Black_Blade

Too funny...does the signal lights still work?

Awesome fishing! I'm hoping to get in on some of that action soon as well!

I seen some neat home made canoe carriers while browsing the net. I have been looking for a way to be able to bring all the gear and canoe to the water in one shot, for when I am solo (99% of the time), so I built one last night out of scrap 2x3's and pcs of plywood I had. Just had to pick up the two tires from Canadian Tire and the 5/8" steel rod at Home Hardware. If there was any success to today's outing, it was the canoe cart, it worked great. Unloaded canoe from the van and placed it on the cart. Loaded all my gear into it and wheeled it all down to the water. Was even slicker when came time to pull canoe out. Placed the cart under the part of the canoe up on the ground and then just lifted the bow and the cart slid down farther to the pivot point automatically. Then just push down on the bow and pull it out of the water.

I was trying for pike, so was trolling with Williams, five of diamonds, even the swimbait tricked up like a big spinnerbait (the one that snagged some pike on Silver Lake). The area seems more rocky than weedy for the most part, so no doubt will be great for bassin' in a few weeks.

ya, got out...had lots of time to enjoy the scenery for nothing else was distracting me!

Put in the canoe at the landing near the Stepping Stones and trolled down to Wharton Island before turning around. Tried various trolling spoons to see if there were any pike around...nada. Tossed out jig worm here and there as well with no luck. If anyone familiar with this stretch could shoot me some pointers (in a PM) I would sure appreciate it.

Thanks for all the info guys, will post up my adventures!

I have a 14 foot Sportspal with a 3 HP outboard and just have a minivan. Hoping for some suggestions of places to try...not particular for species- they are all good. Had suggestions to drift along the shoreline of Nipissing, but I imagine that would be tough with just the outboard motor. I live five minutes from Trout Lake, but that is a pretty big lake as well to tackle with a 3 hp when you don't know where to go...lol.

Hoping somebody knows this lake and can tell me what kind of fish there would be in there. Just moved up to North Bay, last June and have yet to locate some nice fishing holes...other than the super busy Nipissing and Trout Lake.

As I posted in another thread, a good repair forum to check out The Marine Doctor Very helpful site for this type of thing.

There is a great trouble shooter site for outboard motors etc The Marine Doctor I have used this guys site several times and have recieved excellent help for an old 9 hp Viking outboard I had as well as some tips on servicing my little 3 hp Johnson. Hope this helps.

Been several years since we were there, but its a nice park. The campsites are not all bunched together, so you have at least a bit of privacy in that regard. Wife liked it better than me, for like I say its is really nice if you like bird watching and walking along nice trails. The kids swam at the beach and didn't seem to mind it being rocky and natural. At the time I had a 12 foot car topper and a 3 hp motor and as such didn't feel comfortable in the 'big water' of Penetang, which was the only place I could find that may have had fishing opportunities. We had checked out a small lake that was in the park, can't recall its name now, but I don't think there was any fish in it, the park staff couldn't tell anything about it anyhow I found it kinda boring after a few days, but again, if fishing is not the top of your priority list for a camping trip...then its a great park, IMO.

Fishman, check out Lurecraft.com, they have all kinds of different kinds of molds.

Family decided to pile in the van and head down to the little pull in family park on Dugas Bay (Trout Lake) today. Forgot the digital camera, but as it turns out there weren't any fish photo ops to be had today anyhow... Took the grand daughter out in the Sportspal with me and I tried my best to have her get a nibble but to no avail. I anchored just off the small rocky island and set her up with a wacky rigged Gulp natural crawler, usually a sure bet to get some kind of bite, nada. Had fish marking on the sonar, but guess they weren't in the mood...lol. Trolled around a bit with a Blue Fox #3 and a jointed Rapala balsa bait, both on a Carolina set up to get them down a bit further...went around the small island and along some shoreline in the 12-15 foot depths, but no luck at all. Ah well, it is after all called fishing...not catching....

