# North of Wawa Report



## WPM (Jun 9, 2006)

Back from my trip to *Normandy Lodge *on *Kabenung Lake *North of Wawa.
Long, easy drive from Cleveland. Lodge a bit rough around the edges, but very reasonably priced, and the new owners were eager to help, despite being really busy. I'd call Kabenung a difficult lake - BIG, complicated, with a hundred islands and a thousand just-below-the-surface rocks. For all that, it was pretty generous to a newbie who didn't know any fishing spots. Water was clear, but "tea-stained", not very weedy at all. I mostly fished rockpiles, points, and shoreline structures, looking for numbers of nice pike and hoping for a bonus lunker. The pike I caught in good numbers were mostly small and medium sized fish, but I did get the bonus (see pic). As usual, most of my fish came on spinner baits and swim baits on safety pins, but my 2 biggest pike both hit a home-made straight shaft with a double twister trailer. The few bass and walleyes I got were all fairly small.
For my last day, I traveled a bit up the Trans Canada to *Halfway Lodge *where Wayne Avery, a real veteran of the area, has a place that is not on a lake, but provides boats and trailers and sends (or takes) his guests back to various smaller lakes in the area. We hooked my rig to his huge 4x4 and pulled it back down a rutted dirt track to a beautiful, underfished lake called Elsie. For 7 hrs it was just me, the loons and the pike - sort of like a fly-in, but with my own boat. After I figured out a few structure locations and caught a real beauty, I broke out the fly rod and had a ball for the rest of the day. I'm definitely putting *Halfway Lodge *on my "return trip" list.


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## triton175 (Feb 21, 2006)

Sounds like a fun trip, I'm jealous.. Thanks for sharing the pics.


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## Fish_Heads (Jun 2, 2008)

I put that measuring sticker on that boat............I'm jealous Paul !

Nice pike !

You wanna get pike like that every day next year, team up with me & my son next July..........out of Wawa..........were going next summer for sure........we know where they are & one extra fisherman isn't a problem !



Take care

Tom


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

Thanks for the report. Glad you had a great time.

Any surface action with Zara Spooks or big Buzz baits???

Normandy Lodge is a regular on the "Travel Show" circuit. I suspect that is because of a lack of return business. You seemed to do OK however. Congratulations!

There are a lot of really productive lakes in the Wawa area. Kabinakagami is the grandpappy trophy pike lake and any lake on the chain Esgami, etc., are major pike producers. Kaby is a fly-in destination with Pine Portage and Kaby Lodge being the primary tenants.

Fish Heads seems to know of some drive in lakes that are equally productive. I'd take him up on his offer. Normandy Lodge is a gret starter trip, but if driving all of the way to Wawa, I'd want better.


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## Fish_Heads (Jun 2, 2008)

Some of the best lakes are *drive close*, hike in !

I have a 12' Porta Bote that we fold up & haul on the trailer under my Lund when we go north.

It fishes 3 adults quite well, isn't tippy at all & doesn't leak a drop...........I was amazed after I bought it just how well it works out. I'm standing in it in this picture from Negwazu lake north of Wawa near white river.

It put us on many lakes that we could never get my Lund to, much less on !

We use a little 6 hp 4 stroke & an electric trolling motor & it works out fairly easy to portage in with a couple people.


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## Stuhly (Jul 6, 2009)

Thanks for the report. AWESOME PIKE ! I was up on Quantz Lake which is a 100 miles north of Hearst 3hrs North of Wawa great pics thanks for sharing


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## WPM (Jun 9, 2006)

BMustang said:


> Thanks for the report. Glad you had a great time.
> 
> Any surface action with Zara Spooks or big Buzz baits???


'Stang,
Based on your earlier advice, I was ready with top-water lures and threw them whenever I found a weedbed - which only happened about _twice all week_. I got one huge explosion while walking a dog, but that was it. Pike fishing without weeds was a whole new experience for me!


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## WPM (Jun 9, 2006)

Fish_Heads said:


> Some of the best lakes are *drive close*, hike in !
> 
> I have a 12' Porta Bote that we fold up & haul on the trailer under my Lund when we go north.
> 
> ...


Tom,
That Porta Bote sounds amazing (gotta look those up), but 3 guys and a big pike in a 12 ftr sounds like an invitation to a fire drill. (The fight I had to get a self-timer picture of my biggest fish was way tougher than the fight to bring him to the net.)


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## Fish_Heads (Jun 2, 2008)

WPM said:


> Tom,
> That Porta Bote sounds amazing (gotta look those up), but 3 guys and a big pike in a 12 ftr sounds like an invitation to a fire drill. (The fight I had to get a self-timer picture of my biggest fish was way tougher than the fight to bring him to the net.)


Paul.........The little boat really is amazing..........no fear of tipping with 3 200# adults..........you wouldn't think so but it really is a great stable little boat. made a believer outta me ! You can stand to net fish with no problem.

I'd buy another (although the next bigger version) in a minute.


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

WPM said:


> 'Stang,
> Based on your earlier advice, I was ready with top-water lures and threw them whenever I found a weedbed - which only happened about _twice all week_. I got one huge explosion while walking a dog, but that was it. Pike fishing without weeds was a whole new experience for me!


Gotcha! Sometimes surface baits that cover a lot of territory can be used as a locator, around islands, rocks, coves, etc..

Keep them in mind in your future travels.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Those were some really nice pike. We have fished several tea stained lake up there and the lack of weeds really makes it touch to locate fish but as you know they are there!


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