Its been a long and cold winter and now that the ice has subsided and finally gave way to explore the Algonquin interior once again I jumped at the opportunity!
Truth be told I have been anticipating this trip since the day I left the shade of her pines last year, and it once again left me both satisfied and of course wanting more.

Our journey began in Kitchener at 4aman awful hour to be up, but its a necessity to be on the road this early in order to make it to our destination with enough light to make camp. With 6.5 hours drive time and and 7 hours paddle/portaging to go we had to hustle to make camp if we wanted time to set up, and collect wood before dark.

The trip started great as we had an easy cruise along the roads until about 7am when we came across an accidentand older couple had hit a large bull Moose. We stopped to make sure they were ok, and they were, but their car was a wreck. Surprisingly in the fashion of urban.or is it rural legend the Moose walked away!!! There was no blood on the scene and the Bull apparently fell over onto the car as it stopped crushing the windshield, hood, and part of the roof and got up a might bit angry as it then proceeded to ram and kick another car who stopped to see the spectacle before taking off into the woods.
The accident happened out of cell phone range, so we gladly drove ahead and called the police before continuing on our way.I hoped the good Karma would come around later on the trip.

We set sail on time into a beautiful sunny, and blissfully calm morningnot a ripple on the water.
We roared through the first few lakes, and portages with a head full of steam, but quickly lost speed once we hit the big portage.Weve been there before, and its a monster so we knew what we were in for.
Its not the longest Ive ran, but it is by far the toughest Ive encountered to date. It starts with a good 90 climb over uneven rocks, and loose gravel, with no real definition to lead you in any one clear direction so all you can do it continue along checking for cut branches to lead you on for next kilometre as you rise 190 from end to end.

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The trail is just a nasty series of hills that kicks you in the teeth pretty goodbut its fun I suppose. Now in fairness Im not a light travelerwe like our beer, so we were definitely carrying a lot more weight then most would dare, so I suppose the portage could have been a bit easier.
Every portage was grid locked when we hit the end :whistling:

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But as far as I was concerned the pain would be worth having cold brews later and the thought of some celebratory beers complimented with fresh trout kept us trudging ahead.

Surprisingly we made camp 1.5 hours earlier then expected!
This year My Cousin and his young son were sadly unable to make the trip so it seemed not having a youngster needing a few breaks here and there, and the perfect weather sped us up considerably.
We quickly got to work taking advantage of our early arrival, and set up camp.
Tents were popped up, wood was collected by the cord it seemed.
We set up a 30x 30 tarp with a center pole(big top style), and pumped our selves a 5 gallons of fresh water from the Katadyn filter, and made some dinner all before dark!!!
Several small annoyances came to light at that point.
Last year on this same site we had erected a camp table with logs, stones and the top of an old Thunder box we had found.it was no longer there?
It appears some lazy folk thought it would be easy fire wood I suppose..It was probably the same lazy buggers who left a Garbage bag of tin cans, and other crap tossed in the bushes!
I was pretty pissed off by this display of idiocy but as luck would have it, one of our party found yet Another 2 Thunder box lids while searching for fire woodit seemed Karma had come back around.
So we re-erected a new table and this one would be even better then the old one!

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We also made a cleaning table for the fish we hoped would come later out of the second lid.

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So I suppose we came out ahead after alland of course we burnt the left over garbage and packed out the tin cans left behind by the pigs who stayed there opening weekend.
(I hoped the good Karma would come back around to us yet again)
The night came fast, the beers flowed cold, and sleep came very easy under our tarp now complete with a lantern hanger :canadian:

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Day 2 was another beauty!
The morning was calm and clear and we hit the water around 8am.

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I was running a very small silver blue fox vibrato, and my Partner was running a silver and black original Floating Rapalait didnt take long to find a groove.
Right off the bat My brother nailed a healthy 17.5 speck, only to be followed up with another 15 minutes later and then it went Quiet.very quiet.
The wind picked up a bit, and got the trees moving a bit which was fine, but it just wouldnt stay consistent. I dont know how you all feel about it, but variable winds in a canoe is the equivalent of nails on a chalk board to me.its nearly impossible to set up a drift, so the constant correcting was driving me nuts!!!

