Lake Bernard

[Jackie]

It's been a long time since I last posted in the forum, although I'm a frequent visitor. Hello all!

 

I am planning to do a bit of ice fishing in Lake Bernard this weekend. I have never been there, only heard about it here and there. Could you give me some pointers as to where to start, e.g., access point, ice thickness, water depth I should target etc? I understand that there are lake trout, whitefish, ling, plus a few rainbows in the lake. I don't have a sled or ATV, so my biggest concern is whether there are spots close to shore (within reasonably walkable distance) where I can fish. Or can I drive my 4x4 onto the lake? Where can I obtain a good lake depth map? Also, what would be a good approach to catch ling as I have never caught one before?

 

Thanks!

 

Jackie

[BassAsin]

not incredibly familiar with the lake but there used to be an access point at the beach near a lookout called "high rock" as for truck on lake there is anywhere from 12-24 inches of snow on them up here and some are statring to get slushy, and if ya wanna catch a ling set a line with a minnow about 3 inches off bottom in 20-40 FOW and let it sit there all night, thats how i used to catch them when i stayed at the ice shack when i was too "wobbly" to drive the ski-doo home. as for lakers move around and try it out anywhere from 10-100 feet deep usually in the 50-80 depths and jig a flashy spoon and set a line. and for a good depth map maybe online is all i can think of!

 

Matt!

[lunkerbasshunter]

largst freshwater lake without an island in the world

 

lots of ice up there, most likely stop in town at the local bait store and they will offer up some good advice and warn you of any bad ice areas.

its a trout lake mainly. I had a friend up that way last weekend and they got some lakers but it was tough fishing in the cold and wind. i didnt ask how deep they were but i would assume you would have to be deep to get into trout, simular to simcoe.

 

my friends buddy did some dammage to his sled on the south part of the lake hitting some rocks close to shore that were buried in the snow so be careful if your going out without any advice.

 

cheers!

[Chuck Best]

We always drove on at the top of the lake and drove straight down the middle to the south end ,You'll see the huts.Williams for the lakers and whities and anything that glows for the ling.If you can fnd glow tubes or grubs,they'll work .....You could stay up all night and catch ling....that lakes got lots.......HTH....TC and tight lines......Chuck.....

[boatman]

Let us know how you do. I'm heading up there next weekend. I've only fished it once and that was a few years ago. There is a bait shop on the highway town and they can tell you everything you need to know. Mostly lakers, ling and small whitefish (if you can get them).

[smbhunter]

I was up there last year around this time and we got 2 lakers, 2 ling and a pile of smelt, kept 1 ling for an experimental cuisine, (which was very good), and about 15 smelt. We drove onto the ice from town and headed to the south end by high rock and set up just outside a small group of huts in about 40-45 ft of water. We got most of the smelt there and both lakers, one was about 8 lbs, the other about 5. Some local anglers in the group of huts caught a couple whitefish. The smelt covered the bottom 3 ft for most of the day, when they cleared out the lakers came in. Both ling came from about 55 ft, just outside another group of huts close to where we drove out from, and were caught on a small williams ice jig and a #3 jigging rap. I've fished the north end a couple of times by the checkerboard where there is a nice access point and caught mostly perch. Lots of ling and smelts throughout the entire lake, other species may be more difficult to locate at times.

Go to Lake Bernard Outfitters right in Sundridge and to get further info. They are very nice and extremely helpful.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.

Edited January 30, 2009 by smbhunter

[johnnyb]

Great info, smbhunter....I've been eying this lake for a little while now...maybe this year I'll get a chance to hit it up.

[Photoz]

Just for curiousity . . . what did you catch your smelts on . . . and were they a decent size . . . trout or whitefish are okay . . . ling a bonis, but I'd be happy to haul in smelts all day! But . . . I wouldn't be too keen on grabbing a BIG fish on my ultralite & 3 pound line!

[johnnyb]

Smelts all day, eh? Different strokes for different folks, I guess I would have fun catching them, but, don't think I'd be able to resist the lure of lakers!

[Jackie]

Thanks for all your help. I called up Lake Bernard Outfitters. The lady I talked to sounded very helpful. I guess when I get there to buy minnows tomorrow, I will get more info. And hopefully I will come back with some fish photos to post!

 

I have a question about glow tubes. Where do you get them? Also, do you use a lead head jig and just slip the tube onto it? Most of these jigs I find are for bass; so they seem too big for trout/whitefish. Where to find small ones?

 

I am also interested in knowing how to catch some smelts. Single hook, tiny minnows/jigs?

 

Browsed thru the fishing reg. I guess Lake Bernard is in zone 15, without any special reg (2 lines on ice, no laker slot limit etc).

[smbhunter]

The majority of the smelts were caught on a #2 jigging rap, tipped with a small minnow head. Colour didn't seem to matter. The other ones were caught on a pickeral rig type setup, with small hooks and again tipped with minnow heads. I'm sure you could catch them on just about any small presentation that would work for perch, but since I was thinking about catching lake trout and whitefish, I left most of my perch stuff at home, so this is all I had. Bringing in a smelt with a MH rod and 10 lbs test isn't much fun, but it took away the boredom and sure made for a great meal. It also made my buddies two lakers and my two ling much more fun and exciting, as they all came from seemingly nowhere.

