After my first day ever fishing Eagle Lake, Ontario, right away the first thought is that this is a massive and complex waterbody. The lake sprawls across approximately 68,000 acres, and features literally hundreds of islands, rock points, humps, and other structural elements. Home to trophy caliber musky, numerous northern pike, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, and of course, my target, the walleye, there is no shortage of information to be learned about this fishery!
I began my approach with bottom bouncers and spinners, as I felt this would help cover the most water possible and find active fish. Sure enough, this did produce numerous fish between 12-17 inches. As we bottom bounced along, I quickly picked up on two trends.
The first trend was depth, as most of the fish were holding between 25-30 feet of water. If I got too shallow, I could catch a few fish between 20-25 feet, but any shallower and the bites turned off. Same thing out deep, if I slid past 33 feet the bites would turn off too. The biggest concentration seemed to be in that 28-30 foot range.
The second trend I noticed was forage. Every fish was puking up crayfish, and there were several dead, but not for long, crayfish laying in the bottom of the boat after a few bites. This trend was something I was unaccustomed to, as the primary forage I’m used to targeting is gizzard shad, smelt, and ciscoe on Missouri River reservoirs of Lake Francis Case, Lake Sharpe, and Lake Oahe.
The crayfish bite led me to stay focused on the rocky shoreline, looking for areas that had large boulders and rock humps present. This also meant that looking for lake schools of forage, which I am accustomed to on the Missouri River, also would not be productive. My best bet for targeting fish is looking for marks tight to the bottom, and hitting them with a bottom oriented presentation such as bottom bouncers and spinners.
Over the first day, I noticed no major differences in color or presentation. The Mack’s Lure Smile Blades could catch fish, and so could #3 and #4 Colorado blades. Pink, orange, chartreuse, firetiger, and gold were all producing bites at about an equal clip. Speed also did not seem to matter, which meant that if I was in the right depth and tight to bottom I’d be generating bites!
Eagle Lake Day One: Exploring Eagle Lake, Ontario
One of the main goals for this season has been improving the YouTube game, and we’ve got several videos coming from our trip to Eagle Lake and North Shore Lodge! Check out the full story in our YouTube video from Day One!
