Planning to visit the Key River Area of Georgian Bay some time this summer. I have not been on this web-page much the last couple of years due to other interests such as wildlife photography. Than you for your interest in this web-page. I have never placed any ads on this web-page for pay but WordPress has to offset their cost of running the blog page. I could say & write much more about The Key River Area of Georgian Bay but half the fun of wilderness camping & fishing is discovering for yourself the many marvels of the great outdoors. The Georgian Bay is big & there are many places you can explore & lots of wildlife to excite. If my blog page got you there it has served it;s purpose. Talk to the old timers who camped there in 1930 to 1950 & hear their stories of the great yellow pickerel runs, the huge pike & muskie. The fur traders who used canoes to move their goods across country. The fishing & canning industry worked this area for many years. You will see the remains of their businesses. Hope to see you there soon.
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
Ivan Kewakundo Key River Area Fishing Guide Key Harbour Lodge
This is Ivan the native person that was so kind & nice to us when we camped out in The Key River Area Of The Georgian Bay.
He told us to follow him when he took out fishing parties for Key Harbour Lodge & he would show us where all the good spots were.
He always used & red & white Daredevil ( middle sized one ) & 20 pound line.
As I recall Ivan would sometimes put his head on top of the boat motor & sleep while his party was catching one fish after another in the same spot.
Ivan knew this area better than anyone & could take you places way back in very few knew about.
He knew where to find big yellow pickerel that would get stranded in deep holes when the spring flow subsided & he would take people there to catch them on night crawlers.
He knew where really big largemouth were & in fact had customers catch them on night crawlers back in the area of the bass hole.
Al Lytle also knew about surface lure fishing for largemouth back there as I can recall him taking his young son back to fish for largemouth one year after we told him they were hitting on the surface.
Ivan went way back in one day & never came out & I heard it took them three days to find his body where he had passed away.
They finally found his boat but had no idea where he had gone inland on this particular island.
Ivan knew all the islands all the way out to the Bad River & beyond.
He was trully a legend to me , countless other fishermen & outdoorsmen who were blessed to have crossed his path.
Thanks Ivan!
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
Sand Bay Bass Hole Georgian Bay Lower Pickerel River Area
This big largemouth bass hole is way back in Sand Bay & can be full of largemouth & smallmouth bass at times that readily take surface lures. We have taken a lot of really big largemouth in this area so fish it throughly & especially way bay at the end where the creek runs into it as big largemouth sometimes hold in this warm shallow water. Also know that a nine pound smallmouth was caught in Sand Bay on a live crayfish fished 35 foot deep by the Windmill Cottage. It was taken two days before bass season opened & had to be released.
The Old Walleye (Yellow Pickerel) Spawning Grounds
Years ago a fishermen that used to stay at Key Harbour Lodge told us all about The Walleye Spawning Grounds & allowed us to go fishing there with him in his boat.
He had an eighteen foot big lake boat with ten horse power trolling motor & down riggers hooked up.
He carried cases of Helin Flatfish in his boat & that is all he used in Georgian Bay period as did many of the best big musky fishermen of the time.
I was brought up bass fishing with the F-7 yellow flatfish with swivel & two treble hooks & red & black dots.
We would put a split shot eighteen inches ahead of the lure & it would absolutely murder smallmouth bass in Southern Ohio Creeks.
I caught, scaled, cleaned, cooked & ate the World Record Rock Bass that I personally caught with this lure & had no idea I did that until several years later when I was looking up world record fish in Sports Afield Magazine.
The record rock bass was only 2lbs. 2 ozs. & the one I ate was 3 & 1/2 pounds & all black from old age.
All the witnesses are now dead so you will just have to take my word on it or simply dis-believe.
The old time Flatfish fisherman showed us how to take the swivel hooks off & then put a single hook in the end of the lure to put a piece of nightcrawler on.
He would use a three way swivel & attach a heavy sinker that would drag along the solid rock bottom & keep the Flatfish a foot or less off the bottom.
He would let it down to the bottom & then troll backwards with his boat in reverse gear very slow.
He would do this going into the wind.
He would hook a nice yellow pickerel every thirty feet or so & had his limit in less than an hour & took us back to Key Harbour Lodge.
Since that time I have personally caught & released hundreds of yellow pickerel using this deadly method in The Old Walleye Spawning Grounds.
The small floating Rapalas also do well using this bottom trolling rig back trolled into the wind & also Mr. Twister Grubs.
