Minden Ontario Fly Fishing

[jsmith1049]

My name is James Smith. I am a store manager for The Orvis Co. in Asheville, NC. My grandparents have a cottage on 12 Mile Lake near Minden, ON. I will be arriving late on August 5th and leaving early August 9th. I have done some small mouth fishing on the lake in the past but was looking to see what else was available in the area. I am open to do pretty much anything that can be done wade fishing or out of a sit on top kayak. I will have a 4, 5, 6, and 8wt with me so will be able to target just about anything, I just need some advice on where to go. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I have not been able to get up to the cottage in almost 4 years so I would love to make good use of my time. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Musky or Specks]

James here is a tool that might be useful for you.

 

http://www.web2.mnr.gov.on.ca/fish_online/fishing/fishingExplorer_en.html

 

Enter the species you wish to fish for and then Minden and how far your willing to go. Personally there are a lot of speckled trout lakes in the area a 8wt with a fast sinking tip or full sink line with large trout streamers down at @ 20-30 ft and you might hook up. Otherwise I'd probably go to Head Lake in Haliburton and fish for Muskie.

[Pigeontroller]

Downstream end of Horseshoe Lake there is a nice stretch of whitewater that holds smallmouth Bass. There's generally alot of (weekend)kayaking going on which makes fishing tough, weekdays you may have it to yourself...

[solopaddler]

The Gull River in Minden has rainbow trout. Start at the dam and work down from there.

[fishindevil]

As mike says there is trout in the river and I believe further down there is a really good stretch for fly fishing I have seen guys fly fishing there before and I think there's brown trout as well in a section mike if I'm not mistaken ?? South of Scott's dam ?? But anywhere along that stretch of river you should have fun with a fly rod and lots of areas to hit too !!!! Good luck

[singingdog]

The whitewater section of the Gull used to be great for rainbows, not so much anymore. I don't know if they changed the stocking program upstream, but the number of bows in that section of river has decreased dramatically in the past couple of years.

[jsmith1049]

Thanks for everyones help. I will have a few days to try out a few different places so I may just go for a little bit of everything.

[jsmith1049]

As far as the trout fishing goes. What is the average size of the fish in the Gull?

[solopaddler]

As far as the trout fishing goes. What is the average size of the fish in the Gull?

 

They're stocked so most are small, 12-15". If you're lucky you'll catch a holdover. I've seen some 2-4lb fish from the Gull.

Mind you my info might be dated, it's been a while since I've fished it.

 

There's a district MNR office right in Minden, (705) 286-1521

 

If I were you I'd call them and ask to speak with a biologist. They're generally very helpful and will answer all your questions and point you in the right direction.

[singingdog]

I used to catch lots of 15-16" bows in the Gull, with the occasional 18-20" fish. I haven't seen a bow like that from the river for a couple of years. It is really tough to flyfish the whitewater section right now with the overhead cables up for the slalom course.

[dave524]

http://www.hhoa.on.ca/uploads/1/4/2/0/14209292/2013_mindenfishstockinglist-2013-12-17.pdf

 

Maybe get some leads from this. Browns in the Irondale ??? think they put a few in the Burnt years ago too.