Pointe Au Baril this weekend

[Millhouse2020]

Hi everyone,

 

I have trip booked to Pointe Au Baril this weekend at Rock Pine Lodge. I want to bring my girlfreind fishing for early season pike and hopefully get her the biggest fish of her life and officially hooked on fishing. I have never fished here before and was wondering if anyone had any advice. My initial thoughts were to target shallow spawning bays and cast spinners, suspending jerkbaits and spoones to whatever gators may be willing. Any more specific advice anyone would like to share would be appreciated.

 

Also, I hope to do some walleye fishing in the morning and evenings so if anyone has any tips to share about the area that would be appreciated as well. Tight lights to everyone! Man I am so pumped for the open water season...

 

Millhouse2020

[Raf]

my advice would be not to fish on saturday (season closed for pike and walleye)

[Pikeslayer]

my advice would be not to fish on saturday (season closed for pike and walleye)

 

Raf is absolutely correct. Zone 14 opens May 1st for pike & walleye.

 

Slayer

[Millhouse2020]

Thanks I am aware of that, we will be travelling and hanging around the lodge that day, fishing Sunday and Monday.

[OhioFisherman]

Stayed at Rock Pine many times myself, but it has been 20+ years ago. You won`t find a shortage of shallow, sheltered areas for the pike to spawn in, although I never planned a trip there before the opening day of bass season. Can`t really give you much help on locations for this time of year.

 

My thoughts though would be to look at the sheltered areas off of the deeper water channels. The area around Brignall`s banks, the Winoa channel and even the Christopher channel have areas that have weeds, lilies, reeds and a pretty well defined deeper channel. The end of the Christopher where it meet the bay was tricky (rocks). Rocks were all over the whole area though, and I have no idea of the water levels or how early in the year they get markers on them. Some where just marked with white jugs back in my times there.

 

By June the whole area had weeds all over, not sure about picking a starting point for pike this early in the year as I have no idea on the weed growth.

 

Dad was more into walleye fishing and would go there for the opener, he had mixed results though, mostly because he was self limiting in his method of fishing for them. If he couldn`t get them in his chosen areas dragging a worm harness it was his opinion they couldn`t be caught.

 

Try up the Shawanaga river past the narrows, near shore 6-8 feet of water, drag a floating Rapala, silver with a black back, perch finish, a jig and grub. It is a spawning area and has deep water, more like a lake past the narrows to the falls. Actually dad got his biggest pike around 46 inches near the falls in May. He was fishing with a perch for bait under a bobber, no idea if it is still legal to use perch for bait there now, but the bait store on Hwy 69 sold a good selection of minnow sucker and leeches.

 

I fished in the river with my ex wife and caught walleye on large chubs in July and August, it is a fairly big area, with deep water, just my thought that it holds a resident population of walleye.

[Millhouse2020]

Thanks OhioFisherman! Thats great info and very detailed, much appreciated!

 

Millhouse2020

[Raf]

careful with the shawanaga too, it's a sanctuary this time of year

[skdds]

Hi everyone,

 

I have trip booked to Pointe Au Baril this weekend at Rock Pine Lodge. I want to bring my girlfreind fishing for early season pike and hopefully get her the biggest fish of her life and officially hooked on fishing. I have never fished here before and was wondering if anyone had any advice. My initial thoughts were to target shallow spawning bays and cast spinners, suspending jerkbaits and spoones to whatever gators may be willing. Any more specific advice anyone would like to share would be appreciated.

 

Also, I hope to do some walleye fishing in the morning and evenings so if anyone has any tips to share about the area that would be appreciated as well. Tight lights to everyone! Man I am so pumped for the open water season...

 

Millhouse2020

 

Was there at Rock Pine last year for opener..no walleye for me, but a number of good pike in the sheltered bays.. used a few different jerkbaits...many, many bays to hit. I enlisted the help of a guide ...name was Jeremy, great guy and knows the area really well and worked really hard to put me onto fish...check out my post from last year..fishing was tough last year for opener but still a really nice place to go..dress for everything..last year was warm, windy, rain and snow all in three days. I froze my ^&% a few times...but you are there with your girlfriend so you should be OK . Good Luck and post a report when you get back.-skdds

[backbay]

The water is wicked low, be careful out there on Sunday!

[tdotfisherman]

Pointe au Baril is like Heaven. Enjoy yourself up there, and catch the big one!

[Millhouse2020]

Thanks again for all the tips!

 

I will post a report next week with our results. I spent 3 hours last night organizing the tackle I bought over the winter for this trip. Have to pack the last of my clothing tonight, get groceries and load the vehicle. It should be fun regardless and I am bringing my entire arsenal of tackle and gear so if we dont get results it wont be for lack of effort. We will be dressed for pretty much everything.

 

Now if I can figure out where to find a place airing the UFC fights on Saturday night then this will be an awesome trip. Go St. Pierre!

