Lake Abitibi spring fishing

[zenon11]

I was wondering if anybody had any info about the fishing on Lake Abitibi or any of the surrounding bodies of water like the Black River? (I have heard rumors that black river produces many pickerel) I am part of a group of fishermen heading up north near Matheson from next Tuesday for about a week. We are hoping to get into some spring pickerel and northerns. Can anyone provide some tips, tricks, recommended baits or perhaps good areas to try to fish while in the area? We are not restricted only to Lake Abitibi and are able to get into some of the smaller back lakes if anyone can recommend any. Thanks for the help!

[basketclam]

A lot of guys will go to the grocery store and buy herring. Rig it up, cast from shore and just let it sit on bottom. If you go to the right spot, guys do really well on the pike. Walleye fishing is pretty much the same, with smaller minnows. Not the most exciting technique, but effective.

 

If you're out in a boat, be really careful. Abitibi is full of rocks. FULL. In the middle of a wide open (seemingly) area, BANG. The lake averages only 6-10 feet deep or so. To boot, it's very wide so combined with it's depth, it gets very choppy. If you haven't got the right boat, can be dangerous.

 

Can't tell you anything about Black River.

 

Best of luck.

[zenon11]

Thanks for the advice!

[zenon11]

Thanks for the advice on the rocks, we decided it was better to not even take a boat. We ended up getting a guide who knew all about shore fishing. Caught lots of walleye and catfish (dirty buggers). pike were big too up there. The fish had a strange white colouration to them. Caught everything on a pickerel rig, the guide said all of the lures and crankbaits we bought wouldn't help. Anyway if anyone is ever up near the Matheson area, I would definitely recommend Lake Abitibi. The Black River was a bust, just a few catfish.

[Rod Caster]

Nice! Glad to see you heeded warning and caught some fish. I'll have to try it some day. I also had no luck on Black River... Nice waterway though

[basketclam]

Congrats. Any pics to share?

 

I suspect the colouration is so strange because they live their entire lives in mud-stained water.

[Paudash]

I was in that area 2 weeks ago and had the best weekend of fishing of my life. Not sure what lake we were on because we went into the bush with some locals. We caught so many pike and pickerel that we were getting board with 2lb pickerel and 5lb pike. We caught most of our fish trolling green 4-5 inch stick baits in 5-6 feet of water. Live targets also worked great. All the locals were using pickerel harnesses

 

good luck