Why are fishing stories from Canada so ridiculous sometimes?

I've heard stories after stories of Canadian fishing trips being so ridiculous. 150 walleyes and/or pike in a day...fish biting tin foil on a hook, casting a jig to the shore, letting it drop and hits immediately. Fish on multiple casts....etc...

There are a lot of lakes in Northern Wi. with little to no pressure, so I don't know if the lack of fishing pressure is always what makes Canadian fishing so great....Maybe I'm hearing only the "good" stories and plenty of people do poorly in Canada....or perhaps, people are exaggerating their catches...although I've heard so many stories that I doubt that. Is it possible people are usually going during a time of year when fish are stacked up in certain places and either they know that, or the people at the lodging places know that...or do the slot limits in Canada help more than the slot limits here in the states....or do Canadian lakes just have more fish?? At some point though, a lake usually just can't kick out a big size structure and high density that equals a lot of fish and many big fish.

I'm just curious....I have never been to Canada. But, I do wonder why I keep hearing such amazing stories. Fishing is fishing...how can Canadian lakes be SO much better than anything around here....Any thoughts or personal experience? I'd love to hear your "whys" or at least "why you think...." etc...

It wasn't Canada, but the BWCA comes close.  One year you couldn't get your jig to the bottom to try for walleyes before a slab crappie had it.  You had to drop the jig in the canoe while you put the crappie on the stringer too, or you'd have another on the line before you were done.

We've had monster pike rip walleyes right off our stringer, and TBone walleyes and crappies as we reeled them in.

Not saying it can't happen elsewhere, but those remote lakes are known for crazy fishing.

I have been to Canada 7 times so far. Twice ice fishing which was slow, but we had fun. Most recently 5 times for walleye, northern and perch. We mostly go for perch. I fish northern Wisconsin a lot also. Canada is just a get away for our group, something different. Our trip is about $500 a person for everything, which is very reasonable. For our group it's not about how many we catch, it's about having fun and getting together.

On top of tighter possession limits and less pressure, this has a lot to do with it.

This was my first year in canada, a fly-in, with great electronics.  I have been to the lodge 6 times.    I don't think there are that many more fish, but we caught nearly everything I marked.  2-3 fish would move in and we catch 2-3 fish. Lack of pressure sure makes a big difference.  

Ah yes, the old Canada trick of jigging for Nothern's with a walleye.. Have had several encounters and it is just another one of the unique experiences that gets me back to Canada every year. 

Netting a northern with a walleye T-boned in its mouth is not easy. You get one chance in my experience. My partner and I are three for six in that department. The problem is, while I had the walleye hooked and the northern chewing on it , my partner always took the position he caught the northern because he netted it and I did not have the northern hooked. Makes for a great debate over cocktail.

Netting a northern with a walleye T-boned in its mouth is not easy. You get one chance in my experience. My partner and I are three for six in that department. The problem is, while I had the walleye hooked and the northern chewing on it , my partner always took the position he caught the northern because he netted it and I did not have the northern hooked. Makes for a great debate over cocktail.

I did it once, very large lake and only 5 cabins on it.  It definitely was the easiest fishing I ever experienced.  You'd have been slowed down by live bait.  Something as simple as a Storm rubber minnow, 10 casts resulted in 10 walleyes/pike.  I had a spinner bait sitting in the water about 6" on a rod I wasn't using and looked down to see a pike staring at it, lucky he didn't hit and pull the rod in.  It was a contest to see how many 30"+ pike we'd get in a day.  The only thing I'd do different is that I'd go back with larger lures/musky tackle.  Try to fish big fish and avoid all the 30"ers.  

I've had similar days in WI at times, like 100 fish days during a peak of a walleye run, etc.  But that lake in Canada was like that all the time.  Lakes in WI couldn't do that because once word got out the people would flock and it would be over by the next year.  Proof of that was a lake near my old house that was freshly stocked and full of small pike.  We'd work the lake and just catch them one after another.  Thing is everyone did.  That lasted a year and the pressure brought it back down to reality.  For a short time it was like mini-Canada, just mini-pike haha.

