Walleye opener update

Just wanted to give everyone who is checking in a fishing update now that opening weekend for walleye has arrived.
I was out the past two days myself and overall did quite well. Saturday seemed a little slow, we ended up with 7 nice eating size walleye, about a dozen smaller ones we through back, half a dozen big smallies, and about 15 very aggressive pike in a little over half a day of fishing. The fish were scattered a bit, but we found a few almost everywhere we stopped.
One of our cabin groups was out lake trout fishing on Friday, and did very well, caught about 8 of them over 7 pounds, some being 9-10, and one approaching 15 lbs they released. They were relatively shallow yet, about 15-30 feet of water.
Sunday, the walleye picked up quite a bit. We were up on the floodwaters and landed approximately 25 walleye in about 3 hours of fishing, most of them being around the 15 inch range. We found that gold or brass spinner rigs with bottom bouncers, about 3/4 ounce were catching the most fish, sticking in a about 12-15 foot of water near spawning areas. The big females are just off spawn, and are a little dormant yet, but anticipate them starting to feed within the next 1-2 weeks. June should be quite good as the weather has been quite stable for most of May.
One of our other groups on the floods did quite well too, once they found the fish. They landed about 30 nice walleye in a few hours time.
The big smallmouth seem to be moving in to the shallows in most of the lakes feeding for prespawn. All of June should be very good for the smallies.
The water levels are normal or just a bit higher than normal.
I will post again towards mid June for another update.
Good Fishing until then!

ICE OUT 2011!!!

Officially the ice went out on Crystal on the evening of May 7, totally all out on May 8. That is quite a bit later , actually one full month, over last year, but it is the start of a normal spring anyway.
Not a lot of fisherman coming through yet, but a few early anglers were out this past weekend, catching some lake trout on our lake, along with some huge smallies, and another group did good on another local lake just 10 minutes down the road. The lake trout should bite good until late June in fairly shallow water.
We are planning to put the docks in this week sometime, and get the camp officially opened all the way up for the season within a week. We look forward to all guests arriving for the upcoming season. I will try to keep posting fishing updates for the less fortunate who can't take off all summer to be here, but don't worry, I will do my best to catch a few extra walleye to cover for all who are missing out!!!
Good fishing,
Jody

Early May update 2011

Just wanted to put in a quick early May update for all who are checking in periodically. It is the 2nd of May and Crystal is still totally covered with ice, however, some small pockets just started opening up today. I am guessing the ice should be out by the end of this week, or mostly out anyway. That is pretty close to a normal year, as last year was an exception with it being out by April 6 on our lake. Some of the smaller nearby lakes just went out today, or nearly out.
We do have a couple guys staying in a cabin and were on a local lake where they could cast to the edge of the ice and did manage to land a 7 lb laker, in less than 5 foot of water. Also, they landed two nice pike, one just over the slot and one in it. Not bad considering the wind was blowing about 25 mph today and it snowed a good portion of the day with highs in the low 40's! This week we are supposed to see the sun come out though, so that should dissipate the ice quickly. At least the snow has all gone away now with the exception of a few small piles where we plowed.
Water levels are looking good going into the spring season, and with good luck the walleye should bite as good as they did last year. I will put another update in toward the end of the month for all the June guests coming up, hopefully it should be filled with walleye stories!
good fishing
Jody

April Update 2011

Well, winter was almost over up until two days ago when we got dumped on by 6-10 inches of snow! Green grass was showing almost everywhere, and the lakes were just starting to get unsafe to travel on until winter decided to set back in. Everything is blanketed in white and it still looks like the dead of winter as of today. Hopefully, by the end of the week, the snow melts and we get back on track to getting to the open water season again.
We had a good turnout for spring ice fisherman overall. Caught some nice pike with the largest being 43" this winter, some nice walleye when they did decide to bite. Some days were a little tougher than others, but we did have a few days of walleye catches around 30-40 fish. Some nice 5-6lbers were caught and released. The weather and wind was changing a lot so we didn't really get into some good steady bites as every second day it seemed like we would have a different wind. This is kind of the reports I have heard across Northwest Ontario, with the fish bite being unpredictable and turning on and off regularly.
Trout were overall pretty steady. We did have numerous days where we would get catches of 10-20 lakers per group. Lots of fish being marked on the sonars, (vexilars/marcums), but many of them were lookers chasing the lures but not taking as often as we fisherman would like to see! Some nice fish up to 10 pounds were caught and released again this spring.
On to better news, walleye opener is only about a month away and it is looking like we will be having another pretty good season. June is almost booked full, with a very limited number of cabin openings, and July and August are starting to pick up. If there is any certain week anyone is interested in coming, please let us know and we can sketch you down to hold it. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing all the regular guests along with some new ones to start rolling in towards the third Saturday in May. Travel safe this summer and if you have any questions pertaining to anything about a trip, please just email or call and we will be glad to answer them!
Good Fishing,
Jody and Tonya

