Silver Dollar Area Ontario

Just interested to see if anyone fishes this area of Ontario. My group will be making it's 12th trip to the area later this summer. We stay at Moose Creek Camp about 8 miles north of Silver Dollar. We fish a number of different lakes in this area. Some of our favorites are Wintering, Sowden, Sturgeon, Young and Watcomb. I would enjoy comparing ideas and stories with fisherman who have spent time in this area. JEP

Anyone fish Indian Lake north of Ignace this past year? ​

I just came home from Austin’s Wilderness Lodge, I stayed the first week of September. I was on Lake Pashkagogan. I traveled by myself from Wisconsin, fished for 4 days and caught 88 walleye, and 172 northern. Almost all were very great sized fish. I have been here many times before, and this was the best fishing has been for me. Austin’s is under new ownership and I couldn’t ask for better. The owners treat everyone so well, and are always willing to help. From making the reservation to the time I left everything was amazing. Really great people! I will for sure be returning next year. 

Recently got back from Lake Pashkagogan and stayed at Austin's Wilderness Lodge (about 1:45 north of Silver Dollar).  The lodge is incredible, the owners used to be in a band and now have an entire karaoke setup in the main lodge for customers...that was a late night :)  The fishing is incredible, live bait not necessary!  No Lake Trout though.  I highly recommend staying there.  Check them out on Facebook.  The 14 hour drive from the Fox Valley was definitely worth it.  

Selbert, sounds like you are on the right track.  I like jigging them with a large one ounce jig with a white fluke body, or I put a 3/4 to 1 ounce bullet weight inside a white tube jig rigged with a treble hook.  Both are effective.  If they are finicky a large jig with a big minnow or dead cisco will sometimes get them going.  Mostly though I like to troll with the down riggers as its kind of a nice way to just chill.  Below 30ft I am pulling spoons, whites with greens or blues.  Wonder bread color is always a consistent producer.  If it's colder water you can pull crank baits above 30 feet like husky jerks, bandits, reef runners.  The big blade baits will work also blue/white or green/white.   The key for Lakers is always something white or with white in it.   I prefer spoons that have the painted white back as opposed to the silver but it depends on the day.   The more sun and calm weather the better for lake trout fishing.  some days when you get on a hot lake trout bite jigging it can be pretty fast action.  This year the trout fishing for me was mediocre at best on Sturgeon.  Still catching fish, but surely not racking up any big numbers.   good luck.

It's awesome to hear the reports from the area.  Thank you.  I've been taking trips to the area for around 15 years.  We have mostly targeted walleye, bass, and pike.  My group is just getting into the hunt for lake trout.  We've done ok.  With modern electronics we are marking fish in regular spots but it seems we aren't catching them at the rates everyone else is.  So my question is, what baits would y'all recommend?  I've been using the heavy blade baits and heavy jigs with plastic swimbaits.  What should I be using?

Hey Guidefishing,
Good to hear you had a good trip. We left camp as you came in. Walleye fishing was good but the lake trout fishing was not very good. We had numerous discussions as to why the trout fishing was down. The weather was outstanding. We had a new twist this year to our trip as we brought our brides for the first time. They loved it! Both became very good at jigging for walleyes, took a blueberry trip, took many pics of the wonderful scenery, enjoyed visits with our hosts and loved sitting on the dock with a cocktail while watching the sunset. In fact they enjoyed it so much that they'll be coming back next season. May have to make two trips!!

Just returned from a week on Sturgeon, walleye fishing was good, not as fast as on the out lakes but steady.  the Overall quality of fish was fantastic with many walleye landed from 24-27in.  The walleye action was good in that we only took one day as a trip to an out lake preferring the quality fish we were getting on Sturgeon.  Lake trout fishing was ok, but I would rate it as below average.  No issues catching trout just did not stack them up as usual.  Although we only targeted pike for a short time one afternoon and including the numerous pike we caught as incidentals we had a hard time catching anything less than 28in.  Many nice pike in the 30 + in range.  All in all a good trip on Sturgeon.

Ive recently been told (second hand-after getting worms for bait) from a lodge that pulling walleye worm spinners with more than one hook is against regulations and the second hook on worm harness needs to be cut off.  Ive scoured the regulations book and all I see is - Hooks and Line - "a fishing line must not have more than 4 hooks."  By this definition/regulation I would think you would be fine with two hooks on a worm harness.  Can anyone shed some light on what the lodge was referring to?

Arod,  Sturgeon can be fickle to say the least, often the walleye's are concentrated to some very specific spots, and there is a lot of water where they are not.  A week or three can make a big difference.  It took me a lot of years to crack the code on Sturgeon for walleye's and my expectations are always tempered. I just returned from that area where my brother in law and I were averaging over 100 walleye per day on a smaller lake to the south.  I certainly do not expect anywhere near that type of action on Sturgeon although we have had some days like that it's not typically the norm.  The one thing I like about Sturgeon is we really focus on Lake Trout.  Don't panic.  A lot can change in 3 weeks, and often its just the matter of where on the walleye when you find them.  Does not hurt to have a back up plan on out lakes if you are struggling on walleye.

Talked with a guy who just returned from fishing the northern parts of Sturgeon Lake. He stated it was a disappointing trip. His group was unable to find walleyes and even talked to others who experienced the same difficulties. Their group spent a day on an out lake and did very well. Has anyone else experienced this same situation or heard reports concerning Sturgeon. Heading up tp the north end in three weeks.

We had an awesome trip to the Silver Dollar area. Weather cooled off a bit but the fishing was good. Our group tried flying Loon for the first time. The flowage areas are worth the trip in. Lots of small walleye, but we did catch a couple over "20 and a large sucker (I've never seen one caught on a rod and reel). I also learned a ton about catching lake trout, definitely going to be a species I target more on future trips.  Walleye were anywhere from 5 to 15 ft deep. Underspin jigs tipped with live bait seemed to outfish traditional jigs. I think the smallmouth bite was starting to slow based on previous posts. We caught a good number, but it wasn't non stop action. Overall, I give the fishing an A- as far as a grade goes. That's almost 20 years of observation. 

Rusty,  the majority of the fires are north of a line between Sioux Lookout and Savant lake.  I was up last week and when the wind came out of the north it blocked out the sun, visibility much reduced, and I could imagine if someone had breathing problems that it would be uncomfortable to say the least.   Did not effect the fishing that was great as always.  Very dry, total fire restrictions on, and lake levels very low.

Any wildfires in this area? We are heading north next week

Bugs were the worst we saw in years.  Probably due to the warm weather and lack of wind.  Lots of mosquitoes and Deer flies.  When there was a breeze then no problem, but it was horrible cooking fish outside without wind. Good news on the water no issue with bugs, even with no wind, no bug bites while fishing. 

How are the bugs?  I hauled boats up to our Camp north of Sault and they were very impressive to say the least!