Day 7 - July 7, 2016

On the seventh day of our trip, we decided to fish from sunrise to sunset.  Our first stop was at the closed bridge on the back side of Wabush Lake.  We arrived at the bridge a little before 6 a.m. and shortly after I caught a lake trout followed by my dad catching a splake.  A splake is a cross between a lake trout and a brook trout.  It was a calm and crisp morning.  There wasn't a ripple on the water and the loons were calling and diving all over the lake.  We saw an osprey fishing as well.  The past couple mornings the temperatures were below 40 degrees F.  A winter hat and long sleeves were a must.  If you're planning a trip like this, pack your bags accordingly and be prepared for any type of weather.

Our next stop was Sandy Point on Wabush Lake.  The previous year we had luck here and caught several lake trout.  This year the water levels in the lakes were higher than normal and we were catching lake trout where we had caught pike in the past.  As previously stated, the pike were not in their normal spots.  We weren't sure if this was because of the higher water levels or not.

After a hearty Newfie breakfast at a local family restaurant, we continued to fish and stopped at Jean Lake again.  This time around, we each caught a sucker.  There was a school of them in the deep pool and they ended up being a bigger challenge to catch than the lake trout we were catching.  

After this, we decided to head north on the Route 500 (the Trans-Labrador Highway) to the Ashuanipi River.  This is a well known river among the locals and there are a lot of fishing camps up and down the river.  We traveled up river but couldn't find a good place to access the river and fish.  We decided to head downstream where we found good access.  This is the one time we wished we had a boat or canoe.

On our way back south, we stopped on this causeway along Shaboogamoo Lake.  We saw schools of brook trout chasing bait fish near the rocks of the causeway.  This is where we decided that on our next trip a shiner trap is a necessity.

We stopped at the closed IOC bridge again and I caught this lake trout near sunset.

Shortly after turning back onto Route 500, we came across another young bull moose feeding.  We ended up watching him for twenty minutes as the sun set.  What a great end to a perfect day.