So we packed it in for the afternoon and decided to wait for it to calm down a bit, and maybe enjoy a few malt beverages. Back at camp the other guys began to check in one by one, and as it turns out they had caught a few fish as well in the 16-17 range as well, but as fate would have it all were caught right off the bat shortly after sunrise, then the Bite went cold on them as wellIt seems the early birds were catching and the late comers were left fishless.
After dinner we headed out again, and managed another 2 fish for our canoe, and a few more were caught by the boys as wellonly 4 were kept while another 6 were released to swim.
Here are some of the fish that day,

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So now of course I got to work and earned my place in camp.
I cleaned the fish up on our cleaning board, and fired up the Coleman for our first official trout frymmmmm
what beautiful red flesh!

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That night we swapped info around the fire, and this is what we discovered.
All fish caught were no less then 15 and no more then 17.5
All fish were caught on silver coloured spinners or Black and silver Rapala.
All fish were caught between 8-9am and 8pm all fish came off shoals or boulders in 10-12 of water
Not one fish was pulled out of the wood. Water temps were 51 at the surface, and the fish were loaded with dragan fly nymph, & leeches.this was polar opposite of last year?
If any of you recall last year most of our fish were pulled from the wood, and chalked full of stone flies?
But then again water temps were warmer, and the fish were way less active this year it seemed

Day 3 was a carbon copy weather wise but the winds were much stronger.
We trolled a lot, and our fish count was downthey were not active on the shoals, and casting the shore structure was tough while being blown down the lake. The wind was seriously strong at times.I can recall a few times paddle trolling when the wind not only stopped us dead, but also pushed us backwards!
After a fishless morning we decided to hike to a nearby lake for some recon.
The lake I was looking for was about 2.5km from camp, but had no portages so I decided to just check it out for future reference and leave the gear behind.
A couple of the boys joined me, and we headed on our merry way.
We traversed a few large hills like this,

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and at one point found myself standing on the ridge of a 40 cliff, with a view to die for.unfortunately my Batteries died(never by no name batteries for your camerathey suck)
But some of the boys took pictures and forwarded them to me luckily

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When we finally made it to the lake I was a bit disappointed.I could not find any minnows, leeches or crawfish. My guess is this lake does not contain any fish.there was significant depth, and a lot of bugs, but the absence of bait fish has me sceptical. Either way the walk was fun, and it was a pretty little lake.

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These May flys(Hendrickson I think?)
Were beginning to Emerge.very cool thing to watch them molt!!!
It literally only takes 30 second to a minute to watch them transform and fly away.

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We also found countless deer, moose and wolf tracks, and found some bones left from a kill.
More then likely a Moose calf, as it was to small for a full grown adult and way to large to be deer bones.

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One neat find was a couple of fresh bear tracks and droppings as well.
(little did we know how significant that would be later.)
Also the old growth was just awesome, Some of these trees were just HUGE!!!

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We made our way back and fished a bit more that night despite the fact it never did calm down.
As our luck would have it we ended up catching another 3 fish that evening on the Rapalas during a troll.

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This last one I caught was the laugh of the tripwe called it the football LOL!
It was only 14 long but had an 11.25 girth!

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This fish had a serious weight problem so I prepared him the way he would have wanted to go
in a rich onion infused butter poach mmmmm..LOL!

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We only kept 2 that night as they were both wounded pretty badthe fat bugger literally took the entire Rapala in, and was bleeding like the pig he was.he had a zero change of survival.
That night we settled in, and played some cards under the tarp as the rain had finally caught up to us.
So we drank our heavy yet delicious beer and talked until midnight or so and retired for the night.
Only to be woke a few hours later by some strange grunting, and sniffing!
It took me a minute to know what was happeningWe had a bear in camp!!!!
Luckily he only grazed though sniffing the tents(filled with people smelling of fish) and took off once some of the boys began to panic and yelled out a bunch or expletives that went a little like
oh my God.what the %&* is that out side my tent!!!!

Day 4 was windyagain
But the skies also threatened rain today so we dawned the rain gear and headed out.

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Some of crew was still fishless so we made the decision to try a 3rd nearby lake.
It was a bit larger, and deeper which we hoped would be cooler, and potentially have some more active fish.
It certainly was cooler and actually still had a bit of ice in the shady areas around shore.

