Pointe au Baril

[BillM]

There's no room.  Once you get there you'll see.   

[siwash]

7 hours ago, BillM said:

There's no room.  Once you get there you'll see.   

I trust you.  Won't bother.  I'll either launch at the park (since I have a pass) or at one of the private marinas.  The park doesn't look too far from action! 

[Musky Plug]

On 5/21/2025 at 12:42 PM, BillM said:

There's no room.  Once you get there you'll see.   

 

On 5/21/2025 at 8:35 PM, siwash said:

I trust you.  Won't bother.  I'll either launch at the park (since I have a pass) or at one of the private marinas.  The park doesn't look too far from action! 

As Bill stated above there is no parking there, unless you’re able to park at the shell gas station. Not sure if they still let people park there but they probably charge. When we go for day trips we just pay the fee and launch at Rock Pines. The launch is good, there’s parking and Jeff the owner is a good dude. There’s also a launch at pleasant cove but the launch is better at rock pines IMO. 

[siwash]

9 hours ago, Musky Plug said:

 

As Bill stated above there is no parking there, unless you’re able to park at the shell gas station. Not sure if they still let people park there but they probably charge. When we go for day trips we just pay the fee and launch at Rock Pines. The launch is good, there’s parking and Jeff the owner is a good dude. There’s also a launch at pleasant cove but the launch is better at rock pines IMO. 

We are leaving Thursday afternoon (staying at Pleasant Cove as Rock Pines was booked).  Apparently Pleasant has renovated their units recently.. As long as its clean.  Now if this weather would just cooperate.  Weird past few weeks. Ever since May 2-4.  I just hope that we can avoid a big cold front like the ones we have been getting. Alos hoping we avoid rocks!  I'll report back on the fishing. 

Thank you. 

[Musky Plug]

On 5/21/2025 at 8:35 PM, siwash said:

I trust you.  Won't bother.  I'll either launch at the park (since I have a pass) or at one of the private marinas.  The park doesn't look too far from action! 

Doesn’t surprise me Jeff’s place is booked up lol. I stayed at pleasant cove 2 years ago for our fall trip and the cottage we had was nice and well kept. Power at the dock was an issue when I was there. If I remember correctly there was only 4 outlets for a bunch of guys that wanted to charge our boats. 
 

the weathers looking not to bad except Sunday as of me checking right now. Depending on your boat you should be good crossing or fishing open water there. If you have a fish finder with navionics and follow the navigation paths and use the visual markers that area is not hard to navigate. 

 

[BillM]

Water is really low this year, you'll going to find rocks where there were no rocks last year.   

[siwash]

10 hours ago, Musky Plug said:

Doesn’t surprise me Jeff’s place is booked up lol. I stayed at pleasant cove 2 years ago for our fall trip and the cottage we had was nice and well kept. Power at the dock was an issue when I was there. If I remember correctly there was only 4 outlets for a bunch of guys that wanted to charge our boats. 
 

the weathers looking not to bad except Sunday as of me checking right now. Depending on your boat you should be good crossing or fishing open water there. If you have a fish finder with navionics and follow the navigation paths and use the visual markers that area is not hard to navigate. 

 

Yea, I have Navionics.  I am a bit anxious about boating in those waters.  I'll keep my eye on the charts and the water.  Is it stained or clear water? 

[siwash]

2 hours ago, BillM said:

Water is really low this year, you'll going to find rocks where there were no rocks last year.   

That interesting that it's low.  We had so much snow and it pissed rain all of last spring and early summer.  

[Musky Plug]

16 hours ago, BillM said:

Water is really low this year, you'll going to find rocks where there were no rocks last year.   

How much lower is the water this year? 

 

13 hours ago, siwash said:

Yea, I have Navionics.  I am a bit anxious about boating in those waters.  I'll keep my eye on the charts and the water.  Is it stained or clear water? 

Majority clear water, some more clear than others but the only stained area I recall off hand are sturgeon bay and shawanaga river. 

