Lake Biscotasi

[RLWSNOOK]

Hey everyone. New to this site but while doing some research found a few posts about Lake Biscotasi and had a few questions. I am heading up there for an early July trip we are going to be there for the week starting July 2nd. Can anyone give me any tips or suggestions? What type of bait works best? What type and colour of lures are the best? Are there any specific spots I should hit to catch the walleye and northern pike?

 

I am going to be staying at Ritchie's end of trail. So we are on Lake Bisco, but I've heard good things about Indian lake which I hear there is a rail car that you can use to portage. Should I spend more time on Bisco or Indian lake?

 

I'm going to have a little hand held gps. But I don't have the best map of the lake, is that something I can get at the local general store, or does anyone have any suggestions as to where to buy a map? Does anyone know if there are any lake chips for gps systems for bisco.

 

I know I asked a bunch of questions but any help would be great! I can't wait to go! I'll post some pictures and let others know how my trip went after I get back!

[bigbuck]

Jig and minnow, worm or leech for walleye. Pretty much any colour, I have found that chartreuse worked the best on a northern lake that I fished extensively a while back. For Pike, red/white, 5 of diamonds spoons, husky jerks and a couple of bucktails with some good quality leaders should do you fine. Contact your outfitter to see about a better map of the lake and/or a chip for it, they may be able to steer you in the right direction.

[bucktail]

Dont be afraid to fish shallow for the eyes, dont think I caught one in deeper then 12 feet last time.

Beware the mayfly hatch that happens there, but then there isnt anything you can do about that except fish for pike.

[chris.brock]

We didn't do very well there last July but I don't think we figured the walleye out

 

white jigs seem to be the best colour

 

Indian was just abit better than Bisco but we only did Indian for 1 day

 

I get the impression that if you can figure these lakes out (ie technique, baits, etc) they can be pretty good

[RLWSNOOK]

Thanks everyone for the replies! Nothing better than hearing advice from people who know the area or have been to the lake!

 

Good news is I just booked a hotel room for the night before in Chapleau, and because of the heat wave it sounds like the mayflies are already hatching so hopefully they will be gone by the time I get there. If not, I'm bringing my fly rod and maybe I can match the hatch and catch a few fish via flies.

 

If anyone has any other advice, I'd love to hear it.

 

I'm thinking it might not be a horrible idea to get a guide for the first day or two, to sorta show us the way to catch them and then do it on our own after that.

[BiggFish]

Hey Bud ,

 

PM me I have fished this area along time and I have some good pointers for that area for eyes.

 

Chad

 

 

[RLWSNOOK]

After coming back from a week on the lake I'd like to share my thoughts and give any help.

 

First off the cabins were exactly what we were looking for, boats were great. And it was well within budget.

 

The fishing was slow partly because of our fault and partly because I think it's really too big of a lake. If you are looking for a lake where you are going to have an easy time fishing this is not it. We had a few days were most fish of the day was 2. I kind of ignored these warnings from others but it wasn't just our group a bunch of others at our camp had issues as well...

 

The most important things I've found in terms of catching the fish is time of day followed by bait. Not sure what the temperature was, but the water was anywhere from 68-72 deg. Most of the walleye we caught was anywhere from 12-26 feet of water, but most of them came from 16-22 feet.

 

First off you should get up and fish early sunrise until say 10-11 am then take a nap or a long shore lunch and come back about 6-7 pm until sunset. (The fish like the shady spots on the windy side. ) Either that or target pike only during the day... We kept on wearing ourselves out during the day and would not fish the most productive times which led to us to I believe not catching many.

 

So as for bait. You have a few options really. Your best bet is to get minnows put them on jig heads. You'll need about 4 dozen for a good day and that will run you about 24 dollars at the bait shop (and they count out every minnow). Don't believe this the lake has no minnow base and minnows don't work, it's an easy way for the cabins to not have to supply you with the best bait, which is expensive as it has to be driven in from something like 3 hours away. If you like jigging but don't want to spend the money on the minnows I'd go for chartreuse jig heads with chartreuse grubs and tip it with a crawler. I like the jig heads with the little spinners, I had a rig with a spinner jig head and a stand out hook and it worked pretty well.

 

Now if you are like me you will very likely get bored of jigging all day, and frankly you won't catch much jigging in the middle of the day so when casting I really liked Husky jerks, both walleye and pike would hit these, colors that produced fish: silver and black, white and black, yellow and black, chartreuse, clear with a green or rainbow shine\tint. I had one that was really productive for pike, it was designed to float, but still dive 1-6 feet, this worked well for the shallow pike. As for deeper pike I liked deep diving shad raps. Colors that produced fish: Blue and white (a must), black and silver. I caught a few pike on rattletraps I honestly think these are good for when the pike aren't really feeding and you want to catch something (mind you I caught 2 on these and both of them were foul hooked), colors that produced fish: Blue and silver, crawfish.

