A Guide’s Kawartha Primer

With 410,000 bodies of water in Ontario how do you narrow down which lake to fish this weekend?  Consider easy access, availability to tackle shops, great boat launches and shoreline fishing opportunities that are less than an hour drive from major urban centers like Toronto.   Hands down, your best bet is the Kawartha Lakes.  I have been guiding there for more than 16 years and each year just gets better.

            A chain of seventeen lakes joined by the Trent-Severn Waterway, the Kawartha Lakes offer world-class fishing for walleye, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, muskellunge, pumpkinseed, pike, yellow perch, rock bass, bluegill, black crappie, white sucker and bullhead.

            The Kawartha Lakes offer the opportunity to spend a lazy afternoon fishing with the family from shore or to buzz around the lake in a fully rigged bass boat competing in one of the countless fishing tournaments based here.  The morning could find you on Lake Scugog, the area’s only man-made lake, fishing thick, shallow water weeds for huge largemouth.  In the afternoon you could be dangling a jig and minnow over a twenty foot rock hump in Stoney Lake. 

             The following specie specific tips will help you catch more of your favourite sportfish no matter where you are in the Kawarthas:

Walleye

            Availability and willingness to bite makes the walleye the most sought after fish in the Kawarthas.  They are a decent fighting fish that makes for delectable table fare.  The average fish weighs about two pounds throughout most of the lakes, however, fish in the double digits are common.

            Walleye here can be found on all of the most popular structures such as weedlines, rocky shoals and main lake points.  Don’t eliminate thin water though as it’s surprising just how shallow these fish will move in the Kawarthas.  Limits of fish are routinely caught throughout the day in water as shallow as four feet.  The extensive shallow coontail flats found in Lake Scugog are almost always productive and worth exploring.  These flats offer weeds thick enough to keep the walleye active and willing to take a bait even during calm, sunny days.  Another advantage to these flats is that they hold large numbers of fish that experience little boat traffic.  Fewer anglers and more fish is the key to success.

            Trolling is always an effective way to pursue a few bites.  “Walleye are, by design, race-down-and-attack predators. Their elongated body, broad tail, keen eyesight, and sharp teeth are the clues that lead us to this fact,” says local walleye fishing phenom and pro angler Bill Nichols.  He’s quick to note that trolling has it drawbacks.  “Although it allows an angler to cover an enormous amount of water to find a few active fish, trolling doesn’t lend itself to shallow, weedy water nor is it the best way to catch neutral to inactive fish.” 

            Nichol’s confidence bait while fishing shallow or deep weeds is the bucktail or boot-tail jig.  “Neutral buoyancy is an important detail that some fishermen overlook when presenting jigs to walleye.  In the records I keep, this simple principal has resulted in increased catches.”  How does he make a jig neutrally buoyant?  “Adding different trailers will create buoyancy.  By using heavier line with lighter jigs, you create buoyancy.  By using the rod to control the speed of descent of the jig, you create buoyancy.  Even the shape of the jig head can help to create buoyancy.”

            When asked why neutral buoyancy is so critical Nichols responds, “Walleye will lose sight of their prey right before they open their mouths.  Their eyes do not focus forward.  When a walleye opens it’s mouth it’s gills flare automatically which creates a suction.  Neutral buoyancy allows the suction created by the fish to draw your bait in deeply, without resistance, allowing for a solid hook-up.”  Dunking the jigs along weedlines, in weed pockets and rip jigging are Nichols’ money making techniques.

Guide’s Pointer:  A bait that is often overlooked for walleye is the common bass spinnerbait.  Beetle spins and inline spinners are decent but the full size profile of a safety pin spinnerbait can be the difference between an alright day and the trip of a lifetime.  I like to throw a ¼ to 1/2 oz. spinnerbait with a single, hammered, willowleaf or Colorado blade.  I start out slow rolling the bait and will quickly move to a fast, erratic retrieve if I don’t get bit within 10 to 15 casts.  Most of my success has come while using silver blades.  If bites are still nonexistent then I will change the skirt to a silver tinsel model that can be picked up at local tackle shops.             

Lakes of Choice: Sturgeon, Stoney, Scugog

Don’t get caught without: bucktail jigs, boot-tail jigs, bass spinnerbaits, suspending jerkbaits

Hot Colours: chartreuse, white, silver, gold, firetiger and dark purple

Musky

            Whoever said that the muskellunge is the fish of 10,000 casts was obviously not fishing the Kawartha Lakes.  It’s not uncommon to speak with anglers here who have boated more than 10 in one outing.  Catches like these may not be the norm but for sheer numbers the Kawartha Lakes can’t be beat.

            Casting in-line bucktail spinners is a popular way to work weedlines for numbers of fish.  While just about any weedbed will hold musky, they love nothing better than cabbage weeds.  Trolling on the other hand is the ticket for consistently larger fish; 50 plus inch fish are not uncommon.  Troll along deep weedlines, points, as well as in and around rock piles and islands.  What makes trolling so successful is the ability to cover copious amounts of water.  Musky can have large territories that they prowl.  The more water that you are able to cover will result in more fish seeing your bait.

            “Early in the season I will let out 30 feet of line and troll tight to structure in 10 to 12 feet of water.  I like to work from shallow to deep and back to shallow again, banging my lure off the shallow bottom,” says Muskies Canada Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.  “Later in the season, around July or August I will troll deeper water, off of structure, in 20 plus feet of water.  I use a good graph to locate schools of bait fish.  If I mark lots of baitfish I know that a good musky will be close.  Not marking anything?  I move on.”

