Best Provincial Parks?

[CrowMan]

16 hours ago, siwash said:

I'll be in a new boat this spring. Bigger so will be extra cautious.  I remember we caught some pike and SM at a shoal if I'm not mistaken, very close to where the Moon dumps into the delta.  Can't go further by boat in that area.  Water has big current. I'll bet the walleye are stacked in there in the spring. We were there in the summer 

From your description, it seems you were up the Lower Moon River heading to Moon Falls. Yes, there can be a substantial current in that stretch, especially in spring. And yes, Walleye do come in there...that's why it's a sanctuary.

There are more subtle currents throughout the archipelago, in neck down areas and channels between the islands. G Bay experiences a phenomena called a "seiche"...it's like a freshwater tide caused by the wind. A prolonged west blow can temporarily raise the water level by over a foot, a prolonged east blow can drop the level the same amount. All this water rushes in and out of the myriad of channels creating current areas...these spots attract predators feeding on the baitfish (in turn attracted by zooplankton) being swept by. 

If I can give you two pieces of advice....First, journey out and away from the Lower Moon and Woods Bay...it gets pounded. The further you get from the marinas and launches, the better the fishing. Those reefs out by the outer band of islands always have consistently good fishing..On a calm day, go out even further to those offshore reefs...few complaints about slow fishing out there..

Second, a lot of the reefs/structure is smooth featureless worn rock...ignore those. Look for structure that has broken rock, preferably boulders of between softball to basketball size...if there's cabbage weed nearby, even better...

Enjoy....there's enough fishing and places to explore in that area to fill several lifetimes.

Edited April 4 by CrowMan

[SirCranksalot]

 I cannot comment on the fishing further out as i just have a canoe. I have canoed a lot out on G Bay, mostly in the FR area and I have seen quite a few instances of those seiche flows thru narrow channels. We live on the Notty just off the bay and have seen the water rise and fall at the beach. The water level in the river for quite a few kms upstream also depends on the onshore winds. It took me a while to realize that. I had always thought that the level was solely determined by the flow coming downstream. The level on the bay can change by at least a ft, esp in the fall when we get sustained NW winds. There is an online gauge at Cwood. If you check it out you can see how much the level can change. 

[siwash]

8 hours ago, CrowMan said:

From your description, it seems you were up the Lower Moon River heading to Moon Falls. Yes, there can be a substantial current in that stretch, especially in spring. And yes, Walleye do come in there...that's why it's a sanctuary.

There are more subtle currents throughout the archipelago, in neck down areas and channels between the islands. G Bay experiences a phenomena called a "seiche"...it's like a freshwater tide caused by the wind. A prolonged west blow can temporarily raise the water level by over a foot, a prolonged east blow can drop the level the same amount. All this water rushes in and out of the myriad of channels creating current areas...these spots attract predators feeding on the baitfish (in turn attracted by zooplankton) being swept by. 

If I can give you two pieces of advice....First, journey out and away from the Lower Moon and Woods Bay...it gets pounded. The further you get from the marinas and launches, the better the fishing. Those reefs out by the outer band of islands always have consistently good fishing..On a calm day, go out even further to those offshore reefs...few complaints about slow fishing out there..

Second, a lot of the reefs/structure is smooth featureless worn rock...ignore those. Look for structure that has broken rock, preferably boulders of between softball to basketball size...if there's cabbage weed nearby, even better...

Enjoy....there's enough fishing and places to explore in that area to fill several lifetimes.

Excellent tips, thank you so much.. 

[slwndwn]

Spent some time in McConnell Lake and was rewarded with some of the best fishing to date. Specifically the conservation lands at "ice out". A good gps tracker is a must becuase you WILL get lost. There are a ton of old logging cuts and small nameless bodies of water that offer up trophy fish. Speckies for me but just about anything you want to target. These lakes were apparently stocked for years and alot are unmolested.I havent been in a few years, but we go in the off season to a place called Opimika. The host offered off season cottage rates that were rediculously inexpensive. Even kept the wood stove stolked while we were gone. There were also a few little "rough" cabins that were $10 a night. And if the timing is right, you can fill a garbage bag with morels in no time at all. Perch and morels all week long. Cant get much better in my book. We release most all other catches. 

The only downside is, everytime resource management changed, so did stocking ideas. This means there alot of hybrids. Monitoring was loose at best back in the day. Still great fishing though.