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Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'm a fairly experienced hand at camping and canoeing, however I'm an awful fisherman. I enjoy the act of fishing, but I've never been successful at the catching aspect.
My friend was a great fisherman, however he has subsequently passed away and I'm now taking his son and my son to AP fishing, with last year being our first pure fishing trip. No longer are they canoeing trips, but the focus seems to be fishing.
We had fun fishing Ralph Bice and Little Trout, however we didn't have much luck beyond a single glorious fish. We will be heading up the first week of May again and I'm hoping that someone can pass along some wisdom regarding lake or brook trout fishing, lakes around the Access Point #3 or any wisdom that they can pass along would be helpful. The boys enjoyed themselves, however I would like to have more success in the catching department, if possible.
Thank you in advance for your time.
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Sent you a PM
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General guidelines for spring trout:
Lake Trout
- Trolling with spoons, Rapala's or even spinners
- Closely follow the shoreline. The fish will be relatively shallow, taking advantage of the cold waters to forage for food that would be out of their reach in the summer when the water is warmer
- first week of May I would target roughly 12-14' depths but that can vary but I wouldn't expect to have to go lower than about 20' at that time of year
- normal stuff like looking for structure (ie: rocks, ups and downs, sunken trees) applies as fish like to hide out where there are places to hide
- I have a list of some favourite lures here:
Brook Trout:
- more common in streams and pools
- if fishing a stream, toss a spinner down stream and reel back upstream towards you (Yes it took me far too long to learn that 
but you lose a lot less lures once you figure it out. )
- personally worms are my go-to bait for Brookies both because they tend to work and because it's a lot less expensive to lose a single hook and part of worm than those nice expensive lures
- can also have success drifting along the shore and casting into shore around fallen logs, etc.
We had a couple nice fish in Ralph Bice, but it wasn't the most productive place we fished. I do have a trip report on that area here:
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Hi Cullie,
If catching some additional fish to keep younger fisherman interested and motivated is your goal my advice is try trolling. Troll when heading to your campsite. Troll when switching campsites. Troll when checking out a distant portage or beach. Troll everywhere you go. You will be surprised at how many incidental trout you can pick up just heading from A to B even in the middle of the day at good speeds. You generally cover a lot of ground with your line in the water which increases your odds of connecting even if you are not in the exact prime areas / not using the optimal presentation.
I would suggest using rapala style lures and spoons (use a swivel to avoid line twist). Double your chances and have two rods (assuming you have 2+ people per canoe). Try to be different between the two rods (one spoon / one rapala / one bright / one natural / one deeper / one shallow / etc). When you do catch a trout or two think of where and how you caught them, what on and then try to replicate it until it stops working. The other bonus is that when trolling fish bite and are generally hooked by the momentum of the canoe. No setting the hook, no nibbles...
Casting is very effective if you can select the prime spots and present baits at the proper depths / speeds. It also fun so to do at camp, the base of rapids and in good areas in the morning / evening prime times.
Hope this helps. Feel free PM me if you would like any more specifics. Good luck and have fun.
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Maybe tell us more about when and how you were targeting trout last time? Within a short to medium day's paddle of access point 3 I don't think there are clearly better lakes than the ones you were at (though I'd appreciate a PM if anyone knows I was wrong!) but the Petawawa and Tim Rivers would offer stream brookies, especially at the base of waterfalls and the like.
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All good guidance here. I will add my two cents as well...
First, spend a few bucks to buy the little gem of a book called "Volume 1: The Chars" by Stephen Molson (I've pasted the link below). The insights that Stephen offers are so valuable in their breadth, scope and organization. For someone like yourself you will find it indispensable. You will learn to look at the topography and utilize many features to your advantage as opposed to blindly casting with a hook and hope.
Hit as many streams/rivers as possible. If you're going to be around access point #3, make a full day of hitting the Petawawa River between Daisy and Little Misty. Hit each deep pool (that means quietly approach and pull the canoe off to the side and make multiple casts with different lures/worms into the pool for ten minutes or so), fish each area where a smaller cool stream meets the river and every portage. The portages can be the most productive...walk the shoreline and cast into the current around big rocks, logs, anywhere. We've had great luck with the very tiny tube jigs (the kind for panfish) on a 1/8 ounce jig head in streams like that. You won't catch any monsters, but you will improve your chances of catching many smaller fish - and that's the sort of thing that keeps kids (assuming they are young, but they may be in their 30's!!) engaged.