I'll likely never go. My old neighbor and a group of guys used to go every year. He didnt do well fishing waters in WI. He would always talk up Canada. One day asked him if he had any pictures. He showed me pictures going years and years back. 

In the pictures I didnt really see anything I couldn't catch 10 minutes to an hour from home, aside from a couple of really big pike, but if I fished pike I do have lakes that have 40" fish near me. Lots of nice walleye, pike, smallies. But nothing I would write home about. Scenery looked beautiful though, that's for sure. 

If I was gonna spend for a trip I'd rather go to Alaska, or south america for peacock bass, or a wide range of saltwater species somewhere. That's just me though. I definitely see the appeal of Canada for alot of guys.

Like has been said, you still have to know what you are doing. Your first trip to a new lake will take a little time to learn. If you can go with guys who have been going to the same lake for years, your chances of huge catches are much better.

One of the main reasons guys do so well in remote lakes is that they are pretty unfertile. There isn’t a lot of forage in these lakes. The growing season is also short so they can’t pass up an easy meal. Combine that with low pressure and it adds up to great fishing. 

Not every lake in Canada is going to produce big numbers. Drive in lakes, which are generally closer to the border, see a lot more pressure and your results may be similar to what you see in the states. 

Fished the English channel last Spring I was skeptical at first.    Walleye bite was crazy one after another hands were pruned from taking fish off . Kind a wrecked me from fishing around here.

 Our group never gets tired of catching fish.. We usually end up fishing a different outpost lake every 2-3 years and most are fairly large.. The last two years we fished a lake that was over 20 miles long and it was impossible to fish all the spots in two trips.. This year we are trying a new lake that has two portage lakes and I know we will only scratch the surface of all the fishable water.. We also mix things up between walleye and northern fishing (have also fished lakes with trout and perch)..

You still have to know what you are doing as the fish just do not jump in the boat. The last two years there was a group of 4-5 older guys from the Green Bay area on the lake we fished and they struggled some days just to catch fish for a meal( hard to figure).. We love exploring new water and finding the next "hot-spot".. I have fished alot of northern WI lakes and have camped on the Willow and Chippewa Flowages but you just do not get the same feeling of remoteness that we have on a fly-in Canadian lake. Numerous other unique experiences have added to these trips. Last year we had a nice bull caribou walk thru camp as we are having a fish fry and enjoying a cold Labatt's   

I love fishing in WI and do everything from walleyes to salmon to panfish but nothing compares (at least for me) with the experiences we have in Canada..

Frenchbrit made a great point. Places like Canada can spoil you and ruin fishing for you here in WI. In the past 7 years, I've been to Canada once and Alaska twice. Outside of putting a few tip ups out on the lake in front of my folk's place, hitting the spring crappie spawn a few weekends and taking the boat out on Green Bay for walleyes a handful of times, I have pretty much stopped fishing here. When you catch more fish in one day than you have in your home state in multiple years, it just sort of ruins it. Oh well, more for you guys. Have at 'em!

Canada is amazing.  So many fish, not so many anglers.  It is simple math.  That being said, it is all about timing of the trip and technique.

I've stopped going now, because I hate the long drive.  The walleye run in Green Bay (all areas) is world class with bigger fish than what is in Canada.  You have to deal with more anglers around you, but that is the trade off for me.

I'd love to get my wife back to Canada for that remote experience, but for me...I prefer to stay closer to home now.

But...yah...that Canada fishing is just that good.  Well worth the time to do the research on the lake/camp and go have fun.

When I went, I used Peffleys Resort on Wabiskang Lake.  Tons of water and Dave's place (Peffleys) is really the only lodge on that side of the lake.  It is a really, really good time and he has portage lakes you can walk to as well.  But do the research, there is literally a lake/lodge to fit every type of trip you want to do.