The sizes on the smelt varied, but lots of good eating size ones available.

[Photoz]

I'm almost ashamed to admit this, especially having been raised over in Magnetawan, BUT . . . the ONLY outlet I know of that drains Lake Bernard is Bernard Creek? Is there ANY inlet, or is the lake only spring-fed? And does Bernard Creek eventually make it into the Magnetawan River system? On a map, the lake looks almost land-locked?

[Jackie]

I am back from Lake Bernard. I want to thank everyone who replied my post for all your help. Fishing was a bit slow on both Sat and Sun for us. But the three of us enjoyed the trip nonetheless. Among the three of us, we caught 3 lakers, a whitefish and a ling cod, and lost a good-sized laker at the hole. Nothing to brag about for a total of about 12 hours of fishing spread over two days using three lines. But at least we were not skunked! We got our bait from Lake Bernard Outfitter and the owners gave us a lot of useful info. We simply drove out from Sundridge onto the ice and my 4x4 handled that without problem. The ice was more than 1 foot thick, but so was the snow. We fished in about 55 fow on Sat and 70 fow on Sun. We constantly marked fish on my Lowrance, but just couldn't get 99% of them to bite. I'm sure some were smelts or bait fish, although many big ones did show up on the screen. It was a bit frustrating to see all the fish down there and we had to wonder whether we were doing anything wrong. We tried minnows on single hooks with split shots, spreaders, jigheads, flashy spoons, non-flashy spoons, tubes etc. For the majority of the fish that swam by, none of these seemed to be able to entice them to bite. The lakers we did catch were between 15in to 20in, but they did seem to fight better than the ones we caught on Simcoe for the same size. A couple of them just smashed my tip-up, while a couple of them bit very lightly. Both the whitefish and the ling cod were caught on spreaders, and the bites were extremely light. We also lost quite a few pinhead sized minnows, probably to smelts which just nibbed on the bait. We could feel them sometimes, but just couldn't set the hook on them.

 

I do have a question though. One of the lakers we caught had much darker colour than the others. Its meat also was more orange than pink (the usual colour I see on other lakers). I'm 99% sure it's a laker (worm like markings on body, deep-forked tail etc), but is there a chance that it could be something else (like a splake)? It's not a speck though as it lacks the red belly and square tail. Perhaps just a colour variation which is not uncommon? (I found the lakers/smallmouth in Algonquin have much darker colour too, but usually you don't catch fish of such different colours in the same spot of the lake.)

 

Being the first time out on this lake, I would still call it a success. And the most important thing is that we had fun. When I have time to sort out our photos, I'll post some here. Thanks for reading. Tight lines.

 

Jackie

[johnnyb]

Sounds like a normal laker to me...they do vary in colour quite a bit. Most of the ones I get from Muskoka have more orange-y meat...some are darker than others.

I was also on Bernard on Sunday for a few hours...managed to hook two and lose them both Not a bad lake, and I agree about the outfitters...those folks are great!

[BassAsin]

depending on feed, the colour of the fish/meat will be different that peticular fish may feed primaraly on insects bugs shrimp rather than smelts or minnows, all depends especially this time of year becasue a laker could be in 90 FOW for a day then spend 3 weeks in 15 feet, never know with them guys! good job on the fish that were caught and glad to hear a good time was had by all!

 

Matt!

[smbhunter]

Great report. Glad to hear you had some success out there.

[waterwolf]

hittin' a new lake is always a challenge, especially in winter . had a good time ,, hit some fish,, doesn't get any better.

 

never fished bernard either , but have often read about some decent fishin' there.

 

thanks for posting ,,congrats on a great outting.

[steelhedrmatt]

I was up there last year around this time and we got 2 lakers, 2 ling and a pile of smelt, kept 1 ling for an experimental cuisine, (which was very good), and about 15 smelt. We drove onto the ice from town and headed to the south end by high rock and set up just outside a small group of huts in about 40-45 ft of water. We got most of the smelt there and both lakers, one was about 8 lbs, the other about 5. Some local anglers in the group of huts caught a couple whitefish. The smelt covered the bottom 3 ft for most of the day, when they cleared out the lakers came in. Both ling came from about 55 ft, just outside another group of huts close to where we drove out from, and were caught on a small williams ice jig and a #3 jigging rap. I've fished the north end a couple of times by the checkerboard where there is a nice access point and caught mostly perch. Lots of ling and smelts throughout the entire lake, other species may be more difficult to locate at times.

Go to Lake Bernard Outfitters right in Sundridge and to get further info. They are very nice and extremely helpful.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.

 

Funny I was just talking to someone about that day. What a blast!! Had a good scare too with some shifting ice plates. Broken down truck for the ride home, and 100 kph on the 400 during a blinding snowstorm. (biggest of last year) Lets do it again Jay!!

[smbhunter]

LOL!!! I almost forgot about that pressure crack. It was scary for a bit.

 

The truck just added some extra excitement for the day.

 

If you have a weekday off sometime soon, let me know, we'll try to have a normal day this time.