Fishing in Ontario

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Sydenham Pike

Once again found myself up early and heading out for some Pike here in Southern Ontario.  I was meeting up with a friend and his Dad who had travelled to our area from Pennsylvania for a vacation.   Last year during their annual trip we met up for a fish on Sydenham Lake and had done very well with the Pike.  This year we decided to try for a repeat performance once again on Sydenham.

Fishing went extremely well and we boated over 15 Pike on a variety of classic pike lures.  Nothing big but still lots of fun.

Enjoy the Pictures.

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Cheers from the Wild

Albert

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Angler Atlas

For many of my fellow Ontarians, Finding bathymetry for your favourite lake can be a challenge.  Especially if your like me and your favourite lake is located in the middle of nowhere with very little interest from the general public.

Thankfully Anglers Atlas has just recently added a big chunk of maps for many smaller lakes in southern Ontario and to my delight, a bunch of my favourites made the list.

Spend a few minutes, sign up and check out Anglers Atlas.  Who knows, maybe you’ll find a map for your favourite back lake!

Cheers from my desk,

Albert

http://www.anglersatlas.com/mapSearch

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National Fishing Week – License Free

Once again, National fishing week is upon us here in Southern Ontario (July 5- 13).  For those of us hardcore anglers, its just another excuse to get out on the water to chase our lunker dreams.  But what about those people who rarely fish, or for that matter, have never fished?  Well this week is for you.  Twice a year (once in February and again in July) periods of licence free fishing for Canadian residences are allowed.  That means you can grab a rod with no license and fish to your hearts content.  What a great way to try fishing with no upfront licensing fees!

For those of you who are avid anglers, consider asking a non-fisher or a youth out for a fish.  Help the rest of the world see just what all the fuss is about when it comes to fishing.  We are all ambassadors of our sport and the more people on the water = the more interest in protecting our fisheries.

As for me, my plans will include taking out some relatives for some exciting bass action.  Heres hoping we can get a rod bend or two in!

Cheers From the Wild

Albert

Check out the following link for more details:

http://www.ontariofamilyfishing.com/

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Proposed Changes to the Walleye and Bass Fishery on Lake Nippissing

Im sure from my posts on here, all my readers are well aware that I absolutely love fishing Lake Nippissing.  In my view, it has some of the best walleye fishing anywhere in the province (for numbers at least).  As a big supporter of the lake, I know many people enjoy harvesting walleye from this water body.  Knowing this I felt compelled to share the upcoming changes with my readership.

Basically the changes are:

For walleye, a change from current slot size of 40 to 60 centimetres (15.7 to 23.6 inches) to a zero possession of walleye less than 46 centimetres (18 inches) in length to come into effect May 17, 2014. There are no changes to catch limits.

• For smallmouth and largemouth bass, a change to the opening date of fishing season to open one week earlier, starting June 21, 2014 (3rd Saturday in June instead of 4th). There are no changes to catch limits.

Though these changes are not reflected in the current Ontario Fishing Regulation Summary (2014), the changes are effective as of May 17, 2014 and will be reflected in the 2015 version of the Ontario Fishing Regulation Summary.

These changes are intended to support the recovery of the walleye population by allowing juvenile walleye to grow and spawn at least once in their lifetime and by promoting other angling opportunities.

(excerpt taken from the EBR posting below)

http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTIyMjgx&statusId=MTgzMzA1&language=en

Opinions on this change will vary I am sure.  Either way I strongly encourage you to comment on this or reach out to your local OFAH chapter to voice your opinion.

Your thoughts aren’t heard if there not voiced.

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Thoughts of Springs Gone By

Seriously winter…. what happened to you?

You used to be cool.  You would come creeping around every November after deer season heralding Christmas, and bringing hardwater for ice-fishing or an excuse to dip south for some R&R.  Then like a flash, March would roll around and, poof! you would retreat back to the southern hemisphere….

But not this year, oh no…  That would be too normal.  Just to see how stir crazy you can drive us, you decide, what the hell, lets play a cruel joke by repetitive flash freezing and dropping sloppy dumps of snow at random times.

Let me just say, you can stop the joke now.  Its not funny any more…

Since winter is taking its sweet time to retreat this year, Ive decided to reminisce on springs gone by; specifically back to a trip to Algonquin two years ago that I have been meaning to write a post about.  We had a particularily good spring and the weather worked out perfect for us on this trip as did the fishing.  I know the trip pre-dates my blog, but a flashback is warranted due to the epic nature of the trip.

A group of six made up of myself, Dave (a regular on this blog) and four other friends decided to do an early season portaging trip to Algonquin Park to celebrate the esteemed ritual of the Bachelor Party for Dave before he took the plunge into matrimony.  As a survivor of many other urban bachelor parties, including my own, I was curious to experience what a backwoods party would be like. Even more curious as to how the brook trout fishing was some 50+ km into the heart of Algonquin.

After much preparation and figuring out how to transport a sufficient amount of “beverages” for such an arduous trip, the day finally arrived and we set out for the north side of Algonquin.

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Our launching point was from Brent on the north side of the park.

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After a relaxing night at cedar lake campground we roused our selves out of beer induced comas and embarked into the mists.

