Hey Lads,
I'm looking to get input on fishing Timmins area for northerns and lakers.
A relative has a fly in camp up there and there are a few lakes around with nearly zero fishing pressure. One of the lakes is roughly 4km long, 1km at the widest part and averages about .5km wide. There is little swampy stuff (very few pads, some grass) but for the most part it's a big hole with depths 30' immediately dropping off shore (big boulders down the sides) and 60-100' in the middle.
My Dad is an avid fisherman and unfortunately we don't get out much, so this year we are making a point to get in there this August and I want to get a good plan together to make it as memorable as possible.
I have been in before and have spent a total of 4 days on that particular lake, camping so fishing all day and 1hr after dark. It is prestine clear water with tons and tons of big minnows that are happy to clean off your dishes at the end of the day. In that timeframe we caught a 39" northern that was over 20lbs (absolute pig that was as big around as my thigh) and a 10lb laker in the pouring rain in the early afternoon, and aside from that we were rewarded with one small pike and several lunker sightings.
The lads in the camp pull one or two 40" + northerns out of there every year (not much else) and one or two small (10-12") lakers but overall it hasn't produced numbers for us.
I would really love to put the old man on a monster and am wondering whether you guys have any advice as to how to go about increasing the productivity of the lake for us.
Being a fly in we have a couple hardy freighter canoes but it's all paddling. I may be able to get a small propane motor in there but it'd be hard so specifically canoe fishing tips would be helpful.
I have hit all the shallow water with weedless frogs, jitterbugs, jigs and spooks, always miss a good fish at one of the shallower channels in the lake.
The two big ones caught were both on deep cranks, pike on rapala deep tail dancer and laker on a 12-15' no name crayfish.
We have virtually no tech up there - I can bring my handheld "fishn' buddy" cheap fishfinder but I have no way to map out the thermocline to find the lakers. Any advice there for doing it an old fashioned way? Maybe a thermometer on a rope? Don't know.
Historically we've mainly fished with willys wobblers, red devils, big deep cranks and some jigs (pulling up the two small trout) but not much else. I ran a few 3 way swivels with a weight as well but got tangled in some weeds and couldn't feel it tangle up very well due to the weight.
THE PLAN:
I would like to get a lift-style minnow net and start using those. I was thinking a detachable downrigger or cannonball setup to try to get down deep to where the fish are as i'm thinking even the 30' cranks aren't cutting it.
Is it worth just blindly drifting down the lake jigging down at the bottom? I have no way to locate fish with tech and can't anchor out there so I haven't tried it.
Is it worth targeting lakers in August?
Sorry for the long winded rant guys - just trying to give out as much detail as possible. All advice is appreciated.
Fish on!
