1.
Tobin & Codette Lakes (SASKATCHEWAN)
The Nipawin Pike Festival—Canada’s longest-running,
richest and most popular northern pike tournament—attracts
more than 2,000 anglers each year to Tobin and Codette Lakes,
thanks to the combination of huge pike and impressive prizes.
(Walleye fans will know Tobin for its copious double-digit walleye,
but it’s also long been home to trophy northern pike.)
Held from mid-June to the end of September, the festival started
in 1969 as a catch-and-keep derby, but in the last five years
it has shifted to a catch-and-release tourney.
Garry Debienne of Silver Tip Outfitting,
who has guided on these lakes for 14 years, is a big believer
in traditional tackle that has worked for decades. He favours
casting large spoons, like #4 Len Thompsons, or hanging a dead
cisco just as our pike-fishing forefathers used to do. When
a change of pace is required, try jerkbaits, like Suicks, and
oversized shad bodies. No lure is too large for these waters,
where 25- to 30-pound fish are caught consistently, and the
lake record is a hefty 38 pounder (the tournament record is
36 pounds). To find the big northerns, focus on the structure
of the old river channel in late June or late September.
2.
Vermillion Lake (ONTARIO)
Anglers in northern Ontario’s Vermillion Lake Pike Classic
score points according to the combined lengths of their six
largest fish. With the best score to date being a total of 519.3
centimetres—three of the six fish were in the 110-centimetre
(20-pound) range—it’s not hard to imagine why anglers
are clamouring to enter this tournament. Held each June as a
fundraiser for the Chelmsford Fish and Game Association’s
conservation projects, the 22-year-old tourney boasts a current
payout of more than $27,000 in cash and merchandise.
According to tournament regular
Flo Mayville, Vermillion Lake is roughly seven miles long and
one mile wide, with a maximum depth of 40 feet. Mayville recommends
working points and weedbeds with spinnerbaits or jerkbaits,
pointing to the mouth of the river feeding Vermillion as a top-drawer
area. Also recommended is the 10- to 12-foot shoal near the
middle of the lake. The lake itself is approximately 40 kilometres
northwest of Sudbury, Ontario.
3.
Lake Muskoka (ONTARIO)
Just 180 kilometres north of Toronto, Lake Muskoka is home to
the four-year-old Muskoka Bassmasters Pike Tournament, which
raises funds for conservation. Along with its proximity to Toronto,
this tourney’s other big draw is the chance to catch big
fish. The current tournament record is a 47-incher, for example,
while three fish longer than 40 inches were hauled in last year.
There’s little weed growth
around Lake Muskoka, so event organizer and local guide Dave
Rochette is partial to quick-dropping shorelines adjacent to
expansive flats that concentrate fish after the spawn (submerged
wood of any type will greatly increase your success rate). Rochette
generally fishes such areas with perch-finish jerkbaits—a
four- to five-inch Bomber Long A being his favourite. Ripplin’
Redfins also get the nod, as do big pink Sluggos. A backup pattern
for late spring has Rochette targeting warmer bays, which are
normally sheltered from the main lake, with spinnerbaits and
jerkbaits in the afternoon when the big females bask in the
sun. Generally, the best spots include the shoreline along the
Muskoka Sands Resort, Gravenhurst Bay and the mouth of the Muskoka
River.
4.
Lake Nosbonsing (ONTARIO)
Angler Peter Hoffman says it’s easy to haul in 20 to 30
pike during the course of a day’s fishing on northern Ontario’s
Lake Nosbonsing. Not only that, figures Hoffman, but five of
those fish will boast a 25-inch average, while at least one
more will be in the 34- to 40-inch range. Fish like that, along
with some great prizes, are what attracted 95 teams to last
year’s Lake Nosbonsing Anglers & Hunters Pike Tournament.
Organizers of the conservation fundraiser are so confident in
the fishery, in fact, they warn participants that they don’t
stand much of a chance of winning if they don’t bring in
the full six-fish limit (last year’s winning team hauled
in six pike with a combined length of 138 inches).
Hoffman, who has always made his
limit in the three-year-old tournament, targets the lake’s
shallows. In marked contrast to the “rules” of pike
fishing, he prefers to fish with small baits and what could
easily pass for bass gear: spinnerbaits, topwaters and small
jerkbaits on 12-pound-test line. His favourite lure is the diminutive
Rebel Wee Frog, and if he’s going to use a wire leader
at all it won’t be any longer than three inches. Hoffman
suggests Railroad Bay as a good starting point for newcomers;
it’s three feet deep on average, with tons of weeds and
the odd deep pocket.
5.
Elk Lake (ONTARIO)
| TOURNEY
CONTACTS |
1.
Nipawin Pike Festival (Tobin and Codette Lakes,
Saskatchewan)
Silver Tip Outfitting, Box 1567, Nipawin, Saskatchewan
S0E 1E0; (306) 862-5954
2. Vermillion Lake Pike
Classic (Vermillion Lake, Ontario)
Chelmsford Fish and Game Association, P.O. Box 312,
Chelmsford, Ontario P0M 1L0;
(705) 855-4205/3206
3. Muskoka Bassmasters
Pike Tournament (Lake Muskoka, Ontario)
Dave Rochette (705) 645-8516
4. Lake Nosbonsing Anglers
& Hunters Pike Tournament (Lake Nosbonsing,
Ontario)
Dwight Keall, dwight.keall@sympatico.ca
5. Elk Lake Pike Bonanza
(Elk Lake, Ontario)
Northeastern Ontario Bass Association, 503 Aberdeen
Avenue, North Bay, Ontario P1B 7H6; www.neobass.org;
(705) 472-6527 |
|
The biggest
fish caught during this past June’s Elk Lake Pike Bonanza
measured in at a whopping 81.3 centimetres. It was the chance
to reel in such huge northerns that drew 40 teams to last summer’s
event, the first time it’s been held on Elk Lake and surrounding
waters near Kirkland Lake, Ontario. Of course, $15,000 in cash
and prizes didn’t hurt, either. Now heading into its fifth
year, the Pike Bonanza had been held on Lake Nipissing, but
the venue shifted last year to Elk Lake to attract anglers from
a wider geographic area.
Wilf Weiskopf, half of last year’s
winning team, says he’s impressed by the Elk Lake area’s
mix of water in the 24 miles stretching between Indian and Mountain
Chutes. There are 80-foot-deep river channels in the reservoir,
sprawling sand flats measuring only a couple feet deep, and
Mountain Lake—a shallow, weed-ringed opening roughly three
miles long by two miles wide. Elk Lake itself is roughly in
the middle. Weiskopf’s advice for anglers faced with tough
conditions is to slow down and scale back. At the time of last
year’s tournament, there was no emergent weed growth, so
he and partner Gerald Point concentrated on remnant stalks of
cane that survived the winter. Their winning bait? Bass-sized
jigs and plastics such as Mister Twister Sassy Shads and trolled
shad. 
|