            Kelly designs and fabricates his own trolling baits.  He hand tunes them to run perfectly at any speed.  It’s crucial that the bait track true and doesn’t roll.  “I don’t generally troll any faster than four miles an hour,” says Kelly, “the best tip I can give to the novice is to use jointed baits if they want to troll any faster than five miles an hour.  The joint seems to stabilize the bait allowing the angler to troll up to 10 miles an hour without a problem.”

            When asked if he modifies his baits in any way, Kelly lets out a sigh and lets us all in on his secret, “When fishing gets really tough I will remove the back treble of my bait and replace it with a one foot long leader attached to a spoon toting a single siwash hook.  Does it every time!”    

Guide’s Pointer:  The majority of my musky fishing success has been achieved by casting a 12 inch, black, in-line bucktail.   An oversized chrome Indiana blade is my top choice.  This blade gives off a lot of flash and vibration while still allowing me to retrieve the bait at high speeds.  I use bucktails that have 2 single siwash hooks attached to the main wire by clevises.  The single 5/0 hooks allow for very good penetration on the hook set, are fairly weedless and they assure quick releases.  The clevises let the hooks move independently of the main wire.  This is important to be sure there are no leverage points for the fish to work it’s way free.         

Lakes of Choice: Pigeon, Stoney, Balsam

Don’t get caught without: in-line bucktail spinner, large rattling spot, large jointed jerkbaits, and large solid bodybaits

Hot Colours: black, jailbird, perch, skunk

Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass

            “Yup,” broke the serene silence of the moment.  I came to with the violent sound of his line slicing through water and weeds alike.  His speed was startling.  The rod creaked under the strain.  In a flash he was gently setting the four-pound smallmouth down at our feet, the second in as many casts.  I was impressed.  Not an hour ago Mike Downey, the 2004 Top Bass Angler of the year, had put on a largemouth bass clinic as he caught four fish to every one of mine.   Downey’s skill was remarkable but Rice Lake was extraordinary.

            Like most of the Kawartha Lakes, Rice offers a grandiose mix of rock, weed and wood.  These lakes are a bass angler’s paradise and the fact that they are absolutely full of both largemouth and smallmouth is what draws anglers from all over the world to fish in these lakes.  The Kawarthas are relatively large lakes.  Where do you start?

“When starting out on a body of water a few things that I look for are main lake points, humps that have deep water nearby and a flat shelf that fish will move up on to feed.  Good healthy weeds are a must,” states Downey.  He offers some advice for fishing this structure, “As I approach these areas I will generally start with a search bait such as a spinner bait.  I like to focus my attention at the points of the weeds that lead out to deeper water then move towards the inside turns.  I cast to my target and allow the bait to flutter down into openings and pockets then snap the bait quickly to engage the blades and stall it in other openings as I retrieve the bait back to the boat.”

For a tournament angler, speed is of the essence.  This concept also makes sense for the weekend angler as they are under strict time restrictions as well.  Downey’s first colour of choice is white.  He uses a half ounce spinnerbait, “The heavier bait allows me to burn it back to the boat as well as help the bait fall into the openings a little quicker.”  

After covering the area effectively, Downey switches to a black/blue or white jig and pig, feeling that this will help him pick up the inactive fish he missed with the spinnerbait.  Such was the case with the two big smallmouth mentioned earlier.  Downey continues with his larger-is-better theory, “I like the heavier baits to help penetrate down into those thick covered pockets more quickly. I like to move a little faster than most anglers would but I feel this helps me cover more water and place my bait in front of more fish.”  You can’t argue with his success.

Taking the road less traveled, Downey doesn’t buy into the match the hatch theory.  “In my opinion the fish have seen the standby baits many times and become conditioned to them and more leery of them at times. Using the classic colors isn't what I will always do. In clear water conditions I'm not afraid to cast colours that are loud and gaudy.”

Guide’s Pointer:  It is common knowledge that big largemouth bass frequent heavy shoreline cover.  Unfortunately, as a result, they get a lot of pressure.  The savvy angler knows that while others are fishing their usual spots early in the year, there are a large number of big fish that go virtually untouched.  These fish are easily located and willing to bite in water that is too shallow to fish later on in the season.  Start with a weedless topwater bait for active fish.  If you miss a hit, quickly throw a soft stickbait to where you last saw the fish.  If you are fast enough you will be able to entice another bite; nine times out of ten.      

Lakes of Choice: Rice, Scugog, Buckhorn

Don’t get caught without: flipping jigs, tube jigs, soft stickbaits, jerkbaits, soft plastic shads, creatures, spinner baits

Hot Colours: black/blue, pearl white, pumpkin, smoke purple

            We have narrowed down the choice you have to make this weekend from 410,000 bodies of water to just 17.  Rest assured, with the information you now hold, the fish in the Kawartha Lakes are no longer safe.  With this in mind, keep a few for the pan but remember to keep practicing live release.

Bass Wishes,

Chris Hockley

Copyright © 2006 Chris Hockley

It is illegal to reproduce or distribute this work in any manner or medium without written permission of the author, Chris Hockley c/o Blitzcreek Pro Fishing 47 Lorne St., Sunderland, Ontario, chris@blitzcreek.com

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