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This lake proved to be on fire
Spinners, jigs, Rapalas, pretty much anything you could cast and retrieve was pulling in fish.
The lake produced an additional 16 fish that day all 15-17
Surface temps were 48 degrees in this lake and fish came predominantly of sharp cliff walls, and boulders in particular.and they hit like freight trains!
What a change between these 2 lakes?
We literally more then doubled our fish count in a matter of 5 hours.
Im not 100% sure if the fish were on because of the cooler temps, or if the passing warm front had anything to do with it but later on when cleaning the 5 fish kept there stomach contents revealed nothing
These fish had no more then 2 or 3 stone flies, or a passing dragon fly nymph in their bellies?
Not sure why they were not eating, or why they turned on so suddenly, but Im glad they did so I wont question it!!!

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Thats about it.
We headed out early the next morning, and once again.battled the wind.
The last big lake was a bit treacherous in the wind as the white caps washed over the sides of the canoe a few times, but over all the blue skies made for an uneventful exit to my favourite place on earth!

Now Im relaxed, sunburnt, sore, well fed, and back to workboo!!!!

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Cheers,

Boy, you got a healthy dose of Omega-3 on that trip. Thanks for the report and pics Cookslav.

Harry

I'm gonna pipe in and say that the lake looks awfully small for the number and sizes of fish kept. Obviously cookslav and co are not the only fishermen there either.

PS I see the fish being skinned. All the flavour is in the skin.

Hey Cookslav,

Well done! I am heading in tomorrow ( about 6 hours to go) so this will be my last post for two weeks. I understand and appreciate the fact you did not mention the lakes. I do have a question that is totally up to you if you want to answer.

The fact that most of the fish were in the same size bracket and many of them looked a little different from the specs we have caught in smaller lakes makes me wonder if this a stocked lake or are those "au naturel" specks. When I say different, I am talking about body shape, tail shape and colour, which all could be attributed to different waters than the ones we have fished.

Either way, looks like you had a hell of trip. Thank you for the "trailer" before our big show.

Coach

nice trip log!!!!

I hope I have the same kind of luck with the fish this coming weekend

Nicely Done! Thanks for the log and pics..

"I'm gonna pipe in and say that the lake looks awfully small for the number and sizes of fish kept"
I'm not going to go into specific detail on which lake"S" Were fished in the very interst of your concern(conservation I'm assuming)
Rest assured The 11 "mortaly wounded" fish we kept out of the 36 we caught between 10 guys on several lakes over a 5 day stretch on our once a year trip won't hurt the lakes we hit.
I'm aware other people fish these lakes as well, but I don't see them being hit very hard based on its location, and accessability not to mention the fact these lakes slow down considerably as the temp rises through out the summer.
But,
For the record I usualy switch our area up every 2 years for just such reasons as well...
If you recall last years opening report I posted it was specks we were catching, but the 2 years prior my spring report was Splake, the year before that was Lakers...thats when I started posting here. Next years trip will be yet another new spot to give this one a rest.
I've been fishing my entire life, and know the importance of conservation.
And the truth is I go to the park to fish, and enjoy a fry...
We pinched our barbs, and tried to not to use a net when it was not needed.
I practice catch and release all year every year...but sometimes you gotta keep 'em
Either way While in the park for my spring trip I like to keep one here and there for the fry and plan to do so atleast once each year...
Its all part of the experience IMO, and well with in my right as an angler.
I kept only one fish on this trip...the football whom inhaled my lure unfortunatly.
Beleive me I would have much rather kept one of the 17" fish I caught.
I do however appreciate your concern for the conservation of these lakes, and rest assured I share your veiw.


Hey Coach,
Truth be told it was kinda odd to see them all in that 15-17" medium, but we did have some much smaller shakers and We did have 2 monsters in that 19-20" range lost at the boat side unfortunatly
Its just a bit of fluke that the fish caught were similar in size I guess?
Not stocked fish though
Cheers,

Cookslav,

As I said the lake looks small. Park lakes are only said to produce 1 lb /hectare of lake surface. I'd say your group catch alone meets or exceeds that. In any case giving the lake a 'rest' year says the lake is being overfished. Who's supposed to fish it in that year ? Me ? What makes you think the new lake you choose isn't someone else's 'rest' year lake ? .
Nice to hear you only keep wounded fish. But 1/3 wounded sounds high. Are you still using the trebles on those rapalas ? If so how about reducing it to a single hook ?
On my last tandem trip , two of us caught about 25 specks. I recall maybe only one had to be kept due to wounding. Not a single fish reached 16" .
I've posted here before that these large group trips where only a few fish per man are kept are hurting the fishery. Everyone thinks its only my annual group trip that's hitting a lake. Of course who doesn't mind a good fish feed ,but soon we'll be choosing between that luxury and catching anything at all. If we don't limit our catch the park soon will.
It may only be my park ethic ,but I release fish so often as to make sure the next guy , can come the same year or next and enjoy the same potential catch I had.