[EsoxWanderer]

I do keep hearing about the lower water levels but personally it looks to me the same as last spring (which was also super low with stuff exposed that isn't usually). (I'm mainly concerned because if it is actually lower than last spring I will have a tough time navigating to some of the places I want to fish on musky opener).  

[Musky Plug]

27 minutes ago, EsoxWanderer said:

I do keep hearing about the lower water levels but personally it looks to me the same as last spring (which was also super low with stuff exposed that isn't usually). (I'm mainly concerned because if it is actually lower than last spring I will have a tough time navigating to some of the places I want to fish on musky opener).  

I was up there beginning of May last year and the water down definitely down from the year before. I was there again in the summer and again in early November and the water level didn’t look it had changed much over that timeframe. But it is definitely going down year over year. 

[siwash]

Remember a few years back we had very high water levels on the Great Lakes?  Before that, they were very low (late 90s into the 2000s) - the natural ebb and flow of the cycle... 

[BillM]

On 6/3/2025 at 6:09 PM, siwash said:

That interesting that it's low.  We had so much snow and it pissed rain all of last spring and early summer.  

We were thinking the exact same thing this year, with the snowpack we had and the lack of any melt this winter the water would be up for sure.   Nope, down 3ft at least lol.

Gbays 10 year cycle.  Hopefully this is as low as it gets.

Edited June 5 by BillM

[siwash]

I remember when about 20 years back or so folks who had cottages were sitting on dry docks because the water had receded so much. Fast forward to around 2015 to 2021, water was way up.  We rented a cottage in Tiny Beaches in 2020 during Covid and there was no beach left! 

[siwash]

Update from PAB:

Thursday night arrival:

-fished from 7 to 9ish pm but stayed fairly close to home base and fished the bringnal banks from Payne Marina west for about 2 km along the North shore.  Hooked two pike that spit out lures then i hooked into a Muskie! Had it on for 5 sec and saw it clearly. It had some size (about 40+?). That was on a gold and orange bucktail

On Friday we decided to hit the river. Along the way we hit some recommended bays from aboard member snd some other spots - only one small pike! In the river we struck out save for a small OOS bass  

went back homeNot rest in the early afternoon then went back out for a 4 more hours in the evening  and we struck out! We tried the islands near Leisure landing  

the fishing has been awful  so far! We talked to a couple of guys we have been up here since last Saturday and they said it had shut down for them too since Friday! Our luck! They said it was good all week though snd one guy caught a 16 lbs pike  

we are going to try further out today closer to the Bay and see if the out islands produce... we may have to buy some live bait  

on a positive note weather has been great and accommodations are good as well   
 

I'll post again soon! 

 

[lew]

4 hours ago, siwash said:

 

the fishing has been awful  so far!

 

I've always said you don't need to catch a fish to have a great day of fishing.

[AKRISONER]

you got very unlucky, the lake was on fire on May 31st and then that heat up last week brought the water temperatures up 8 degrees over the course of 4 days and it shut everything right down. You could see the change in the lake, I went from catching laketrout up relatively shallow and OOS smallmouth that were still staging in 45 fow to them being right up in the pencil reeds roaming waiting for the girlies to arrive. 

The pike had lock jaw, theyd follow and not commit and were seemingly out of sorts. Even fished some deeper older cabbage beds where the weed was still standing and not a sniff. Not a skiff of new vegetation growth anywhere yet. We have finally arrived at the spring/summer transition, water temperatures are finally catching up and it has the fish on the move. I think this years bass opener is going to be one for the books if we can keep it from getting too too hot before the 21st and this weekend's upcoming "cool" forecast seems to have things dialed in on keeping that water cold. Considering the fish hadnt even started spawning yet this weekend theres going to a be a heck of a lot of fish up shallow in less than 2 weeks. What a friggin incredible contrast to last year where I was fishing May 4th and there were smallmouth guarding beds everywhere. I didn spot a single bed this weekend, just kept running into the damn things when they went ballistic on a big 8 inch magdraft.

hooked and quickly released 1 big ol girl that as soon as i quickly released her had two males nipping at her butt and she cruised away. Clearly not on her way to the bed, just out roaming around looking for boyfriends.

