I will be heading this direction next weekend, just wondering how the trips have been for anyone to this area. Any fish in Crotch, there is supposed to be trout but I have never caught any. Same goes for Ryan Lake with the Splake. I will probably camp at Shirley.

You might find some reading of interest by checking under the "Trip Logs" tab on the homepage.

http://www.algonquinadventures.com/triplogs/TripLogsIndex.htm




Barbara

I did Ryan L last October. It's very heavily fished from what I understand and saw -- lots of leftover frying pans at the campsites. No campsite is particularly nice, either -- many do not have good canoe landings. I would recommend the island site, but you will have to get wood from land. If you are looking towards shore from the landing of the campsite, you will see a "break" in the woods across the lake. It leads to another lake and a logging road, with quite a good supply of fallen trees and other firewood. Depends how much energy you want to put into your wood run, though.

I made off with two splake, one maybe 2lbs at best and the other smaller pan-size. They hit pretty well in the evenings... took me a while to figure that out, though.

I have been to Ryan Lake last spring, exactly one year ago, did not catch anything, and I invested lots of rod hours. Was overcast and raining most of the time, maybe had something to do with it. I couldn't believe that I did not catch anything as the MNR have stocked the lake with thousands of Splake,,it seems like the splake is not working out. Unless it gets heavily fished because people are aware of the stocking.I just saw a picture of a Pike caught in crotch, I don't think there would be trout in there, unless anyone can tell me otherwise.

It's pretty easy to be aware of the lakes that are stocked in Algonquin, since they publish the list and amounts right there on the website:

http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/nature/fish.html

The point of stocking in Algonquin, from what I can see, is to provide some easy put-and-take fish within easy reach for people, not for the possibility of the fish reproducing and creating a stable population.

Especially true for splake...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splake




Barbara

Hey everyone here's some info on a few of the lakes your talking about right now:

Crotch: big lakers are still healthy there and caugh with decent consistency in the spring but very, very few people know where or how to get them. This is a tough laker lake. There is one or two main areas to troll and the trout focus on a specific speed and presentation.

Ryan: Everyone doubting Ryan Lake, here's the skinny:

THIS IS THE HEAVIEST SOTOCKED LAKE IN ALGONQUIN PARK.

This lake is just plain and simple good, if you're not catching, it's just be bad timing, or just not the right presentation (lure/speed/depth). There definitley in there!

See you on the water!

Jason
Algonquin Bound Outfitters

Ryan is great, but knowing where is key. Since they stock the crap out of it, I dont mind telling you. The 1st bay as you come out of the put-in is full of them. Camp at 1st campsite if you can and you can catch them from shore all day. They are about 2-3 off bottom, 15 feet deep or so. I use an orange Weaver Grabber, let it sink 10 seconds, then slow retrieve with twitching. There is fallen trees in there so be careful. There are also a few rocky shoals near the middle of the lake where trolling a blue countdown rapala will work. The 1st small rocky island on the lake has fish around it also. The very last bay is good for spotting moose at 1st light.