Canadian Lake Packing list

Foxtrot1

Foxtrot1

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Joined
Sep 2, 2011
Messages
614
Location
Jacksonville, Alabama
Hey Guys,

our group just finalized details and we will be bear hunting in N Ontario the 1st week of June 2023. It is a remote boat in lodge, with fishing during the mornings before going to the stand in the evenings. The lake has pike, walleye, whitefish, and smallmouth bass in it. We are working on stocking the tackle boxes because none of us have ever fished for pike or walleye. What's your go to lures for this type of situation? Size/colors?

So far this is what I am planning on taking:

Pike:
soft swim baits/jerk baits
husky jerk rapalas
mepps #5 aglia
blue fox #5
Red and white daredevil and yellow with diamonds spoons
johnson's weedless spoons

Walleye:
Crawler harness (color?)
jigs (color)?
floating rapala/stick baits
shad raps

Smallmouth:
basic bass selection, downsized

whitefish:
a few small spinners/jigs/flies with bobbers, just in case we hit a mayfly hatch and they are hitting the top.

I personally would like to focus on pike, but very open to catching enough walleye to fry everyday.

Any help to narrow selection down to some basics that have consistently worked for you guys in the past would be appreciated.
 
For walleyes, color often seems to depend on the lake. One lake here, we slay them on gold/yellow/fire tiger crawler harness with bottom bouncers, or yellow tailed jigs. Another lake last week they were feeding on crayfish and hit pink pretty well. Sometimes you just have to try different colors. Take a variety.

Northerns over here will bite on the same harnesses, but they like it moving faster. Also have caught a ton on Rapalas.

1E4ECF0F-B2B6-4B34-B0A7-268D6541D938.jpegCaught one of these northerns a few weeks ago on the same pink spinner I was catching walleyes on, and the other one we caught on a 16 inch walleye. Bastard wouldn’t let go! 🤣 Don’t usually keep them, but saved a few walleyes by eating these two.

Just spent last week in Canada catching walleyes. Hope you have as much fun as we did!! Good luck!
 
Foxtrot1 said:
Hey Guys,

our group just finalized details and we will be bear hunting in N Ontario the 1st week of June 2023. It is a remote boat in lodge, with fishing during the mornings before going to the stand in the evenings. The lake has pike, walleye, whitefish, and smallmouth bass in it. We are working on stocking the tackle boxes because none of us have ever fished for pike or walleye. What's your go to lures for this type of situation? Size/colors?

So far this is what I am planning on taking:

Pike:
soft swim baits/jerk baits
husky jerk rapalas
mepps #5 aglia
blue fox #5
Red and white daredevil and yellow with diamonds spoons
johnson's weedless spoons

Walleye:
Crawler harness (color?)
jigs (color)?
floating rapala/stick baits
shad raps

Smallmouth:
basic bass selection, downsized

whitefish:
a few small spinners/jigs/flies with bobbers, just in case we hit a mayfly hatch and they are hitting the top.

I personally would like to focus on pike, but very open to catching enough walleye to fry everyday.

Any help to narrow selection down to some basics that have consistently worked for you guys in the past would be appreciated.
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My moto when I fish Canada is get the groceries first, than have fun. In other words get your walleye for dinner, 2 17-20” walleye per person is usually what I figure, and then cast for pike and bass.

Walleyes in the spring is jig and minnow. Use as light of jig as possible. In a lake 1/4 or 3/8 oz should be plenty. Get stinger hooks for walleye who want to bite short. I use 3” Berkeley paddle tail minnows if I’m being lazy or cheap and don’t want to deal with live bait. A variety of colors is great, gold, pink, orange, chartreuse and combinations of those work great, but the hot color varies a lot from lake to lake like @Hunting Wife said.

For pike you could honestly just put a bigger plastic on your jig and catch pike casting to shorelines and shallow bays. But rapalas, flicker Shad’s, anything that imitates a baitfish will work.
 
1/4 to 3/8 oz jig with a 4” Bass Assassin sea shad will catch plenty of walleyes, pike, and bass for you. Real minnows are even better, but too expensive to bother with in Canada for me. A slip bobber and leech, as mentioned, is about as much fun as it gets. I can’t help with pike. As much as I try, I can’t seem to get away from them up there. You’ll get more than your share fishing walleyes and bass.

Have fun. I’m taking my 5 year old daughter on her first Canada fishing trip in 2 weeks. It’s a special place up there.
 
