Wildwood without water.

[Woodsman]

This was before the lake was originally filled about 40 years ago. It may provide an insight into the lake bottom in the dam area. Most likely it has silted up some over the years.

 

 

Best Wishes: Rick

[JohnF]

This was before the lake was originally filled about 40 years ago. It may provide an insight into the lake bottom in the dam area. Most likely it has silted up some over the years.

 

 

Best Wishes: Rick

 

Interesting. I helped build that road as a summer job while I was in school.

 

JF

[lunkerbasshunter]

great pic and great history lesson!

 

Cheers!

[Riparian]

there were trout in that creek back then right?

 

Thats way before my time. its all pike in there now, and some largemouth.

[Beats]

Wildwood lake is the result of damming Trout Creek which dumps into the Thames river near St. Marys. The old minnow guy in Stratford told me he used to fish the creek before the dam went in and used to catch trout (specks I believe, possibly rainbows as well) as well as perch in there. He was telling me that the perch all had massive bellies on them. Not because they were fat, but because there were so many of them that they were starving to death. He was implying that for some reason the fish got "fat" or bloated due to lack of food for them to eat because their numbers were too high. He claimed the ministry went in and added either 100 or 200 pike to the lake to take the perch population down once the lake had been created. Now its predominately a pike lake.

Edited October 14, 2007 by Beats

[JohnF]

there were trout in that creek back then right?

 

Thats way before my time. its all pike in there now, and some largemouth.

 

Rumour has it a few of the largemouths have slipped through the dam and taken up residence in White's Hole. I grew up on Trout Creek down in St.Marys in the 50's & 60's and I never caught one trout in it. I remember my dad saying they used to walk out to that part of the creek (what's now below the dam) to fish when they were kids but he never said what they caught except for one huge Snapping Turtle. Truth is there wasn't much alive in Trout Creek but rock bass (small), shiners, sunfish (small), turtles, mink, mudpuppies and carp. There were bass and pike above the dam on the Thames, and a lot of Snappers. Below the dam there were plenty of carp and big suckers although Hardy White's Hole was always good for a bass or two. We still wade the Thames above and below St.Marys - lotsa smallies and a few pike below the dam. The other end of Wildwood is great for fair-sized pike, as, I'm told, is the creek below the dam.

 

JF

[Canuck2fan]

I have never caught a trout in trout creek below the dam. I have however caught and seen them caught in Wildwood over the years. Below the dam in the last year I have caught perch, carp, catfish 2 species it seems. Smallmouth bass, one largemouth and a ton of 15" long rock bass.... If you have the energy to make the trek down from where you have to park and can carry your allowable limit of minnows you can usually catch one or two pike down in the spillway during the spring. The problem is the catfish eat the minnows faster than you can bait a hook, meaning any less than 100 minnows will only last you about an hour usually.... Unless you are using the 5 to 6in size LOL.

 

As for the Thames by St. Mary's if you can find any holes deep enough you absolutely can catch some decent smallies and pike, this year however I walked about 3 miles of the river a couple of times and only caught one 1/4 lb smallie because there was NO WATER in the river.

[JohnF]

As for the Thames by St. Mary's if you can find any holes deep enough you absolutely can catch some decent smallies and pike, this year however I walked about 3 miles of the river a couple of times and only caught one 1/4 lb smallie because there was NO WATER in the river.

 

Early in Bass season we were catching lots of smallies down by the conveyor and just below Science Hill but those spots haven't even been productive recently. At least the water below the dam isn't as green and icky looking as everything up above the dam. I guess the carp everywhere are supposed to make up for the absent bass.

 

JF

[chewy]

i used to live in stmarys and always fished wildwood and in stmarys by the dam and by the legion. in wildwood is awsome fishing my biggest pike from there is 52 inches and in stmarys there is the odd trout ive caught 2 small ones about 10 years ago

[JohnF]

i used to live in stmarys and always fished wildwood and in stmarys by the dam and by the legion. in wildwood is awsome fishing my biggest pike from there is 52 inches and in stmarys there is the odd trout ive caught 2 small ones about 10 years ago

 

I grew up across the river from the Legion and that's where we caught mudpuppies and mink (both nasty spiteful critters), but no trout.

