Bigfisherman
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Going to Conestogo lake this sunday, has anyone ever been there? any advice?
Conestogo Lake
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Bigfisherman
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idesign said:
I've googled it a few times, didn't find much, even searched some other forums...will find out tomorrow 8)
Fishing is available below the dam on the Conestogo River. This area has a large pool just below the dam wingwalls. It has a deep rocky bottom that gradually becomes shallow and narrows into a series of fast water runs and smaller deep pools. Large rocks are also scattered along the river course. The water levels in the river fluctuate frequently during early spring and summer due to flood control operations. When water levels are high, proper bait presentation is virtually impossible.
Brown Trout have been stocked since 2003, resulting in this area becoming a destination. The waters of the Conestogo are ideal for trout from the season opener on the 4th Saturday in April through to the middle of July. The cold water release from the bottom draw dam make the river suitable trout habitat for about 15 km downstream of the dam. A wide variety of fishing techniques are successful including various fly patterns, small spinners, plugs and live baits.
Anglers can access the trout fishery at the lower Conservation Area, Glen Allan, Macton Bridge and Hwy #86 Bridge just outside Wallenstein. These access locations have been developed in partnership with local landowners, Friends of the Grand River, MNR- Guelph District and the GRCA.
SMALLMOUTH BASS can be found in rock eddies and deeper pools that fast water flows into. Baits to use are worms, minnows, spinners, jigs, and small shallow running crank baits that imitate crayfish or insects. Don't forget to try some top water baits or even a live frog.
PIKE are the number one species in the river. Excellent catches are frequent in the spring, but catch and release must be practiced to sustain excellent fishing in the future. These fish are found mostly in the large pool at the dam but some show up in deep pools further down the river. Baits to use are dead minnow rigs or live minnows, silver spoons and minnow imitating baits.
Access
Brown Trout have been stocked since 2003, resulting in this area becoming a destination. The waters of the Conestogo are ideal for trout from the season opener on the 4th Saturday in April through to the middle of July. The cold water release from the bottom draw dam make the river suitable trout habitat for about 15 km downstream of the dam. A wide variety of fishing techniques are successful including various fly patterns, small spinners, plugs and live baits.
Anglers can access the trout fishery at the lower Conservation Area, Glen Allan, Macton Bridge and Hwy #86 Bridge just outside Wallenstein. These access locations have been developed in partnership with local landowners, Friends of the Grand River, MNR- Guelph District and the GRCA.
SMALLMOUTH BASS can be found in rock eddies and deeper pools that fast water flows into. Baits to use are worms, minnows, spinners, jigs, and small shallow running crank baits that imitate crayfish or insects. Don't forget to try some top water baits or even a live frog.
PIKE are the number one species in the river. Excellent catches are frequent in the spring, but catch and release must be practiced to sustain excellent fishing in the future. These fish are found mostly in the large pool at the dam but some show up in deep pools further down the river. Baits to use are dead minnow rigs or live minnows, silver spoons and minnow imitating baits.
Access
Bigfisherman
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Stay away from Conestogo Lake is DEAD.......
We got there at 6:30...its also a camp site so the park was open..no one launching(4 ramps!)..wierd, we are like this is awesome, lake looks so calm. travel down the first arm 5-6kms, hmmm no fishermen no one around fishing.....wierd. starting at what seemed a good spot tried everything tubes, wacky, xrap, spoons, mini-tubes. after a few hrs a decent size pike hits, boated it cool....4 hrs later and kms of coverage in what looked like excellent spots...nothing..we saw a few dead catfish here and there.
I was using my portable fish finder to check for weeds, fish, etc.....we decided to try closer to the launch to get ready to leave power boaters, skiers, seadoos, everywhere, a few rental boats and maybe 2 fishing boats are around now, I decided to take the fish finder off, handle got lose and it fell in the water, crap put the outboard in reverse, forgot it was tilted not locked, bam motor comes up, crap again, locked it reversed, fish finder sank
it looked like it was floating for a few seconds....motor stalls,I'm like hmmm, oh this is why fuel line got disconnected, nope fuel connecter(the one I waited 2 weeks for) snapped off on the outboard end when it lifted doh.
We went back to the launch on the trolling motor evading the power boaters the best we could, of course the wind picked up so it made it harder to travel roughly 2kms back to the launch. Got to the launch and crap tons of ppl the line up to launch & pick up boats was crazy they needed 2 conservations officers to control the process 1hr later, yes 1 hr later we where out of the water! Talk about being kicked in the nuts...............
We got there at 6:30...its also a camp site so the park was open..no one launching(4 ramps!)..wierd, we are like this is awesome, lake looks so calm. travel down the first arm 5-6kms, hmmm no fishermen no one around fishing.....wierd. starting at what seemed a good spot tried everything tubes, wacky, xrap, spoons, mini-tubes. after a few hrs a decent size pike hits, boated it cool....4 hrs later and kms of coverage in what looked like excellent spots...nothing..we saw a few dead catfish here and there.
I was using my portable fish finder to check for weeds, fish, etc.....we decided to try closer to the launch to get ready to leave power boaters, skiers, seadoos, everywhere, a few rental boats and maybe 2 fishing boats are around now, I decided to take the fish finder off, handle got lose and it fell in the water, crap put the outboard in reverse, forgot it was tilted not locked, bam motor comes up, crap again, locked it reversed, fish finder sank
it looked like it was floating for a few seconds....motor stalls,I'm like hmmm, oh this is why fuel line got disconnected, nope fuel connecter(the one I waited 2 weeks for) snapped off on the outboard end when it lifted doh.We went back to the launch on the trolling motor evading the power boaters the best we could, of course the wind picked up so it made it harder to travel roughly 2kms back to the launch. Got to the launch and crap tons of ppl the line up to launch & pick up boats was crazy they needed 2 conservations officers to control the process 1hr later, yes 1 hr later we where out of the water! Talk about being kicked in the nuts...............
David Kearney
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Well hell, that doesn`t sound like much fun...where`s the picture of the pike...so now you gotta buy a new fish finder. That sucks!
Bigfisherman
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David Kearney said:
Nope wasn't fun, except for the nice morning/day. I'm not getting another one till Sept-Oct or next year I had 2 good fishing trips where we caught some good fish without using it. No pic of the pike cause we thought we where going to catch a few more
Spinninreel
Piscicapturist
You figure with all the lakes we have in Ontario, this should never happen. Time to pick another lake out of the 399,000 out there.
ive been fishing there now for a couple of months, at first i thought the same thing, lake dead, but after some persistence and finding the right bait, i was able to catch pike and some nice walley. best bait ive found so far is a purple and yellow bushwacker. also best catch area ive found is about three quarters of the way up the left arm of the lake on the right hand side. i'm up there almost every weekend in a white bayliner bass boat.
hope you'll give it another try.
hope you'll give it another try.
Bigfisherman
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lobo said:
Thanks for the advice lobo, thats the first place we went about 3/4s up the left arm made the most sense from looking at the lake. I'm curious about the bushwacker lure who makes it? Is the water still good there or do does it go down cause of the dam? I have the grand river pass so I can try again but I doubt I will last time it was way too busy to pick the boat up from the launch. Is it always that busy? Also last time I was there(july 5th Ithink) I didn't see many ppl fishing which also made me think there isn't many fish.
bushwacker is the name, its a spinner bait one spoon as opposed to booh yah. canadian tire used to carry them, but it seems like not any more. ive tried one takle shop where i live in burlington same thing they dont have. i've got to find them some where, got a 32 incher on sunday, aug. 17 and it pretty much finished it off on me. if you find a store that carries them let me know. good luck next time your at the lake.
