Camp Mc Intosh French River Outlet Dallas Rapids Georgian Bay Ontario, Canada

Camp Mc Intosh I recently came by their facebook page.

This is the best really big yellow pickerel ( walleye hole in all of Canada ).

If you do not believe me just try to rent a cabin out there when the big ones run each year.

Hundreds of over 15 pound yellow pickerel have been taken here in the summer usually somewhere around June 10 when the big ones come in off the big bay & head up the French River to Dallas Rapids which is as far as they can go.

All the cabins & lodges are usually booked in advance by experienced walleye fisherman during these times each year.

They are only around for about ten days each year so the timing has to be right.

This is no secret to fisherman who know the area & have fished there for years.

The method is to troll at night using the 7 inch silver & black floating Rapala trolled slowly behind the boat.

I never let out more than 50 feet of line using this method at night & I place a split shot sinker 18 inches ahead of the Rapala & then jam the knot down on the eye to make the lure run right with the nose of the lure headed downwords.

The last time I was there I got a 17 pound yellow pickerel using this method at night.

The water in the French River was way up that year & roaring over Dallas Rapids which you could not even get close to becuase of the rapids & dangerous fast water.

I released the fish after I towed it back to my campsite & weighed it.

I did this because my son had the net in his boat.

My son had the camera in his boat also so no photo was possible as he was off trolling out on the big water.

Below are photos of the best Rapalas for night time trolling for monster walleye ( yellow pickerel ) on The French River Dallas Rapids area of Georgian Bay. Always use the floating models for this type of trolling.

The smaller Rapala is for trolling really shallow along shoal lines at night.

The yellow pickerel will feed very shallow at night on shoals in Georgian Bay & the big Rapala runs to deep when they are in real close.

Personally I use twenty pound ( 20lb. ) regular Clear Blue Stren for trolling the big Rap & 12 pound test for trolling the smaller one.

Many new lines have come out on the market over the years claiming this & that but the truth is none of them have ever equalled The Du Pont Regular Blue Stren ( in my opinion ).

I have tried many other lines but still prefer the first line I ever used even though I know Du Pont does not really need my little bit if money.

No other line has the stretch Stren has which makes it hard for big fish to break on fast runs & it is proven over many years to be very strong line & durable in the twenty pound size.

It cast very well as it is not stiff like many of the lines claiming to be superior or stronger which is basically just sales talk made by pros who do it & say it just for the money.

If anyone tells you there is a better fishing lure for trolling for big yellow pickerel than the ones I have pictured below take that with a grain of salt.

No other fishing lure has even began to come close to the originial Rapala for fish catching ability or most importly sales.

It is not the best & largest selling fishing lure in the world for nothing & it now sells for around $13.00 each or more.

They buy these lures because they work better than anything else on the market especially for trolling in Georgian Bay French River Area French River Provincial Park Ontario, Canada.

Where I live in Ohio you can tow these lures around behind your boat all day & night long & most of the time all you will catch is boredom as they simply do not work around here period.

Leave all your fancy colored & cleverly designed deep divers at home unless you enjoy towing weeds around all day & night long.

Near Dead Island, Aalto’s Isle & Key River Swirl Holes Georgian Bay

These photos were sent to me by one of the local cabin owners who fished this area for over 40 years.

He also sent me the photo of Ivan Kewakundo the guide at Key Harbour Lodge for many years.

He found this picture of Ivan in a book called North Eastern Georgian Bay & It’s People.

I would have to say this picture of Ivan brought a few tears to my eyes & opened my heart.

Send me your photographs, stories or historical website links about this area or it’s history you would like to share & I will post them.

email adress: bd@billdice.com

Bill Dice

Snake Road La Rue Swamp Southern Illinois

This is a video of snake road in The Shawnee National Forest La Rue Swamp.

I am headed over that way & plan to take photos & videos of cottonmouths, timber rattlesnakes & copperheads.

They do not allow snake handling equipment so I will use a stick just like the other herpers who like to pickup & play with venomous snakes.

This place in unreal & there is no other place like it when it comes to snakes.

Swamp Struck

The above picture is a huge cottonmouth at Murphys Pond in Western Kentucky which is another place I want to visit this spring.

This swamp has 700 cottonmouths per hectacre making it the most venomous snake infested place in America.