 

No doubt the river is cleaner than it was back in the 50's though. In those days one didn't wanna catch the kind of trout we saw. Perhaps for old times sake we need to try out Trout Creek again.

 

JF

[Beats]

Below the dam (trout creek) I have only ever caught sm bass, lm bass, pike, bullheads, rock bass, perch. Of course carp are there as well. You can easily catch a bullhead down there for every cast out you make if you are there when they are active. They will pick off anything that doesn't move fast enough to escape them. I always found that the sm bass down there were about 2/3 bigger than any of the lm bass that I caught down there. The lm bass are quite rare to catch at the bottom of the dam and are really small if you do get one. I've probably only ever managed to catch 2 or 3 tiny perch and maybe a few rock bass that happened to pick off my bait that was intended for pike. I remember a coworker telling me years ago that his brother had caught a big white bass down there but I figured he was just mistaken. Having caught a few white bass in the area of the Forks of the Thames I know that it is atleast possible for them to get that far with springbank dam being out. Its a long shot that they would get/want to get that far up there but I guess its possible.

 

I also know that the Harrington pond was (still is?) stocked with brook trout each year and that they get out and into Wildwood. I met a guy that had caught a few in Harrington 10 or so years ago. Never seen or heard of any being caught in the lake though.

[Gerritt]

i used to live in stmarys and always fished wildwood and in stmarys by the dam and by the legion. in wildwood is awsome fishing my biggest pike from there is 52 inches and in stmarys there is the odd trout ive caught 2 small ones about 10 years ago

 

 

Please tell me your telling fish stories!!

 

Please provide a picture of your 52" pike

 

Gerritt.

[JohnF]

Please tell me your telling fish stories!!

 

Please provide a picture of your 52" pike

 

Gerritt.

 

Dunno about 52" but I've heard of and seen some sizeable pike taken out of the south end of the lake. A firend of mine who goes out regularly says it's common to see folks from Toronto out there on the weekend hunting pike.

 

JF

[ChrisK]

Theres a little fast food shack up by the boat launch and in there on the walls are pictures of huge pike caught way back when.....Not sure if I saw any 52 inchers in those pictures ever but still very respectable sizes for that area....

[Woodsman]

Yes there are some large pike in Wildwood. There are also many many more hammerhandles.

As for when pike arrived in the lake it was not any time soon after the lake was filled. It was not until the early to mid 80's before they started to show up in numbers. The lake was filled in 1967. Before the pike arrived the lake was overrun with stunted perch. It was nothing to catch a hundred or more a day off the causeways if you had enough bait. I don't remember the large bellies on the fish.Too bad none of them had enough meat on them to keep. How the pike got there is a source of many rummors.

I worked as the Lake Patrol Officer, 4 years ago and seen some quite decent fish caught but not a 52"er. Is a 52' fish possible? Maybe But I never seen one. The lake has both small & largemouth bass, pike, white suckers, perch, sunfish, rockbass, bullheads & carp.

I have caught a couple of small trout in the lake (a speck & a rainbow) about 10-12 years back. There is a Rod & Gun Club on a stream that feeds into the lake which has in the past stocked trout into the stream.

 

Best Wishes: Rick

Edited October 15, 2007 by Woodsman

[Rizzo]

I would like to see any picture of a 52 inch pike. That is a rare fish! Not sure if I've ever heard of one that big.

[douG]

Everyone has seen that photo of the Dutch guy holding this massive pike with a head bigger than his own. By his own measurement, that gator was only 50 inches.

[ccmtcanada]

Everyone has seen that photo of the Dutch guy holding this massive pike with a head bigger than his own. By his own measurement, that gator was only 50 inches.

 

NO...which one...could you post the actual picture and say your dad's friend caught it??

[Riparian]

no no, thats my cousin, he caught that fish way up north somewhere.