# Rice lake is my favorite to fish



## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

This isn't a current report of conditions on Rice lake I was just bored so decided to write a report about my favorite lake in the world. My dad starting going to Rice with his parents in 1955. My parent honeymooned there 48 years ago and my family used to go every summer till I was 18. 

I took a long time off from going there during the 90's because I was too busy growing up on my own and couldn't afford a vacation. I've been going there again with mixed company for the last 4 years. I had read just like everyone else about the decline of Rice lake. How it was overfished by both sportsmen routinely catching and keeping over a 100 gills a day each and the local Indians netting truckloads full of bass and walleye during there restricted fishing period. 

My family was mostly into the fantastic panfishing that the lake offered. It was always hot and heavy with huge catches of nice size gills and yellow perch daily. We always used nightcrawlers back then. Kids that young aren't interested in throwing lures yet. You would see a few mixed black bass daily in the cleaning hut but besides panfish most went after walleye. With a few spending the whole week to catch the elusive muskie. It always seemed like they got one too if they were diligent enough about it. I never understood why they always kept them and cleaned them though. Is muskie steak any good? Haven't seen many recipes. I always considered it a huge waste when you could get enough meat to feed a family of 4 from the dock in about 30 mins with a bobber and worms back then. I'm not trying to condemn people who keep their catch but come on man these are monster muskies i'm talking about that are probably in the teens in years old. Have some respect.

The first few years that I started going back we tried to catch a few walleye first but i've learned it's just not worth it at Rice. Sure you can pick a cigar every hour or 2 but that sucks IMO. If I wanted to catch a bunch of big walleye i'd just go to Erie. Erie is about the only place in the world were you can walk down the dock and ask everyone how they did and they show you some 4-8 pounders and you say "so no big ones aye?". 

The panfish are very abundant but puny in size. The yellow perch poplulation seems to have been replaced with crappie. We never caught one crappie back in the day and they're everywhere now. The amount of rock bass is so high the best way to describe it is annoying. The average panfish in Rice that we caught over the last 4 years at Rice was about 4-5 inches long. Thats with using Rapalas and flukes and sluggos too people. Some banks I would catch 20 rockies in 20 cast in about a 100 yard drift.

Smallies are my favorite fish and that's why I love Rice lake! Over the past 4 years i've had no problem finding them on the rocky shores of the south shore and the islands. White, W. Grape and Hickory are my faves to prowl. We'd usually go for 2 4-4 1/2 hour sessions. 530 till 10 in the am and 530 till dark which was about 930 ish. I always compete with my fishing buds so we knew how many we were catching. We'd routinely take 10 or more each session. With some evenings where you'd get 10 in an hour. The biggest smallie I caught was 3 years ago it went about 6lb. I've got alot over 4 and lost some that might've been bigger than my biggest. The average size though is about 2 lbs with the stray 3 pounder coming along. When fishing open water I love to challenge myself using 2 lb test on the microlight. After fishing for carp with that rig for years i'm not overwhelmed by a nice smallie. It's definetely a game of give and take. 

Last year was a little different though. We couldn't find the smallies. Got shutout the first morning and only caught a total of like 4 between 3 guys on the first full day. I was rapidly loosing confidence in Rice lake and starting to believe all the hype i'd read about the decline. The weather was bad for the early part of the week and I knew the impending weather change was going to do either improve or somehow negatively impact the fishing.

When we hit it on Sunday eve I decided to go into the deep milfoil and weeds. Huge bays weedbeds and mats aren't hard to find on Rice. We kept casting at shore and started to get a few largemouths. I had rarely caught lm bass on Rice before with the ratio being like 90% smallies over my lifetime. Things were improving.

My bud on the back of the boat decided to double his chances by letting out a trailer line with a plastic ring worm weightless behind the boat to just cruise over top of the weed beds in about 5 feet of water. This was the ticket! Immediately he started getting fish. All lm bass. Interestingly enough the rockies wouldn't bug us in the deep stuff only the clear areas. About 20 bass later that night I was convinced that if you can't beat em, join em. We all started to just cast and drag sluggos, flukes, toads, creature baits and plastic worms. Giving an occasional twitch or sweep. 2 of us were averaging about 20 bass a session then. My one bud was having problems getting the hang of it and he was a cherry and was still catching 5-8. 