Diamond Key Lodge Has New Videos On Key River Area Georgian Bay

This is a good example of what to expect fishing in this area & a great video.

Kind of makes me want to start packing for my next trip now that I have my $122.00 passport.

To watch all of thier videos checkout this link: Diamond Key Lodge

Cougars or mountain lions in Key River area of Georgian Bay?

Some people say there are no cougars or mountain lions in The Key River area of Georgian Bay.

Back around 1989 I saw a light brown cat from a distance walking around the shore of a bay back in The lower Pickerel River.

He booked when we got close because of the noise our boat motor made which is par for the course up there.

We pulled over & got out of our boat & checked out the tracks which were much larger than that of the native cats the bobcat or lynx.

The scats in the area were also large.

When I told the wildlife officer about what I had seen he asked a simple question.

Did this cat have a long tail?

I said yes it was as long as the cat’s body.

The wildlife officer concluded that we had seen a cougar or mountain lion that had traveled to this area from out west or escaped from a private owner.

We never saw the cat again or it’s large tracks so it was probably on the move when we ran across it.

This makes for interesting conversation as many other species could at times migrate from far off distances to Georgian Bay to find food.

Here where I live in Ohio we now have coyotes & black bears that have migrated here from southern or eastern states to take advantage of the large deer population.

Cougars & other cats have also been spotted here from time to time.

The moral of this story is simple.

There could be mountain lions or grizzly bears in the Key River area of Georgian Bay that may have migrated there from way out west.

I saw cougars up around Wawa when I went up there to checkout all the gold mines & prospectors which was really an interesting & intriguing experience.

The cougars I saw up there also had tails as long as their bodies which was proof enough as no native or local cats have long tails period.

The mining operations up there basically consisted of a couple of guys with air compressors, jack hammers, bobcat loaders & small pickup trucks with dump beds or small dump trucks.

They told me they had to put the earth back the way they found it after they hauled the ore to a processing plant where the gold was extracted & the rest put back on their truck to fill in the trenches they made with their jack hammers.

Most of them had tents setup right on their claims & they camped, lived & worked right off the site.

The nearest town for supplies & provisions was Dubreuilville, Ontario in the Algoma District 70 kilometers away & this was also the nearest medical facility.

Was there any money in this?

One guy told me often times they would file a claim, work it & spend $45,000.00 & come out empty handed.

He said they hit one for three & one half million dollars three years before but that was more of an exception than the rule.

If you ever get a chance to drive up there checkout the gold mining operations & STOP & TALK TO THEM.

They seem to enjoy having someone to chat with being out there year after year cut-off from civilization.

They told me they had to actually work a claim within so many days of filing it or they would lose it.

Yes. the gold rush is on in Northern Ontario yet few people seem to be aware of that.

I stumbled across it by accident & glad I did.

I saw many moose, wolves & bears up in that area & most were right on or near the roads which made for an exciting time & adventure.

I spent 14 days up there & was never bored for one minute.

I pulled into one town way out in the middle of  no-where & you drive from the bush right into a city like any other city.

People watering lawns, walking around town shopping, a post office, a few eating places & all that.

It was like entering another world all of a sudden.

They had one large factory there that made plywood out of wood chips & most of the people who lived there worked in this plant or the lumbering operations that supplied the trees to be chipped & glued together to make the plywood in four by eight foot sheets for new construction.

What was weird is you drive out of the city limits & nothing but bush for eighty kilometers.

I drove there to buy a white gas stove as the one I had blew-up on me.

No one had one there for sale so I drove 400 kilometers back to Sault Saint Marie where I found a Coleman two burner at Walmart.

Do yourself a favor & always take two stoves with you & an extra camera just in case.

Mountain lions are very sneaky predators & feared by people who live in their roaming areas as every so often they grab a runner or jogger for a quick & easy meal.

No human being is a match for an angry cougar let alone a grizzly bear or black bear.

No guns allowed is the real problem as without one you could end up on their dinner table as the main course.

What a way to go.

They say there are no grizzly bears or cougars in the Key River area of the Georgian Bay or that is what they believe.

Always remember just because you believe something to be true & correct does not necessarily mean it is.

No human being on earth has ever been able to be right as much as 51% of the time.

