My annual trout fishing trip to Temiscaming, Quebec, is a time I look forward to all year long..regardless whether we catch a lot fish or none at all. This spring marked the 25th anniversary for my father and brother-in-laws on our annual may trout trip.
Of course with this late spring, water was the coldest we’d seen in years. Mid – Low 50’s I’d estimate on most lakes and the fish were up high and hitting like crazy!! The most big fish actions we’d seen in years!
Here’s a nice photo of my 82-year old father with a decent-sized eater trout, this fish was probably a bit smaller than our average size. Most brookies we caught were in the 17″ – 20″ range or around 2.5 – 3 pounds. Certainly not your average ‘spec’.
We boated a total of 45 trout over the 4.5 days we fished, and released an incredible 30 of those fish. The real joy for me now is catching these monster specs and having a couple of meals of smaller fish. We each took home two trout apiece; far from our limit of 7.
Here’s Steve with nicely-coloured fish from our other ‘eater lake’.
Learning how to quickly and efficiently release brook trout is an art in itself. Smaller trout were actually more difficult to release so we ended up keeping small ones for eating.
The place we’ve been camping for the past 15 years has become like a familiar friend, on the shores of a scenic but non-trout lake.
Here is one of the big brookies I caught slow-trolling a Williams W55 Lite…incidentally, we caught ALL 45 trout on the same exact spoon if you can believe that. Why didn’t we change lures? Well, when you find something that works it only makes sense to stick with it!
Although I’ve tried different tackle over the past few years, I always come back to Williams and Mooselook as my standby spoons!
This big guy Bruce caught in a nearby lake ended-up as part of our meal that evening (for obvious reasons) This was the largest trout we’ve ever caught on the other not-so-secret lake we fish, and a great looking 22″ specimen it was!
This year we really took the time up north to smell the roses. We didn’t need to spend 12 hours a day on the water and ended-up fishing maybe 6 hours per day – followed by a horse-shoe tourney(won by Steve & I), some great musical entertainment by Bruce and euchre inside the tent after the sun went down. Lots of laughs and a few frosties were had by all. (NONE whilst fishing of course..laughes yes, beer no!)
Without a single black fly or mosquito to be had, it truly was the best time to be in the great north woods! We even saw snow in the bush in many spots and along the roads on the way up. I predict ice hadn’t been off these lakes for more than a week; which is terrific timing for brookies if you can plan it that way, or simply luck-out as we did.
Upon closer inspection, this behomoth 24.5″ trout (the largest we’ve ever caught in the region) may have actually been one of our ‘mystery’ or Aurora trout. This was the only photo we snapped before it was released since I wanted this huge spawner back in the water as quickly as possible! I would estimate this girl (a female) to be easily 5 pounds and possibly more. Without any speckles or halos…it does have the appearance of an Aurora trout. I look forward to the chance of catching it again next year!
Well, after 25 years of spring trout fishing I’d say my Dad, brother-in-law’s and I, have things down to a fine science. With some of the best fishing we’ve had in over two decades, it was a fine way to celebrate our silver anniversay!
Hey…25 years together is pretty damn good I’d say, some marriages don’t even last that long!
For more information on trout fishing in La Belle Province, please contact Tourism Quebec: 1 (888) 883-8801 or online at: www.tourisme.gouv.qc.ca
Outdoorsguy
