# Lake Mistinikon, Ontario 5/27 - 6/3



## ohiojmj (Apr 16, 2004)

Fishing was great on Mistinikon Lake (Horseshoe Island Camp). There were sunny hot days that produced little, but persistence always pays off over a week. My biggest pike went 37 and 12# (empty stomach on this guy). I also picked up a 32 and 8#er during the week. Quantity of pike was somewhat down; only caught about 10 on a slow day, but good days brought me over 20. I typically caught a ½ dozen keepers (22  30) for fish fry meals with the hungry old men at our camp. Walleyes were hot and cold as usual. The hot/sunny early week weather didnt help. The second half of the week picked up and I personally caught 3 at 24 and 5#s and lots in the 12  16 range with the larger ones kept to fry. Smallmouths were hitting particularly well. On a tough pike/walleye day, I caught 6 keeper (no limit on size/quantity/season in this Ontario region) ranging from 16 to 18 and up to 3.5#s. On another day, I picked up a whopper 21 and 4.75# monster that I would consider the trophy fish of the week for me. A real fighter that hit like a freight train and initially acted like I hook set a fixed log. This baby got a full 9.8 out of 10 for theatrics on the journey to the boat from the rocky shore.

Picked up most of my fish trolling shallow rocky shore lines in 4  9 range. This would be typical late spring location for fishing. Deep water produced nothing. Daytime pike/smallmouth came on mostly small floating lures. I had a couple of 2.5 floating Cabelas brand lures that killed the smallmouth with a tight wobble action. I got some pike on hammered silver Williams wabler, but last years winning lure didnt produce the quality pike. Bigger walleye/pike enjoyed the size J-9 or J-11 jointed rapalas and a jointed bomber. Jointed floating out did the one piece floaters by a lot. Unfortunately, I ran low on jointed ones, but proved that color was not the most important factor. Standard silver, gold, bright orange, or firetigger all worked with old faithful silver working best (probably because I stocked more of them). Spinner bait didnt work well in weeds/wood, so we ended up tossing floaters in as best we could. My trolling motor pooped out so wood/weed travel was limited. Hammer handles were not caught in large quantities this year which we found unusual. This lake was fully topped off and hard to catch shallow fish hanging under shore line trees. Maybe the smaller guys were just harder to reach, fortunately. The old guys at camp all seemed to enjoy routine jigging at their favorite holes or humps with leaches/minnows every evening, but the pesty hungry 12 walleye gave them little chance of bigger guys. We didnt jig at all and proved that trolling shallow water at dusk produces bigger walleye and a few large pike too.

I Lost quite a few spoons and stick baits in dark on logs/rock. Bumped rock piles a couple times trolling shorelines; no boat damage. 

My Minnkota powerdrive trolling motor DID NOT FXXXING WORK, ONCE AGAIN.  This PD50 has brought me three years of misery and costly motherboards and foot controller replacements. Authorized repair shops have not hlped. I am replacing it before I litter a lake with it. I would have enjoyed using it to cast into wood/weeded bays.

Great fishing week on size/quantity including smallies and eyes. Black flies also had a great week hammering those that didn't wear full cover and bug spray!


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Thanks for the report as I alsways look forward to reading about your trips! While I make it up there every year it is always in August and thus we never get to witness the waters at their best. Someday once my schedule allows for more different season fishing I will make a go of it early as well.


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