This is ridiculous. The man obviously has sincere efforts towards conservation. In fact, to even quote numbers on the fly and supply them as "proof" is more than expected, IMO, as he could have not told us anything. Hiding lake names, justifying his kept fish, giving a history of his travels -- this is the kind of fisherman that should be congratulated and not put down =/

Thanks for sharing the triplog, glad to hear it was a success.

Bryce,

Sincere efforts in your opinion maybe.That's the purpose of my post. Let's hash out what's sufficently sincere these days. One only wonders how many members find it taboo now to post how many and the sizes of fish they are keeping on their trips.
You didn't mention the lb/hectare rule. Let's have cookslav estimate the size of that lake. His pics allow us to estimate the weight of those speckles. He's cutting into the reproductive stock of the lake and you know it. So does he. Hence the 'rest' time. How many fisherman can the park support in this manner ?

I fish catch and release with dynamite. We only keep the wounded ones.

We often target the things that are easiets to target. Like people overfishing or taking too much via the rules. Logging roads impact spawning grounds, native fishing and hunting rights, netting has claimed lakes like stringer and more I imagine, global warming, acid rain, pollution are other things harder to target. Ive seen people take full limits out of areas to return the next day to start all over.

I practice catch and release always, Ive kept a handful of fish from Algonquin over the last 10 years. Mostly for people in my party but only one ever at a time. That is my choice and for me the thrill is in the fight. We can only speculate as to which lakes where fished and how many fish came from each. So I find it hard to be to hard on cookslav, a party of 10 is a big group. 5 fish would be sufficient for one meal in a group that large.

The one thing I would suggest is to rethink the size of your hooks, if that many fish are being injured they may be too small and a little larger hook may prevent those injuries. You may not catch as many but hey its a thought if you where concerned. I echo the comment on removing hooks from Rapalas as well.

The lakes in Algonquin are very special as each holds its own slightly special genetic breed of fish. Isolation and gentic drfit causes this. Out of that very few are breeding stock and I know it is a percentage but cant remember the number.

It is up to us to protect the waters of Algonquin from overfishing. With all the pressure the park receives, our individual actions do make a difference. This is the only factor us as individuals can control.

Anon,
Your making a lot of Assumptions
I'm not going into detail with regards to the Lakes any further for obvious reasons but I'll speak to these points.

"As I said the lake looks small. Park lakes are only said to produce 1 lb /hectare of lake surface"

Thats an odd calculation by any standard?
I'd like the source for a quick read if you don't mind supplying it?
I would have to say I challenge that information....
By that equasion a 1 square kilometer lake will only produce 100 single one pound trout, or 50 2 lb trout?
Considering I've fished ponds and creeks that hold healthy populations I'd be inclined to say that math is a bit tainted?
I'd be inclinded to say populationa are subjective to things more important to survival such as forage & habitat like depth, cover, water conditions, pressure, preditors and even the strain of trout.

Geeze if that math is correct I can say with certainty one lake/pond I fished in the past I must have litteraly caught 90-100%% of the fish that inhabit the lake LOL!

Also,
You seemed to have missed a crucial point so I'll point out the "S" after the word lake...its plural. We fished several lakes, not one, and I assure you that although one was smaller the other lake was actualy of a fair size.
Also to further defend myself, I kept ONE fish...A badly injured 14" speckled trout.
The others kept were kept by OTHER anglers.
Only one person on the trip kept 2 fish over the entire trip...one was caught on day one, the other day 3.
To answer your query on Lure choice,
The rapalas were indeed modified to one singe tail treble with the center hook cut out.
Call it what you will, but my party is also my family....5 brothers, my Dad, my Uncle, 2 cousins, and me. Its no different then you fishing with your family, and sharing the lake with another Family who fishes.
We all fish, we all exersise conservation, and we all enjoy our fishing together in the park, and have been doing so for years.
We all pay for our time to be there, we follow the rules, we pay for our licenses, we belong to OFAH, we fill out the surveys and we ALL contribute the fishery more then the average family...gaurenteed.

