# Diamond Key Lodge, Ontario



## Kastmaster93 (Aug 6, 2008)

heading up here for a few days, anyone know about it?

Diamond Key Lodge is located at the mouth of the Key River, on the Georgian Bay. Situated 3 ½ hours from Toronto and 45 minutes North of Parry Sound, we are located between Britt and the French River, giving us access to some of the best fishing in all of Ontario

anyone heard of it/the area? thanks
kast


----------



## mirrocraft mike (Mar 17, 2006)

Sure do..Stayed there 1st week of June last year. My first time there. My brother in law side of the Family have been going there since Dave Bought the place ( ''Bolyards'' sure Dave will know them ) 
Dave and Maggie are great hosts.Never got to meet the new owner The Mountain Man as they call him. Think this is Dave/Maggies last year there.

Beautiful Cedar boats to rent. Motors are well maintain and filled with Gas every morning before you wake .Trust me you don't get up before Dave. 

Cottages are simple and very clean. Thank God for the wood burner It gets cold at night.We bought our own food ,But i heard from others that Maggies is a heck of a cook and there was always plenty to eat.

The waters are very dangerous 40ft to 6inches in SECONDS.Lots of STEEP rock formations and HUGE drop offs. The weedy bays held the fish . Get a good briefing from Dave on the paths to take . The fog is also a concern It gets so thick i could not see the front of my 16ft boat. If you see it coming in PLEASE head back to camp ASAP. It rolls in FAST!!! We got lucky and someone was out there that we followed back in. FYI ..I took out my sag and prop the last day there.My Boat was only a few weeks old .. Got a little to comfortable with the area .
When leaving we stopped at the gas station to fill up the truck and a local walked behind my boat. Took one look at my lower unit and said '' You been to Georgian Bay'' 

Bring your rain gear it rain almost every day but only for short times.

The fishing made all that worth it and i will return next year .
Walleye and large Pike are plentiful. 7/8pound eyes were a daily catch at camp.We did manage a few 10 pounders also. We used Lindy rigs with a worm Mostly Drifting/trolling .Take your own Worms Big bucks in that part of the woods (or should i say Rocks). We kept drifting toward this White looking rock Turns out it wasn't a rock but a dead moose .Dave said it fell thought the ice in the winter and no one could do anything about it .Five days later bears drug it out and had a snack. Nasty 

Wildlife.
We had a fox come into camp every night at dinner time. Think campers have been feeding her over the years as she was begging for food like a dog at the dinner table. Also had a bear make a appearance twice in camp. Eagles and ospreys were a daily sighting. Pretty cool stuff 

Have Fun and give us a follow up report ..


----------



## Kastmaster93 (Aug 6, 2008)

wow, thanks mike.
real good information. that 7/8 pound eye daily catch is tantalizing. i'll be up there for 3 days and nights starting 4th of july. also, do you/anyone know if fly fishing is prominent there in the lakes for pike and/or in any streams for whatever may be there. thanks again, and i'll be sure to give a follow up report.
kast


----------



## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Take your passport.......


----------



## mirrocraft mike (Mar 17, 2006)

Snakecharmer said:


> Take your passport.......


Or the new passport card.....its Cheaper 45. bucks.. good for 10yrs.. verses the 100. for passport BUT ITS ONLY GOOD if ENTERING by LAND

under 16 Birth Cert is Still good


----------



## mirrocraft mike (Mar 17, 2006)

Kastmaster93 said:


> wow, thanks mike.
> real good information. that 7/8 pound eye daily catch is tantalizing. i'll be up there for 3 days and nights starting 4th of july. also, do you/anyone know if fly fishing is prominent there in the lakes for pike and/or in any streams for whatever may be there. thanks again, and i'll be sure to give a follow up report.
> kast


Your welcome ... Not saying we were catching all 7/8lbers But at least one every day was brought in or released (do to the slot limit) in our 6 man group. of them .Can't remember the slot limit. In June the weeds were about a foot and half under the water in 5/6fow.Those Pikies loved that..Fly fishing that should be a blast. And then theres the Smallies Theres some Fly rod action !!!!


----------



## Kastmaster93 (Aug 6, 2008)

alright, thanks again mike. yea we are taking care of the pasport issue as we speak. im real excited. i always fish(all my free time) but have only fished canada once. we caught some pike, but this wasnt even on a fishing trip (just the family) and it wasnt really a fishing lodge. now, were going just to fish AND its a fishing lodge. im very pumped, and i'll make sure to report back. thanks again for the help.
kast


