Best Walleye Lake and Why

[Walleye Wanna Catch]

Four of us who have never been to Canada want to go next year. We would like to go to Ontario. Please give us some Lakes and Lodges that you think would please our urge to catch Walleye.

[rtmg]

Gee, thats a pretty broad question. What part of Ontario are you looking at going to ? It's a pretty big chunk o'land. How far do you want to drive ? or fly ? walk ? Narrow what region you want to go to first.... THEN the replies shall arrive !


Good Fishen
Rob

[retire55]

Walleye Wanna Catch:

If you would prefer northwestern Ontario, perhaps you would benefit by a visit to http://www.justfishontario.com/
Scroll down to Trip Finder and fill in the blank questionaire. Once you get some replies, done your due diligence and selected a few possibilities, you could always ask for evaluations of your selections.

As rtmg stated, without more details, its difficult to provide info.

[phish]

you lookin' for a drive-in lodge? drive to anywhere on lac seul. you lookin' for a fly-in outpost? click search on this site, enter "bow lake albany" and check out my trip report and threads from this past summer's trip. there's lots of options in between also. - phish

[Walleye Wanna Catch]

We all live in the midwest and would like to go north of Int Falls. We are thinking of a drive in and would like to stay within 300 miles of the border and keep our trip under $800 per man.

Seems that there are a lot of posts telling about how great Lac Seul is. Could any of you tell us more about what Resort you favor on Lac Seul and why.

[2 DOGS]

Golden Eagle Resort, I spend 3 months there each summer and Evergreen Lodge. Why? Good cabins and excellant boats and motors plus close to Ear Falls (1 mile). Good package plans. Great fishing!

[Walleye Wanna Catch]

2 dogs, Thanks for the info on Golden eagle Lodge. I have requested more info from them and enjoyed visiting their website.

[Fishing Boy Jethro]

Given your criteria I would try Caribou Falls Lodge or Kcr camp on Tetu and the English River. Why lots of fish some nice sized ones, and all you need are alot of jigs. For first timers in Canada you can not go wrong.

[Gary_IA]

If you read the the Canada Message Board over a period of time, I think you will find many favor Lac Seul. The search engine for justfishontario.com should be a good place to gather information. I believe Ontario is larger than Texas, so it is hard to know what to suggest as far as a location or lodge. Another good source for info is www.allcanada.com Within that website click on travel information and check out the sources there. I like the resource for the "Patricia Region". You can go to www.freemap.ca That link has built in filters for various sorts for kinds of resorts that you may like. You will get immediate feedback from your search instead of waiting for resort operators to contact you.

Hope you find a nice resort and great fishing.

Gary_IA

[bigfish1965]

The biggest fish are in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario with the best chance for a MONSTER being Lake Ontario,( Bay of Quinte).

[Max]

All:
Next year is my 1st trip to Canada and we chose Lake of the Woods. It sounds like a great multi-species lake and lots of room to spread out. Sounds like Lac Seul is better? Can anyone give their opinions as to why they feel this way.

[Wooglin]

This is a great discussion.

Last year was my first trip to Canada and we wanted to nail the walleye, northern, smallies and maybe some muskie. We chose Lac Seul over LOTW for several reasons. We actually booked, and cancelled, a trip to LOTW because we were misdirected. We have 14 and 16 foot boats, which do you no good on the South/Southwest side of LOTW. Unless you have a charter-type boat, you better be up in the islands...otherwise its capsize for you.

Lac Seul (and Lake Vermillion - for Muskie and Smallies) was great. Our little boats with 25 and 40 hp motors worked fine. There wasn't a day we didn't max out, we probably caught 50-75 fish each day. And yes, we were the guys who got up around 9:00, began fishing at 11:00 and was home by 7:00 to cook dinner.

Its a toss up, either place, I am sure you'll enjoy it and catch a lot of fish. I think LOTW may have more fisherman on it, but there were days on Lac Seul where I'd see maybe 3 boats all day. I like Lac Seul.

Good luck with your trip, you'll love it.


>All:
>Next year is my 1st trip to Canada and we chose Lake of the
>Woods. It sounds like a great multi-species lake and lots of
>room to spread out. Sounds like Lac Seul is better? Can anyone
>give their opinions as to why they feel this way.

[Max]

>This is a great discussion.
>
>Last year was my first trip to Canada and we wanted to nail
>the walleye, northern, smallies and maybe some muskie. We
>chose Lac Seul over LOTW for several reasons. We actually
>booked, and cancelled, a trip to LOTW because we were
>misdirected. We have 14 and 16 foot boats, which do you no
>good on the South/Southwest side of LOTW. Unless you have a
>charter-type boat, you better be up in the islands...otherwise
>its capsize for you.
>
>Lac Seul (and Lake Vermillion - for Muskie and Smallies) was
>great. Our little boats with 25 and 40 hp motors worked fine.
> There wasn't a day we didn't max out, we probably caught
>50-75 fish each day. And yes, we were the guys who got up
>around 9:00, began fishing at 11:00 and was home by 7:00 to
>cook dinner.
>
>Its a toss up, either place, I am sure you'll enjoy it and
>catch a lot of fish. I think LOTW may have more fisherman on
>it, but there were days on Lac Seul where I'd see maybe 3
>boats all day. I like Lac Seul.
>
>Good luck with your trip, you'll love it.
>
>
>>All:
>>Next year is my 1st trip to Canada and we chose Lake of the
>>Woods. It sounds like a great multi-species lake and lots of
>>room to spread out. Sounds like Lac Seul is better? Can
>anyone
>>give their opinions as to why they feel this way.
>