Sometimes Sh*t happens...
I have no idea of your age or experience in fishing Anon but I've been fishing a long time, I'm not new to this, and I know that sometimes they hit hard, and sh*t happend
I fish on the fly as well, and have seen fatal hook ups on the fly...
It happens.
The gill structure of Speckled trout in particular are fragil, and the lower inside gills can often be the recipient of a stray hook, be it a fly, or lure.

I actually worked with my fly rod for a while but the wind that week was brutal...it wasn't what the fish were on, and I couldn't control my presentation.
I fish to catch, and I use whats working, cycling through my gear to find out whats hot.
I suppose I could fish with soft chewing gum, and good intentions but that doesn't put fish in The boat, and frankly is a bit upsurd.
Fishing doesn't come with a release Gaurentee....

"He's cutting into the reproductive stock of the lake and you know it. So does he."
Actually Yes...to a point
But Anon...its the same ANYWERE you fish, not just Algonquin Park.
Keeping fish anywere is cutting into reproductive stock.
and for the record don't put words in my mouth...
I never said I give the lakes a rest???
I said "for the record I switch it up every 2 years"....
I do that to keep things interesting, but I thought I'd sharing the fact that I move around would calm your concerns for those "particular lakes"

But if it makes you feel any better, brook trout commonly live 3-5 years of Age, and reach sexual Maturity in there first year...so giving a lake 2 years to recover actually does a lot of good to recover a lake(although I've not been back a any lake I've fished twice as of yet)
And honestly I don't think a 70% release rate for Speckled trout between SEVERAL lakes is all that bad?

Why on earth I'm even bothering to defend My position is beyond me?

By the Way thanks Bryce,
I thought sharing my report would be a nice contribution to the board.
I didn't realize My love and success of fishing the park would be seen as detrimental to the population of Algonquins beloved Speckled trout.

Again,
I am very versed, and experienced as an angler, and besides the Fact that I was intentionally trying to impale thses fish onto a hook and retrieve them from the water against their will...I take every precaution to "limit" their injury, but Sh*t happens.

"The one thing I would suggest is to rethink the size of your hooks, if that many fish are being injured they may be too small and a little larger hook may prevent those injuries."

Absolutely,

The issue though beleive it or not...
Was the size of the lure, and the way they were hitting on Saturday...
We were doing our best to mimic the local bait fish populations, which were 1" minnows.
The closest I could get to that imitation was a 2" origional.

Its actually a good thing I didn't have something Smaller as they were inhaling the lures deep.
a smaller lure may have actually contributed to the fish taking it even deeper, and us having more casualties.
We removed the Body hooks as most times its the tail stinger that takes...unfortunatly sometimes the best laid plans fail.

The big haul came on the Saturday...
Thats when we had some issues, why on earth they came on so strong and with such intensity Saturday is beyond me, but I'm guessing the empty stomachs, and the passing front whipped them into a frenzie...also as a side note I said in the report, we switched up to a ton of differnt lures that day once we realized how loose the bite was which included single hooked Plastics, and small inline spinners.

To be honest there is a TON of detail left out of the report because it didn't seem to be important until Anon took offence to the fish being kept.

Thanks,
I appreciate the content of your post.

Why on earth I'm even bothering to defend My position is beyond me? thats the question I wanted to know lol


anyways keep up the great trip logs and pics

It's that kind of anonymous trolling that can kill a message board.

Ignore it, cookslav. Your contributions to this forum over the years is much appreciated.

Cookslav has absolutely no reason to "defend" himself here, or on any other forum.

One of the traditions I have is reading cookslav's spring APP fishing report. I hope that tradition will continue.