None of them this year are over 21 inches but they are fat! Some pushed 5lbs but no real lunkers. The average big bass caught on the lake per year is about a 6 pounder of each species. You're not really going to catch an 8 lb bass at Rice but you can catch a ton of 4 pounders. If you want monster bass go south or west young man not north. 

I'll attach a few pics I have more in my gallery.


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## yankee (Apr 8, 2005)

Very nice write up Pigsticker. Thanks for sharing. Im making my plans for next year already and Otanobee river is on my list


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## mirrocraft mike (Mar 17, 2006)

pigsticker
That was a good read . To tell you the truth it was all most a carbon copy of my family history . Fished with worms straight down No bobbers , fished for panfish, Dad was going since the 50s , I stopped going for awhile moved to GA. and got married . Moved back to OH. and finally started going back nine years ago . We panned fished , drifted and trolled at night for Muskies . The eyes are making a GREAT come back . Talked to a few native Indians There take on it was due to the weed growth being unbeliveable the last four years. We caught some nice big eyes this year , but more encouraging was the large number of different sizes we were catching . I posted some Trent River and Rice lake results back in July . What time of the year you go up ??


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## FishThis (Sep 2, 2005)

Where is Rice Lake??


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## yankee (Apr 8, 2005)

FishThis, Rice lake is northeast of Toronto, Ontario near Perterborough.


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## FishThis (Sep 2, 2005)

Sounds like a great place!


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

I go the first week of bass season. I believe its the 3rd saturday of June every year. 

Do you go for muskies Yankee? I've never fished in the river. Have you ever been to Hastings at the dam? When you hit it right there are about a million gills sitting right below the spillway in crystal clear water. It's a massacre. People pulling them out by the bucketfulls.


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## mirrocraft mike (Mar 17, 2006)

pigsticker 
small world That is about the same time we go up . The last few days in June and always the first week in July . Hastings Yes been there many times . I will go in the afternoon and shoot a few of those HUGE carp by the spill way . Fish don't go to waste as there are people lining up to take them . I don't shoot to kill i shoot to feed . They say they excellent smoked . I'll stick to panfish and eyes . Sounds like you stay close to the rice lake end of the trent river . How close to Hastings are you ? We are a about a mile from a small town called Havelock which is about 15/25 Km from Hastings by land . Closer by water and more enjoyable travel going thought the locks and taking in the sights . I only have a 25 hp so travel time is slow but well worth it


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## SPOONFEEDER (Jul 6, 2006)

This is a small word....... My family has been going up to Sandercocks Resort (right by White's Is.) on Rice Lake for about 40+yrs. I have been going sence I could walk (29yrs).

Fishing has been declining, but the last 2 yrs we have hammered them pretty good. I fish mostly LGmouth some Smallies. Going to Try Eye's this year, maybe ever the Muskie.


There Bass season is the last Sat. in June. This is when we go there.


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## yankee (Apr 8, 2005)

Yes, I musky fish every chance I get. But I've never been to Hastings. I nailed 5 musky and missed a 6th on my last musky trip to Peterborough.

That big one I'm holding in my avatar is from the Detroit river/St Clair this year.


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## fugarwi7 (Sep 20, 2006)

Yankee, that is a nice fish...I haven't dialed in on musky fishing for fear of the addiction...my dad fishes at St Clair (and every other musky water) every year and this past summer, mishandled a 50"+ at the boat and lost it...he is still in therapy. A fews years ago, I took my daughter to our cabin in Canada...we fished all day with less than great results while her and her friend tanned...We were trolling through a weedbed in 11' of water and around 5pm, she decided to fish, so with a whimpy half-arsed cast, she's in the water with a Mepps #3 Chartruese spinner, 20' in the prop wash...I was thinking about telling her to reel in and try again, but decided not to...best decision I think I've made fishing! Within minutes, she said she was snagged...I grabbed her rod...immediately handed it back to her and said she had a big fish...after instructions and prayers, 10 minutes later she landed a 30#, 48" musky on 12# test and closed faced spinning reel...first and only...She still rubs it in grandpa's face that she has a bigger one than he does. I fished all day..she fished for 5 minutes...go figure! Memory of a life time for me. Just thought I would share that with the readers.