Late Winter Update

This winter has been a little tougher than some of the recently past ones. We had a lot of snow early, and then the cold weather came. We are thinking ice out will be in early May as opposed to the super early ice out last spring in early April. I guess with all the snow we do have on the ground, there should be a good run-off amount to fill the lakes and rivers right away this spring so we won't be dealing with the ridiculously low water levels we had last year. It took half the year last summer to bring water levels up to normal.
Ice fishing is starting to pick up a bit now. The walleyes are slowly biting more and more steady as spring approaches. We have caught some nice pike, no huge ones yet, but really haven't fished for them too seriously yet. March is the time for that. Lake trout have been good and steady. They usually continue pretty good right through into early April, and sometimes the bite even picks up later March.
Ice conditions right now, as of March 3, are very good. You can go anywhere with a snowmobile with no slush concerns. I am sure we will hit a short period in later March where it does get a bit nasty though, as always. About 20-24 inches of ice on most our area lakes.
Our summer fisherman have been making reservations quite steady for 2011, so if anyone has any dates in mind, they may want to contact us as soon as possible to be assured specified dates. We already have a few weeks throughout the summer that all cabins are booked full.
Summer is just around the corner, we are looking forward to seeing all our return and new guests in the upcoming 2011 summer season!! Good Fishing to all!!
Jody and Tonya

Happy Holidays

Just a quick note to give a quick update on what has been happening.
We made it through November, having a decent hunting season this year. We shot a few real nice bucks and some of our hunters did miss some real nice deer. We have some new photos posted on our site at www.ontariofishingresort.org under the deer hunting. Still have a friend who has a couple tags left and I plan to go out tomorrow morning and do a little more hunting here in December to finish up the year.
All the smaller lakes have froze over, ours is almost ready to freeze over with ice forming all around the shore lines. It has been cold enough, but the deep trout lakes are always the last to freeze over here in December. Has been snowing a lot lately, about 2 feet or so on the ground right now. We already have had to plow snow more often than all last winter combined.
We would like to wish all our guests Happy Holidays moving on into the Christmas season and look forward to seeing most of you again this new year.
Jody and Tonya

End of year report!!

Well, this year went by real fast again. The season is already over and we are looking toward the ice fishing season to begin in a couple of months already. We would like to thank all of our guests from this season. We had another busy summer and appreciate all our guests new and old. One of the highlights for me this past summer was being able to fish in the Atikokan Bass Classic tournament with a friend of mine from Eau Claire Wi. Austin was also in the tournament and fished with his grandpa, which I think was his highlight of his summer vacation as well. We had a great time and are looking forward to fish in it next summer as well. If any of our bass fishing fanatic guests are interested in fishing it, get in touch with us and we can get you all the information you need. It is a great time, and a chance to pay for your vacation while you are here!! It is around the second week of August.
Our last group of moose hunters left this past week and now we only have one more group of whitetail hunters coming up from southern Wisconsin to finish up the season. Our hunters did manage to harvest a couple nice bulls, and one of our archery groups arrowed a large cow as well.
Fishing this year overall was very good. We had a couple weeks where it got to be hit and miss due to changing wind conditions, but everyone still caught fish. This past spring was one of our best ever, probably due to the early ice out and fast warm up we had. We are hoping for another good spring next season.
Lake trout season opens in January, and can be good throughout the winter. If anyone is considering an adventurous ice fishing trip, I would recommend March and early April for the best big pike and walleye action. Unfortunately, we had to cancel a couple of trips from last April due to early ice out condtions. Generally, we can always fish the first week of April, and usually well into the second week.
We wish everyone good luck going into the holidays and good fishing all the time!!!
Jody and Tonya