Ice Fishing North Bay

[16 Footer]

I am thinking about taking my summer fishing buddies on their first ever ice fishing trip to North Bay this winter. I have ice fished in the past on Simcoe but the other 3 have never ice fished. Any hut operator recommendations or location advice would be appreciated, thanks. 

 

Edited November 26, 2017 by Vanhanen

[Fisherman]

Bear Creek without a doubt.

[misfish]

Make sure you tell them to wear fleeced crocs. They will thank you. 

[Rodbender]

 South Shore Ice Condos or Reed's

[Cosmos]

Rob Hyatt - one of the best in my opinion.

Bear Creek is good as well.

[Sterling]

Whatever you do, make sure they understand Nipissing is mostly a catch and release fishery. You'll catch tons of fish though.

[misfish]

23 minutes ago, Sterling said:

Whatever you do, make sure they understand Nipissing is mostly a catch and release fishery. You'll catch tons of fish though.

Catch and release?

 

If the fish are in the slot, you keep. If not, you release. 

 

So make sure they understand, there is a slot size on pickeral.

[porkpie]

A ton of the fish on nippissing are under the slot.  Very few over.  On a week trip this year we had maybe 4 or 5  overs out of hundreds of pickerel caught.  It's mainly catch and release even with a slot, I think that's all he meant to say.  I will say that this year we had many many fish that were darn close to retention size.  I don't really go there for the eating though, if you need a fish fry the smallies are plentiful and tasty.  OP, if you can get an operator that fishes main basin, I believe you will do exceptionally well as long as he stays on fish.  Callander is ok, and certainly we catch fish there, but it's nothing like main basin.  The fishing out there can be unbelievable.  We only do Callander when the lake is really nasty.

[DanD]

18 hours ago, Fisherman said:

Bear Creek without a doubt.

Not to steal the thread; but do the Donovan's still own and run the place? The first time I went there (early 70s) Dick was running the whole show on his own. Then I think in the mid 80s Dan (Dick's son) and his wife Ronda took over the show. 

If they're not running the place now, who is?

Dan. 

 

[Sterling]

16 hours ago, misfish said:

Catch and release?

If the fish are in the slot, you keep. If not, you release. 

So make sure they understand, there is a slot size on pickeral.

98% of walleye on Nipissing must be released.... so mostly catch and release :).

Although, it seems the fish have finally grown up... based on my tremendous success this summer I'm cautiously optimistic for winter fishing.

[jimmer]

1 hour ago, DanD said:

Not to steal the thread; but do the Donovan's still own and run the place? The first time I went there (early 70s) Dick was running the whole show on his own. Then I think in the mid 80s Dan (Dick's son) and his wife Ronda took over the show. 

If they're not running the place now, who is?

Dan. 

 

Shawn and Terra are running the place now.

[Rod Caster]

Pickeral are mainly catch and release, but there is a real good variety of fish to be caught for a fry : lake herring (biggest you'll ever see), pike, whitefish, tons of perch, ling.

I also agree with fishing the main lake not Callander Bay

[Woodsman]

Another thing to consider is wether you want to stay on land for your accomindations or you stay in an over night hut?

Pluses & minus to both options.

Also are you looking for American plan or not? This is basically a on land accomindation option.

[16 Footer]

Thanks to everyone's reply.

We are thinking about an over night hut. Are there any over night huts on the main lake?

[Fisherman]

10 hours ago, DanD said:

Not to steal the thread; but do the Donovan's still own and run the place? The first time I went there (early 70s) Dick was running the whole show on his own. Then I think in the mid 80s Dan (Dick's son) and his wife Ronda took over the show. 

If they're not running the place now, who is?

Dan. 

 

It's Shawn Degagne who used to have Idle Tyme.

[Joeytier]

4 hours ago, 16 Footer said:

Thanks to everyone's reply.

We are thinking about an over night hut. Are there any over night huts on the main lake?

There are a bunch of operators who have ice bungalows on the lake.  Bear Creek gets consistently great reviews.  I stayed in one of Rob Hyatt's sleeper huts, and they are very nice as well.  Personally, I'd prefer to come back to a warm cabin or motel room on land, but the sleepers definitely have a fun novelty to them if you've never done it before.

[bassboy19]

If anyone is looking for a cottage/day hut operation, I would highly recommend Nanmark Lighthouse Resort in Callander Bay. After doing Glen Echo, Bear Creek on-ice bungalows for the past 5 or so years, I can honestly say I will never go anywhere else as long as there is a weekend available for us at Nanmark. Ryan has only 1 cottage available as far as I know for winter weekends but it is absolutely beautiful and the service is second to none since you are his only group for the weekend. I know most people like the sleeper huts to fish 24/7, but with the huts being +/- 500m out from the cottage, we fished both nights as late as we felt like staying, which was once the fish slowed down after dark. Just a text and Ryan was out to get us. Fishing was great too, no keepers last year for us but that's the same story anywhere it seems. PM me if anyone would like more details, I was really surprised about this place and can't say enough good things.

[Old Ironmaker]

On ‎2017‎-‎11‎-‎27 at 8:36 AM, DanD said:

Not to steal the thread; but do the Donovan's still own and run the place? The first time I went there (early 70s) Dick was running the whole show on his own. Then I think in the mid 80s Dan (Dick's son) and his wife Ronda took over the show. 

If they're not running the place now, who is?

Dan. 

 

Dan we went up to Bear Creek for years until the mid 90's. Dan and his wife took over from Dick and Donna around 1990 then I guess he sold. The in-laws families stayed there for years every summer, 4 cottages full. We ice fished there with Dan for years too. McCulloch's from Hamilton, we may have met sometime.

[porkpie]

Hey keep quiet about Nanmark or I'll never be able to rent a cottage there in the summers lol.