Plenty of good fishing on Ontario’s Sturgeon Lake
The drag started whining the instant I set the hook. A good 20 yard run. A short fight ensued. I pulled the pike into the net and Josh closed the deal.
Surprised at netting the fish so quickly after that initial run, I knew this pike fell into the slot size that required releasing. It measured close to 28-inches. A couple quick pictures and back into the water. A great way to close a fabulous week of fishing.
A year and a half ago my better half struck up a conversation with a guy in a booth at a sports show for Canadian resorts. After several shows and many resorts, we booked a trip with them.
They offered what we both wanted. She wanted good fishing and relaxation. I wanted some adventure but I didn’t feel like sleeping on the ground either. I wanted to avoid rocks – a buddy just wrecked his lower unit on a lake he fished for 14 years the first day of his trip. I wanted to avoid that.
“I provide you with a Garmin with my tracks on it, or I’ll download my tracks to your Garmin, so you don’t hit any rocks,” Bob Snider the camp owner told me. “And I’ll point you in the direction of some good spots to start fishing.” They checked all the boxes.
“I came up last year to hunt bear,” one successful fisherman told me while we cleaned our fish. “I took a boat out in between hunts and couldn’t believe the fishing. When I got home from the bear hunt my daughter said she wanted to come up fishing and here we are.” He filleted out a couple lake trout his daughter caught that morning. They planned to grill the trout. Oh, and the bear he harvested weighed over 400 lbs.
“I’m not like the guys that want to catch big walleye and pike,” a Wisconsin angler told me. “I like to catch a lot of fish. so, I fish the remote lakes. But I started out fishing Sturgeon and switched to the remote lakes Bob offers.”
“We’re the opposite,” a Minnesota angler told me. “My husband started coming up for the remote trophy lakes. But we found that fishing Sturgeon Lake gives us more fish and big fish. ”
Only one morning ended with pretty slow action. We headed back to camp for lunch and a short nap. That evening we found the action hot and heavy. We all caught plenty of fish and kept plenty of nice sized walleye and a 26-inch pike. “That’s why we don’t keep pike,” one guy told me while I filleted out the Y bones. “I don’t like dealing with the bones.” He and another guy from his group were cleaning a cooler full of lake trout from their guided lake trout outing that Bob provides. Six anglers all caught their limit. Lake trout might be my favorite, but a well filleted out northern on the grill basted with the right sauce; that goes over pretty good too. After the first evening of fishing that produced three meals of fish, I put a minimum limit on our boat of 15-inches for walleye. And Josh made it known that he didn’t like watching a fish a quarter-inch under that go back into the lake. “Well, then catch one a quarter-inch bigger,” I told him. “Look another seaplane is landing.” “I just keep thinking how good he’d taste,” he dejectedly replied. A couple times a small fish took the hook deep, so I filleted out a few 12 to 13-inch walleye.
“But those are the ones that will taste the best,” Bob told me.
Bob and Rhoda Snider purchased Trappers Point Camp in 2014 after many years of Bob fishing three to four weeks a year from the camp. They work from before sunup to well after sunset to provide their guests the best fishing experience they can offer. They also work tirelessly with several of their family members, making constant improvements to the camp.
But the best part, when Bob sent me the address to send the deposit, it had a Stratford address. It’s like fishing with your neighbor. The decision to book again for next year came early in the week.
A fly-in outfitter’s sits a few miles from Trappers Point Camp – the fishing comes with an airshow. You can check them out at www.TrappersPointCamp.com.
Tight lines everyone!
THROUGH A
