Advices/Tips needed for Port Carling area near Lake Muskoka

[Victor]

Hey OFC,

 

I'll be going up to a friend's cottage this weekend located at Port Carling. I believe it's between Lake Muskoka and Lake Rosseau. I will be towing my boat up (14' tinny) ... plan to target anything that swims and just hoping if someone can give me some tips on the hot baits around the area. I will try to stay in sheltered area as my boat isn't deep V and prefer not to travel too far from the cottage/onto the big lake.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Victor

[Jet]

I fish Rosseau a lot and only have access to a 14 ft tinny as well. I have no issues going all over the lake when the weather is good. There's good musky and bass fishing I found on the north end, but mostly I go after Lake Trout.

 

Since I don't have downriggers or can use dipsy's properly in that boat, I go deep jigging for Lakers. Do you have a finder? If so find fish (last time they were in 90 feet 3 weeks ago) and start dropping lines. If you have an anchor even better. If not I slow down my drift with a drift net and let my lures drop to the bottom. The Williams Ice Spoons have been my best weapon for the Lakers. I've had the most success with long high jigs and letting the spoon flutter back down. The decent is where I almost always get the hit. Basically I'm adapting ice fishing tactics and so far its been quite fruitful. First time up there this year I didn't have my finder and still boated a good number of Lakers. I did a lot of depth testing, often bringing it back up and dropping it back down to catch their attention. After each hit I tried to best guess what depth I was at and tried to keep it there.

 

I've also had success deep jigging with 3/4 jig heads with 4 inch white grubs.

 

Bass I've caught working the shorelines as usual and looking for structure. Some areas are really deep straight from shore (40+ range and more) so finding those shallower shorelines should produce some good fish. White tubes have worked really well as have medium diving rapalas black/sliver.

 

Hopefully you'll have something great to report on Monday.

[Victor]

Thanks for the quick response Jet.

 

I have never caught a laker before but I will try to give that a shot. I hope that I will have something to report as well.