And like JonP said...troll everywhere. Rapalas have been best for us trolling - silver/black, gold/black, perch, etc. The X-rap goes a little deeper, floaters stay more shallow - adjust with weights if needed.
good luck!
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Wow, thank you for the incredible feedback, guidance and PMs.
For the benefit of others that have asked, three people in a canoe with the boys turning 15, both boys are great kids. Typically I paddled and the boys would cast from the canoe while I did the work, I have an office job and my wife says the excercise is good for me.
I tried trolling, however it has become clear to me that I was doing this poorly. I'll check my trolling depth, route and the line distance behind the canoe. Another issue may be noise, as the boys aren't always quiet in a giant Grumman canoe which tends to boom when a rod is banged anywhere.
I'll verify the lures that I have and take a look at your suggestions, thank you. The techniques are very valuable and leveraging experience is great, like where to troll, depth, lures or casting down river.
I've reached out to Molson Mapping, thank you. It looks like he has some great data and was planning to map lakes that I would be very interested in.
I read a comment about worms, is this something that is counted in the live bait restriction or is this restriction meant to prevent invasive fish species?
Thank you again for all of your help, I'm not sure you understand how important this is, but this will help a young man a lot.
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Yes - the ban is on live bait FISH. It is, as you say, aimed at keeping invasive fishes out, rather than the full organic bait bans in some catch-and-release areas that are meant to prevent deep hooking. Worms are legal in Algonquin (and work well for brookies) as are salted minnows (which work well on lakers).
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DanPM wrote:
Yes - the ban is on live bait FISH. It is, as you say, aimed at keeping invasive fishes out, rather than the full organic bait bans in some catch-and-release areas that are meant to prevent deep hooking. Worms are legal in Algonquin (and work well for brookies) as are salted minnows (which work well on lakers).
Thank you, I'll take a look at salted minnows.
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Yep, worms are a good tip. I like to find a campsite where there is a good dropoff and put out worms with bobbers. Would be better with salted minnows or a gulp alive minnow on a jighead if there are lakers present. Use circle hooks if you're practicing catch and release.
Otherwise, Rob's tip of casting spinners downstream is bang on. Trolling spinners, spoons and rapalas/other hard diving baits is always effective as well although they are quite pricy.
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Cullie, a few specific tips for trolling:
1. with multiple poles, have them all roughly the same distance out (you wouldn't want one to be 20 meters and another 60 meters) as they won't trail behind the canoe the same around corners and may tangle
2. Get them out pretty far. I would get the canoe moving in a direction (say north, for example) and then have one cast southeast as far as he can and the other cast southwest as far as he can. After a minute or so the lures have fallen behind the canoe in trolling position, have them let out additional line so that they both might be 40-60 meters out.
3. Second option for getting the lures out would be to just dip them in the water and slowly let line out until they are an adequate distance. The only difference is that this way you will be sure the lure is not tangled. Many lures have an "action" that can be felt through the rod to confirm the lure isn't tangled but it becomes more difficult to tell it there is a lot of line out since the stretchiness of the line dampens the movement before it reaches the pole.
4. If you get a hit but it's not hooked, try a few sharp jerks to make the lure bounce and then just open the bail for a couple seconds to let the lure stop...it might entice a second hit when you close the bail and continue the troll.
5. Start with one lure that is about 3-8 feet deep at the troll and another that runs 8-15 feet deep - this way you'll be covering your options on how deep the fish might be feeding. Early in May the trout will be anywhere from feeding on the surface to 20 feet deep but as the water warms through May into June they won't come quite as shallow quite as frequently.
6. Look for structure - fallen trees in the water, rocky shoals, islands, points that continue into the depths; all of those are areas where forage/baitfish will be located and the trout naturally follow. Troll/cast in vicinity of those to up your odds.
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Yes - the ban is on live bait FISH. It is, as you say, aimed at keeping invasive fishes out, rather than the full organic bait bans in some catch-and-release areas that are meant to prevent deep hooking. Worms are legal in Algonquin (and work well for brookies) as are salted minnows (which work well on lakers).
Thank you, I'll take a look at salted minnows.
I always spend some time minnow/chub fishing the week before I go into the park. Nothing beats a chunk of sucker//chub/minnow meat to tip your hook with. Just pack em in a container with pickling salt.
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