Researching for 2015 Kawartha Lake region

Hello,

Again, I'm new to this site. I spent this past summer on the ontonnabee river but did some scouting to Chemong, buckhorn and stoney. Stoney was the best thus far for the walleye (pickerele) and very large sunfish. I'm really interested in crappie fishing. I'm looking at visiting jack lake next spring.

My goal for 2015 is to become very familar with Rice since its down the street from my trailer and to explore more lakes throughout the kawartha region. I have a copy of the regional lakes book - (so many). I love crappie fishing!! most.

So any feedback I get is welcomed. I'm on alot of sites but I noticed on this site there is very little if any feedback.

So if we could share info. during the off season - I don't need your hot spots but what lakes you might reccommend for particular species.

I will also share my info.

Thanks

Welcome to the forums, in your previous post about "hotspots". You most likely won't get any replies, since we don't allow posting of hotspots in the public forums (for obvious reasons). That said the Kawarthas are a highly pressured fishing system, being so close to the GTA it gets heavy attention year round. I have been fishing these lakes for over 20 years and I will say, it is a very dynamic fishery. What works one year, doesn't often produce the next. Sometimes things change from day to day. This is typical of heavily pressured lakes where fish become finicky, so actually targeting a so called hotspot doesn't really work. Yes some spots will consistently produce better over time, but really you have to follow the trends and the fish (as they move around) to be consistently successful in the Kawarthas. The best part about fishing is finding the fish, determining the working pattern and landing a few fish is the prize..

That said, contribute a little, post some pics and make friends here and you will definitely begin to gain some useful knowledge..

I can't offer much incite into crappie fishing, other than the obvious shallow water haunts in the early spring, after that schooling period, I catch very few. Furthermore the hotspots I did have, are now completely void of crappie. I'm not sure if they moved or were fished out.. They disappeared.. I used to catch them the general way, bobber and tube jig..

Hey whishin fishin

Welcome to the forum, as my self I am pretty new here too and there is very good topics from everywhere on the kawarthas ... I fish Rice lake for a good 7 years, I lunch at Bewdley and go as far to the railway tracks,I never fished the river, well just to side of it, crappie at Bewdley is very good but they move a lot as Metalbuckle mentioned, walleye is everywhere too up to Long Island and between towards west sugar & sheep island... One of my favourite lures to use for both of them is a white and pink twister tail or lime green with a jig head half grey half whiteish with a bit of pink on it (tricolour zig head) , maybe next year on the spring we can meet up there and hunt for some crappie and walleyes .

I hope I'd helped with this ... Tight lines Bud!!!

thanks metal bucket for the reply. I truly love the entire region - so much water and so little time. I love fishing adventures and the book "Eastern Ont. zone 17, 18 20 fishing mapbook has been invaluable. Thanks for the insight as to how this site works.

I was on stoney lake 2-weeks ago and limited out on walleye and caught 45 1lb plus sun fish.

love the lake

thanks rod, I made notes for next year, thanks for the info.

Hey wishin

Early Spring is the ticket on Rice for Crappie. High water levels flood out the back bay/dock areas along shorelines etc. My kids hammer the crappie off my dock and the neighbours docks in May until the water starts to recede. We use micro jigs with bobbers. Summer and Fall is another story altogether - cant help you there lol. Metalbuckle summed it up perfectly - the Kawarthas are a wonderful and dynamic fishery. Rice is a different animal than any other lake I have ever fished. There are NO patterns - Rice continues to surprise me every time out. You can fish it under what seems like perfect conditions and get skunked and humiliated. Go out mid-day with Seedo's whizzing around and no expectations and crush them. Throw conventional techniques out the window if fishing is slow - give them something they have NEVER seen. I am a musky guy and lately have been on fire using old school baits like Suicks and Reef Hawgs that the fish havent seen in years. I love the challenge and truly believe fishing a lake like this makes me a better angler.

Good luck!!

Kevin

Hey Musky Freak, thanks for the info. I've been fishing the ontanbee river for the past 2-years since my trainer sits on it down near wallace point. I've caught my share of Musky all by mistake. The river has a lot of small mouth but to me they behave like large mouth when it comes to using top water lures like poppers. Its a blast , my largest was 18".

I can wait till next spring to get at those crappie. I take an annual trip every may to black lake for the crappie. The lake is down near kingston on the american side.

I'm also named kevin.

I've fished the outlet (both of them) of the Otonobe a few times over the last 3 to 4 years. The western outlet has some very deep holes! I've never done well in this area so I save myself the hassle and fish out to the three islands out from the great boat launch at Harris Boat works.

This year being different on the lake, I took the boat up a few times and launched higher up. I didn't catch much for the effort but buddy in boat got 3 nice walleye trolling over two trips. Another time went as far as hwy 7 from same launch - where my brother landed his first ever musky!

Crappies - while I don't target them I seem to pick up the odd one or two here and there. No real rhyme or reason except just before dusk near shores. Using jigs rigged with Trigger-x for walleye. Maybe miss a few of the too small crappies because of the large hook. But that's ok.

Maybe I should try some for spring crappies on the Otonabee while waiting for walleye to open (but that would cut into spring trout fishing time . . ..)

There is a tourist map of the lake indicating where to catch the different species. That map is so wrong! (In my opinion.) All the species can be caught anywhere on the lake. Just depends on water temp, sun, cloud, wind, weed growth/cover etc and it changes like did this year.

Hey Kevin, welcome to the club. The liars club. LOL How can you tell when a fisherman is lying???? His lips is movin' LOL Go to http://webapp.navionics.com click on the webapps link for very good charts. To be sure the fishing is good in the Kawartha's. It's just sometimes the catching doesn't quite keep up. Basically though, all these lakes are pretty much the same. Depths, cover, structure. My evil twin brother, and I change lakes for different scenery, that's all. We fish from Stony to Pigeon, there's a lot of good water in there.

hey walleye,

we fisherman don't lie, we just can't remember the first story told so we repeat it- thanks for the link, i have to get my candian navionic's chip $124????