# chapleau Ontario fishing



## For my Son (Apr 23, 2007)

We just got back from a week at the moosehorn lodge. Awesome time. The home lake was lake mclennon and we caught a few pike and walleye but it was tough. Then we went to sample lake and caught more walleye and pike. Spent a day at lake como catching whitefish, pike and a few smallmouth bass. The other three days we fished Racine Lake. Everday got better until the last day my son and i caught 142 smallmouth, 12 pike (one 30" & 5lbs) and two walleye. Got great info from a OGF member and i wouldn't done as week without it. Thanks again Brandon


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## Walleye Wells (Apr 3, 2010)

Sounds like a great week of fishing. I'm happy that Racine treated you guys well and you were rewarded with lots of fish after making the drive to it. It's an interesting experience just going there. I'm sure it's a trip that will be talked about for awhile.


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

Sounds like a good trip. Next trip head a little farther north to baywolf camp in shining tree. Very affordable and fantastic fishing. Go in july


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## For my Son (Apr 23, 2007)

Walleye Wells said:


> Sounds like a great week of fishing. I'm happy that Racine treated you guys well and you were rewarded with lots of fish after making the drive to it. It's an interesting experience just going there. I'm sure it's a trip that will be talked about for awhile.


I know my son and I will definetly never forget Racine.


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## For my Son (Apr 23, 2007)

DHower08 said:


> Sounds like a good trip. Next trip head a little farther north to baywolf camp in shining tree. Very affordable and fantastic fishing. Go in july


We will check it out.


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## CaptKC (Feb 25, 2008)

My son and I will be making the trip up in 2 weeks to Prairie Bee - any advice on what tactics worked best for smallies?


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## For my Son (Apr 23, 2007)

CaptKC said:


> My son and I will be making the trip up in 2 weeks to Prairie Bee - any advice on what tactics worked best for smallies?


We did most of our damage on drop shot with a Jackal cross tail Shad bait, color didn't matter. When those ran out we did pretty well with a Ned rig with a green pumpkin or mud minnow bait. After those ran out we used a 4" Senkos whacky rigged.


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## CaptKC (Feb 25, 2008)

Great info! Really appreciate your response and help. Will report back after we return.


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## For my Son (Apr 23, 2007)

Prairie bee looks like a pretty cool place, I would love to hear how you did. I am definetly going to add this to the "list" of potential places next time we head up.


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## CaptKC (Feb 25, 2008)

Just got back late last evening.

First things first - Prairie Bee is a pretty big lake with lots of character and a week wasn't enough time to explore the whole lake for us. It would be more than an hour long boat ride to the other side. They have the only cabins on the lake, 4 plus one outpost cabin on the other side. Ethan and Dylan are the boys of Bob and Sondra who also own Happy Day Lodge on Windermere and Ethan and Dylan run Prairie Bee. Nice kids and they worked hard all week. The cabins are really out dated but they are trying to fix them up a little. We stayed in cabin 3 and it was TINY for 2 adults and two 11 year old boys. They don't have electricity but they have wind power and solar power to store energy for lighting in the cabins. They have propone to power fridge/freezer and stove and hot water heater. Water is supplied by the lake - do not drink it. The cabin had a shower and toilet. No a/c. They do bring in bait, ice and fuel a couple times a week and they have basic tackle and limited supply of snacks you can buy. They have a nice fish cleaning house and they will try to run a generator as much as they can. The boys stay at Happy Day lodge and usually showed up late morning and were gone by mid/late afternoon. 

Now to the fishing - I think we did 'okay' based on other reports we were getting from other campers. We struggled to find consistent number of walleye which was disappointing. Our group probably only caught 25-30 all week and several over size limit. 18 inches and over have to go back. In my opinion, their management practices are backwards. They should be letting these little fish go as my understanding they are the best spawners. Too many fish 15-17 inches being taken out. But what do I know.....I'm sure they are being consulted as to what's best for that fishery. 

We did decent on bass, but again not the numbers I was hoping for. We caught several 17 inches and one 18 inch fish. We did portage around to below the dam that feeds Windermere and waded out to fish the hole below it and had a lot of fun on bass for a couple hours one afternoon. 

The pike fishing was better than I was expecting. Most were small, but they were easy to target and find and each typical spot we caught a couple. I did catch a 30 inch pike in the middle of the lake casting a worm harness for walleye in 8 foot of water. he was heavy and would guess 8-10 pounds. Didn't have a scale. We got into a good fight in the boat and my thumb ended up in his mouth somehow and I have a nice battle wound. In hindsight, it probably needed a couple stitches, but had some gauze and tape and back to fishing quick. 

I think the time of year killed us. It was the only week we could find that they had an opening and didn't affect my sons sports or school. Would like to go again in late spring or early summer. 

While we didn't see them, I guess there were a couple bears in camp on Wednesday night while we ate dinner and played poker right outside our cabin. Wish we could have seen them. Saw one bald eagle. 

Happy to help if you have any more questions. Thanks again for all your advice.


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## For my Son (Apr 23, 2007)

Sounds like you had a lot of fun. The day we were over by lake Como we decided to take an adventure and drove to the end of the road and it was the Happy day lodge. The place was packed with cars, must have been 20 cars there. The website makes the place look pretty good. 
We saw lots of wildlife while we where there, the only thing we really wanted to see and didn't was a bear. Next year we are going to Gatlinburg but 2018 we are going back to Canada. My son and I are deciding between the Chapleua area and going back to Garden Island Lodge (my prefernce)


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