I fish up there a LOT. Your initial lure list is definitely on the right track. You need bite-off protection for pike- the black coated Berkeley Steelon 9" 30lb test are cheap but decent quality. Titanium leaders are awesome but $10 a pop. I'd add saftey pin style spinnerbaits to your list- I really like those spinner-jigs (like a big beetle spin, they market them for Redfish in Alabama)- June cabbage beds in an otherwise rocky lake can be fish magnets. The spinner jigs, slow rolled, are great for walleye too. If you're going in June, bring some topwater poppers/ etc for the smallmouth. Can be a lot fun (twitching floating rapalas on the surface will do about the same thing). My top 3 lures for your 3 species in order of most likely to be tied on my line in June: 1) soft plastic swimbait, 2) Rapala (shadrap if deeper, husky if mid range, floater if shallow, 3) Spinner-jig style spinnerbait.

If you're bringing live bait, a simple assortment of jigheads, spinner rigs, and bobbers will cover the bases. Bring more than you think you might need because when you're fishing in snaggy boulders and with pike biteoffs, you'll lose a lot.

Fire away more questions if you got em. I fish that area for those fish every June.
 
 
I’ve been up there a lot over the last 30 years or so but typically not as early are you are going. I just got back from Ontario about 2 weeks ago and by far our hottest set up was trolling Berkley flicker Shad’s. We did great with this set up for walleye and northern. The fish were kinda scattered in smaller schools so trolling was definitely the ticket for finding fish. I used to do a lot of Lindy rig fishing with live bait, but this year we went to drop shot method and it seemed to work well without loosing near as much tackle. I also like bigger swim baits for the northern. The single hook of a swim bait is so much easier to deal than treble hooks when you’re catching a lot northern. On a side note this was the first year I’ve ever used an all rubber landing net and that was a game changer for sure.
 
SaskHunter said:
Buddy over here preparing a fishing trip to Canada and his #1 item isn't even beer?!?!?!
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If you are a drinker or tobacco user bring all you can from the US. For alcohol it’s 1 case or 1 750ml bottle per person. For tobacco it’s 200 cigarettes or 200 grams of loose tobacco/chew. If you need more booze or smoke prepare to get bent over when you go to purchase it. A 12 pack of bud light at the lcbo in Sioux narrows where we go is like $25. Check your cc to see if they charge you for conversion of currency if you use your cc, most places will prefer you to pay in Us but won’t give you us currency back.
 
NoWiser said:
From what I’ve heard, if you get checked by a warden in Canada and are using minnows, you’d better have a receipt for them.
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I think if you are close to the border that is a big issue. We used to stay in the US but fish Canada on rainy lake before they changed the rules for bringing fish across the border and we made sure to have receipts for all bait. When I’ve been checked further into Canada they worry about alcohol, slot size and possession limit.
 
Gellar said:
I think if you are close to the border that is a big issue. We used to stay in the US but fish Canada on rainy lake before they changed the rules for bringing fish across the border and we made sure to have receipts for all bait. When I’ve been checked further into Canada they worry about alcohol, slot size and possession limit.
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We should be about 7 hours N of the border. Our cabin is only accessible by boat, so I expect anything we need will have to be packed in when we check in. Just hate to pay crazy prices for minnows we may or may not get around to using. I guess worms and leeches keep better, so they may be the best bet.
 
Foxtrot1 said:
We should be about 7 hours N of the border. Our cabin is only accessible by boat, so I expect anything we need will have to be packed in when we check in. Just hate to pay crazy prices for minnows we may or may not get around to using. I guess worms and leeches keep better, so they may be the best bet.
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You can try salted minnows or I often use a Berkeley paddle tail minnow on a jig successfully.
 
Unless you're fishing post front super picky walleyes, there is no need to fuss with live bait. Gulp worms, minnows, and leaches will go fish for fish (and very completely out-catch) with live bait. Plus, you can catch multiple fish on them before needing a new one.
I'd throw in an assortment of jig heads and plastics, along with some Husky Jerks and Original Floaters. Maybe a couple spoons if you're feeling wild. No need to reinvent the wheel.
If you really want you set yourself up for success, I'd look into a small portable depth finder set up. Something like a Helix 7 ice kit. That can be had during the right sale for about $450. You can team that up with an aftermarket transducer pole and you'll really be able to get a lot more out of your fishing. Also, having the navigational chart is nice for safety and being able to follow your own track if you plan on fishing near dark.
 
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