This Smallmouth Bass Paradise Is No Longer a Secret

How do you describe an area of Northern Ontario with virtually countless lakes, rivers and streams that hold untold numbers of smallmouth bass? How about lakes with little to no angling pressure compared to the city lakes in the southern portion of the province?

Two words describe this best…Algoma Country!

The best-kept secret is no longer a secret amongst bass enthusiasts across North America. Our friends across the U.S. now venture North to Algoma resorts and lodges searching for the ever-popular smallmouth bass.

Maybe it's for the sheer amount of bass, or maybe it's the opportunities available for personal best trophy-sized brown bass. Algoma Country has both!

We recently made a trip to Algoma Country and visited with the nice folks who operate Tunnel Lake Trading Post and now have full-service cottages for vacationers on ‘untouched’ Tunnel Lake just off Highway 129, twenty-five minutes north of Iron Bridge located in the Mississagi Valley.

It has been said that the Trading Post has “everything you need and most of what you want”. There are endless opportunities for fun and adventure in any season throughout the Mississagi Valley.

The Cottages at the Weir are very spacious and have all the comforts of home overlooking the lake with a private boat ramp and docking and located just off the highway in a natural wilderness forest setting: satellite TV, WiFi, big comfortable beds and plenty of room for a boys' fishing trip. 

Our smallmouth game plan included a variety of baits and presentations as mother nature blessed us with calm conditions and the opportunity to fish with topwater baits to provoke bass and the ability to find bass faster by making longer casts along shorelines, shoals, island points and sand to gravel bars located on Tunnel Lake.

It didn’t take long to catch bass in the two-plus pound class along the shallow flats. Still, we wanted the bigger smallmouth this lake is famous for, so we ventured to several locations with similar rock-to-sand transitions between smaller islands and immediately connected with a bigger weight class of bass with three-inch soft-bodied swim baits fished on a twist-lock jig head. The bigger bass loved these baits.

We fished a tiny portion of the available locations we reviewed on a map before our trip, and those bass gave me a severe case of bass rash from catching! There were so many bass, and the craziest part of it all was we only saw a few boats fishing for either walleye or northern pike on the deeper edges. Hardly anyone else was targeting the smallmouth bass.

Talk about a smallmouth bass paradise! 

When you’re looking for a new location or lake for next season to book a vacation for a boys' trip or just want to enjoy the serenity of the untamed wilderness of Algoma Country on a lake with very little pressure but lots of smallmouth bass and spend your off-the-water time enjoying the comforts of home while enjoying the beautiful sunsets of the lake on the outside deck of through the living room windows consider Tunnel Lake Trading Post Resort.

We tried it, we loved it and we are sure you will too.

Remember, catch and release works for a future fishery for generations to enjoy. Fish safe so you can fish tomorrow.

Visit the Tunnel Lake Trading Post and Resort website.

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