fish ontario

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Ice, Ice, Rainbow

My focus this winter has been stocked trout.  Here in Southern Ontario there are numerous opportunities for stocked trout including speckled, lake, brown, splake and rainbow.  After success with splake and brook trout It seemed like a good time to chase after another trout species and there was a small local lake we had in mind.

Dave and I had tried the lake before with no real success but still remained optimistic for the lake.   After doing the math, based in the size of the lake, the location of the beaten path, and the number of stocked rainbows, there had to be catchable fish there.  So, with confidence from my recent trout trips, we decided to give the small lake another shot.

Aside from a bout of car sickness on the way to the lake, things went well, and after a nap, I was feeling up to actually fishing.  May be it was the nap on the ice, or maybe it was waking up to a set line flag that turned into a beautiful Raindbow caught by Dave. Either way I was suddenly well enough to fish and moments later I had a decent hit.  I fought the rainbow for a few minutes and it seemed like there was a real chance I was going to catch some chrome.  Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be and the fish got off.  Even still, a fish and a miss is way more success than we have ever had on the lake, and in my mind that counts as a win.  As a plus, this was Dave’s first Rainbow trout! Congrats Dave!

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Congrats Dave on your first Rainbow Trout.  I wonder what to target next, Lakers or browns?

Cheers from the ice,

Albert

 

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Gorilla Cup 2015

Recently attended the Annual Gorilla Cup organized by Marco McCrae and ran out of Seely’s Bay on Cranberry and Whitefish Lake.  It was a solid group of local guys and the tourney was a blast.

Although we were able to cobble together an ok limit on Whitefish lake, we knew we weren’t anywhere near the leaders so we bowed out and released our fish to prevent any further stress on them.

Maybe next year we will have to finally give Cranberry Lake a shot.

Enjoy the photos from the day!

Cheers form the Wild

Al

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Newboro Lake – July 2015

 

Fishing continues to be good here in southern Ontario.  I recently took a trip with my brother to Newboro Lake located near Westport, Ontario to chase the resident bass population around.  Lots of fish were caught using a variety of shallow and deep water techniques in the main area of the lake including the chunky examples below.

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Cheers from the lake

Albert

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Bay of Quinte Gold – January 18, 2014

The Bay of Quinte is a Mecca for Walleye fisherman.   Blessed with proximity to Lake Ontario, fairly eutrophic conditions, and several rivers feeding into it, you couldn’t ask for better fish habitat.  Its for these reasons why fisherman flock to the Bay during the winter months to take advantage of the spectacular runs of giant Lake Ontario walleye which are cuing up for early spring spawning.

And so, armed with this information, and an insatiable desire for big walleyes,  I joined the ranks of eager fisherman who have tackled the hard water on the BoQ.

The day started with an early 4:15 am drive to Belleville, with an initial stop at the bait shop (Pro Tackle).  After a quick chat with the knowledgeable owners, I was making my way down Sydney Street to a point along Dundas Street where I would be meeting two of my uncles and three good buddies as well as several members of the Ontario Out of Doors, online fishing forum (here comes the shameless plug! – http://www.oodmag.com/community/).  Several of the members of this forum had arranged for a meet and greet that day at a spot near Potters Creek in Belleville.  I have got to say, fishing enthusiasts are some of the nicest folks out there and a couple of these guys really put a lot of effort into coordinating the event and making the rounds on the ice to introduce themselves and take pictures.  Heck there were even prizes to be won and a big fish contest!  A chance to win swag and fish all day?  Who doesn’t love that.

Being the first of our group to arrive at the meeting point, I spent a bit of time chatting with some of the early risers until finally, the anticipation of some big Bay of Quinte Gold got the better of me and I headed out.

I was set up around 5:45 and fishing hard in 15 FOW.  There was 12″ or more of ice in every hole I drilled which made me thankful for my awesome Finbore auger.  My approach included jigging a shad rap and a set line tipped with a minnow several feet away.  Within in minutes of start up I had a fish take hold of my line and make a run for the bottom.  After a valiant effort fighting the fish to the hole, he finalized realized that something was up and decided to let go of the bait.  More fish activity came and went on the finder however nothing was iced.  That is until the rest of my group arrived……

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The first fish came on my friend Dave’s line.  It was a healthy fish with some pretty good girth and length.  Not to mention this was Dave’s personal best!

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The second fish was caught by my uncle, and it tipped the scales at around 8lbs.  What a tank!

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Some times the Bay of Quinte can be tough and can send you home scratching your head with not even a hint of fish.  Other times, she is generous and gives up some of her golden treasure from the depths.  Some times, if your lucky, she’ll even allow you the chance to see some of the giants that lurk below.   Then there are times like last weekend were you not only catch big walleye but your given a shot at something special.  Now catching a gar pike is a pretty rare experience, but as far as I know, catching one through the ice is almost un heard of.

