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Tried a new lake none of us had ever been to before. I was already taking heat for this new destination idea, as we normally do really well for small lakers on our usual route/lakes. I said don’t worry, I’ve been researching things, there’s perch and cisco in this lake, so we’re gonna get for sure fewer, but no doubt some bigger lake trout. We were gonna sacrifice high numbers for some better size fish…
This trip was roughly 4 hours or so portaging and paddling from the truck. Pretty easy trails really, paddling was of course into a headwind the entire way. Peaceful lake, just two campsites on it and no one showed up for our 4 days there so it was very quiet. The longest I’ve gone without seeing other humans for quite some time.
Four of us fished all afternoon and evening, finally cousin gets a decent fish on, I happen to be nearby in my canoe and paddle over as they net it, about a 6lb laker. Nice! A sign of life….ok, so there ARE lakers here, and decent size, now let’s get some numbers. No more fish the first day.
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Second day, same guy, same lure, he just left our campsite after morning coffee, right out front of the site, casts out, starts trolling. Within 3 or 4 minutes, fish on! I was already out fishing and again happened to be nearby so was able to paddle over and get a photo - wow! This fish is closer to maybe 8lbs! Did we find a gem of a lake here or what!?
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No more fish the second day.
Third day, portages into another lake, potentially for specks. Found zero. Notta. No bites nothing. 4 of us. Back to our home lake, fished around all afternoon, nothin.
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Just before dinner time, same guy, same lure, gets another on….we were joking that they keep getting bigger. Again, nearby, I paddled over just as the fish took a drag screaming run. Woah! Finally they net it and it IS even bigger. Around 12 lb we guessed. Didn’t measure this one, but was longer and thicker than the last one
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We tried trolling shallow, mid, deep, with small, med, large baits, jigging all depths with gulp minnows, herring pieces, perch tails, gulp minnows. Trolled with steel line at all depths, just couldn’t find any more fish. Makes for a frustrating time when we’re used to catching dozens and dozens on our usual trips.
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Final morning sunrise…we fished our way out, but came home empty handed. 3 lakers were released to grow bigger, as they were just too big to do our “lake trout helper” meal, or an extra snack. We don’t plan meals around fish when going to new lakes, so had enough to eat anyhow. Frustrating but interesting trip all the same.
My guess is the lake is almost fished out, and there are very few lakers remaining/struggling to reproduce. How do you only catch fish of those sizes, and no small ones. None hooked and lost, no hits, or misses, just dead zone nothing. We fished hard, for many hours and are by no means inexperienced trout fishermen/woman in The park.
One for the books I guess. I wasn’t wrong about less numbers, but nicer sized lake trout - but I never would have guessed just three fish totalling 26 lbs.
Also, officially my first (and last) fishless spring Algonquin trip.
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Great pictures, just beautiful out there. Big beautiful fish. Too bad about the catch numbers. I hope you all still had fun up there. Nice to have the lake to yourself.
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HEY Andrew nice report. Looks like a great trip, something i always wanted to do but me and canoes dont get along usually end up getting wet.Some nice lakers there too bad about the numbers but better than a 0. The numbers will come when you head to our favorite campsite this year lol .Might not make it up there this year, gonna try something different this summer gonna head further north to camp.
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Very nice fish for the few that were caught. Nothing ventured, nothing gained(I just made that up). I can't recall that guy's name but I never forget a face! (add grins or groans as appropriate)
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Good on you for exploring. I took a hiatus on fishing during my college years any got back into it once reunited with an old friend passionate about fishing. We spent years fishing lakes that I've fished when I was a kid, but were no longer good or "fished out". Skunk upon skunk. We started trying new lakes, researching, exploring. Now we have a bunch of new spots where getting skunked is a thing of the past. Adapt or get skunked I guess.
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This year’s Algonquin trip, New lake/crazy results