With that ability you could own the world & everything in it just playing around with the stock market & various other investments in your spare time.

If you see a cougar up there report it to wildlife officials.

If you see a grizzly bear run like hell to the nearest tree & don’t come down until it’s gone & then pack-up & leave as soon as possible.

They say grizzlies can not climb trees after they get really big & then I see this show on tv & this thousand pound grizzly bear is climbing up & down trees looking for bird eggs?

They told me that cottonmouths in Florida do not climb trees or hang out in tree limbs hanging over the water so there is no chance one could slip into your canoe & then I go to Snake Road in southern Illinois & I see a hundred cottonmouths of all sizes climbing trees & hanging in tree branches. Google snake road & ask for videos if you like venomous snakes such as copperheads, cottonmouths & timber rattlesnakes. These snakes make a migration across snake road in the spring & fall every year & they close the road to vehicle traffic so people will not run over them. You can get out of your car & walk snake road at these times & you will see many of these snakes either heading back to La Rue swamp or the limestone cliffs where they winter in their dens. There is no other place like this in America. It is located in The Shawnee National Forest.

Who knows?

I used to think I knew everything when I was young.

I had nothing to say but I sure knew how to say it.

The Boy Scouts had a wise old saying that is just as applicable today: Be Prepared!

In the wilderness almost anything can turn up anywhere at any time.

It may be a million to one long shot but you just never know.

Your next cast could land you in the record books or get you another dogfish to figure out how to get back in the water without getting your fingers bit off.

Human beings are powerless over mother nature & what goes on in the wilderness.

That much I know for sure.

If you have ever tried to make or get a fish to bite when they have no desire or inclination to do so you know what I mean.

That is why the native people used nets & spears to get them on their dinner table.

Cabin fever?

Black Bear Stories

In all the years I went to Georgian Bay one of the things I always enjoyed the most were the black bear stories & one of the things I feared the most were the big Georgian Bay Island Dwelling black bears & especially when I went alone.

I have camped out in the wilderness all over Canada & usually in a tent.

When you go alone you try not to think about Mr. black bear showing up in your campsite because if he does there is not much you can do anyway.

No guns allowed & no bear mace allowed so you are basically in a bad situation.

Black bears in Georgian Bay swim long distances so camping on any island does not guarantee that one will not visit you in the middle of the night.

There are bears out on The Bustard Islands & I have seen them on Dead Island.

A black bear can swim many miles to get to islands in Georgian Bay & they like to do this at night.

When they have a bad berry season the bears will go into campsites for dinner & they also will go in large groups.

During normal berry seasons they are mostly loners & very seldom raid camps, cottages or lodges.

They will break into cars, rob boats, refrigerators in cabins & become a real danger when starving.

One year a woman had just been killed in Ontario by a black bear training for the olympics & we heard it on the radio over & over again on the way up.

Then you start thinking about all the stories about people mauled or killed by black bears which really is not that many over a period of many years.

I even bought a book that listed every bear attack ever recorded in The US & Canada.

I probably would have been better off not reading it.

You probably have a better chance of getting killed on the highway on the way up.

None the less it still bothers you & you do think about it & what you would do if the time came that you found yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong bear that was hell-bent on killing you & eating you for dinner.

It does happen & has happened in Ontario, Canada.

I have seen many bears from a distance over the years & have faced them eye to eye in my campsite.

I camped with 2,200 black bears at Lake Missinaibi way up north.

Missinaibi is the largest game preserve in North America & hunting has been banned since the 1920′s.

I could write a book about that as we had one bear encounter after another for 10 straight days & nights.

The bears actually lived in the primitive campground with us & that is the only place in North America you can do that.

I also know some campers were killed exactly where we had camped before them.

We arrived in the middle of the night & they had a plywood sign shaped like a black bear that said:  ”Ask Us About The Bears Before You Set-Up Camp.”

That gave me a strange feeling deep in my gut.

We camped right next to a group of campers thinking we would be safer there & no sooner got into our tents & a big black bear tore & ripped a camper top off one of their pickup trucks right behind my 15 year old son’s tent.

That was the beginning of bear hell week.

They would sniff right up to you when cooking & then go through your tents & then jump up on your table & throw everything all over the place & you could not get into the cab of your pickup truck because you had to keep all your food there to keep the bears from getting it.