----------



## Kastmaster93 (Aug 6, 2008)

Hey all,
sorry for such a late report on Diamond key lodge. i have pics on my camera but i cant get them up on here no matter how hard i try. anyways, we were there for a short time, 3 nights about 3 total days. we absolutely hammered the walleye, with a solid average length of about 23 inches. we got some bruisers too, 6 and 7 lbers going about 27-28''. also, the smallmouth bass (which we were not planning on going for) ended up being pretty fun to catch too, as we got quite a few of them, the biggest going about 3.75 lbs. The pike we didnt go after as much once we realized how great the walleye fishing was, but we did get about 25 pike in the 3 days. average size of them was on the smaller side, about 20", but i had the big pike and big fish of the trip which was a nice 35 incher trolling a shad xrap (perch). roadrunners got me a few nice eyes (and my biggest of the trip 5 lbs. 26 inches) and overall the fishing was fantastic. smaller blue fox vibrax spinners worked well on smallies with a few pike too. bigg cranks were the ticket for the pike with firetiger HJs producing the most. spoons only got a couple small pike, but we didnt throw them nearly as much as any other bait. the walleye absolutely loved the tail dancers and wally divers in perch and shad colors, and like i said roadrunner jigs did pretty well too. the service was outstanding and the owners really make you feel at home as well as tell you some good spots to start out. the 16' lunds were very spacious for us 3 and the 15 hp yamahas ran great. all in all the trip was truly awesome, and something i would definately recommend to anyone who is interested in a great canadian fishing trip close to home. 8 hours from solon with stops. they have a website: Diamondkeylodge.com


----------



## Kastmaster93 (Aug 6, 2008)

here are pics from the website:
http://www.diamondkeylodge.smugmug.com/gallery/6233368_2TJMx#582585895_JTJaM-A-LB

http://www.diamondkeylodge.smugmug.com/gallery/6233368_2TJMx#582587497_Q3u37-A-LB

http://www.diamondkeylodge.smugmug.com/gallery/6233368_2TJMx#582588838_TE5mw

these are me


----------



## triton175 (Feb 21, 2006)

Looks like you had a great time. Sounds like a sweet place.
We'll be heading up a few hours north of there in about a week. Hope our fishing is as good as yours.


----------



## mirrocraft mike (Mar 17, 2006)

Sounds like you had a EXCELLENT trip...Love the pics ..Seeing the back ground Brings back memoirs from last year..I hope to make it back there next year..What you think of lake....Pretty cool and dangerous stuff all those rock formations..I was white knuckled every trip out even going slow..40fow than 6 inches in seconds ..That murky water made it tuff to see those rocks in a foot of water.. See any wild life ?? Is the camp red fox still walking in the mornings/evenings ? Did they get rid of there cedar boats ??


----------



## Kastmaster93 (Aug 6, 2008)

oh yea, forgot to talk about the wildlife... we saw 3 black bears (pretty big too) around the rocks and woods when we were zooming around in the boat. i got pictures, but like i said i cant get them up   As for the red foxes, there were 2 that came every morning looking for food, and i gladly fed them with tostitos or some jack links LOL. the fishing WAS outstanding, and i will never forget it. the cedar boats they still have. the rock formations were incredible, and we did a number on that prop, so definately BE CAREFUL when youre navigating the water. once again an awesome trip.
kast


----------



## ohiojmj (Apr 16, 2004)

Sounds like a wonder trip! I posted about my trip to same area in July. We stayed at Key Harbour Lodge on other side of river at mouth. We fished exclusively between the Key R. and the Pickerel River to the west of camp, into the northern ends of the fingered bays. 

What area near your camp did you guys fish and were there many weed beds? Maybe to the east of your camp? We found walleye at or near weed beds, but found the weed beds in early July to be hard to find to the west since the cabbage was no where near the surface (cool year?). Like you said, plenty of 60' to 2' thrills (hard to troll). We found that wally divers, cranks, etc. caught next to nothing and the worm harness was the only answer, at least for us and few other groups at that time. Plenty of big walleyes (we were releasing 24"ers), but low pike numbers, possibly due to focus on walleye.

I brought my less than one year old Lowe Fishing Machine and 90 Merc Optimax and only introduced the skeg and haul to a few brushes with rock at idle speed. I considered that a major success. WE were cautious but it is some unbelievably dangerous water. Even trolling with awind and rain made it nearly impossible to not make contact with a boulder here and there unless you stuck with deep water and passed up on the better fishing. I think once you bash a prop/skeg (I took one off my 40Merc on last boat), you get way more cautious.


----------



## mirrocraft mike (Mar 17, 2006)

ohiojmj
That was successful...2007 alumacraft 50hp Brand new.One sag,shaft,and prop Last day there..I just started to open her up..Would i go back YOU BET YA!!!!! Think i will consider renting a camp boat though,,At least those motors you can have set on a release so they bounce off rocks a little..Man did mine hit hard...I wasn't the only boat to find that rock..Looking into the water there was collection of prop pieces..


----------



## ohiojmj (Apr 16, 2004)

I considered my trip successful, but not incredible. As as far as returning, it was a wonderful area to fish with major potential for the big one, but a bit intimitidating in terms of finding fish, weeds and my fear of a $2k repair has not faded from my mind. I'm guessing the prices, but I'm sure you're over $1k. There are other lakes with fish and far less hazards. The random up and down bottom is unbelievable til you've been to G bay. I've been to Remigny, QC 5 times and fishing has been incredible to just OK with known potential. Chosing next year's trip is always tough thing for me.


----------

