Algonquin Spring Fishing

May 9 - 13, 2005

Trip Reports

Algonquin Spring Fishing 2005

Trip Preparation
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
What worked well
Lessons Learned

Frontenac Provincial Park

Petawawa River

Day Two

This was a pretty slow day, although the weather was beautiful. We decided to head off and fish Clydegale for the day. We usually cut across Clydegale and work our way up the Madawaska river to eat lunch in the sun and out of the wind for one day of the trip, but this time we chose to fish the whole lake. The fact that it was warm, sunny and calm was a pretty good reason for a change of pace.

Before heading across the portage to Clydegale we spent a bit of time fishing at the bottom of the rapids. I caught one brook trout that was maybe 10" long on a minnow head Rapala spinner. The spinner was one of the newer ones with holographic coloring. I then promptly snagged and lost the lure on the very next cast. I'll count that sequence as a tie - 1 point to me and 1 point to the fish.

Well in the 3 years before that I've fished Clydegale, about the only fish I've seen caught in the lake has been a perch. Now it was a good sized perch, but still not what you are after on a trout trip. Nor is it a good catch ratio to catch 1 perch in 3 years with an average of 6 guys fishing each time. So this year was no better, between the 4 guys in two canoes we didn't even have a nibble all day.

Despite the slow fishing it was still a beautiful day. We paddled down the north arm of the lake, and stopped for lunch at the campsite on the northwest shore just around the corner of the east-west arm of the lake, pretty much straight across from the where the South Madawaska river flows into the lake.

BUT we saw a cow moose swim out to the big island, she then came back down to the water to get a better look at us. She may have been pregnant which would be consistent with her heading to the island since moose prefer to calve on islands for a bit of added protection, not sure though since she didn't look huge the way you would expect her too. That encounter alone was worth its weight in gold.

After watching the moose for a while, and having her watch us, we moved on down to the bottom of the lake and went for a bit of a ramble up the shore looking for a pond that showed on the map. I don't think that we actually got as far as the pond, but we did find a neat little waterfall along the way.

This was the night that Art and Jack were paddling in to join us for a couple of days. Fortunately it was a calm, quiet night as they didn't arrive until after dark. It was important that they make it in since Art was bringing the steaks for Tuesday's dinner!

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