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Bit of a delay in posting this report , had some technical issues to work out but better late then never. We had our annual boys weekend away chasing lake trout around on a central Ontario back lake in May and as usual it was a blast with lots of fish and good times had by all . We arrived at our camping spot mid morning after a long truck ride/quad ride . The trail in was pretty straight forward with just a couple washouts and blow downs to clear away (standard procedure after a central Ontario winter) The site was just how we left it from our last trip 7 months prior , clean and a bit of fire wood to get us going . The weather for the first couple days was a bit dreary but it didn't stop us from laying a beat down on some beauty lake trout . This trip my one friend seemed to have them dialed in or is pretty lucky because he was really hauling them in even though he was sitting in the middle seat and we were trolling most of the time . Trolling was the pattern for the week with water temps in the mid 50's . The jig bite was on as well but just wasn't as consistent . The next couple days brought clearing skies and calm winds , not the best for lake trout fishing but it didn't slow them down any . The lakers were all in shallow with the 15' - 20' depths being "money" Out of all the lake trout we caught (and we caught a lot) not one was deeper then 40' . They were all relating to rocks and rock points , not the usual mud bays that we have caught them in the past . Troll over a rock point and bang , fish on . It was like that all week . One of our last days there it was sunny , calm and felt like we were in a furnace . Which was nice after a long winter and the couple days before being a bit dreary . The fishing slowed a bit that day so we spent most of it around camp relaxing Camp table picture , as everyone knows after a week in the bush these tables can get pretty messy The lures of choice for the week were a 1 oz bucktail jig , egb spoon , cleo with an upgraded treble (red feathers really helped) and to get these spoons down to the 20' mark a 3/4 oz inline weight . For me the egb was the money lure . As you can probably tell , you needed something red on the spoons that week to be really effective . The last night came with some beautiful weather and great friends around the camp fire having a "few" drinks and laughs. As well , telling the usual stories of the "one that got away" and of course a fresh lake trout fish fry . Delicious !!! Hope you guys enjoyed , I know I did . Next trip in should be August for some big smallmouth and jigging deep water lakers . Cheers .

Made a trip into a favorite lake for the closing of inland trout and we were not disappointed with the fishing or the weather . The weather can be hit and miss at this time of year in central Ontario but this year on our trip the weather was sunny, warm and calm for most of the trip. The trail ride in on the quads was uneventful and we made it to the lake in good time . I was quite surprised to see blackflies or small skeeters in some of the open areas of the trail (trade off to the beauty weather) but once we made it to the lake they were gone. At the end of the trail at our destination lake the sight is something to see especially at this time of year . I will let the pictures do the talking . The water colour in this lake is a blue/green colour that can only be described as "Wow" compared to all surrounding lakes that are tea colour The lakers in this lake are mostly planktivorous which make them smaller but they are all great looking fish and fight hard . The lake trout average around 2-3 lbs with the odd 6lber caught every trip . The smallmouth are abundant especially out in open water cruising around in large schools following the pods of baitfish around . They were quite easy to locate on the finder and all it took was a drop of a gulp minnow into the pack below and you had a smallmouth on (lots of fun) with a couple always following it up boat side . The lake trout were all jigged out of 40-60 ft of water with the odd one up shallow (15ft) on top of the shoals . The smallmouth were all caught suspended in 10-20ft over 40ft . The water temps. were a little warm for this time of year (61 -64F) but it didn't bother the fish . The bait of choice was 1oz white bucktails or darter head jigs with a gulp minnow or white/silver flukes. The lake trout were mostly hitting light which made a trailer hook a must . Here is a couple pictures of some of our lake trout . This lake trout has been caught by 3 different people in our group in 3 different years , you can tell by the marking on the side and tail . I guess live release does work and no fishing pressure helps as well .You don't see that every day if ever ! The sun sets on another great year at this spot but we will be back in May 2014 for some great laker action . Let the planning begin Cheers

Went on our annual August quad trip to Lake X a couple weeks ago with a couple friends and as always it was a blast . The night before we left I spread all the important stuff on the garage floor just to make sure I was not forgetting anything, nothing worse than working your tail off to get to lake X and discovering that you forgot your favorite/go too lure at home. I'm sure we have all been there before. A couple pictures at the trail head after the bikes are "loaded" up and a pic of the gang along a good part of the trail This time of the year we find the lake trout fairly deep (50-70ft) so the jigs are tied on , finders are juiced up and away we go . First drift through the bay we started to nail them .This one was caught on the first drop of the jig . The afternoon went on and the fishing was great with us boating around 15 lake trout and a couple smallies. The next morning the lake trout were off a bit but the smallmouth were on fire just off a point in about 20ft of water in front of an old hunt camp , This was one of the biggest I caught that morning. That night we had a lake trout shore lunch at camp , here is a pic. of my friend cleaning them up at camp. The next day started well with a couple nice lake trout but the lake trout bite tailed off quick and we resorted to the smallmouth . When we were fishing for the smallies up on the point we discovered that the lake trout were there as well in 15-25ft of water and surprisingly hitting our crayfish jigs . We caught around 10 lake trout this way , pretty crazy if you ask me . This was the bait/baits I was catching the lakers on that morning It was a great trip and I can't wait for the next one in September , hope you enjoyed !