 

Millhouse2020

[Millhouse2020]

Just an update on the fishing this past weekend. It was nice to finally be out on open water but the fishing was dreadful. My g/f caught one pike on Saturday as we were just exploring the area during the afternoon and fishing for Perch. On the Sunday opener and we had very high winds and miserable weather, we fished all day but caught nothing. We tried casting all the bays we could find south toward the Shawanaga River. We tried trolling around the islands. Even tried bobber fishing with minnows but struck out. Monday was cold with rain and even hail at some points in the morning, again we fished all day and covered lots of water North to Sturgeon Bay with no success. On the upside, it was nice to get out on the water and iron out the bugs in our equipment. The lodge was nice as well, we would go back. I had never fished this area before but can see lots of potential there. I think we were early in the season, the water appeared much lower than normal and the weather did not help us. Couldn’t figure out where the fish were. At one point on Saturday I was very concerned for our safety when we had to cross an open section of water with 3 foot swells in our 14ft rental boat. It was white knuckle boating for a half mile to get back to the sheltered area but we made it OK.

 

 

 

Anyone have any advice on what we may have been doing wrong? Im all ears...

 

 

We did do some boat shopping on Satruday on our way down so we may be close to getting a new rig of our own which will be great, can't wait :-D If anyone has any thoughts on the Crestliner Canadian/Kodiak 18ft tiller model, I would like to hear them as this is the boat we are looking at very closely as our first new fishing/utility boat.

 

Cheers all!

 

 

[Guest gbfisher]

Just an update on the fishing this past weekend. It was nice to finally be out on open water but the fishing was dreadful. My g/f caught one pike on Saturday as we were just exploring the area during the afternoon and fishing for Perch. On the Sunday opener and we had very high winds and miserable weather, we fished all day but caught nothing. We tried casting all the bays we could find south toward the Shawanaga River. We tried trolling around the islands. Even tried bobber fishing with minnows but struck out. Monday was cold with rain and even hail at some points in the morning, again we fished all day and covered lots of water North to Sturgeon Bay with no success. On the upside, it was nice to get out on the water and iron out the bugs in our equipment. The lodge was nice as well, we would go back. I had never fished this area before but can see lots of potential there. I think we were early in the season, the water appeared much lower than normal and the weather did not help us. Couldn’t figure out where the fish were. At one point on Saturday I was very concerned for our safety when we had to cross an open section of water with 3 foot swells in our 14ft rental boat. It was white knuckle boating for a half mile to get back to the sheltered area but we made it OK.

 

 

 

Anyone have any advice on what we may have been doing wrong? Im all ears...

 

 

We did do some boat shopping on Satruday on our way down so we may be close to getting a new rig of our own which will be great, can't wait :-D If anyone has any thoughts on the Crestliner Canadian/Kodiak 18ft tiller model, I would like to hear them as this is the boat we are looking at very closely as our first new fishing/utility boat.

 

Cheers all!

 

 

Fishing in under 4 fow and as little as 1 fow in the back of dark bottom bays would have helped. At least the GF caught one. Nothing new there!!...

[Jer]

Crestliner is a fine boat.

[Rizzo]

she's still with you after a trip like that and talking about buying a boat???You must put a ring on that

[muskymike]

Welcome to Point Au Baril fishing. Its amazing when its amazing and its horrible when its horrible.

 

I spent the first 21 years of my life fishing every day there from June through Sept and everyone weekend in between. Every chance I get I go there. This time of year is always tough there, especially if you dont know the water. The levels are low right now its hard to know patterns.

 

Raf is right, up the river, just at the bend in the narrows is a Sanctuary. I had this clarified from a CO who told me I was fishing in a Sanctuary all the time. The Regs dont spell it out clear at all.

[OhioFisherman]

MuskyMike, correct me if I am wrong but isn`t it just a sanctuary when walleye are not in season? I was never up there this early in the year.

[Millhouse2020]

I could not agree with you more, I need to put a ring on her soon!!!

[muskymike]

MuskyMike, correct me if I am wrong but isn`t it just a sanctuary when walleye are not in season? I was never up there this early in the year.

 

Thats what we all thought. But according to the CO that I spoke to it was something ridiculous like 10 months of the year. There are 2 visible signs in the river and 1 that he told me was there but for the life of me could never find it.

 

The first is at the mouth of the river on the North side (left) going in. Never seen it before. The second is in the narrows (tiny triangle, very hard to read) and the third is at the end on the left side just beside the island (it may have been moved though).

 

Anyhow, the area he said was from the first marker at the mouth to the tracks. But I have been pulled over by both OPP and CO in the river and its always been okay. I would love to speak with another CO that maybe could shed some more light on this.

[OhioFisherman]

Thanks MuskyMike, like I mentioned never up there this early myself, but I seem to recall Dad mentioning they used to have a cable across the river at the mouth when it was closed for the walleye.

[muskymike]

Thanks MuskyMike, like I mentioned never up there this early myself, but I seem to recall Dad mentioning they used to have a cable across the river at the mouth when it was closed for the walleye.

 

No problem. Thats the best I know. And I know for a face they dont use the wire anymore. I have heard that though from some of the older locals, never seen it for myself. You can access the river at any time.

 

Mike