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## davycrockett (Apr 9, 2005)

Lepatt, we also stayed at Sandercocks for years. I heard that it was sold? Yeah, my story is the same as all of your's. Went since I was born, etc. We haven't been back in 2 years. We are looking for another lake closer to home to fish. The fishing in the last 5 years we went sucked so bad I really don't care if I go back.We haven't gone for bass season for prob. 10 years. We went the week before bass season and would be leaving as the"carnival" came into camp. We would always be glad to leave. It was nice going then because the fishing pressure was very low and the camp was only 1/4 full.Don't get me wrong, I love to catch bass. I just don't like to eat them. We used to catch lots of panfish and walleye. The last 2 years I was at Rice I WORKED to catch awalleye and couldn't even boat a spike. We always have fish to eat at least 4 times during our stay at Rice with plenty of fillets to bring home. The last year with 7 of us fishing we ate fish twice and brought 2# of fillets home. The crappie seemed to vanish with the walleye.The Ontario Ministry of Fisheries or whatever they call themselves isn't doing enough to rectify the situation IMO. I'm sure the numbers of people who go to Rice has declined and will continue to do so if something isn't done. I still hear of people coming back from Rice with reports of all the huge catches of fish they had. Most of these fish are bass. Show me some limits of 2+# walleye or a bucket full of crappie or perch. I just don't see it. Maybe someday it will change, until then I will have the good memories of Rice from the past. BTW Yankee, that muskie is a PIG!


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## Hoosier Daddy (Aug 19, 2005)

Great story Fugarwi. Beginners luck is a powerful thing. I have been to Rice lake when I was younger. Mainly panfish, but last day I caught some small frogs and we went bass fishin. Great day we slayed'em


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## FOBU (Apr 14, 2004)

same story,been fishing at rice lake since i could walk,,,until recently,,we also worked our tails off and could not find any decent eyes,,all the old hot spots produced nothing
last time there,,3 years ago,,we were told the lake had a bacterial problem
any other canadian lakes anyone is suggesting,,,need to make some memories for my kids like i have of fishing canada


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## Gringo Loco (Mar 5, 2005)

If you consider fly-in fishing at reasonable rates fish the Ogoki area north of Armstrong Canada. Good days are 50+ walleyes per fisherman and bad days are still over limit with good Northern pike fishing as well. There are numerous outfitters there that will fly you to remote lakes with good accomodations and
full time electricty etc. The outfitter that I use which is very reasonable is Thunderhook which you can find at smoothrock.com.


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## yankee (Apr 8, 2005)

FOBU, Lots of nice lakes with walleye, bass and musky just north of Rice. The Kawartha Lakes, which include Buckhorn, Pigeon, Sturgeon and Chemong just to name a few. These lakes are within an hour or less north of Rice. Lots of camps on these lakes and one that I camp at now and then is Emerald Isle on Buckhorn. They also have cabins. 

The Bay of Quinte is not far from Rice. It offers monster walleye when theyre on and pike fishing at all times in the weed beds. Lots of camps on this bay as well.

Im not saying that youll catch big pike and walleye consistently in the lakes like you would at a fly-in. But they are a good fishery and plenty of good fishing to offer.

Pigsticker, you were asking about big pike in southern Ontario earlier, you may have to travel a little further north but big pike can be had without and expensive fly-in. Heres a 26 # my wife caught north of North Bay.


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

Wow! What a woman! Nice fish!

I'm gonna hit it next summer sometime for some pike. I'm thinking Quinte sounds good. They don't have to be huge i'd be happy with some 5 to 10 pounders for sure. I don't really have any specialty tackle for the big pigs anyways. I'd love to try for some small ones with the fly rod in the weeds. Sounds like an awesome challenge.


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## FOBU (Apr 14, 2004)

thanks yankee,,,i will be looking into them.one time at rice i remember we drove up to buckhorn to look around.


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## gsxrfixer (Dec 5, 2006)

Rice Lake is the place that I learned to fish. I caught my first big bass there and I absolutely love it. The thing about Rice is just learning to fish it. I'll be up 2007 first week of bass season. Here are some past Rice Lake trips!


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

Hey fixer where do you lodge at?


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## gsxrfixer (Dec 5, 2006)

I usually stay at GlenGary Cottages or Musky Bay out of Coburg. Harry completely rebuilt all the Cabins at GlenGary so its nice enough to bring the wife. Musky Bay is Also fantastic. How about you?