 

I've seen and heard stories of big fish out of this lake but I really don't think you should expect them. There are some good eating sized walleye but our biggest for the week was close to 20-21 inches, as for pike there are a bunch of "hammer heads" our largest for the week was 27.5". I do have to say that we did see a very large pike (could have easily been 35-40 inches) he was coming up to steal our stringer of fish... So there are a few big ones, but the kid who drove our barge was pretty excited about his biggest pike last year that was 32 inches, so I wouldn't expect too many big ones out of this lake.

 

I really think minnows are your best bet, followed by husky jerks, and then jigs with crawlers.

 

Spots to fish are hard to say as the lake is so big and you'd need GPS coordinates, so if you are going take a GPS, and a fish finder\ depth finder. Only spot I can describe and that will be easy to find that I liked was the train bridge close to town. Caught a few perch and some walleye out of there, it goes from 6-8 feet on the side close to town to 26-30 feet very quickly, we caught them there just jigging in about 28 feet of water. I missed a bunch of hits there so my guess is the perch were there when I was there.

 

The lake is beautiful and it is set up nicely for campers so there are plenty of spots to pull in and do a nice shore lunch. Don't go to this lake expecting to catch a ton of fish and if you don't know what you are doing you very easily can not catch a thing.

 

The mosquitos were pretty bad around camp\ our cabin but weren't horrible on the water. Don't forget sunscreen and lip balm with sunscreen in it. Everything is expensive once you get to Biscotasing so be sure to bring enough beer and soda. A case of beer was something like 30 dollars.

 

If you have any questions or are looking at doing a trip up to this lake feel free to reply to this thread as I'm subscribed to it, and I'll get an email. I found all my info from posts like this so feel free to ask away.

[chris.brock]

Did you guys get over to Indian?

[Terry]

thanks for the report

 

I have heard it's a tough lake ti figure out

[kuhaman]

I wish I would have seen this post before you left RLWSNOOK. I've been fishn Bisco for over 20 years. It is a pretty tough lake to figure out but once you do it can be awesome!During the summer you need to look for mid lake shoals(gotta have a fishfinder)When you find these spots fish em with a pink jig head and crawler and you can limit out pretty quick. If ya ever go back try to find those shoals

 

Kuha

[RLWSNOOK]

Did you guys get over to Indian?

 

No so that's another thing I forgot to mention. We had 4 guys in our group and me and another went to go over there. So it was just two of us. It took us 1.5 hours just to get the dang cart onto the track which is sorta too big at the end, and then up out of the water. There was no way the two of us could have gotten that boat up over the hill from Bisco to Indiana so we gave up. Did catch a bunch of leeches though...

 

 

thanks for the report

 

I have heard it's a tough lake ti figure out

 

Yeah, it's pretty tough. And I think that most of the people who go sorta feel that way. There are locals that will tell you different and many who go assume they can figure it out like a local but I don't think that you can do so.

 

 

I wish I would have seen this post before you left RLWSNOOK. I've been fishn Bisco for over 20 years. It is a pretty tough lake to figure out but once you do it can be awesome!During the summer you need to look for mid lake shoals(gotta have a fishfinder)When you find these spots fish em with a pink jig head and crawler and you can limit out pretty quick. If ya ever go back try to find those shoals

 

Kuha

 

Kuha no worries. There was a guy at our camp who said he had been going up there for 22 years, and I got a lot of info from him while he was cleaning his fish. Even he said that he had issues the week we were there (ie it was slow). Might have been the weather (lots of sun not a cloud in the sky). but who knows. He did also tell me that the slot limit saved the lake. But I'm not so sure it's 100% back. This being said when we were on the fish we were on them. The last day we were there we caught like 8 walleye in 30 mins throwing husky jerks. We were casting and catching a fish every other cast almost. But only once that week we found a spot like that. I kinda have a feeling there are a bit too many pike in the lake, and people mostly only keep the walleye, and the pike feed on the smaller fish but this is just a bit of an assumption. I just think overall it's a tough lake to figure out, and it is kinda big. For the guy who hasn't been going for 20 years it might not be the best lake. Although the camps on the lake are a really good value, so if you are armed with information it might not be horrible.