Barbara

Cookslav,

Check the 'Fishing In Algonquin Park' booklet that shows which species are in what lakes. In my old edition ( 85 ) it says max production per hectare is 560 gms. The author is Dan Strickland.
Also note this number means this is what the lake can produce in a year.Doesn't mean there isn't more than that poundage/hectare in the lake.
And for those who are asking why respond to this post ? The answer is simple. If someone doesn't refute the accusation then they must admit to themselves they are hurting the fishery. I'm not a biologist but I don't think that a 30% kill rate of big spawners is sustainable. Atr the minimum it reduces the number of trophy fish available for everyone.
I've been fishing the park for over 25 yrs and I don't know of a single lake I've fished where the fishing has improved over that time. But we all know that the limits have been drastically reduced over that time .Hmm wonder why ?
If you're still using even a single set of trebles, you're going to have extraction problems. And I don't understand why the fish are taking these plugs so deep. I use ultalight spinners and don't have that problem and when I do , I use side cutters to cut the hooks. Single hooks mean I may lose the odd fish -but I pay that price. I don't need that fish fry that badly . Certainly don't keep specks over 15" . That should be made a voluntary guidline here. I haven't caught a 19 " speckle in over 5 yrs. How many AA'ers can say they have ?
It's been said before , but people are loving Algonquin to death.

Thanks Barbra, and Edge I appreciate the Kind words.
And have no fear I most certainly will continue my reports

I'm not going to defend my position any more, as I feel well supported, and know what I'm doing(most of the time...LOL!)
But before I do,
This line deserves a response as it touches on a common misconception of how to keep a sustainable fishery.

"I'm not a biologist but I don't think that a 30% kill rate of big spawners is sustainable"

Just for the record I prefer the metrics of a 70% "release rate"
(I'm a glass half full kind of Guy)
But seriously,
Speckled trout begin spawing as early as one year in age and on average live to be 3-6 years in age.(there are of course exceptions)
Knowing this,
A Speck in the 17" range is more then likely 4+ years of age...she's already reproduced 4 times over, and may or may not ever spawn again.
If you decide to keep your fish...
Are you better off keeping young fish that have many years left to spawn and populate our lakes, or is it better to keep older fish that may be potentially past sexual maturity?
So simply put,
Older Mature fish have done there duty and as far as nature is concerned, and their genes are already spread through out the lake and unfortunatly are now only takeing from the forage base that supports the new generation they spawned.
The MNR feels the same way hence minimum length requirements, and slot sizes in some fisherys.
You be the judge, but I know how I feel about it...You shouldn't need to be a Biologist to understand the logic.

The old ways were let the big girls swim, and keep the little guys...I know thats how My Dad used to be, but....The times, they are a changing!
Research shows keeping the juvies is much worse for the long term state of a fishery.

Cheers,

Cookslav,

Before I buy into your keep the bigger fish theory I'd like to hear it from a fisheries biologist. There is the logic that you want the genetics of the big fish passed on , even if their reproductive life is not as long as a younger fish. That young fish may not have the big fish genetics. Plus bigger fish lay more eggs than smaller ones. I'll look into it more,but me thinks you are on thin ice with this theory. From my recollection slot limits would protect the sizes of fish you're keeping.
In any case have no fear , there are guys keeping everything. Between your 'better' fishing techniques getting the bigger ones and some other duffous keeping the smaller ones -what's left?


PS I take it you haven't checked the guide on the production rates of lakes. I'd like your opinion on fishery research already 25+ yrs old.

Dude, chill.

So he ate some fish. Go back and read some of the older posts. Eleven is a drop in the bucket compared to what people used to take not that long ago. If you feel this strongly about it, write the ONR and have them lower the creel limit. Harassing Cookslav is just going to make him less likely to post here, not less likely to fish.

Cookslav, glad you had a great trip with your family and got to enjoy some of the fish for supper, my son and I ( 18th year ) had a great time and had fish for supper on 3 of our 4 nights, probably caught 20-25 lakers and kept 4 . But Anon they where BIG LAKES. Keep up the tradition, hoping to soon be bringing my Granddaughter in with us...

As for the bear, must have smelled the fresh fish or would not think he would have come into the camp, make sure you rinse the canoes out as well.

Good point about the bear Ken.

I am not a fisherman, but aspire to be and have often wondered how anglers keep the fish scent from transferring to clothes, tents or other items around camp. Take the fish cleaning table you built for example. Would any amount of rinsing get the scent off?

Thanks for a great trip log Cookslav and I look forward to your response.

Jim

http://www.algonquintrips.blogspot.com

Great trip log, and photos. Thanks for sharing.