The rangers would set out baited spring door trailer traps & catch them & move them off to another area after they started raiding campsites.

When we took our trash to the dump they would come running up to our truck so we had to toss the trash bags quick & take off.

One huge bear claimed the fish cleaning house & he would sit in the bush right behind it & wait for fishermen to finish cleaning their fish & then jump through the windows & get the remains after they left. If any other bear came near it he would attack them & try to kill them & there were plenty of bear fights heard that week.

On our last night my son took our trash bags to put in a concrete trash house designed to keep bears out of your garbage & when he pulled the steel door down to put the trash bags in a huge 500 pound black bear reached out & grabbed it out of his hands. How he ever got inside that thing is beyond me & the rangers simply could not believe it. Bears tore up seventeen new tents they had purchased for college kids who came up to work clearing brush & dead tree limbs off paths & roads.

The ranger would always borrow my truck because he said the bears recognized the sound of his truck & would take off when they heard him coming to investigate.

That was an exciting week to say the least. Huge moose would walk right by our campsite & all kinds of animals & birds including grouse would come by & visit us when it was time to eat.

The squirrels , chipmunks & birds would sit right on your lap & hope you would drop some tidbits for them to eat.

Now that the spring bear hunt is no longer open I have heard the area we camp in is crawling with big black bears.

I say that because Georgian Bay Black Bears get really big as the islands are full of berries.

I have seen many 350 to 600 pound black bears where I camp & I have seen many mother bears with three cubs rather than just two or one.

When I get in my tent at night I am usually really tired after fishing or canoeing all day so falling asleep is not all that hard to do.

Not in the wilderness.

We would always ask about the bears when we arrived at Camp Dore or Key Marina & sometimes they would have a bear encounter story to tell us.

One year we camped out on The French River at Dallas Rapids & the lodge owner said you are not camping on the rapids are you?

He said there was a real big mean one over there that had been tearing up his boats & cabins at night.

We saw coolers up in trees the bear had stashed there.

Needless to say sleeping that night was difficult.

We put a white gas lantern out in front of the tent & let it burn all night long.

The bear never did show up but we worried about that all week.

The lodge owner had hunters shoot 10 bears on his dump that week just to get rid of some of them.

When fishermen went to their cottage the bears would raid their boats & eat their worms & minnows.

Very sneaky even in broad daylight.

The last encounter I had experienced  was momma bear & three cubs 50 feet from me in my campsite when I got out of my tent at 7 A.M.

Lucky for me they headed down the shoreline away from my campsite or I would have been in a really bad situation as she was at least 350 pounds & very healthy & her cubs were also healthy & large.

She had absolute control over her cubs & it was a delight watching them.

I was camping alone & picked this spot because I did not think there would be any bears there.

I walked all over this area during the week & had no idea a mother with cubs was in the area.

I could have come face to face with her doing that & had no weapons of any type.

Needless to say I packed up & left after she & her cubs moved off to another area.

That was a great experience I will never forget but I would not want to go through it again.

Georgian Bay Bears are often hard to spot because they book it when they hear boat motors in their areas.

You would not believe how fast they run over the rocky terrain.

There is no way anyone could ever get away from one by running.

When I spot one on the shore ahead I always kill my motor & sit & watch them from a distance.

One year as I was going to the bathroom behind & way above our old Thomas Rock campsite & looked up & there on top of the huge rock above me stood a shaggy long haired all light brown bear that could have passed itself off as a grizzly to someone who did not know better.

I froze & just stared him in the eyes as I was simply in shock never having come face to face with a bear that big before.

He was at least 500 to 600 pounds.

He stared back at me for a while & shrugged & simply moved off into the bush & out of my sight.

When we arrived at the road that year we were told a man & his wife were camping at Thomas Rock & went for a swim & this huge brown shaggy looking bear jumped in the water & swam to them & started sniffing them in the water & then just swam away & left them alone.

They were so scared they packed up & left the Georgian Bay & vowed to never ever go camping there again.

The bear that looked me in the eye had no fear of man whatsoever & looked exactly like the bear they had described.

The same one for sure.

When I told my friends below they accused me of lying & making it up even though I was scared to death & shaking like a leaf.

