Lake Rosseau Lake Trout Report

[discophish]

Sleepy heads summoned a late morning start to Rosseau on Saturday. With much anticipation, H2whoa! and I checked in early at the Crestwood in Port Carling before we put ourselves on ice. We were please to receive a few suggestions for ice-hole locations from the bait shop in Glen Orchard, and we followed their directions to Ferndale that put us on the trout grounds. We fished until dark in 75fow with huts around us, but to our dismay, the fish would rather bite themselves than bite us. We used spoons and rat raps to attract them in, and only a few fish flashed on the Vex.

 

After a foot+ of snow dropped in the area Fri/Sat for Port Carling's annual Winterfest, we headed out again Sunday morning towards recommended trout grounds given by another friendly local to get us on the fish (South of Portage Bay). If it wasn't for the locals, we would have walked out too far on 2 inches of ice which was literally a hop and 2 skips past the last hut. We contained ourselves amongst the huts, and popped the IceCube on 8-9 inches of ice in 72 fow. All huts at random intervals seemed to have its occupants yelling "I got one! I got one!", including ours.

 

At the time when we packed up at last light, we landed 2 small Lakers on jack jigs tipped with minnows, and packed one on ice from a bad hooking. Many Lakers were swimming between 50-65 fow under the holes, and beyond that were the minnow-thieves (Ling) down on the bottom at 72 fow. The weather was furious when we headed south on 11, but the TJ kept us from ending up in the bear dens.

 

Minnows - $20

Forgotten minnow bucket - $18

Overnight stay - $90

Jeep gas - $70

Auger gas - 7 cents

Propane heater - $90

New Boots - $100

Food - $70

 

Watching H2Whoa! catch her first laker ... Priceless!

 

 

 

 

Disco Phish

[solopaddler]

Great report! FYI, back in the day when I lived in Port Carling Armstrong point was always a good spot for lakers, fishing in roughly 40' of water....

[b2kptbo]

Thanks for the report and pic's...

[ccmtcanada]

Nice report! Great pics too! Glad to see you weathered the cold...not easy in this kind of weather!

[mattyk]

thanks for sharing. Looks like you guys had some fun out there.

[Joey]

Great report. I love H2Whoa's expression when holding the frozen fish in the second pic. Is that a woman's float suit she's wearing or a man's? I've been looking for a woman's float suit and they are hard to come by.

 

Thanks

 

Joey

[douG]

Great report, Disco Phish. I don't know which I like better, your photos or your handles. H2WHOA! is funny right there.

[fishindevil]

thanks for sharing your ice fishing report,and it looks like you guys had fun,and had quite a tour in all that bad weather...and got a nice trout to show for it,he will be tasty...cheers

[discophish]

Thanks for all compliments! It is exciting to share our experiences with everyone in this community. as well as to learn and absorb the many experiences that others are offering as well. Both of us have a well rounded history of angling between us, and it has evolved into a passion during our "boy/girl time for supper, no, I wanna go fishing" ages. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you!

 

Great report. I love H2Whoa's expression when holding the frozen fish in the second pic. Is that a woman's float suit she's wearing or a man's? I've been looking for a woman's float suit and they are hard to come by.

 

Ahh, she "Look-a-like-a-man"! (Swany from MadTV). That's a men's size small Nautilus float suit. It fits her perfect, and with enough room to layer clothing underneath. She's 5'5". It was either the suit or duct-taped garbage bags with bubble wrap insulation and integrated deflated water-wings for xmas. The later wouldn't have gone over so well. <wink>. Actually, she liked her suit so much that it became her pajamas for week after she got it! Jk. Her expression is curious for sure ... Did a starving Samsquantch just emerge out of the woods for this fish?

 

Great report! FYI, back in the day when I lived in Port Carling Armstrong point was always a good spot for lakers, fishing in roughly 40' of water....

 

Thanks for the tip Solopaddler. I will remember Armstrong point for the next time we visit. Port Carling is beautiful place, both summer and winter.

[kemper]

cool report

[lunkerbasshunter]

great report! Lots of snow up there too!

 

Cheers!

[selcram]

Here's my version!!

 

3 hours to pack & repack

6 hours to get up to Port Carling from Toronto ( somebody!! forgot toiletries at home, had to turn around )

1 hour to check in and repack jeep

1 hour to get to destination

3 hours on ice in gale force winds, no bites

1 hour to pack up and get back to motel

1 hour to unpack and dry everything

Eat, pass out.

Wake up early, hit snooze 8 times

1 1/2 hours to pack up and prepare, load jeep

1 hour to get to new fishing spot ( went down wrong road with sleds, oops = lot of walking )

1/2 hour to set up

5 hours on ice in "are you kidding me!?" freezing temps

1 hour to pack up, get back to jeep and load

3 hours to get home.. not bad considering the blizzard conditions!

1 1/2 hours to unpack and dry equipment out

 

EQUALS = MY FIRST LAKE TROUT EVER!

 

Cost of fish - approx $300

 

HA HA HA ... Wouldn't have traded it for anything! What a great experience and looking forward to next time!

[solopaddler]

That is truly funny! H2whoa, you're definitely a gamer!

[camillj]

Great report ! And congrats on your first Laker .. Rosseau certainly has some beauty fish in her.

 

I was actually out there (off Ferndale) on Saturday around 4 - 5 pm ... If you had the black cube ... I was the guy in the orange Survival suit standing out in the 50km winds about 50 yds inshore from ya .... we lost a few minnows but really found it hard to detect the hits since the winds were blowing our rigs all over the place ... anyhow if its any consolation we drove for about 2 hrs Saturday (after talking to John at Glen Orchard) only to find all our access points were either unsafe or not accessible ... went in for lunch after filling up with gas again and headed out to Ferndale (we saw the huts from Port Sandfield and finally figured out how to get there -- without dying

 

 

Couple more weeks and Lake Joe is open ... wooo hooo !

[discophish]

Only 1 hour of fishing? Sorry to hear that you had a hard time getting on the ice. So, I guess it is a small world after all ... that was you and your friend behind us! One minute you were on ice, the next minute you had disappeared in the bush to thaw out. Just before you arrived, we watched some guy next to your location fighting with his hole for at least 6 minutes, something huge was on, you could see his excitement and "once in a lifetime" opportunity escalating. The drag screamed from time to time, and when he picked up line the tip would end deep in the hole, it was fighting like a log! ... and it was, literally, a gigantic Stickerel! We felt bad for his embarrassment, but we had to laugh. You didn't miss much when you left. The darkening night cleaned the ice quickly like a Zamboni on a rampage. Final results ... no fish all around coming from the water cooler conversations at the trucks. We definitely would have enjoyed and welcomed your company on the big rink. We were getting tired of trying to impress each other with fancy snow angels. They all look the same anyway.

 

Joe is calling us in the distance!

 

Disco Phish

[camillj]

Yes, I saw the big stick on the ice there and your 'neighbor' was telling us about the big fight

 

Anyhow we did get out there pretty late and we had a small gaggle of ducks in the oven to get back to ... besides 5:30 seems to be that last call for the lakers in those parts so we packed up and headed back to the cottage for our annual boyz duck feast (and to watch the Leafs win another one) .. not so bad after a c-c-c-c-old one on the ice.

 

Pm me if you're back up that way and I can show you some spots over on Lake Joseph (very close to Glen Orchard)