Lake Superior Provincial Park

[Gregoire]

Last week a buddy and I went camping to Lake Superior Provincial Park for a week. I was excited as I had never been this far north, and I would get a chance to catch brook trout. I learned how to fish in small streams for brookies with my grandfather in Nova Scotia, and they are a special fish for me. We initially planned on portaging into some back lakes, but inexperience and laziness (plus my general lack of physical fitness) resulted in us botching that plan. As a result the fishing was a little slow.

 

We stayed at Rabbit Blanket, and I was excited to fish the lake, and portage into some back lakes. The first day there we got out on the lake and started fishing. I was thinking that a pristine lake would be teaming with brookies. It wasn't, I only caught a few dink perch. I was a bit pissed, as I do not have to drive 10 hours to catch perch. No problem I thought, we'll portage into the back lakes and the fishing will be unreal. That plan was ruined when a beaver dam blocked the portage route. We searched all around for an alternative route in, but could not see anything obvious, and being novice portagers we decided to go back a make a plan B.

 

Plan B was to get a canoe at Miji and fish that lake. The next day we woke up somewhat early and made the drive to Miji, unpacked the canoe and got out on the water. After fishing for an hour or so my buddy got a hit. I was excited as he had never caught a trout. I grabbed the net with eager anticipation only to see a sucker on the end of the line. At this point of the trip I was getting a little pissed. I could not believe that I travelled so far only to catch suckers and perch.

 

After fishing for a few more hours I finally got a hit. At this point I was holding my breath, all I needed to catch was another sucker...or worse a carp, and I was going to give up and drink so much that I forgot the rest of the trip. Luckily it was the first brookie of the trip.

We spent the rest of the trip fishing a a leisurely pace. In all I caught 4 trout and my buddy got nothing but suckers.

The biggest fish of the trip a healthy 14" fat brookie. I believe this was a pb

On the last day of the trip I caught 2 more trout 1 brookie and what I think was a splake:

 

As a bonus I have an ex student who is working up at the park. I was able to spend some time with him and feed him his first brookie.

 

All in all it was a good trip. The fishing was not as good as I would like, but I would head back to the park in a heartbeat, as the scenery and experience was unreal. If any of you get a chance to head up that way I would strongly encourage it.

Edited July 13, 2011 by fishgreg

[Rod Caster]

I hate that feeling of going deep into the woods only to catch garbage fish.... it's happened too many times, but it's also a learning experience. I'm glad you caught something that you might not otherwise catch. That's a good sized brookie to say the least!

[solopaddler]

Glad to see you at least got a couple. Beautiful area for sure regardless!

[Joeytier]

Thanks for sharing. July is probably the worst month for brook trout fishing, I'd be glad with those results to be honest. Hit those same lakes in late April and you'd probably have a little different result.

[Joey]

Well I bet you had fun no matter how tough the fishing was, but I understand your disappointment.

 

Some nice fish there though, and I bet they tasted great.

 

 

Congrats on the PB.

[Musky or Specks]

Thanks for sharing. July is probably the worst month for brook trout fishing, I'd be glad with those results to be honest. Hit those same lakes in late April and you'd probably have a little different result.

Yup your there a little late for trout fishing unless you come equipped with leadcore or wire line. You actually did okay for so late in the season. Try i again between Mid may and June first. If you do go again PM me and I'll give you a few locations to try. Rabbit Blanket really has no fish to speak of. Put and take fishery only.

[Gregoire]

Thanks for all the replies. I was not disappointed in numbers at all, as I know how slow the fishing can be in the dog days of summer. I actually chanced upon a relaxed way to drift fish in the canoe, and thought of a few other ways to drift deeper for lakers in the summer. One of the things that really hurt me was not have a topo map of the lakes. I was also disappointed that we did not get into any of the remote lakes that we originally planned to. I think in the near future we'll I'll be purchasing a smaller canoe for portgaging.

[mercman]

Great report, and nice fishin'. Thats a beautiful part of Gods country.

[TDunn]

Nice!!

The park can be a hard nut to crack but when you do it is worth it!

There is some outstanding fishing throughout the entire park and I'm glad you enjoyed the scenery.

Fish are a bonus in LSPP forsure!

Good luck next time!

 

TDunn

Edited July 15, 2011 by TDunn