To get even with them I took a pike that had died earlier in the day & hung it in the tree limb that went right over the top of their tent with the hope the big bear would come back after dark to get it & hopefully knock their tent down in the process to teach them a lesson.

When we got up in the morning the pike was gone.

He somehow got it without waking anyone up or knocking their tent down.

Many times other fishermen would tell us they had seen a huge black bear right behind our campsite at Thomas Rock & that did not help us to get much sleep on those occassions.

The bears in Georgian Bay are very quite when slowly moving around the islands & they are very easy to run into unexpectedly.

A few years back I pulled my boat up to a small island near the walleye spawning grounds.

I got out of my boat & started to walk to the top of the island & when I arrived there found myself face to face with a bear cub.

Fear gripped me instantly as my first thought was momma bear.

I turned & ran towards my boat & the cub turned & ran towards the water & jumped in & swam directly to the mainland.

We followed the cub in our boat & after he shook the water off he stood up on the rocks & posed like a proud grizzly bear looking down over us.

He was very thin & we could tell he was probably starving because he had been abandoned by his mother.

We threw him a couple of polish sausages & he gulped them down.

They had a bad berry season that year & all the bears were thin & short of food & when that happens it is common for mothers to abandon cubs to survive herself which is nature’s way.

I hope that cub made it.

He had a personality like no other bear I had ever seen up there.

I have a good picture of him somewhere & hope to post it soon.

Getting to see a bear in the wild is quite an experience & one that is never forgotten.

From our Thomas Rock campsite we saw many bears over the years but vaery rarely up close & personal.

This particular area always seems to have a few around somewhere & they always seem to be on the large & healthy size.

When you go looking for them you can never find or locate them so they always seem to just show up when you least expect it.

Always be prepared to encounter one in this area at any time irregardless of whether you have seen them or their signs or not.

Personally I do not feel they are a threat to humans in this area because I have camped there for years & never taken any special precautions like hanging food in trees & all that & have never had the first thing bothered by the bears.

Raccoons yes, bears no.

But like anything else there is always a first time for everything & I am keenly aware of that.

I am also aware that bears have raided & destroyed campsites & tents in this area before when they have a bad berry season.

Bear Attacks In North America proving that although rare it can & does happen which makes camping in the wilderness a little more demanding & exciting.

Black Bear Photographs by Ashley Hockenberry

Ontario Black Bear

Man Eating Bugs & Insects In Key River Area Of The Georgian Bay

There are three bugs up there you have to worry about:

Main thing is to be in your tent when the wind stops & the sun starts going down or cover your whole body with something that keeps them off your bare skin.

I always take head-nets & light gloves & cover all exposed skin when they get bad.

Personally I do no like repellents but for those who do the brands with deet in them work the best.

They all work for a short while but when the bugs are really bad most people head for the tents or out on the water where the wind keeps them away or they cover up with head nets or bug jackets & tape all pants legs, shirt collars & shirt cuffs with duct tape.

Chemicals in repellents can ruin foam mattresses & other fabrics & plastics so you have to be careful how you store & handle them.

The black fly starts in early spring & can be bad until the last days of June at which time mosquitoes take over.

All you can do about black flies if they really bother you is stay home or leave.

Believe me I have tried everything.

They can crawl over or under anything & get to your skin no matter what you do.

A lot of people go to Georgian Bay on June 28 every year to avoid the black fly & bass fishing becomes legal at that time out around the islands & up all the rivers that flow into Georgian Bay.

Many say it is the all around best time to go if you are going anywhere out past Dead Island where you can catch-all the small-mouth you want on light outfits or fly fishing gear.

Many people go at the end of September to avoid bugs altogether after the first frost.

This is the very best time for big pike short of October which is really harsh weather & hard on campers at times & especially campers my age.

The duck hunters invade at this time of year so don’t be surprised if it sounds like world war two one morning if you are camped out on opening day.

There are a lot of ducks on Georgian Bay.

If you camp somewhere with a breeze off the big water it will help to blow the bugs away from your campsite.

If a big storm blows up it will also help you to lose your tent, boat, food, clothes & camping gear.

When the wind goes dead or the sun goes down the bugs in Georgian Bay come out to play.

You will find that out so always take a head-net, bug jacket, special light gloves & tape your pants legs & shirt sleeves & collar with duct tape if you want to cast & fish at night or cook without doing it in your tent which is a no no in bear country.