Last week I was up in the Parry Sound area doing a little lake trout jigging , well the weather was not the best for jigging with high winds so I had to resort to some bass/pike fishing in the back bays out of the wind but in the back of my mind I was wishing for some light winds so I could go jigging for these deep water greys . On the last morning I got up grabbed a coffee , took the dog for her morning duties and we headed out to perfect jigging weather . The lake had finally calmed down and I felt good about my chances . I tied on the bucktail and started my hunt for the "hooks" on the finder. To anyone that is not familiar with this type of fishing , I like to call it "lake trout hunting" just drive around in known laker haunts watching your finder for the big hooks . I don't waste my time with hooks on bottom but wait until I see one about 10-20 ft off bottom (those guys are feeding) and an even better situation is when you see 2 or more hooks grouped together . When you drop a jig down on a small pack of suspended lake trout it is basicly a race to the jig , so hang on !!!! Anyways I started to mark some lake trout on the finder and started my jigging , well the lake trout were chasing the bucktail but were not hitting it , I kept this up for a couple hours but no takers , there was something they didn't like on that bucktail so I changed it up to something a little smaller . I tied on a 3/4 oz darter head jig and 4" gulp minnow thinking the lakers wanted something a little smaller . Well I was bang on in my theory , the next drop I had a lake trout chase and hammer the jig and for the next 2 hours I had some of the best lake trout fishing I have ever had. Here are some pictures of that fine morning and once again I was by myself with the dog so the pictures are not the best . Nice upgrade for Team 2 ! This picture shows how thick these guys are A couple others Here is a screen shot of one of the lake trout screaming out of the pack to hit my jig This is the bait of choice that morning , a 3/4 oz darter and 4"gulp minnow . I touched up the darter a little bit to give it a little flash ! All in all a great couple hours with me going 9 for 10 between the hours of 9-11 am and the biggest one being 28" and the rest just slightly under that. These lakers beat me up that morning to say the least . Thanks for looking and I hope to have another report in a couple weeks with a back country/atv trip planned

I was out today taking the dog for a walk and swim in a local forest and river when I saw 2 rainbows in full spawning fight .The bed is in the bottom left corner of the pictures and the female was actually silver . I couldn't believe they would still be spawning in these temperatures but they were , strange spring indeed ! I won't give exact location but will say they were in a small trib. of the Notty and a looong way from the bay . Here are a couple pictures .

I have to start out and say there is nothing like that first trip into the bush come spring . So many sights , sounds and smells in the bush come springtime I just love being out there ! As well all the planning/dreaming over the last couple months have finally come together . Our travel day started early from our meeting place in Barrie without a glitch and we all headed north 3 hours to our little parking lot in the bush trailering our atv's and gear . The trail into the lake was some what dry but the usual rock crawling is always the challenge especially on the way in with our quads completely loaded to the max . We keep our boats at the lake cached away so no trailering boats (once was enough) The trip on the trail is a long , slow ride with us covering 12km of trail in a little over an hour . Once at the lake it was time to setup tents and tarps as well cut a mess of wood , then we enjoyed a couple laughs about our journey in over some rums This would be my home for a couple days , nothing like waterfront real estate in the middle of nowhere We started the next day "fairly" early . This lake is a great jigging lake but once I turned on the lowrance I found out that the water was only 51 degrees I knew that the trout would be scattered and in the top 20 feet so we started trolling the shallow areas around the deep basins . The fish were active for our whole trip and trolling was the ticket in the morning and evening with jigging being the way to go come the afternoon . Here are a couple fish pictures I took , didn't take too many because these guys are really hard to hang on to for a picture . The lake trout in this particular lake do not grow very big (mostly bug eaters) but they sure make up for it with there fight . The average size on our trip was around 3-4lbs . We always have one fish fry on a trip and these guys are good cooked in some butter over a fire with some lemon This laker was the chosen one Just before hitting the pan The trip was a great one with good times and great fishing had by all . The blackflies were some what non existent which was a real plus as well . The lures of choice for me was a 1oz white bucktail jig and a silver/red Williams with a fly streamer trailering it attached by a 12" piece of flouro. The other guys had good luck with a silver/copper Sutton spoon trolled. Best depths for trolling seemed to be 25-35' and getting on and off the throttle a bit seemed to be the ticket . Jigging depths of 40-60' worked well but trolling was the way to go this weekend . Jigging will be better once the water warms up and they gather in the basins , just in time for my next trip ! Here are my setups for the weekend I have to mention Christopher K of our OFC family for making me my lake trout streamers , they were top quality and looked great as well they caught fish . On the last morning I caught all my lakers on CK's streamers . I think my friends will be ordering some for next spring . If anyone is intrested in getting some flies/streamers I would not hesitate in recommending Christopher for the task . Thanks again CK Here is a picture of the flies CK made me minus one that I lost on a nice laker Hope you enjoyed and I will be going back to this spot in the summer for some deep water lake trout and smallies Cheers Dave