you might like this, it is exhilarating to feel the hit of a Muskie that rattles the rod holders on a hit and tear out line with the clicker on the reel screaming! I bring my own equipment with Jim, simply because Jim normally uses mono on charters since it is more forgiving for clients who might be more excitable and surprised at how big these Muskies are (the mono will stretch and allow for slight mistakes in fighting the Muskie). I love my braid for rock hard hookups, but without the stretch, you need to be a little more careful. Rods need to be flexible and drags need to be silky smooth, and my Okuma Catalina and Clarion line counter reels loaded with 50 lb Test Tuf-Line XP are perfect. I match them up with a Convector GL series medium-heavy rod, perfect for the boards.

Jim has also learned over the years that fluorocarbon out fishes the very visible wire, so 6–8 foot Seaguar leaders of 80 lb test, complete with Jim’s weed guards are part of my set up. Sharp hooks are a must with the boney, tooth filled mouth of a Muskie, and these are filed to a sticky sharp point. Jim has a complete selection of custom painted baits to match the water colour to perfection, if you don’t think it is important, you will after a day on the water with Jim. To keep the wood baits in the best shape possible (hard when the tooth filled mouth of the Muskie is always hammering them), Jim uses Mustad #7982HS-SS and Mustad #7825-NI double hooks. Not only do they hook the Muskie extremely well, the configuration of the double hook does not rub on the wood lures during trolling, causing unneeded damage and gouging the lures, it is only the Muskie scratching up the lures, not the hooks.

I had a blast with Terri this day, and enjoyed her catching many large trophy sized Muskies. From the many other trips with Jim, Terri has heard the stories of how the person with the first fish on rotation, never ends up with the big fish.  I truly only wanted her to have first fish and she reluctantly accepted, despite the stories.  This day, the first fish was the correct lucky rotation and I watch Terri catch the 3 largest Muskies of her lifetime! I think we had 12 Muskies boated with several more hits not finding the hook, all in all, a great day and lots of excitement!

The waters of St. Clair are often muddy or heavily stained, and simply having a lure that stands out in these conditions is not enough. There is a balance to have the lure colour look natural as well, still be seen, but not so obvious it doesn’t look natural. A good selection of lures is a must to match the water conditions. Find the bait, and you will find Muskies, these fish roam the lake with the bait under the cover of cloudy water, not holding structure like you would expect.

Continue to Episode 212

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