Lake Whitefish Camp-out

 In October of this year, Alex and I made our way out to Ontario to fish for some Lake Whitefish at a lake one of my co-workers had been telling me about all summer. We left early in the morning, picked up a canoe at Alex's sister's, and finally got to the lake around 14:00. We were late but the water conditions were perfect and we couldn't wait to get out on the water.

We launched the canoe and paddled out to find our friends. I cast out a spinner to try trolling our way out, but only saw some small perch that weren't interested. We met our friends at the far end of the lake, and quickly made the decision to spend the night at an awesome campsite they found. Unfortunately, that meant paddling all the way back to the car to get our gear for the night. We did see an otter on the way though!

North American River Otter

After returning to the car and getting back to the campsite, it was finally time to fish! We paddled out to a fishy area and casted out some small jigs for the whitefish. The fishing was slow, we saw a couple fish surface but saw no action on the end of our lines. After about an hour, I felt a small tap but missed the hookset. The bite was so light, it could very well have been some debris on the bottom. Just in case, I cast back to the same area and began slowly dragging the jig on the bottom, and... fish on! It was a spirited fight on my ultralight setup, but I got the best of it in the end :)

Lake Whitefish

We fished a while longer, but that would be the only fish of the evening; the whitefish bite just wasn't happening today. We returned to the campsite, enjoyed some nice sausages and beers around the fire, and went to bed.

It rained a bit overnight, but not enough to completely soak our gear. We woke up bright and early, to make time for the day's plans. We fished a bit on the way out, but didn't catch anything for our efforts. The rest of the weekend was spent exploring the backwoods looking for waterfalls, abandoned mines, and those great Canadian fall views.