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## gsxrfixer (Dec 5, 2006)

Pigsticker,
Just Looking at some of your photos in your gallery, I know exactly where you are, the one is relatively close to Shear Point right. ( I don't want to be to specific) but I think I know right where you are in the one picture. Glengary Cottages is right next to Sandercocks. You have to let me know when you'll be up next. I'm in Painesville Ohio and I can be on Rice in 6 hours from here, plan on making some long weakend trips this summer.


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

Fixer,

Ive stayed at Muskie Bay for over 30 years now. Never went anywhere else. Always heard Glengary was nice though. Do you rent a boat or take your own?
I usually am just around the islands like Hickory, White, Long and Rack. Last year I really got into the largies in the weeds on the nw side of White. Couldnt find many smallies anywhere though.


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## Whopper (Apr 28, 2006)

Pigsticker, I too share your love for Rice Lake. I've been going there since 1977 for bass and pan fish. 
One thing that I have noticed in all the years of fishing Rice is that it goes thru cycles for both the bass and the pan fish. Another thing is that the lake recieves more pressure now than ever mainly because it easy to get to and quite affordable. I have always found unless the bite is extreemly good that the best fishing on the lake is after the weekend thru till friday. A lot of the places that you mentioned I am familar with and have fished. The bass fishing (both largies and smallies) can be great or humbling at times. To catch walleye up there you really have to change hats and think like a bass and get right into the weeds if you do that you will catch the eyes, they are there just not in great numbers like they were.
I was up at Labor Day for six days and the first three days was very good (Thur-Sat), I fished another lake on Sunday (caught my first musky) and the fishing on Monday and Tuesday was terrible.
I have always stayed a the same camp between the Indian River and Serpent Mounds.
One word of caution though, you mentioned that your buddy let a trailer line out behind the boat to increase his odds and I'm assuming he was using another rod to cast with well that will get you a ticket up there in a heart beat, It's illegal in Ontario to fish with more the one line on the inland lakes during softy water season. Another thing that I have noticed is with all the recent drownings that they have had the last few years is that the OPP's were out in force looking for any violations that they could write tickets for. I was checked three times that weekend and each time they were more worried about looking for beer (that's illegal too) in the boat than any thing else. One couple that were staying in the same resort got two tickets for open containers and I believe they said it was going to run them about $300.00. I was good to go because I had all my safety equipment in order and no booze in the boat. Don't get me wrong I like to drink a cold one as much as the next guy but I learned that leason the hard way at another Lake called Nippisssing a few years back myself. Again this was just a word of caution for ya for future trips don't want to start a debate wether it right or wrong.

Whopper


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## gsxrfixer (Dec 5, 2006)

Pigsticker,
I have a bass boat, I just downgraded from a 88 ranger that was to big to an 18 foot procraft. We fish the same areas. Those two big bass came off of hickory. My wife likes the cabins at Musky Bay better then anywhere else so we have gone there as of late. Mom and Dad go to GlenGary. Mom by the way at 71 has the biggest muskie out of rice you ever saw and she caught it on a blue and white erie derie.


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

Which 2 big fish fixer? I got tired of paying just $600 for the cottage and another $660 for a bass boat so I invested in a boat this fall. I always thought MB's cabins were pretty good. So your mom caught a big muskie and ive been going there for 35 years and never caught one there. :S My luck.

Whopper welcome to the convo. The pressure on RL is pretty high I agree. It's only 1 hour from Toronto with all those people. Not to mention the Indians and their netting practices they use during their restricted fishing time. I heard it was a free for all with truckloads of bass and walleye being taken daily. 

As far as the alcohol goes im not worried because I dont drink but about once a year and my buds know they're responsible for any tickets or fines that come from drinking onboard. As far as the 2 lines in the water goes thanks for the tip. I had no idea it was illegal there. Its legal here. Actually after he got a few that way we all went to that style with the one pole each because the action was too hot.