Edited Monday at 06:00 PM by AKRISONER

[siwash]

Interesting information. 
 

We tried some of the spots you recommended here but not much luck any where   

we also went to the river and fished all the way to where it opens into a lake. One SM for our efforts.  Then we fished a couple of shoals at the mouth of the river.  I caught a small pike in one of the 4 bays that are located north of the river mouth.  We also ventured pretty close to the Bay fishing in those islands just before the big water opens up.  Gorgeous area that's for sure.  I really enjoyed the scenery.  
 

we did catch one walleye after dark.  Just a 15"

a half dozen bass and that's about it!  

One  thing that was frustrating was the lack of weed beds  we tried hard to find them but not that much -  the musky came out of a spot close to the cabbage. 
 

I pretty much exclusively used big baits.. white swim bait, bucktails, spinner baits, a few large stick baits... maybe I should have downsized  

anyhow I wonder what the next few weeks will be like. I'd like to go back for the day  

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 06:37 PM by siwash

[BillM]

Weed growth is brutal this year.   The spots we fished last year on opener that still had old weed growth from the previous year were vacant this year.  Nothing to keep those fish shallow.. No cover, no fish.  Worst spring season I've had in a while (At least for pike)   We saw bass up in a foot of water and some fish on beds the 3rd weekend in May.   Water temps were high 60s in the back bays depending on the area. 

[AKRISONER]

22 minutes ago, BillM said:

Weed growth is brutal this year.   The spots we fished last year on opener that still had old weed growth from the previous year were vacant this year.  Nothing to keep those fish shallow.. No cover, no fish.  Worst spring season I've had in a while (At least for pike)   We saw bass up in a foot of water and some fish on beds the 3rd weekend in May.   Water temps were high 60s in the back bays depending on the area. 

that may 24 weekend had things heating up and then then temperature absolutely plummeted again, almost like a spring reset. I saw some temps get into the 50's then we had 3 consecutive days where it was windy, raining and a high of 8 degrees, I was out fishing lakers and the water was 46! this was 2 weeks ago! I caught a smallmouth out of 45 fow hanging with the laketrout. (yes im aware of how screwed up I am using F and C in the same sentence, but thats how i operate lol, i couldnt tell you what temperature C correlates to anything fishing wise, aside from the fact that when the water is 4C in the fall, shes about to lock up and when its 0 you might be able to walk on it lol!)

I personally did not see one sign of new weed growth anywhere this weekend. even in 1fow the pencil reeds were rotten with no signs of anything.

Edited Tuesday at 03:49 PM by AKRISONER

[BillM]

Yup, didn't see any green weeds at all.  

[siwash]

We saw some but it was far and few.  Consider that we fish hard for 3 straight days and covered tons of water, thousands of cast.  
 

1 pike landed

2 pike on and off

1 Muskie on and off (yes I know they are OOS) 

and a few small bass OOS 

 

[siwash]

I'm still recovering physically from it all! And mentally! 

[lew]

1 hour ago, BillM said:

Yup, didn't see any green weeds at all.  

When I used to fish muskies on Nipissing's West Arm I  mostly fished in 8 FOW and by mid June the cabbage was nearly always right up to the surface but I remember one year there wasn't a piece of green to be found anywhere. Following year it was all back to normal.

Strange how Mother Nature works sometimes.

[siwash]

57 minutes ago, lew said:

When I used to fish muskies on Nipissing's West Arm I  mostly fished in 8 FOW and by mid June the cabbage was nearly always right up to the surface but I remember one year there wasn't a piece of green to be found anywhere. Following year it was all back to normal.

Strange how Mother Nature works sometimes.

Do you guys think the weeds are just behind in growth due to cool weather or are there years when weed growth is poor?