But hey we live in "free country" right...still trying to figure out what exactly is free...lol

Emily is a great PP, for they really have a great park store that offers all kinds of gear for rent in case you forgot something etc. The fishing is pretty good too even from shore, my son and I used to go down to the beach before sunrise in the morning and cast to bouy line of the swimming area (basically the weed edge) with 6" Gulp Natural Crawlers rigged either wacky or texas and we always got at least a half dozen nice bass. There is a small dock in between the two beach areas and from there I used to throw out a soft plastic jerkbait rigged weedless and work it through the weeds...got some nice ones there. I took my grandkids to the docks and also over by the bridge area and had lots of fun catching panfish. Obviously if you have a boat, then you will be able to venture further. But thats what I liked about Emily...nice park and you didn't really need a boat to get into some decent fishing. The one downer in recent years has been the goose poop polluting the beach areas...and the park staff just plowing it into the sand each morning instead of cleaning it up. I'm sure you will enjoy the park, post some pics if you can.

I was planning on replying to this thread, to say that was the main reason i have a Sportspal...even if they get capsized they remain upright and your gear stays inside the canoe. I've never heard of one tipping before...a friend of mine fought a big pike one time in my dad's 12' Sportspal and at one time the canoe was almost on a 45 degree angle, with stuff sliding all over the place...but she never went any further than that. A few years ago, while at Bass Lake PP, I rescued a man and his daughter after their canoe had capsized on them. Both of them climbed into my 14 ' square stern model from the middle of the canoe with no problems...and I had a bunch of my fishing gear, gas tank etc in there as well. After recovering all the floating debris, we managed to bail enough water out of his canoe to allow me to tow it back to the dock...which was all my little 3 HP could do...lol. The guy was shocked that he had been able to climb into my canoe from the side, for he was a pretty big guy. They may not paddle as well as a regular type canoe, but they are true to their name and when it comes to fishing or hunting...they are hard to beat. Glad everybody was alright in this case here...especially after hearing in the news of all the drownings going on lately.

Emily was always a favourite of ours until the Canadian geese started to really ruin the beach area, used to like going down early in the morning and throwing a worm out to the edge of the swimming area. We liked sites 108 and 109, since they were close to the beach and still had some decent shade with a reasonable amount of privacy.

After a couple of swings and misses, was wondering if any of the members have any tips I could try on Trout Lake in North Bay. I live prectically beside it and have been out in my canoe a couple times, but without sonar have no real idea what the depths are etc, so just threw out a jig head with black double curly tail in a few spots. Also a Gulp natural crawler on a jig head as well. A few pointers for this lake would be great! Any members from the area up here,please feel free to PM me.

Would it be better or worse to attach the floro leader with back to back uni knots to the mainline and maybe a rapala loop? You can always put a snap swivel directly on the lure for line twist... I have looked at CTC for some wire leader material but no luck.

Really nice fish! Just moved up to North Bay and was wondering where some good spots to try. I just have my 14 foot Sportspal with a 3 HP, wasn't too sure about taking it out on Nipissing, after seeing how fast the wind can pick up out there. Have never caught a walleye...so using a worm harness is good, by the looks of it, lol...I have Gulp natural crawlers, they seem to to do well in many other applications, would they work? This slow drifting you speak of, is that accomplished with electric trolling motor? If so, I'll have to wait for a bit on that...lol. Any pointers welcome tho...love it up here, Trout Lake looks awesome too and all the string of lakes connected down to Mattawa!

WTG Mike, I think you need to save up for a musky rod! For that matter, so do I...

Never been to Longpoint but have been to Bass Lake PP many times and can highly recommend it, both as a nice park but also the fishing is pretty good as well. Have only been there early in the bass season (first weeks of July) and the water has not really warmed up completely yet...but we still did pretty good, a few times had to work at it a bit but still never got skunked...lol. If you go to Bass Lake, try about 50 yards off the shoreline directly across from the park, all along that area. The camp store usually has a photocopied fishing map of the lake, showing the contours and you can see the area I speak of having the fast drop along the far shoreline.

Most all licenses and permits are cash grabs first and foremost. This is a 'free' country, so I've been brought up to believe...with the exception of going to the toilet...can you name anything that don't require a permit or license to do? After I went and got my boater card was when I really began to notice just how careless many other boaters are. Big, fast and fancy boats flying past a couple in a canoe trying to either paddle along or trying to fish. Others pulling skiers and have a whole lake to use, but choose to zip in close to where others are trying to fish or paddle.... really quite sad. All the more reason I like nice remote lakes.