The Walleye Spawning Grounds used to be a hot area for Big Yellow Pickerel & Pike not to mention hundreds of trophy smallmouth bass.
To get there you have to go through quite a few shoals so it is best to get someone to follow the first time you go by yourself.
The unique thing about this area is the banks are relatively flat & you can walk around & fish off the banks much easier than many other areas of Georgian Bay.
There are also largemouth bass back in the creeks that run into the spawning grounds & also in The Henvey Inlet where the spawning grounds is located.
One man caught a 28 pound pike almost every year he fished this area & he kept the locations secret.
I fished The Henvey Inlet all the way to the road one time & we caught a lot of really big largemouth bass on Rapalas & the perch color seemed to work the best.
Try this area out if you get a chance as it can be some of the best fishing in this area at certain times & one of the best big pike areas of the entire Georgian Bay.
Go way back in & up the creeks that feed the spawning grounds & there you will find largemouth in the deep warm water holes.
If the water is real low the spawning grounds is not as good as when the water is up high.
Troll the mouth of the area where Henvey Inlet dumps into Georgian Bay as there you will occasionally find really big muskie & pike.
Fish & troll along the steep deep cliff faces & rocks for big smallmouth & pike.
This is the best fly fishing area around as the banks are flat & smooth in the spawning grounds & perfect for long backcast.
You can get a lot of nice pike & smallmouth fly fishing there & you can do that walking around on the flat rock banks.
You will also find flat camping spots here & plenty of black bears.
This is a large area that would take many years to explore throughly.
I basically just touched on it & have only been there several times over the years.
Each time we caught plenty of smallmouth, yellow pickerel & pike plus a few largemouth.
Georgian Bay Bass Hole Trophy Largemouth & Smallmouth Bass On Surface Lures Lower Pickerel River Area French River Provincial Park System Key River Area Georgian Bay Ontario, Canada
The Key River Area of Georgian Bay has some of the best big smallmouth & largemouth bass fishing to be had in all of Canada.
You can expect to take largemouths & smallmouths up to six pounds on surface lures if you are there at the right time & place.
The right time means if the bass are hitting surface lures as The Georgian Bay is no different than any other fishing area in this respect.
Sometimes they simply do not cooperate & simply will not take surface lures.
The right place means where the big bass are & sometimes you have to do some searching & experimenting to figure this out depending on weather conditions & water levels in any given year.
Both the Canadian record Largemouth Bass & Smallmouth Bass lurk in this area.
Nine pound smallmouth bass have been caught & released in this area along with largemouth up to ten pounds.
The big largemouth are sometimes difficult to locate as they will always be where the water is warm & deep enough for their liking.
The smallmouth are much easier to locate & catch as they like colder & deeper water areas such as shoals, boulder piles, steep cliff faces & rivers & streams with fast moving water & currents nearby.
Coves sheltered from North winds facing South always seem to be the best place to find the largemouth.
All sheltered coves with deep warm water in them or close by hold largemouth in this area.
I have never caught a big largemouth in warm water areas where there were no deep holes of at least six feet or more.
Some areas look fabulous but do not have any deep holes in them & all you will catch there is small largemouth.
The largemouth & smallmouth bass are not legal in Canada until the fourth week of June when their annual spawning cycle is over which means you have to release them unharmed if you catch one by accident fishing for other species which are legal at the time.
Many rivers that run into Georgian Bay are off limits to fishing certain species in the spring months of the year.
Check the law on this before you go after them.
The Georgian Bay Bass Hole is located in an off limits fishing area for most species in early spring.
We discovered the bass hole fishing for crappies there in early May one year & caught & released one largemouth after another on crappie jigs & round weighted bobbers with 6 pound Stren line.
The weather kicked up out on the bay so we went way back in to go after big black crappies in an area we had caught them in before.
We were drifting the jigs behind the boat & allowing the wind to drift us along & we started hooking one big largemouth bass after another up to seven pounds.
In early spring they all gather in warm shallow water areas way back in & up the rivers to the back bays where they spawn.
After spawning most scatter all over the area with the exception of a few that stay in these areas all year.
The best method is called ”Walking The Dog” With The Zara Spook.
Big surface lures with spinners often produce a lot of big bass & big hits.
Toss them back in the pockets & ledges along the cliff or rock faces where the water is warm & 5 to 6 feet deep or more & that is where you will find most of them laying.
Each big bass has its own little hole in Georgian Bay.
Please release them to fight another day.