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Our trek took us across Cedar lake into the throat of the Petawawa.  As our trip coincided with the spring melt, river levels were high the waters were raging.  This made for stunning scenery and some spirited paddling.

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Little did I know that the worst was yet to come, because on the first day, “my inaugural day of portaging in Algonquin”, we were to face whats infamously called Unicorn Hill. Well, la di da, doesn’t it sound nice and cozy?  The name kind of lulls you into a sense of relaxation.. .. F that.  Unicorn hill consisted of a coronary giving, death defying, 3km hike uphill through a twisted path that served as a portage around a particularly long stretch of rapids.  This portage was definitely not for the faint of heart.  Maybe that’s why the crowds seemed to miraculously thin out after that.  After almost passing out a couple times and losing half my weight in sweat, we finally made it through.  Following that, we had a bit more paddling and a couple of minor portages and we finally made it to our campsite.  I was bushed but I was also there for a purpose, and nothing would stop me from testing the waters of the Petawawa with my rod.  I think it was at this point that things got serious and we actually started trying to figure out the brook trout fishing, because so far we were fishless and Dave still hadn’t caught the first brook trout of his life.

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We fished near the campsite with no luck and proceeded to hike further up he river.  Past schools of sucker and down some steep embankments we manged to locate a few decent holes.  Low and behold, Dave hooked up and we were staring at the first fish of the trip and of Dave’s lifetime.

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What a first it was!  It demonstrated some  amazing colour and patterns as well as being fairly girthy for a stream caught trout.  This was to be the first taste of trout we would have on the trip.

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Although the trout tasted good, it was not enough to feed 6 big guys after a hard day of portaging, and so the E and B were broke out with a chunk of cheese for good measure.

The rest of the trip went by like a blurr of good times and lots of brookies.  Id love to recount more details for you but I will let the pictures do the talking instead.

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Smaller trout, like the one pictured below, were common and plentiful.

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Our journey took us all the way to High Falls and onto the Nippissing River.  Possibly some of the most beautiful country I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing.

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Below the author is pictured cooking some of the delicious trout for the group.

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Brook Trout

The endless meandering waters of the Nippissing are something to behold.  In some sections it felt as though we were stuck in a time loop, paddling the same stretches over and over again.

This provided ample opportunity to pull out the camera.

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As much as I love to catch and eat brook tout, I have to emphasize that conservation is key.  Although we did keep some fish on this trip, the majority were caught on barbless hooks and were released with no real harm done.  Do your part to preserve these fish if you decide to venture into this section of Algonquin.  Collectively we need to recognize how special the brook trout in Algonquin really are and do are best to protect them.

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T’was a fine trip with a fine bunch of gentlemen and will not soon be forgotten.

Cheers from the Wild

Albert

P.S for those planning a trip to the “Gonq”, here is a link to the best map available:

http://www.algonquinmap.com/

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Loughborough Lake Lakers

My Ice fishing season has started slow this year and without any real success.  Hence the lack of posts on the blog.  Thankfully I have had some recent success and am able to post an update on my recent goings on with some actual results and juicy fish pics for all to enjoy.

Verona Lake

The second our corner of Southern Ontario had safe, fishable ice, my work mates and I were out looking for the early season bite.  Our first trip was to Verona Lake, which is, surprise surprise, right near Verona.  We didn’t end up catching much but was it was a good way to brush the rust off our gear and get back into the swing of things on a new lake in the area.

Long Lake

I followed up the first outing of the season with a trip to my friend Dave ‘s Cottage on Long Lake. we managed a few decent perch and marked quite a few decent sized fish on the finders.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to coax any of the lakes elusive walleye into biting.IMG_1311

Despite the lack of eyes, The trip was still very enjoyable as we were treated to an amazing sunset.  Sometimes thats all it takes to make a fishing trip worth while.

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Little Clear Lake

The third trip of the season was to Little Clear lake for some Trout action.  Once again, caught lots of perch but no trout.  There was lots of ice on the lake but a tough slog hiking in due to a thin layer of crust which made walking very tedious and tiring.

Deadman’s bay / Loughborough Lake

Once again, Dave and I found ourselves with some time on our hands so we gathered up the fishing gear and headed out.  Our first stop was at Deadman’s Bay located just south of Fort Henry.   Although we didn’t catch any fish we enjoyed an amazing view through 6 – 8″ of clear black ice through 10 to 20 of crystal clear water.

Pretty awesome.

Since things were dead ain deadmans bay, we made a snap decision and headed up to Loughborough Lake hoping to get lucky with the Lakers.  Upon arrival we headed out to the laker grounds in 80 – 90 FOW and punched a few holes through the ice.  It was a beautiful afternoon with near 0 degree temperatures and very few fisherman on the ice.  Our lure choices included silver jigging shad raps, cleos and wobblers all jigged a varying depths throughout the water column.

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Id estimate the fish to be a solid 2lbs.

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With the first real success of the season achieved I am looking forward to the next outing.

The plan is to hit up the Bay of Quinte in a couple weeks for some monster Walleyes.  Here’s hoping they cooperate!

Cheers from the Wild

Albert