Lake in Ontario

[Fran Myers]

Bill,

Do you know what the water color is? Weed line depths if any, and bottom make up?
Being where it is I'm sure we can all guess but if you've been there it be interesting to hear the details.

Bill, I looked at your pencil lines and honestly a lot of them were in the right places. If you are planning a trip and you are looking at contour maps the easiest way to get the preliminary ideas on where to start - this is what I do...(not an English major)....

I find the deepest water in the lake. Then I start to look at where the contour lines curve as close to the deep water. Then I start looking for humps. Then I look at where the contour line are really close and far apart. I will make a copy of the map and then use highlighters to mark potential spots.

Now there can be some truly awesome spot in areas where on the maps that show no recognizable structure. The normal trolling procedures will find those spots eventually.

If I'm only going for a short time and I have no other resources such as some who has been there, I always start with structures close to the deepest holes. Also keep in mind that situations may not allow access to these spots crowed spots, weather, time of year, all make these plans delicate. Also keep in mind that just because you and I think the structure 'looks' good doesn't always mean a fish will be there when we are.

The lake looks kind of fun with lots of potential.

[Bill]

Fran, Water color is light brown, but semi-clear to clear. You can see rocks on bottom in 5 ft without shading your eyes. The secchi disk reading was 10 ft, not sure where that comes out. Bottom is lots of rounded rocks , curly cabbage weeds are about 5-9 ft but only patches here and there I guess where there's muck. No real weedline . Shallow bays have weeds and reeds. There's a fairly big patch on the saddle to the small island east of McConnel point in the center of the first map (main lake. ) There is just a small weed clump ( just big enough for a muskie's head) on the big sunken island in 3 ft, an area about10 x10 ft wide. There used to be tiger muskie, saw a few under docks , I think they stopped stocking to protect the trophy size natives, and of course tigers don't reproduce. The area called Maple Cove looks good , but I never fished it and never saw anyone fishing it either. Apparently there are several large mounted muskies in various stores, etc around the area. Popular ice fishing spot. I think the average guy fishes far too shallow in summer here. Most of the pencil lines I put in after rereading the books lately. Lake is about 7 miles E-W. Near North Bay in Ontario. If some guys who really knew their stuff fished it in summer they would do really well.

[Fran Myers]

Color, weeds, muck or not - were all what I expected. There wont be a lot of muck just because of the glacial action.

The pencil lines were some of the places I'd start. Just remember, that map was created in the 70's by a group of guys who didn't really want to be there. Another thing is that in the 50 years since the mapping was done, enormous changes may have occurred. I play with capturing data, creating my own maps, then overlaying my maps with the ones I make. during this process I use Google Earth to get LAT/LONGs of different features and I see the massive changes that occur from erosion and construction. Sometimes you don't recognize the same shoreline.

The idea of looking at the map is to reduce your learning of the water so that you can have some success in a short time. You probably won't get a stringer of 20 pounders but if you look for big structures and then go check them out right away - oftentimes you'll be rewarded.

A number of times I have been given a map, made some markings (for nonspoonpluggers), and then either shocked the people I was fishing with because we were into fish pretty fast. Or after I take the time to mark a map and the people go off and do something else. When I see this I go to that area and fish it. When they didn't catch anything and I caught a lot, that teaches them something.

I forget how shocking it is to people when I say "If we get fish, it'll be right here and then do it. It happens so often I don't really think about it. That's what I get from Spoonplugging. I know why or why I didn't catch the fish.

There is a lot to Spoonplugging. You may want to fish out of a Super Tanker or a float tube. If you go about your fishing taking into account weather, water, seasonal and daily migrations, etc...you are a Spoonplugger. Now your equipment will or may restrict just how successful you are but I promise you'll catch more and bigger fish. A guy in a jon boat will catch more and bigger fish than a bass boat but the bass boat guy will catch more with our guidelines than he would have normally.

I know I hijacked your question but some of this stuff needs to be said. Over and Over...

Bye :-)

[phillip szafranski]

Bill,

I find the lake to be interesting from a structural perspective and would love to fish this lake. Water color is obviously a concern but some stable weather and a solid fish population should allow for a good catch. Can you provided us with specifics regarding your time on the water? What species is dominant in this lake? What areas have you devoted the most time to? What size fish have taken to date? Would love to hear your feedback!

[Bill]

I actually haven't fished this lake in a long time. There are a lot of more recent comments on it on online fishing forums, most not really helpful as most people are fishing too shallow, hot lure etc. The muskie are dominant, you can catch almost any size ( 48 " minimum size limit !)
lots of small pike, few bass, walleye decent size , ice-fished for heavily. Burbot (ling ) in winter. Saw huge muskie twice, like to follow. 50 lber caught 1981 by someone. Ones I saw were as big or bigger. I think if someone really knew his stuff he could collect a trophy here. Lake is near North Bay, pop 80k+ but Lake Nipssing is far more popular, also good to fish.