Fishing

Carter Dorscht shares one in a series of articles exploring the fishing culture based in SSM and the nearby lakes!

I hope everyone has been out catching lots of fish! Many people seem to be taking advantage of the new smallmouth bass season in Zone 10 as well. Hopefully this continues in the zone and the lake trout populations will begin to rise in lakes where the introduced bass started to take over. Also, the weather is definitely an improvement over the harsh winter we had, but there is much more room for improvement.

One of the most prized fish species to catch in the area is the walleye. There are many different effective ways to catch walleye, but I’m going to share a few that I use and have been successful with. If you’re interested in jigging for walleye, then you can use a 1/4oz. jig head with a live minnow or a frozen shiner. I’ve had the most success using an orange and chartreuse jig in anywhere from 25’ to 35’ water. Good locations for this are usually within a cast or two of shore or on a hump below the water.

If you’re not into jigging, then I’ve got a casting method and a trolling method for walleye. Casting a fluke (soft plastic jerk bait) on a jig head onto the edge of an underwater shelf is very effective. This setup requires a certain type of jig head and way of rigging the fluke on, so make sure you do some research online if you try this out. When I troll for walleyes, I either use Cotton Cordell’s Wally Diver or Ripplin’ Red Fin, depending on the depth I’m trolling at. Many other hard plastic lures would likely work just as well. Basically, you want to troll along rocky shorelines in cooler water to have a better success rate.  

This month marks some important dates regarding the area’s fishing regulations. On 21st of June, muskellunge opens in both Fisheries Management Zone 10 and 14. On the same day, smallmouth and largemouth bass open all across Zone 10. As you may already know, smallmouth bass was already open in most parts of the zone, as the season was changed to year round, which took effective at the beginning of the year. So for the most part, you can now catch largemouths in the area’s inland lakes. The following week, on the 28th, smallmouth and largemouth bass open in Zone 14. Make sure that you check out the Ontario Fishing Regulations for more information about the regulations and the areas that Zone 10 and 14 cover.

I’m sure there are some down the line anglers who were disappointed to hear that the Kiwanis International Walleye Tournament has been cancelled this summer. The event was cancelled this year due to a lack of registrants and sponsors. They hope to have it up and running again next year. This tournament is based in Sault Ste. Marie, but many of the contestants travel down the St. Mary’s River into Lake George and further down along the North Channel to catch their walleye.

This summer while you’re out fishing, make sure you follow the regulations and have all the required safety gear on your boat. You don’t want to be facing a fine or be unprepared in the event of an accident.

Algoma Country is home to some of the very best fishing in the world. There are many resources available to help anglers discover everything this region has to offer, and the best place to start—for tips, tricks, outfitter information, vacation packages, and more—is the official Algoma Country Tourism website:

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