Gas lanterns will attract bugs & so will camp stoves or lights.

Campfire smoke drives them away so we always like to build a fire at night.

We liked to exaggerate about all the big ones that got away or tell fishing & hunting stories from the past or recollect the good times.

One more thing.

If anyone knows what to do about deer flies that bite you in your boat out in the middle of the lake when you are fishing let me know.

They can be worse than black flies or mosquitoes at times & they do sneak attacks time & time again.

Sometimes you feel like diving off the side of the boat to get away from a pesky one.

If one of them nails you on the face you will know it when your head swells up & you can not see out of one eye anymore.

Make sure you get a bug bite kit & take it with you & dab the stick on the bites when they happen which they will if you go where I go.

Ammonia will also work if you bring some in a small bottle & dab the bite site with a Q tip.

The Bass Hole is a swamp area & there is nothing bugs like more in The Georgian Bay than swamps.

There is nothing more small fish love to eat than bugs & bass love to eat the small fish that live in swamps & a good reason they like to hang out there in the first place.

No bugs no large-mouth.

Frogs & snakes & birds eat bugs & largemouth eats them.

Everything that lives in Georgian Bay eventually gets eaten by something including bugs.

If you are there in the evening you will know what I mean. Your blood will be the bugs dinner.

The more you fight bugs the more aggressive they get.

I just ignore them & brush them off lightly when I feel them land.

When it gets real hot & the wind is dead they begin their attack both day & night & they love sweat & skin with blood underneath.

You are a much easier meal than the local wildlife as they have heavy fur to get through & no bare spots.

Human beings are like gourmet meals to them.

Always bring one of those bug coils & light it & put it in your tent to kill all the bugs that got in your tent when you opened the doors.

Always do that before you go to bed for the night if you really want to sleep.

I you have ever had a mosquito buzz you at night in a tent you know what I mean especially if he nails you in the face or hand over & over again.

Also know hornets & bees in the bush can actually kill a man if you disturb a nest so leave the thought about honey for breakfast to the bears & beware of hollow rotten logs or holes if you see bees going in & out.

It would be a good idea not to camp there or disturb them.

If bees or hornets attack all you can do is hope you are close to water & dive in it & stay under until they leave.

If you are allergic to bee or insect stings make sure you take the proper shot kit with you just in case.

Adolph’s steak & meat tenderizer with papaya will work on bug bites & bee & wasp & hornet stings to neutralize the venom & keep the swelling down.

The papaya in it does the trick.

 Just get a small amount wet & apply it to the bite immediately.

It works.

Especially on painful bee stings.

Believe me I have used it many times over the years.

How & Where To Catch Large Yellow Pickerel (walleye) Trolling At Night On Georgian Bay

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.

It used to be called Camp Mc Intosh or something like that.

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 plus mile trip by boat depending on your route or how rough the bay is 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 nightcrawlers (worms) down in 35 feet of water.

I know one good hole & there are usually boats there 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.

Bears, Moose, Wolves & Massasauga Rattlesnakes On Georgian Bay Islands

 The bears below got into our campsite & would not leave so we did.

Massauaga Rattlesnake Video Ontario Canada Government

I accidentally stepped on this rattlesnake with sandals on & he did not bite me.

It was sitting on a portage trail near a carry going around what canoeist call a drop or normal people call falls.

They are very hard to spot when motionless because they blend in with the rocks.

He did not rattle until I touched him with my sandal.

I was wearing shorts & had no socks on.

Please do not kill these snakes as this is their home & we are visitors & they are important to the ecology of The Georgian Bay.

I have seen many more of them over the years including very big ones up to 4 1/2 feet long & very fat & they are not rare in this area.

If you go in the hot days of July or August you will see them lay out on the rocks near the water & wait for a frog or something else to eat.

When they are in our campsite I always catch them & move them to another area but I never harm them & I also know what I am doing.

If you don’t please do not go near them.

I take special equipment to handle them properly & have hunted poisonous snakes for years in Florida & places like that.

If you leave them alone they will simply crawl away & go back to their den.

After they feed they go back into their dens & do not feed again for awhile.

They like to come out at night when it is really warm.

So always be careful when you get out of your tent at night & always look before you step anywhere at night.