I think weather plays a big role at RL. When you're only there for a few days and cold front rolls in you're in trouble. At home you wouldnt force the issue as much by going everyday but thats what you're there for. I understand why so many people drown there. It can get rough quick with whitecaps coming out of nowhere. I remember once when I was a kid and all we had was 12ft wooden flatbottom boats with a 3hp and got caught out in the worst storm ive ever seen there. I was in the boat with my dad and my bro, sis and mom were in another. It was so bad that we couldnt even stay with them, we got pushed apart by waves. We had to stay on Hickory for about an hour and wait it out while my mom and them made it to the north shore and a kind family let them in. The provided them with blankets and hot drink and food. Thats what I call Canadian hospitality.

As far as cycles go, where the hell are the yellow perch? Theyve been replaced by rock bass and to a somewhat lesser extent crappies. The reason the rock bass are a nuisance is because nobody keeps them but keeps everything else they catch. I remember going 20 for 20 on cast/fish on some shorelines there with a rapala and all being rock bass. Damn redeyes!


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## gsxrfixer (Dec 5, 2006)

A few posts back I have some pictures from past trips up there. I have had several boats. I used to live in Missouri and fished in some tourneys but now I just enjoy it.


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

Wow! Those are some pigs fixer. How big were they? What did you get them on? You say you got those in the weeds too?


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## gsxrfixer (Dec 5, 2006)

Those were caught in the weeds on the east side of Hickory. That summer the weeds made an abrupt stop about 15 feet away from shoreline, so you had a wall face of rice that was visible. That is how I fish rice. I line my boat up and fish that wall like a shoreline and I was using a spinner bait that I lean down to get through the weeds( very small blades and very very pointy lead head on that spinner. As you know we went back a year later and the weeds were totally different, absolutely no weeds at Hickory except for 50 yards out and sparce. Both bass were 5.5 lbs which is good for Rice Lake. I always scout the first day in that triangle, White, Rack, Grape, and Hickory and the open water to see the weed presentation and I look for ambush points mark them on the gps. Year after year one thing is certain the weeds always change. I rarely fish shoreline unless the weeds are there
This might cheer you up but I was borded by a couple of Ontario Conservation Officers to get samples of the fish I had in the live well. I was asking about the whole walleye decline, and they agreed that it was down but every year I guess the do surveys with an electric shock technique and he was describing monster size bass muskie and walleye that they observe every year when they do that. As of late I can't get into any consistant walleye but there in there


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## fished-out (Dec 20, 2005)

I too have been going to Rice Lake for years. I usually go the last week of July; panfish and SM are the targets. Wouldn't pass up a walleye, but it's been a while since I've found them in quantity, so I usually don't bother. I've found the big gills are much deeper than they used to be and right on the bottom. I'm usually looking for 12-13' of water, where I used to get perch! Crappie are everywhere at that time of year; I usually get them by pitching a jig and working it just off bottom at the weed edges, or by using a long pole to probe the thickest weed columns I can find in 7-8' of water. Smallmouth were no problem this year; could ususally get 5 or 6 in a few hours every morning, but the biggest was just under 5 pounds; certainly no 6 pounders like I saw below!

This year, I noticed the cost has really gone up; basically, it's the value of the US dollar versus the Canadian dollar. I'd say the cost is up more than 50% versus 2-3 years ago. Been staying at Southview all that time, but the cost of the cabin for a week plus bass boat is killing me. Don't want to haul my own (11 hours from Cincy, no automatic bilge, and I've seen too many people have their vacations ruined by mishaps, engine problems, etc), but can't find a boat to rent up there with a front-mounted trolling motor, which is a pain.

Anyway, a guy I met up there told me about a like in NY called Black Lake--told me it's similar to Rice with lots of walleye, SM, bluegill, crappie, pike-- cost is much more reasonable and they've got boats with bow-mounts (I know, it's a small thing, but I really like them)! Anyone heard of this lake?

Fished-out


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## lv2fish (Jun 23, 2005)

I have spent the better part of 10 years since the early 90's up on this lake, it's always been good fishing and a fun place to be. But the american dollar is weak and it's just not affordable to go there for me right now. I would either stay at Elmhirst resort or Golden Beach. I have had many great memories on this lake. Here is a pic from a trip in the summer of 2005 (No, I didn't eat them, just a few pics at the dock). I am sure I will go back, but not for a few years or at least until the dollar improves.


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

I found a few pics I hadnt seen in years. The big smallies were caught on the same day both in front of White Is and I got broken off by a smallie even bigger than these!


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