Wolseley Lodge on the French River for bass opener...

[SiRz_rule]

Myself and a couple of buddies have booked the bass opening weekend at Wolseley Lodge on the French river. Anyone have any experience with this establishment? Any tips for fishing the French that time of year? All species welcome as we are pretty much a catch and release group unless we get a couple nice walleye for a shore lunch! Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Dozer]

My friends and I went near that area about 5 years ago on a 3 day canoe trip. Smallies and pike galore. Tubes did it for me. Also hooked into an unidentified fish that turned and towed the canoe for a bit until it broke off Lots of wildlife around, you will have a blast.

 

[Alfiegee]

Never stayed at Wolseley, but have fished that area many times. I've caught lots of nice Bass and Pike there though.
Get out a dawn or just before dark and toss some surface lures or popping bugs at some of the weed beds. Some of the most fun you will ever have fishing. You actually set your hook to the sound of the fish hitting. You hear it before you feel the bite.

Alfie.

 

[mikea07]

I stayed up at Wolesley Lodge for a couple of days last August.

It's a good place. Cabins are decent, the staff is really nice and the fishing was pretty good.

We hooked a few small pike, I got a small walleye and everything else was smallies. Nothing too big, I think that 2.5lbs was the biggest one we got but they weren't super active during our trip.

You should have better luck during the opener.

I also agree with Alfiegee, topwater action in the evening was a fun time.

 

[Pretts]

I was just there myself last weekend. Did not get even a bite in Wolseley Bay but caught a few bass and pike out into the channel. Was expecting better fishing. Not sure what we were doing wrong. Looking mainly for pickerel but since we were not catching any we went after bass and pike.
Tried the rapids. Looked like a promising spot but had no luck.
Not sure if I will head back as I expected to catch more fish from what I had been hearing.

 

[Dugger]

for the record, I fished Wolseley in the early 90s and the fishing was terrific for largemouths in the back bays and pickerel and pike. Five Finger Rapids gave up some beauty pickerel. Great area! Chaudiere Rapids has some fabulous smallmouth action and watched a sturgeon from a buff swim about a bit downriver... it was very cool.

 

[alwayscatching]

Ok I wish I could have gotten to this post before you stayed there. 2 Years ago I did a family trip there. I stayed in a cabin with no working electricity, bunk beds made by the lodge owners which were ready to break. The fishing right to the left where there is that bay with the small channel produced all of our fish when it came to pike/bass. The lodge owners were terrible hosts. They gave one of my family members a boat that had a slightly bent prop which they had told us about from day 1 and when we were leaving they tried to charge us for the prop... The german husband actually put a hand on my cousin who is a police officer when he said he refused to pay for something that was mentioned prior to being rented out. My father and I hired a guide for the waters to show us around and the guide used OUR boat and just brought us to a couple bays and in each bay the guy kept saying theres pike, pickerel, bass and sometimes musky in this bay. EVERY BAY WAS THE SAME! ahah. I did enjoy my time with my family as we are all very outgoing and friendly people. My father and I did meet a french man there who every morning was having coffee and was great for a convo. Unfortunately I do not remember his name but I do have his business card. He is very recognizable by his enormous gut. Also there were a couple of places my father and I located on our own that produced some great pike and my dad actually lost a tiger musky fishing for pickerel with a worm harness. Lots of bass in the deeper pools of water. Just need a fish finder and a good idea of what structures there were. 5 finger rapids was a great place to hook onto pickerel although be careful for the rocks as they come up fast on you.

I know this was a big rant but still tried to give as much info as possible for anyone else who may travel to the french river and decide they want to try this place out. I will try to find some pictures from our stay with some of the fish.

 

[Dugger]

...yikes! Huuuboy, eh. Lodge owners and camp owners come and go, good and bad, we all have nightmare stories or amazing trips we would recommend. Maybe a section for cottage/camp reviews would be a good idea.... come to think, maybe not... I can see the slander lawsuits piling up

ok, maybe a section for GOOD reviews lol

 

[alwayscatching]

...yikes! Huuuboy, eh. Lodge owners and camp owners come and go, good and bad, we all have nightmare stories or amazing trips we would recommend. Maybe a section for cottage/camp reviews would be a good idea.... come to think, maybe not... I can see the slander lawsuits piling up

ok, maybe a section for GOOD reviews lol

Aha well people have the right to share experiences with hotels/motels/lodges/camp grounds. I have had amazing times at different resorts all over Ontario as I love to fish every body of waters as much as I can. It is a shame I did have a bad experience at the french river considering we spent so much money to spend a week with family and the fish, but that being said I did have some great fish on the lines and we did see a lot of some beautiful nature. Countless deer and even got to be within 15 feet of a moose in the shallow water while I was top water fishing for some bass! I did have a camera but unfortunately my goof of a brother dropped it in the water while he was attempting to take a picture of my dad holding his first 9 pound pickerel!

 

[Dugger]

nice!!!!! silver lining on your trip..... and true on voicing our opinions... that said I find Travelocity and TripAdvisior are loaded with "stacked in-house" opinions and recommendations

weed thru the chafe

 

[alwayscatching]

nice!!!!! silver lining on your trip..... and true on voicing our opinions... that said I find Travelocity and TripAdvisior are loaded with "stacked in-house" opinions and recommendations

weed thru the chafe

AMEN! I like these forums because you can get peoples honest opinions and there is no hiding behind a guest user account ahah

 

[Alfiegee]

I remember one trip to the area. A friend, his 2 sons and I went up rented a boat and camped on crown land for a week. The Pike were very "athletic" to say the least. It seems we neglected to pack a net. First day, 3 Pike over 5 lbs came to the boat. We failed to land even one of them due to their athletics at the high jump while we tried to land them . Dam it I said, go back to the marina I'm buying a net. $40 later we had a net (it broke on the third day LOL).
Anyway, we got plenty of Bass and Pike and a few 'eyes during our week. As an added bonus we also landed 3 Bowfin, one of which was close to 20 lbs and broke my $40 net :lol: . One of my friends sons went into the bush our third night and created his own landing net from some branches and vines. It worked very well the rest of the week and cost much less than mine did. I for one have fond memories of the area.

Alfie.

 

[Dugger]

20 lb bowfin!!!! look out!!!

 

[Alfiegee]

:lol: I did say close to 20, but ya was a tackle buster and my dam net.

Alfie.

 

[alwayscatching]

That would have been nice to see! I heard they just dont stop moving. I am happy you had a great time on your trip, you were fortunate enough not to get stuck at this lodge ahha. PS they charge more than they should just because the tv show FishTv went and promoted it. Still the worst trip and the guys from FishTv are not even fun to watch. Everytime they catch a 2-3 lbs bass its usually a 5-6 lbs fish to them. Usually when they actually do catch big fish its because they pay a lot of money to go to places where not many people fish the lake lol.