Wooglin:
We are staying near Nestor Falls and have 17' Ranger so I hope the weather is not too much of an issue. Maybe we will look into Lac Seul the following year. Did you find the fishing fairly easy for a beginner(like us)or do you have much "up north" fishing experience. Great Thread.

[Wooglin]

I am not really familiar with that area, however, a 17 foot Ranger will do you fine (my guess), well lets put it this way, it will be better than a 14 foot three-seater with a 25 hp motor. But, we still did alright. Just bring spare parts just in case you break a pin (like us) or something disconnects from your motor internally (like us).

Anyway, we are not even close to being pros., we didn't jig much at all and didn't have to, we basically trolled lindy rigs off the bottom as well as crank baits. That was nailing the walleye and northern. My buddies had good luck with smallies and we got one Muskie to surface on Lake Vermillion, which was a huge treat.

Nightcrawlers were all we used. We brought a flat of 500 with us, which lasted all 5 days for 4 guys. We brought salted minnows, but tossed them after 2 days because they weren't catching anything...

Good luck!

[Max]

>I am not really familiar with that area, however, a 17 foot
>Ranger will do you fine (my guess), well lets put it this way,
>it will be better than a 14 foot three-seater with a 25 hp
>motor. But, we still did alright. Just bring spare parts
>just in case you break a pin (like us) or something
>disconnects from your motor internally (like us).
>
>Anyway, we are not even close to being pros., we didn't jig
>much at all and didn't have to, we basically trolled lindy
>rigs off the bottom as well as crank baits. That was nailing
>the walleye and northern. My buddies had good luck with
>smallies and we got one Muskie to surface on Lake Vermillion,
>which was a huge treat.
>
>Nightcrawlers were all we used. We brought a flat of 500 with
>us, which lasted all 5 days for 4 guys. We brought salted
>minnows, but tossed them after 2 days because they weren't
>catching anything...
>
>Good luck!

Wooglin:
can you answer a question for me concerning crankbaits. You said you were trolling them. Did you use weighted line or weight or simply troll the bait behind the boat? Do you mind saying what size lindy rigs you trolled. thx,Max

[Walleye Wanna Catch]

Thanks to everybody for all the information . It has helped us make our decision. We have decided to go to Lac Seul. We have requested information form 6 Lodges and are in hopes that we can get some dates that will work for our group.

We choose Lac Seul because it sounds like the fishing is awesome and the outfitters all seem to have good fishing close to their camps. All the outfitters we looked at look top notch and I have called for references on several and they have all been good.

Thanks again for all the input.

[Max]

Walleye:
Good Luck. I sure you'll do well. It's pretty neat looking at all the websites/literature. Max

[Wooglin]

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

The cranks we were pulling, mainly perch in color, anywhere from 4 inch in size on up (no weighted line - usually 10 pound test with a leeder). The bigger you pull, generally the bigger the fish you catch. Deep divers (10-16) feet seemed to produce the best fish. But of course, if your in shallow water, you'll want shallow cranks. Also, the types that worked best were perch color, dark on top - light on bottom, and I personally had great luck with crayfish painted rattlers. Northern were killing those.

As for lindys, we used 1/2 oz. sinkers to drop them on the bottom, and I think they were about 36 inches in lenght. This is what we caught most of our walleys on. Be sure to use stinger hooks....that helps catch the fish.

Good luck on your trips, Lac Seul is a great place!

PS, if you are looking to save cash, bring all your batteries, gas and phone cards from the US. I know that might piss off some Canadians, but why pay $3.50 a gallon, when you can pay $1.50? Why pay $10.00 for four batteries, when you can pay $4.00?

Bring a GPS, compass and walkie talkies....

[Wowser]

Be sure and bring all your groceries, eat fish at least twice a day and take home full limits. Bring nightcrawlers cause they're alot cheaper than the minnows at the camp. Then you wonder why they don't like the "cheap" Americans. Granted money doesn't grow on trees but those folks have to make a living too.

[Wooglin]

Like I said, I might piss off some Canadians...but, oh well.

At least I save enough money to drop $40 a case for Labatts Blue.

Life goes on.

>Be sure and bring all your groceries, eat fish at least twice
>a day and take home full limits. Bring nightcrawlers cause
>they're alot cheaper than the minnows at the camp. Then you
>wonder why they don't like the "cheap" Americans. Granted
>money doesn't grow on trees but those folks have to make a
>living too.