Bass Fishing at Agnew Lake Lodge

Our visit to Ontario's Agnew Lake Lodge was an amazing experience. We were extremely pleased with the hospitality and accommodations provided by the owners. In fact, on arrival, we were overwhelmed with the gratitude of Fish TV viewers and supporters who met us at the boat ramp. Apparently, the whole campground knew that we were coming, and I personally, have never received a warmer welcome. 

While having dinner that first night we shared laughs and some fish stories with a few locals. What got us really excited was looking over the “Bragging Board” which featured pictures of a 7-pound plus bass caught only a few days before. Wow!

Agnew Lake Lodge is only 20 minutes from the town of Webbwood in Northeastern Ontario. The lodge offers 15 cabins in total and each one is fully equipped with full kitchens and bathrooms, BBQs and a firepit. All cabins have hot and cold drinkable running water. The lodge has boats and motors available for rent as well as guided fishing trips and a fish cleaning hut.  If you have your boat, they have individual charging stations at all docks. Agnew Lake Lodge is a year-round lodge for all of your seasonal adventures. There are winter hunter accommodations, hiking trails, groomed trails for sledding, back lake fishing trips, and a sand beach with a large deck for seating. They even have a dog beach! Seasonal campsites are available with 30- and 50-amp hookups and modern bathrooms. 

This section of the Spanish River was dammed at one end to create Agnew Lake. This is very important information, especially if you’re targeting the plentiful walleye population in this lake. If you follow the original main lake channel, I can almost guarantee a successful fishing trip. One word of caution is the original Agnew Lake Lodge was formed by loggers using the property to transport logs from water to land, so be aware there are still plenty of logs throughout this system with the potential for deadheads, so keep your eyes open and be aware, as you should on any body of water. 

Our goal on this trip was to target the above-average size smallmouth bass that are seemingly ignored on this lake. Our first target area was directly across from the lodge, fishing the maze of islands. We decided we would just run the shoreline to see what vegetation and bottom composition we would be dealing with. Right off the bat, we saw that we were going to be dealing with a lot of sandy bottom, which we were totally fine with since we were targeting smallmouth. We noticed many isolated emergent cane beds along the shoreline, so I started casting to the edge with my Rapala Jowler, which is a pencil popper walking bait. Leo reached for his spinner bait so that he could pull out whatever was lying deeper within the weed. Leo was the first to connect in the second cane bed we came across, and I believe it may have been the biggest bass of the trip. I’m guessing it to be 5 pounds. Both the top water and the spinner bait got the job done while working our way up the shoreline. 

Further up the river, we found some beautiful rock bluffs and a school of smallmouth using it, so we had some exciting top water action catching 3 to 4 pounders for about 20 minutes. To say we were excited about what we were seeing would be an understatement. We established the pattern and ran with it. There are plenty of bluff walls in the main lake and we exploited the top water bite casting right to the edge of the rock was the key because they seemed to be positioned tight to the rock, which resulted in bites within the first few twitches of the retrieve. We found if you paid special attention to where broken rock had isolated itself from the bluff wall, your odds were much higher of finding the fish. I have to say this lake has some of the best overall average-size bass I’ve fished. Plenty in the 3- to 4-pound range. I should add we had a few really nice pike in our sights. A few were caught and a few missed in the 8- to 12-pound range. Although we didn’t target walleye this trip there was no shortage of other guests showing off their catch before hitting the fillet tables down at the lakeside cleaning station.

Hearing firsthand from many of the guests who shared that they’ve been coming to this lodge for the last ten, 20, and some even 40 years is a true testament to the lake and Agnew Lake Lodge.

I’ll definitely be back!

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