If you get bit wrap the bite area loosely with an elastic bandage & keep beelow the heart & remaim calm & go directly to the road & find out where Parry Sound Hospital is & get there asap & there is also a hospital in Sudbury.

Do not cute the bite area or apply suction devices unless you have The Sawyer Snakebite Kit Suction Device with you which has to be used immdeiately to do any good & then it will only remove about 35% of the venom at best.

It would be a good idea to call the lodge owner where you parked & ask them for advice.

It is illegal to kill these snakes even if you get bitten by one of them.

Do not handle a dead snake as they can still bite after they are supposedly dead.

If you do kill the snake after you are bitten put it in a bucket or bag with a long stick & take it with you so the doctors can see what kind & size it is to determine how much anti-venom you will need which will depend on your size & weight etc.

They probably have to do a test first to see if you are allergic to the anti-venom.

Most people that go to Georgian Bay have never seen one of these rattlesnakes so if you do it is a thrill & an experience you will never forget.

Especially if you end up in the hospital with snake bite.

One of the local lodge owners once told me these snakes were very small & if you get bit is it about like getting stung by a bee as they have a small amount of venom.

She was telling a man that knew better.

This snake has a nasty venom & anyone bitten needs to get help quick or you could lose an arm or leg.

Believe me rattlesnake bites are serious no matter what kind or how large if they inject venom with the bite.

If not consider yourself lucky as that does happen & they call them dry bites & that was probably why she thought that was true.

The Massasauga or pigmy rattler has a very potent poison that can be more powerful than the diamond back, canebreak or timber rattlesnake.

A snake expert in Florida we used to sell live snakes to told me a massasuaga rattlesnake almost killed him & it was the worst snake bite he had ever experienced & he had been bitten over seventy times & even by cobras in the past.

They tell you very few people die but they do not tell you about all the amputations they have to do because of rattlesnake bites & tissue damage & infection & how it rots your skin or turns it totally black.

All rattlesnake bites are serious & require immediate hospital attention.

One year a young boy was bitten by a rattler chasing frogs out around Dead Island when we were up there & I have personally been struck several times but usually had my rubber boots on & did not get injected with venom.

There are wolves in this area but I have only ran across them once in 35 years.

One year we noticed strange scats that looked like dog but we thought they were bear.

They were all over the area we camped & there was a kill nearby with vultures & buzzards high overhead but we did not attempt to investigate it.

The third night we were there the moon was full & all of a sudden the cry of the wolf & right in our campsite were three wolves apparently chasing an injured moose.

They keep howling & chasing & we were shocked & had no idea what to do.

We got out of the tent after they left our camp & jumped into our canoe & started paddling to my son’s campsite about a half mile away.

There were a couple of canoeist there nearby also & all of them were up & confused as no one had ever experienced wolves before.

We heard them howling all night long & then never again the remainder of our trip.

The only regret I have is that I did not have a tape recorder with me as that was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard in my life.

I will never forget it & at that time I had suspected that Fritts may have had something to do with that & was probably up there laughing like hell.

The wilderness does that to you.

We have caught a lot of moose & bears swimming across rivers over the years & sometimes you can hear moose snorting or calling in the morning or a bear turning over rocks or tearing rotten stumps at night while you are in your tent.

You will see trails that go in the water on islands where they swim across & if you camp there they will swim across there & go right by your campsite usually at night.

Ontario Black Bear Photgraphs By Ashley Hockenberry Photography

These Black Bears Are For The Birds

Wilderness Camping On Georgian Bay Islands

The camping in Georgian Bay is the best you will find anywhere in Canada & you can camp anywhere without permits or hassles. The area we fish & camp in is now a part of The French River Provicial Park & all the local stores & lodges have really good maps of the area. You have to go by boat or canoe or float plane as there are no roads only waterways in the form of rivers that run into Georgian Bay which is 150 miles long with 30,000 solid rock islands large & small. You can buy groceries, gasoline & other supplies at many fish camps & lodges on Georgian Bay & they have boat docks to tie up to. The Georgian Bay is great for kayaking or canoeing trips & many routes are available. We recommend canoeing & camping books by Bill Mason or Cliff Jacobson which tell about about these things in an expert way. Everything you will ever need to know about wilderness canoe or boat camping is defined & also pictured.