If you are into bass you probably already know there is good smallmouth fishing in Canada, north of Minnesota. We did a canoe trip there recently and found some. I have done this trip before but not for three years and had some doubt as to whether I was a little too old and broken down to do it. It went well but I would say it is right at the limit of my ability and sadly may slip beyond my grasp soon. At the least I got to do it one more time and am very grateful for that. For me this trip is half about being in a wilderness area and half about fishing. Over the last 30 years I have found trips combining wilderness travel and wilderness fishing fishing are what I really like. Everyone is looking for something different from fly fishing and has their fishing paradise but for me this is smallmouth Shangri La. There is nothing better.
I took a lot of pictures and am not thrilled with the fish photos but I got photos I like and had a lot of fun taking them. We had some windy days which is typical and that gave me some time to cruise around the camp area looking for photo ops. Late August is not nearly as good as early June for the fish. In June the big bass are on the shoreline and topwater flies work all day. In late summer they are generally off the shoreline but I am figuring out some lakes that have good late summer topwater and am finding locations I can get them on sinking lines and clousers. Our biggest bass was on topwater and was close to 22" but not quite there so I will say 21.5". I got a couple other on topwater that were 20". My paddling buddy fished jigs and caught plenty of good ones also. Jigs are more effective than flies in searching for offshore fish so couple of times we found them throwing jigs and then switched to the clouser. They are not everywhere so you need to know the lakes and spend sometime hunting for them but that makes it fun.
Good stuff.
The portage trail to the put in
one of our camps
Not our boat but that is how you do it
Bring some flies and some good bass rods
That is what you are looking for
Fishing from shore near camp
Good pike can be caught on the shoreline in June but we only found small ones on this trip
One of my favorite shorelines, lots of memories here
Nice clouser fish below some falls
That is a big one
I had a lot of fun stalking critters that generally wanted no part of me or my camera.......
Trumpeter swan
Holarctic tree frog
Bull frog I think
Bull frog macro
Least chipmunk balancing on his tail and eating flower buds
Painted turtle
Green frog I think
Snapping turtle hunkering down
Anglers at the take out
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