And so it was my other uncle hooked this massive 43″ beast and wrestled it through the hole.

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I am pretty sure this fish made his day if not week!

The fish was promptly released to be caught another day.

Although the Bay of Quinte can be tough for catching numbers, its pretty hard to beat the size of fish it produces each year.  So if your looking for a trophy walleye, or if your an avid Gar pike fisherman, pack your gear and  hit up the Bay this winter.

Cheers from the Wild

Albert

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Lake Nippissing – Walleye Success

As promised, here is a report on my recent trip to the Great body of water known as Lake Nippissing.

The Lake: Lake Nippissing meaning “big water” in the Algonquin Language

-Surface Area: 873 sq. Km

-Average depth: 15ft

-contains over 40 species of fish including the popular walleye, pike, bass and musky

– some to countless island s and shoals making for some amazing fish habitat

The Report:

We left Bethany around 9:00 am and head North towards a weekend full of fishing.  We arrived at Promised Land Camp around 11:30 and proceeded to unload our gear.  After a hurried bout of unpacking we jumped in the boat and headed out on the beautiful south arm of Nippissing to warm up with some big pike.

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Unfortunately, the pike weren’t cooperating and we knew it was time for a change.  So we picked up a friend from his dock, changed out our pike gear for light lines and headed out to big water to chase some Lake Nippissing Walleyes.

Although the MNR reports that the walleye populations are statistically seeing a decline, the decline was not apparent during our stay here.  The minute we hit the big water and dropped our lines we were catching fish.  Fish were generally caught while trolling in and around the multiple shoals dotting the lake in depths ranging from 40 to 20 FOW.  All said and done, we caught 23 walleye in the afternoon of the first day, 27 walleye during the morning of the second day and 23 walleye during the morning of the third day.  Not to mention multiple smallmouth bass and perch caught incidentially.  Although these numbers are encouraging, the more exciting thing to see was the variety in sizes.  The fish caught seemed to be evenly distributed throughout the year classes with several fish well into the slot size.  We estimated the largest fish weighed between 3 and 3.5 lbs.

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The other interesting thing is where they were caught and the time of year.  Typically walleye start to progress near river mouths during the fall months in preparation for spawning.  Seeing as how we caught these fish near deep shoals, this could be indicative of a healthy shoal spawning strain of walleye in the lake.

Of the 75 fish caught, only 4 were kept.  The remainder were released as part of a conscious decision made to benefit the fishery.  My thought is I want to be able to take my children to fish the Nip in the future and have them experience the same success.  In my mind, the only way to directly accomplish this is to practice conservation and actively advocate for the lake. For those interested in learning more about Lake Nippissing Walleye, see the attached link:

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@mnr/@letsfish/documents/document/stdprod_098192.pdf

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But enough of fishing philosophy.  Back to the report.

We spent a few more attempts trying to locate the big pike that inhabit Lake Nip but succeeded in catching only a few medium sized fish.  Still some pike is better than no pike! (sorry no pics, weather was too lousy to break out the camera)

An additional high point of the trip was the stellar accommodations provided by Promised Land Camp.  The cottages were clean, orderly and very comfortable.  Not to mention the hosts were very helpful and super friendly.  This marks my third trip to Promised Land Camp and honestly, I cant think of a single reason why I would try anywhere else.

I like to give credit where credit is due, so when I have a good experience at a place I make a point to promote it.  If your thinking of a trip to the Nip, here’s a tip: give Promised Land Camp a serious look.

http://www.promisedlandcamp.net/

Cheers From the Wild

Albert

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Bay of Quinte Report

This weekend found me fishing my old stomping grounds: the Bay of Quinte.  Together with my dad and another gent, we launched at the Deseronto boat launch  around 7:00 am.  Winds from the previous day were lingering which left a good “walleye chop” on the water.  In addition the sky was overcast and periods of drizzle were common.  This seemed like a perfect day for catching walters!

From the launch we travelled past foresters island and headed for Catalaque Shoal where we dropped the trolling motor and proceeded to troll.  Bottom bouncers and spinners were our go to lures that day however the action was slow to start with only perch and white bass caught.  We criss-crossed the lake fishing in everything from 18 to 40 FOW.  Again only perch and white bass seemed to be interested.

Being a firm believer in “If it aint working, try something else” we decided to try a troll line of the eastern shore line where there was a definitive drop.  Trolling in everything from 17 to 24 FOW we started getting lots of hits and proceeded to land several nice sized drum.  One we estimated to be around 13 Lbs.  We tucked in even closer to the shore line to find a submerged weedbed where we caught a couple decent sized largemouths.  As an added bonus we even caught a walleye while on the out side of the weedline.

All in all a decent day on the water.

 

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My apologies for such crummy photography work.  I left my DSLR at home as the weather was predicted to be pretty lousy.

Ah well, low quality fish pics are better than none at all right?

 

Cheers from the Wild

Albert