Edited July 19, 2011 by RLWSNOOK

[johnnyb]

Great report RLW....too bad the catching wasn't better, but, it sounds like it could have been worse. THe info is greatly appreciated

[bigbuck]

I'd go back there next year if the cabins were nice. You need to figure out the fish on any new body of water. My first time on LOTW, I'd go out for 3-4 hours and catch nothing. Hit the right spots with my father in law later in the evening and in a half hour to an hour we'd limit out. You need to know the water and where the spots are. Make sure you have a portable fish finder next time you go along with a proper chart of the lake. You may be surprised how good the fishing can be when you find them.

[RLWSNOOK]

Great report RLW....too bad the catching wasn't better, but, it sounds like it could have been worse. THe info is greatly appreciated

 

 

Yeah, I wish I knew what I knew now back then, but it was still a great week even despite being a bit slow.

 

I'd go back there next year if the cabins were nice. You need to figure out the fish on any new body of water. My first time on LOTW, I'd go out for 3-4 hours and catch nothing. Hit the right spots with my father in law later in the evening and in a half hour to an hour we'd limit out. You need to know the water and where the spots are. Make sure you have a portable fish finder next time you go along with a proper chart of the lake. You may be surprised how good the fishing can be when you find them.

 

 

I think the lake takes a few years to figure out. Problem being is it is so large, that the hot spots can change and there are so many different spots it is hard to really find the best one. (And one more bit of advice, the anchor they provided us was a coffee can filled with cement, which did not hold on a lot of places that likely would have produced more fish, if you go up you might want to take a better anchor). I had a fish finder, GPS and a great chart of the lake, finding the spots was not the problem. The problem was finding the fish and presenting them with the right bait. It won't be for some time before I go back as cost and time off are a factor. Maybe in 10 years when I'm ready to go back up north the lake will have come back even more from the slot limit that's in place.

 

 

[freddyp]

Headed up next week! Pretty excited to see all this lake hs to offer! Any idea on a place to get minnows on the way up? Maybe in Sudbury anyone?

[Handlebarz]

Dad and I would go up there and just camp on islands I think it was our first trip up we stayed in a ladies back yard as the camp ground was full she had no problem. We would take a left and head north from the train bridge heading to the tip of the lake at the north end that is where you will find a lot of great pike action.

 

When looking for the eyes during the day fish the rock cliffs right along the edge of them and at the points in deeper water look for teh hooks holding along the edge of the drop offs from these cliffs and drop you line on them.

 

Looks for the points off islands and sandy beaches fish the points there also they were some of the key areas we would fish at day break and last light as the bait fish will school up along the sandy shore and the eyes will come in from the deeper waters.

 

We would head north past the grey owl camps http://www.greyowlcamps.com/cabins.html I'm guessing they were 3,5,6 that were the close camps we would head past there is some good fishing there but if you look at camp 4 just east of it there was a island we would usually camp at it was cleared out and had a great sandy beach. We did not have a gps back then just went by land marks and the map we had which is since gone I wish I had it as we marked some good spots on it but I cant remember which ones exactly now its been a few days.

 

we never fished south of the train tracks and would always get way more then our limits daily with dad only keeping a couple for lunch at camp we only had conservation licenses so we would not keep much mainly C&R.

 

I cant remember if we caught our minnows or bought them but we would use minnows (chubs) on a plain jig head or twister tails mustard yellow and motor oil these were the best producing by far just cast out from the boat or off shore on the sandy beaches and slowly reel in creeping it along the bottom and hold on.

 

A must is LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT LINE I only used 4lbs line MAX for myself and would always out fish dad he had 6-8lbs and never relay got into the Ultra light set ups. NEVER USE A LEADER unless its a fluorocarbon one tied direct to your main line. You will loose some fish but that's the cost of catching many as the pike will cut through the light line very fast.

 

I cant remember the biggest walleye caught by us but I know its was less then 28" as we had not caught one bigger back then that, I can remember as back then the only one we caught that size was from a river near Sudbury. There were a lot of mid 20" fish 22-25" and tonnes of jacks 12-17"

 

For pike fishing spinner baits worked best for us white or chartreuse we would get them on crank baits and spoons yes 5 of diamonds and red devil but by far it was a spinner bait bite. The north end was the very best that is up past camp 4 past that last island where it narrows down there was a marker of sorts where we would fish but I cant think of what it was when we would know we were in the area yo uwill be able to tell when your up there as it seems like the lake funnels into this area from what I remember.

 

I loved the area and it was amazing place to go dad and I had many AMAZING days there I would love to head back there again one day but then again maybe my memories are better then the real thing for that area and I should find a new lake to share with the family.