Quote:
Originally Posted by Walleye101
Very nice congrats. Are you talking about Sandy Lake by Slave Lake?
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The walleye was caught on Sandy lake, right where the highway turns to go to the town of Wabasca north of Athabasca. Theres huge fish in all of the lakes in the area, really. I've heard that guys are lighting it up at North Wabasca lake this season, plenty of Walleye in the 8 pound + range as well as massive pike. IMO Sandy is overlooked because of all the quality fishing around it.
Wabasca is connected to Sandy threw a system of creeks, so fish travel back and forth. That's how Jeff's walleye got into the lake. It's usually pretty rare to catch Walleye in Sandy, I go there almost exclusively for the big pike. I've been there 6 times with 2 or 3 guys in the boat each time and Jeff is the only guy ever to catch one, and what a complete tank of a fish it was!!
Sandy is a very weedy lake with a sand-mud bottom, not a lot of rocks so the walleye usually stay up river and in the Wabasca lakes. But clearly me and Jeff found out a limited population does indeed exist. I seriously doubt you will ever catch a walleye there the size of Jeffs at Sandy because that was a complete fluke of a fish. One in a million on that body of water. That Eye' weighed more than most of the pike we caught that day.
I definitely recommend going to Sandy even just for the excellent Pike fishing. In episode 3 of this series by Jeff (FazeTimid), I get back to back fat 37-38" pike within the span of an hour after getting to our spot.
My advice for lures on Sandy is pretty simple: Bright colored spoon, green / yellow is best. Size 0 or bigger.
I tried multiple cranks, jerkbaits, jigs of all colors. They caught fish but not even close to the same rate as the spoon.
Jeff was getting pretty decent action on a topwater buzzbait too, but unfortunately wasn't always getting luck actually hooking them after they had blown up on the surface.
Here's some tips to find the big girls on sandy:
Step 1: Find column weeds. The stringy stuff held fish but all the larger ones were caught near what I call "column weeds" they look like juniper trees coming up and are fairly spaced out with gaps between the columns you can flip your lure between, unlike the stringy grass-type weeds that you pull in on every cast when you're fishing near them.The weeds go to just under the surface (maybe 6" of water between the top of the weeds and the surface of the water) in about 9 to 10 feet of water and about 150 meters for shore.
Step 2:Find the edge of the weed line (make sure its the right type of weeds!), then go about 20 meters into the weed bed and anchor. Cast into the gaps of the weed columns around you as well as far away from the bed into the open lake and bring it back towards you. All the largest pike were caught doing this, because you're casting your lure into the deeps and bringing it up into shallow water where you're anchored. The big ones are hanging out in that transition from deep to shallow so you're guaranteed to bonk em right on the head with your preferred lure if you've got it running at the right depth. I lost count of how many times I cast my lure right in the gap between two weed columns, let it sink for half a second, and before I could even turn my reel twice I had a fish on or at least a solid bite. Sometimes they would hit it just as its fluttering downwards. They are tucked right in between them and seem to ambush their pray as they swim by.
Step 3: Enjoy
I would say the average Jack in Sandy (if you're fishing the right area) weights 4 or 5 pounds. The "hammer handles" in this lake are more like 5 pound sledges. Some smaller than that but plenty bigger as well. The reason I find the pike grow so big and aren't all skinny in Sandy is because of the limited population of walleye. The Pike don't have to compete nearly as hard as they do in lakes where Walleye populations have exploded.
Hope this helps and be sure to watch all 3 episodes of this series! We had quite the struggle actually getting on Sandy but the last 2 videos we lit em' up pretty good. There were plenty of fish that didn't make the cut in the video, I almost had to take a break during the second day because my arm was dead from the constant pulling. IMO use 20 pound braid minimum, you'll save a lot of lures that way. Run it to a 30lb+ flouro leader if you're worried about the fish being picky. (hint: they aren't picky)
PS: There's huge whitefish in Sandy as well. Saw a local first nations guy bringing in his nets on the dock one day and he had about a dozen Whites and some of them must have been pushing 7 or 8 pounds
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