FISHING REPORT...GEORGIAN BAY..POINTE AU BARIL

[RANGER]

A number of you folks asked me to report on my trip to Georgian Bay, Ontario. Well, in a word - LOUSEY!

The resort we stayed at, Pleasant Cove in Pointe Au Baril, was really nice...the fishing stunk and we had nearly PERFECT Walleye weather. We used everything...drifting worms/minnows; trolling..d*** near everything in my boxes, day, night, morning;...all depths; cranking...again, everything I had with me;..bobbers;..you name it! And caught 11 small perch, 4 Northerns (one was 25"), and a couple of undersized smallies...and that was IT, not a single 'Eye! We fished Saturday afternoon thru Wednesday evening. Thursday we packed and left even though we were booked to Saturday...That's how discouraged we were!!!

Starting Sunday afternoon we teamed up with several other groups and established strategies for attacking this whole area (I had Ontario Hydrographic/Navigational maps with me), sending different teams to different places to try to get on the fish - NOTHING! No one was doing any good, no one! I personally put 182 miles on my boat running around trying to find fish. My boat partner and I even ran out to the "BIG WATER" of Georgian Bay proper, outside of the 30 thousands islands, still nothing. I have NEVER been skunked like this!! Couldn't even get "junk" fish!!

The BIG thing we noticed, during this whole maylay - NO BAIT FISH!!! We would cross over VERY small packs of them, here and there, but all-in-all there wasn't any. The only place I hit them was in the "BIG WATER" and that was very limited, too.

A "BUMMER" OF A TRIP!!!

By the way - during my 182 mile sojourn - NOT ONE SINGLE NET, GILL OR OTHERWISE!!

RANGER

"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD"!

[Fuzzy]

The Bay has been in a bad way for about a decade. The OMNR can't fix it either. So long to the 16 lb eyes and monster pike and muskie.

[RANGER]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-30-00 AT 02:28PM (CST)[p]This trip was sooooo... disappointing! Do you know why the Bay declined so badly and why the MNR can't fix it? I'm curious because that was some BEAUtiful water and structure. Anything a fisherperson could want, structure wise, was there!!

Come to think of it... there were an awful lot of boarded-up summer homes there. I thought that it was still early in the year but... maybe not!

RANGER

[Tyee]

I agree with your comments that although this area
looks great and should be fantasic fishing, it has
not produced any decent results the last three
times I have fished it.

Have been up over the last three summers, all in
June and been told I was "accouple" weeks too
late each time !

If there is decent fishing in the greater Pointe Au'Baril area, it is in early spring or late fall
(according to locals I talked with).

Like these earlier posts, I and several friends
hit the islands, shoals, deep basins etc with live bait, hard baits, soft baits, etc, etc....and other than a few fish (one decent pike), it was very poor fishing. Seems the best days were years ago.

So I've gone to other lodges and been glad I've
done so, other than the Georgian Bay is a beautiful area and a shame that it's not a better
fishery.

[brw]

Ranger:
I agree in part w/ your comments. I have fished the bay for close to 30 years now and it's a mixed bag.i've gone to the Georgian Bay Fishing Camp near the mouth of the French River/ Bustard islands,and until recently,the only way to catch hawg eyes was to troll w/ rapalas at night. In recent years, we've had some great success w/ worm harnesses in the daytime,but it's been feast(90 in 1.5 days) or famine. It's a tough body of water to fish b/c there's so much ##### structure that it almost paralyzes you. So many variables,mainly water temp, which is driven by how late ice goes out, come in to play. it's funny you mention the lack of baitfish; we've had the opposite problem. Once the alewives move in(seems like about 58 degrees is the magical temp),it's tough to compete w/ them b/c they move in by the thousands, and the eyes gorge on them. The good news is that the walleye we catch are usually huge, which leads me to believe ther are smaller classes out there.
There is a 15-25 inch slot limit in the French River delta, which includes our camp, which may help populations there. but I agree it can be a tough body of water to fish. But it's beauty is in my blood, so I put up w/ occasionally getting skunked.I know 2 things when I go there; I have a good chance for a 10 lb'er, and it still beats work! Dont give up on it too soon.