Lake Nipissing/ Lavigne

[Musky Plug]

Hi everyone,

I’ve rented a cottage in the Lavigne area at the end of the month. I’ve never fished this area or Nipissing for that matter. I’ve read this of Nip is a better bass/ pike area and musky fishing is better fishing in the west end of the lake. Any input would be appreciated. 

[lew]

We're heading up this coming Saturday for an annual trip and stay at a camp about 20 minutes south of Lavigne. You'll like the area and there's a general store right in Lavigne if you need anything.

I've never fished in the Lavigne area but spent a lot of years fishing West Bay and the West Arm...again south of you... and did well with the muskies. I always had good luck casting around the rocky islands if there was heavy weed growth nearby but spent most of my time casting open water and found the best places....to me anyways....was in 8 - 10 FOW with heavy patches of cabbage. Casting big black & orange spinnerbaits and working them around the patches produced some good fish. Try similar areas where you are and hopefully you'll get into some nice fish.

Can't help you with the bass as I never had any interest in fishing for them but pike are pretty well everywhere and will hit darned near any bait you put in front of them.

Edited June 13, 2022 by lew

[Musky Plug]

On 6/13/2022 at 11:39 AM, lew said:

We're heading up this coming Saturday for an annual trip and stay at a camp about 20 minutes south of Lavigne. You'll like the area and there's a general store right in Lavigne if you need anything.

I've never fished in the Lavigne area but spent a lot of years fishing West Bay and the West Arm...again south of you... and did well with the muskies. I always had good luck casting around the rocky islands if there was heavy weed growth nearby but spent most of my time casting open water and found the best places....to me anyways....was in 8 - 10 FOW with heavy patches of cabbage. Casting big black & orange spinnerbaits and working them around the patches produced some good fish. Try similar areas where you are and hopefully you'll get into some nice fish.

Can't help you with the bass as I never had any interest in fishing for them but pike are pretty well everywhere and will hit darned near any bait you put in front of them.

Thank you for responding and thanks for the info about the general store. 
 

Awesome thank you. I will have a look at my navionics and mark out some areas like that to fish. Have you fished west hardwood isl in that area? 

[lew]

4 hours ago, Musky Plug said:

Have you fished west hardwood isl in that area? 

No, I was always quite a bit south of there.

To get to West Bay and the West Arm by boat you'd need to go out into the big lake, past the Hardwood Islands then head south to Hay Narrows and come in from there. It's a long boat run from Lavigne but I'm sure you could find equally good spots where you'll be.

[JoePa]

Sure miss the fishing around the west arm - use to hit that spot a couple times each year but then the Covid virus came and shut things down - haven't ventured north of the border the last 2 years - we always stayed at the Panorama camp ground - nice place - got to start thinking of heading up north again - haven't used the boat in those two years so I hope it will start - plan on some fishing in late summer early fall - my F350 when hauling the camper and pulling the boat gets around 10 miles per gallon - gonna cost a lot more when making those trips - 

I remember one trip some years ago when we went up there in the early spring just when walleye season started - my son and I - one day we thought that we would do some night fishing - so we stayed out after dark - man did it get dark - there were no lights along the shore and if it wasn't for the GPS I had with me we would have never got back to the camp - that's a big lake with a lot of islands and you can easily get lost after dark -