The seven inch black & silver floating original Rapala is the best yellow pickerel trolling lure for anywhere in Georgian Bay or Canada for night time slow trolling.
Jam your knot down to the bottom of the eye to keep the nose down & place a split shot eighteen inches ahead of the lure & do not use a wire leader.
I always double my line & tie the knot with doubled line to make it stronger.
Sometimes I tie short four inch solid s.s. wires on mine with wire bending pliers just in case a pike or muskie hits.
If you know how to tie The Albright Special knot you can attach a cable to your line & tie that to your Rapala with an s knot to keep the action perfect with a leader.
The s knot will not fail even though it looks like it would.
If you know how to tie a Bimini Twist you can double your line for four feet ahead of your lure & there is no stronger arrangement as it is used in heavy salt water fishing.
Both of these knots can be found in fly fishing magazines.
I have never caught very many pike or muskie after dark so it really is not necessary.
I prefer twenty pound test line for all Georgian Bay casting & trolling but you can go as low as twelve to fourteen pound test & the lure will run deeper.
I have caught many big pickerel with the twenty pound line & the last time I was out at Dallas Rapids in June I got a seventeen pound pickerel with it.
Put the lure into the water & test it’s action with a flashlight to see if it is running nose down & side to side action is right & adjust your trolling speed accordingly.
Let out only fifty feet of line or no more than seventy five feet & hold your rod tip to the water & hold your rod in one hand while you steer & operate the motor with the other hand.
This way you can feel if the lure is touching bottom & move your boat in or out further to adjust accordingly.
You want the lure to run one to three feet off the bottom but not touching bottom.
Big pickerel in Georgian Bay move into shallow water after dark to feed in & around rocks & shoals & that is where you will have the best luck.
The bay just past Key Harbour Lodge is good at night at times & just about anywhere you find shoals out around islands in the big water you will find yellow pickerel feeding at night.
Crystal clear water is best for night time trolling & you will find that out & around all the islands & shoals close to the big water.
The pickerel are very hard to catch in this clear water in the daytime as they stay in deep water at that time for the most part.
In Georgian Bay pickerel travel in schools & follow large schools of ciscoes where-ever they go.
If a school of ciscoes move into the area you are fishing & you are trolling Rapalas you will get them & quickly.
Troll right down the side of the shoals in shallow water but keep the lure from hitting bottom.
You can use the smaller Rapala in four foot water as it does not run as deep as the seven inch model which goes down to about seven or eight feet with fifty feet of line out.
Just keep at it & troll real slow until you catch them feeding or find where they are.
The best nights are when the wind & water is dead & there is no fog on the water.
The full moon nights are the absolute best.
Do not worry about the short line length at night.
I have caught hundreds of them with fifty feet of line out.
Believe me they will come after your lure when they see it as it looks like a cisco & that is their prime food in Georgian Bay.
Trolling in back bays is hard because of weeds so you have to go out where there are no weed-beds in the water that will foul your lure.
The best big yellow pickerel night time trolling is out on The French River in The Dallas Rapids area & the best time is usually around June 10 of each year.
They make their big run there every year & it lasts for about ten days.
They get plenty of yellow pickerel fifteen pounds & up to seventeen pounds is quite common.
The Bad River area is also good.
There are lodges at both places & you would do well to contact them before you go to get all the information ahead of time.
I do not know what the name of the lodge at Dallas Rapids is but it is usually booked for the yearly run anyway.
The Bustard Islands are fabulous for night time pickerel trolling also but I have never been out there.
They are thirty five square miles & surrounded by dangerous shoals & storms are really bad out there at times.
There is no better place in North America for really big trophy yellow pickerel & most of them are taken using the methods I have described.
There are plenty of places to camp out & around French River & Bad River if you can not get a cabin or lodge.
This is bear country & there are many out there & you need to be aware of that.
There are also many rattlesnakes on the islands.
From the road this is a twenty five mile trip by boat so you will need to take extra gasoline & a small spare motor with you & do not forget anything.
I prefer my twelve foot Lund & 9.9. H.P. Johnson for slow trolling because bigger motors shake to much at slow speed & the Johnson is smoother & quieter.
The fifteen H.P. also trolls smooth as it is the same motor as the 9.9 with bigger carb.
Some fishermen put a trolling motor bracket on the transom of their big boat & use this motor to troll & use their big motor to get places fast.
The 9.9 matched with a twelve foot Lund like mine really moves out with one man in it.
We usually take two twelve foot boats & fish one man to a boat.
Get the biggest landing net you can find for Georgian Bay.
You may need it.
Big Georgian Bay Yellow Pickerel Will Chase Down A Seven Inch Silver & Black Floating Rapala Trolled Slowly At Night Fifty Feet Behind Your Boat & Literally Knock The Hell Out Of It & Try To Yank Your Rod Right Out Of Your Hand.
If It Feels Like A Snag It’s A Big One.
If you are not the trolling type & prefer live bait fishing & know where the good holes are you can catch big yellow pickerel by dropping them down in 35 feet of water.
I know one good hole & there are usually boats fishing for them down deep & I have seen them take many up to 17 pounds this way.
I have also heard of fishermen tying a ballon to a pickerel’s tail with a long string & following the small balloon to know where the pickerel are & then cast jigs deep with Mr. Twister Tails.
One year I caught a 3 pound Blue Pike in The Georgian Bay Bass Hole & this fish was thought to be extinct so I quickly released it unharmed. Had no camera at the time. This was back in 1988 or so.
A Blue Pike is a walleye (yellow pickerel) that is actually silverish blue all over & really shiny.
If you catch one of these the Canadian WIldlife people would be interested in knowing that because this species in thought to be extinct.
I believe there are are few of them still spawning in this area in so much I have caught one in the past. There used to be millions of them in the great lakes. Take a picture & release unharmed for sure.
