Winter getaway: Icing lakers at Windy Lake Provincial Park

Ranging from two to four kilometres in width, Windy Lake is classic boreal Shield lake. It’s also cold, and unusually deep, plunging to 180 feet. As a result, it’s home to a good population of 100 per cent natural lake trout. In fact, it’s one of the region’s top laker waters. And those trout live well on plentiful forage including ciscoes, scuplin and suckers. There are also good numbers and sizes of walleye, with lots of whitefish and burbot mixed in as well, plus northern pike, perch and smallmouth bass.

But wintertime lakers (above) are the most prized catch. And the great news for anglers based in the park is that two of the hottest fishing spots are literally just 300 metres from shore. So I spent a lot more time fishing than travelling, which I always appreciate. And each day I walked back to my cabin to brew coffee and grill some dogs for lunch, which was also a treat.