Jeff P
http://algonquincanoeing.blogspot.com/

I'm not gonna get into the conservation argument here lol, as I guess if you are following regulations then there is no problem and if anyone has a problem with that they should get the regs changed instead of giving this guy a hard time.

I will say though that a 1/3 injury rate is extremely high. I just got back from a trip this weekend where my fishing partner and I caught 30 brook trout between the two of us and none were injured in the slightest other than being a little upset about being caught. (Mental anguish?) I would say with proper technique a 1% injury rate could be obtained. (It can never be eliminated) I guess if you are planning on keeping 1/3 of your fish it's not a problem though, makes it easy to decide which ones to keep I guess.

As far as bear smart camping goes...we were dumb as stumps LOL!
Truth be told the fish cleaning board was not used as it "should" have been
You can't rinse it very well, so...the idea is to split a piece if wood, or find a flat rock to place "on the board" that you can burn in the fire later, or throw out into the water.
We were lazy, and cleaned directly on the board.
Its just a nice touch to keep you off your knees, and not bending your back into a pretzel.
Its just the right hight to stand at an clean your fish assuming your not 4' or 7' tall

Rinseing the canoe isn't a bad Idea, and of course washing your hands...
but generaly speaking there isn't much else aside from a smoke bath that will disipate the fish scent from your hands & clothes.
Maybe that rub on hand sanatizer stuff?...
If your dealing with the fish your generally taking a bit of a risk.

Cheers,

Cookslav, the last few years we have been taking in the thin plastic cutting boards or sheets, they work very well and are easy to clean after, about a 1/8" thick and roll up very small. Your speck meat was very orange, thought our lakers where orange until I saw those pictures. We head to the south end of the park from smoke so if you think you are headed in that direction let me know..might have a few spots for you...

Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt, Sorry you got slammed. Passion takes many shapes and sizes. See you on the water

does every algo lake that has lake and brook trout have splake?
and do people fish for splake?
if so, why?
i mean, are there any differences between splake and brook, that would owe to why people fish for splake specifically?

thanks

algoalex

Can't speak for everyone, but splake don't reproduce. I would think this is a fish I would be more apt to eat than a reproducing, native brookie.

I would also imagine that splake occur in the wild and not exclusively by MNR introduction.

Courtesy Wikipedia

The splake (Salvelinus namaycush X Salvelinus fontinalis) is a hybrid of two fish species resulting from the crossing of a male brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and a female lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). The name itself is a hybrid between 'SP'eckled trout (another name for brook trout) and 'LAKE' trout, and may have been used to describe such hybrids as early as the 1880s (Kerr, S.J. 2000). Hybrids of the male lake trout with the female brook trout (the so-called "brookinaw") have also been produced but are not as successful (Sowards, 1959).

The intrageneric hybrid is of the genus Salvelinus and, hence, is most properly known as a char or charr. In some locales, the fish is referred to as the Wendigo. Although the hybrid is genetically stable and is, theoretically, capable of reproducing, splake reproduction is extremely rare, for behavioural reasons, outside the hatchery environment. The only known natural reproduction has occurred in 5 lakes in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada and, in each case, only a handful of progeny were produced.

The fish possesses characteristics of both parent species. Splake exhibit higher growth rates than either parent species and can attain 46 cm (18 in) in length only 2 years after being planted as fingerlings (i.e., at 2½ years of age). By way of contrast, lacustrine brook trout would approach 25 cm (10 in) in length at a similar age and similarly-aged lake trout would be expected to be less than 40 cm (16 in) long.[1]

Splake are considered "easier to catch" than other salmonids and often live longer and fare better in certain situations. Hence, splake are well suited for stocking in a variety of cold water lakes and ponds. The maximum size is about 9 kg (20 lb) but fish over 4 kg (9 lb) are rare and are considered trophies.

thanks,

i remember catching some splake on tanamakoon long ago. i remember that they were rolling a lot while fighting, like a pen on its head. does anyone fish for them specifically? i don't mean for the reason that they are more easily caught (assuming that they are), but for any quality they have to them? i get this impression that they are thought of as less, compared to the spec or laker?

algoalex

something like this?

