# Our Canada trip was a real success!!



## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Well we got back couple of weeks ago from our annual Canada trip and once again we had a ball. We did things a bit differently this year. We took extra kayaks so that I could make day trips with the boys off to some nearby lakes to see what else the area had to offer. We found some good lakes and some not so good but overall the success on our day trips was great. The first lake we went to we found some great smallmouth action with several fish in the 19-21" range. We even got a few nice size pike. I think the biggest pike there was about 34".








































After a couple of days of hitting that lake we moved on to other areas. We ended up at Tunnel Lake which is a lake that I have fished several times from a boat in past years but the boys had never been there. We caught several smallies with the best there being my 20" fish that I was all by myself and didn't get a picture. The reason I was by myself was that the boys deciding to take a turn back in to a small cove to make a few casts and came up with the biggest pike of the trip, this 38" beauty!

















On the last day we decided to make a trip east to a lake that had muskie listed as an available species. We had no idea what to expect there as it was the first time on the lake. We had just a few hookups and Alex held true to his good luck of the trip and was the one to land the first and only muskie of the trip! He caught this beautiful 34" fish that towed him around for a bit before we were able to bring it to the net. We were near the rocky shoreline so we took advantage of that to handle the fish and release it which explains why we were standing at the elevated angle.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

The fishing on our home lake, Bright Lake, was pretty good as well. We just didn't catch as many fish there this year with all of the day trips.

Keith got his first bowfin, a 30" pig, and managed to land it solo which knowing the power of these fish I am sure he had some real fun on this one.








Keith and Ben also got to do a bit of fly fishing which we are pretty much beginners at and have not yet mastered the art of fooling the bass and pike up there. He did manage to get his first Canada bass though.








As always we got in to some pretty nice largemouth although no monsters. I think we had a few in the 20" range. The first one was not a huge fish but a neat picture. This was on a very foggy morning on a topwater bite. Gotta love those Spooks!!









































Overall it was a great trip and I am already looking forward to making plans for next year's trips up there and some more exploring!!


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## WPM (Jun 9, 2006)

Great Trip, Great Fish, Great Pics!
Looks like a really fun time. This is Bright Lake that's east of Thessalon, Ont.? If so, we drove right past it two year's ago on our way to the Spanish River area - I wondered about all the lakes we were passing. You saw my report on Lake Kabenung - good pike fishing, but I think you had a better species mix - really like the looks of those bass! 
Where did you stay, and how was travel to the nearby lakes? 

WPM


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

You are right on where Bright Lake is located. The travel to most of the lakes that we went to was rather easy. I would say that launching a small to medium boat in most would be doable. A couple of the places would be interesting navigating a trailer to the launch area. We fished Basswood Lake, Little Basswood Lake, Tunnel Lake, Cummings Lake, Lake Pickerel, Lake Lauzon, Appleby Lake, and Bright Lake of course. We never caught a largemouth in any lake other than Bright Lake. I would say Bright is the shallowest overall and the most weed cover. Basswood was by far the deepest. We gave it a shot just to take a long shot at hooking up with a lake trout, whitefish, or other coldwater species. We had no electronics but one area I checked the depth was well over 200' deep. Visibility well over 10 foot down.

We picked up a map of the region at a store that was a big help. It not only has the roads and lakes but also lists an index of species. If you are planning to do any exploration I highly suggest picking one of the maps up.

We stay at a cabin on Bright Lake that is owned by a friend and have been doing so for nearly 20 years.


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Sounds like a great fun trip. I remember going to a bunch on portage lakes in the late70''s/ early 80's Boy if we had a modern kayak back then it would have been great. Instead we had to pull Alum. boats over beaver dams or drag them through the woods. It was even a pain to portage canoes a mile though the bush would mosquitos that could pick you up.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Mosquitoes were definitely there this time but nothing like they were in June. At least this trip they gave you a bit of rest time throughout the day
June was nonstop!


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## slowtroller (Sep 28, 2011)

Looks like a very fun trip, the fish are just extra.


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## 10fish (May 12, 2005)

Thanks for the pics, awesome fish! We caught a bowfin for the first time on our trip. What a crazy fish to deal with. Nice one!!


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

Nice area. I too once considered BRight Lake and do pass it on #17 coming and going each spring.
I eliminate any lake which lists Lake Trout. Nothing against Lake Trout, mind you, but this is an indication that the lake is deep, and I prefer lakes no deeper than 30 feet. Seems perhaps the good folks at Bright Lake list Lake Trout, not for Bright Lake itself, but for species available while staying there.
Congrats!!! Looks like a great trip. The muskie is icing on the cake.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

They have listed lake trout, salmon, and muskie in Bright for as long as I have been going there which I think would pre-date any advertising schemes. I think the reason behind the lake trout listing is that its one inflowing stream comes from Basswood Lake with maybe a couple of miles of flow at most. The limitation is that Basswood's outflow is via a dam. There is no free flowing path. The muskie and salmon listing I think are due to it close connection to the Mississauga River. Its outflow probably only travels a few miles to the Mississauga I have never hears of any catches of any of those species but it would seem at least possible.
Several years back there was a 5foot sturgeon pulled through the ice on Bright. I would have never dreamed of that one either. I would think it made its way there via the Mississauga


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

By the way they used to have the sturgeon mounted and displayed in the gas station in Iron Bridge. You may have seen it or will at some point.


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## savethetrophies (Jul 4, 2014)

I have caught some hogs out of tunnel lake and Cummings. This 13 year's ago. How are they doing now?


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## savethetrophies (Jul 4, 2014)

I definitely didn't know there was largemouth up there.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

savethetrophies said:


> I have caught some hogs out of tunnel lake and Cummings. This 13 year's ago. How are they doing now?


We didn't fish Cummings very long at all. We accessed it through the creek connecting it to Pickerel Lake. Since we were in kayaks we did not try to venture very far west from the creek. It is rather shallow on that end so we gave up and moved on. We only fished a few hours at Tunnel from Hooverville launch. We were confined to maybe a couple of miles from that point to give you an idea of where we fished. The action was not real great but it was a midday excursion. The boys didn't want to slow down and try any walleye fishing so it was mostly casting cranks, spinners, etc. We caught several smallies with the largest being my 20" fish right off the bat.


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## savethetrophies (Jul 4, 2014)

Nice. I caught some nice walleye on leech and floats in the weeds. Great dinner. My dad would take me to grand falls camp. We loved to fish tunnel and cummings


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Finding weeds on Tunnel is difficult. We tried finding them to target pike as well but the water in those tea stained lakes for some reason does not produce many weeds. It makes it much tougher to find fish.


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

bkr43050 said:


> Finding weeds on Tunnel is difficult. We tried finding them to target pike as well but the water in those tea stained lakes for some reason does not produce many weeds. It makes it much tougher to find fish.


Find an Island. Every island has a point, and every point has a weedbed.


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