About Canada

bowriter · May 23, 2011

I have been fortunate enough to get to fish many of the top Canadian smallmouth waters. Some are just as good as they say if you like 100, 2.5 pounders a day. In New Brunswick, I caught a few in the 4-5 pound range. But believe it or not, it gets boring when you know what you are going to catch the minute it hits or maybe even the minute you cast. Rainey Lake can be that way.

I want to at least have the expectation of catching a big fish. When I set the hook, I want to be surprised. That is why I have never regarded any of the Canadian waters as my top favorites. Fun...sure, you bet. But a day or maybe a day and a half is about all of it I want.

For that reason, when somebody asks me where they can go for some good smallmouth fishing, I never mention Canada. New River in West VA is closer and cheaper and just as good. Right now, if money and travel don't matter, I'd say a three-day guided trip on Lake Erie would be close to the top.

As for me, I'd either be at the Hill or the Holler. 15 years ago, maybe 20, I would have kept it a secret but I would be on either the Smith Fork or that river that runs out from under the dam at Central Hill. I forget the name. We kept it a pretty good secret, always claimed we were trout fishing but that river had some huge smallmouth in it if you knew just where and how many gens it took. And spots! Why hush my mouth at the 2-3# spots we nailed floating Rapalas. Doesn't happen anymore.

Not a bad creek fish from the Smith. Ewww them was some good days. I reckon this was 25 years ago.

RUGER · May 23, 2011

Tennessee Todd · May 25, 2011

That's a nice fish, but that dude could give BSK a run for his money in the "bad lid" contest.....

Headhunter · May 26, 2011

I have personally caught the 100 smallmouth per day in canada more times than I can count. Never seen them average 2-1/2 lbs though (with the exception of our last trip), more like 1-1/2 with some days or parts of days that we caught better sized fish. The Manitou river (we have sat over schools of smallmouth in the Manitou and could not believe how many 4 and 5 lb fish were suspended in a school and like to of never figured out how to catch the suspended smallmouth, but when we finally dropped live crawfish down we could get a few to bite and they were all 4 to 5 lbs each) and Essox lake (my personal best day ever on smallmouth I had 5 fish that were over 25 lbs on Essox Lake on a buzzbait, the limit at that time was 6 but I could only get a 4 lb'er for the 6th one) are probably my favorites, but since you have to be with a guide now (last time we went you did) in order to "backcountry" camp in those areas, we decided to fish Rainy Lake.

My dad has fished Rainy since 1970, it was my brother and myself first time on Rainy. We got there on July 1 just a few years ago. The owner of Labelles Birch Point camp said they had 6 inches of snow the week before we got there. Each of us averaged 50 or so smallmouth every day with one day we lost count, but one of our better trips because our average fish was over 3 lbs and we caught a ridiculous amount of 4 to 4-1/2 lbs smallmouth. I prefer to eat a 12" or so bass, but most days I had to clean a couple of 3 lb fish. We only kill the couple fish we eat each day and let everything else go. Our best fish was under 5, but the trip was still awesome even though the number of fish per day was lower than normal.

I agree there is great fishing here, but not many places here that compares in many other ways to Canada. We saw 2 other boats the whole time we were there and only saw them once. We watched bald eagles (at close range) all day everyday, we saw many bears, flocks of pelicans, and my favorite, got to listen to the loons and they talked more than normal. We lost count of how many pike we caught on topwater baits with largest fish being over 20 lbs. Not monster pike but fun to catch. If you like to fish, especially where you will basically not see anyone else fishing and especially for smallmouth, there is nowhere like Canada.

We are going back this year in July.

Winchester · May 26, 2011

I hear ya HH. We used to go to 'Lac Suel' in Ontario every year for the first week of July. The smallmouth fishing there was just average for Canada at maybe 50 a day, but the Walleye and Northern Pike fishing was Phenomenal. We would start early and catch our Eyes for the fire and cooler, then it was on to having fun catching the Pike and Bass with an occasional Musky to boot. We caught an untold # of Pike on Spinnerbaits and Zara Spooks with the best ones not breaking much over 25 lbs. I will agree its some serious solitude as we would take the Houseboat 8 hrs out on the first day and then just move around and fish from our smaller boats all week, rarely ever seeing more than maybe 1 boat a day at worst. Between the bears and the Moose, Bald eagles and loons, its an awesome trip! Also got to see the Northern lights a couple times, which is something else! I plan to take my boys back up there in the near future if everything goes well!