[IMG][/IMG]

My Gramps sometime back in the 60's or 50's (Maybe Barbara knows how old that beer can is)...that stringer goes quite a bit past the frame, keeping hundreds of trout over a weekend was common. This was somewhere in Quebec, I think it's called Dolittle Lake.

I fish for them on occasion and have done well with them in the park.
I don't know that they are any easier to catch then Specks or Lake trout though?
Specks for me have always been a structure fish...casting to structure on shore, and sometimes shoals, but particularily boulders.
Lakers on the other hand I troll for, over deep water, drops, and sometime shoals.
Splake are indifferent I think?
I've caught more of them casting to off shore wood then anything, but the bigest I've caught were caught trolling over shoals...
They certainly fought well IMO?
There was some rolling, but not until the end of the fight...the Splake I have caught hit hard, and went Ape Sh!t when they were on the line, classic quick fight like a speck with all the figure 8'ing and random directions, with quick turns...
But the splake seem to have a bit more stamina?...same kind of fight, just a bit more drawn out.
But of course once you get them then at boat side they rolled a lot.

Heck they taste great as well!
They are kind of like a kinder surprise egg...if you catch 2 from the same hole one might be yellow flesh like a laker, and the other will be bright red like a speck, and the taste can vary marginaly as well.

One thing for sure is the splake I've caught in the park tend to be bigger and more robust as well. I've personally not caught one under 18" or larger then 23" yet so there is something to be said for fishing Splake for sure...the growth rate is much faster.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

[IMG][/IMG]

Pathfinder, dude, how did you get a picture of my fish?

Not for getting rid of fish smell, just smell like a drunk fish then. LOL

50 in cans - and those cans were the heavy duty models! That's a great picture.

Attitudes and awareness have certainly changed since then, and of course the population is a lot higher now, and we need to spread the resources out more. I often wonder what it would have been like to experience Algonquin back then. To be honest, I'm pretty attached to my quick-dry pants, gore-tex rain gear and light-weight tent.

Wowzers thats a nice one!
I know some guys who caught some bigguns on the riggers in Georgian Bay...they were stocked years ago, due to a lamprey issue if memory serves me correct?
(the idea was to take pressure of the Lakers)

And they were bigguns like that, But geeze that would be one heck of a fish on light spinning tackle in the park!!!!
was it caught in the park?

First of all, wheres my manners??

Cookslav, forgive me doood. Thank you very much for a superb write up and photo essay on your fab trip! And the old growth was the sprinkling on the cake bro. You guys slayed them! What a mess of trout!

If the good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll be into them deep this weekend too! Wish me luck.

Thanks again!

Splake was caught near Mattawa, ON in a small body of water. It was caught using an ultra light 5' rod and reel 6lb fluorocarbon on a green jig tipped with a salted minnow drifting on bottom in 47' of water. After about the middle of June, get deep cause they scrape their bellies on the bottom; similar to a lake trout.

Use nothing but fluorocarbon. Yes, you will catch them on mono; been doing that since they invented the stuff. But switch it up to fluorocarbon and see the difference for yourselves. When bobber fishing, they take your bait and come out of the water with the bait in their mouths. And you will notice increased action, ie..more hits.

Buy or trap yourselves a few doz minnows. Then head to the local bulk food joint and stock up on pickling salt. Pour pickling salt over dead minnows enough to completely cover and refrigerate for three days.

Works better than worms. Don't believe me? Ask Chris. His lip was sticking out so far I could have rested my coffee mug on it.

Cheers
Shawn

No appology needed,
Thanks for the kind words.

Thats a fish of a life time, and I'd bet that moment is etched in your mind LOL!
On ultralite tackle thats gotta be fun with a capital "f"

I use 6lb P-line exclusivly...flouro has always been good to me.
Can't see my self changing to a new line eny time soon.
The only time I've ever had and issue is ice fishing?
The cold air made it coil a bit when it came off the spool, but not so bad really.

cheers,

Thanks for the trip log and the great pics Cook.

Mike

Fluorocarbon has both its advantages and disadvantages however the kicker for me is that it will basically take forever to decompose...Something like thousands of years....No fluoro for me FWIW, though admittedly regular mono isn't that great either. (I have seen 600 years??) I'm going to have to check out this stuff called Bioline, supposedly it completely decomposes in 6 years...Even the spool it comes on. I'm sure it's more $$ though.