The Woodsman Magazine
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Trophy Fish Outposts



Machawaian Mid-Lake Humps
By Bob Riege
Machawaian Lake lies in Northwestern Ontario and it is a walleye and northern factory. A father, son, grandson and brother-in-law group from Austin, MN for a one week fly-in trophy experience, joined my wife, Ginny and me. The “Finholt” group, we will call them, have been fishing together on the Mississippi river for a number of years, but they had not all experienced a Canadian fly-in. We contacted Ernie and Donna Nicholl at Huron Air during the All Canada show in Minneapolis last winter. We scheduled a week’s vacation in the first part of July and we were told that Machawaian had a lot of mid-lake humps, or sunken islands to fish. After a forty minute flight from Armstrong Ontario we quickly unpacked and headed out to do some walleye fishing on these sunken islands.

Walleyes are a structure-oriented fish, most of the time. These walleyes will be tight to the bottom, lying in the holes between rock and cuts in the bottom. They may be feeding, or waiting in ambush to find an easy meal that comes their way. When fishing structure, you have to be able to stay tight to the structure or your lure presentation will not be in the strike zone of the fish. Move just a boat length away and you will be out of luck.

One of the very first places I look and concentrate my efforts is on the flats. Flats are the least interesting types of structure in a lake. There are no breaks, holes, edges, just flat bottom. But seemingly featureless flats hold most of the active walleyes during most yearly periods.

On the flats, the weather has less of an impact than it does in shallow water. Fish favor stability. Relatively constant water temperature, water quality, weather, and abundance of prey let fish live predictably. Good fishing often accompanies stable conditions, but sometimes when weather is poor fishing is the best on the flats. Flats are the major food-producing regions of most lakes. Walleyes forage over flats. Therefore, the flats are the home of walleyes. This was the case the first week of July. The weather was unstable and cool, especially July 4th. We awoke to four foot rollers and temperatures in the upper 30’s. By the end of the week the temps rebounded to the upper 90’s.

It’s easy to identify productive flats. Some prime flats drop off steeply into the deepest areas of the lake. Walleyes that use flats typically move shallower at night to feed on a variety of prey species. Baitfish such as cisco and shad move shallower at dusk. The depth of a good flat can very from only a few feet to over 20, depending upon the lake and the season. Flats with a fairly soft or sandy bottom carpeted with low weeds, with patches of coontail or cabbage rising above the carpet, attract walleyes. Submerged weeds develop as the water warms in the summer. Weedy flats hold baitfish that attracts walleyes at night. In fall, weeds decline and small fish are flushed from cover. Walleyes feed aggressively throughout this period. Walleyes can feed in dim light. They have a feeding advantage over most prey species after dark. When fishing these humps I rely on my depthfinder to tell me if anyone is home on these humps. I usually like to look for a good shelf that comes out from an island that has boulders on it. This is the structure that many walleye key in on to rest and ambush their prey as they slide back and forth from the hump to deep water. These are transition areas where the fish come to feed. These humps provide a structure for baitfish that have moved out into deep water as schools, and are looking for a place to rest. Naturally, what attracts the baitfish also attracts the walleye. The other thing that my depthfinder unit allows me to see is how active these fish are. Many times you can go over the hump and you will see that the walleyes are moving up to the top portion of the hump, this signifies that they are in a positive mood and within minutes you should be landing a nice plump walleye in your boat.

If a lake is clear it maybe be difficult to catch walleyes in the middle of the day in shallow water, it is usually better to concentrate on deep fish, rather than shallow fish. You should look for fish holding areas where wind crashes against a barrier or where the wind churns up the water rather than fishing where it is calm. Machawaian is a dark water lake that has a high percentage of fish caught during the day. Sometimes in dark mucky waters, high bright sun filled days trigger a feeding frenzy because the sunlight gets all the tiny critters moving and in the cycle of fishing the end of the food chain will be the bigger fish.
Constant bottom contact is essential even though it increases the potential for snags. Use a small jig head with a wide hook gap to deliver the bait in wavy conditions. Gulp leeches or minnows are outstanding rock bait because they can take the pounding.

Holding on top of a hump on a windy day is a way to catch trophy walleyes. The tackle is simple and the methods are easy to learn. First, use jigs tipped with a Berkley Gulp, Power Bait, or Bubble Up minnows. The size of the jig should be just enough so you have contact with the bottom.
Whenever you must fish in adverse conditions, being either bright sunny days or changing weather conditions, there should be a two step approach. One way is to slow down your presentation. Go slow, using your motor and make your presentation very slow. Maybe even put on a single hook with split shot rather than a walking sinker and vibrating blades. Or the second approach is to go fast. Use fast trolling speeds with artificial lures and speed troll breaklines to get the fish active enough to bite.

Machawaian Lake is a beautiful trophy lake. Machawaian Lake offers two 4 to 8 person cabins. This lake is 9 miles in length and 2 to 5 miles wide. They offer a short portage to Maracle Lake, another Walleye factory. At Machawaian not only do you catch lots of fish, you also catch big fish. Walleyes 2 to 5 lbs. are common with 10 lbs. possible. The Northern action is fast and furious with many fish topping 20 lbs. For more information about Trophy Fish Outposts contact: Ernie or Donna Nicholl, at Huron Air 1-866-488-5619 www.trophyfishoutposts.com. Or drop them a line at: P.O. Box 310, Armstrong, ON, Canada P0T 1A0 Fax. (866) 583-2812.