The Kenora area has over a dozen of sportfish that provide excellent angling opportunities. Following are a list of the most popular sportfish species.
WALLEYE
The walleye (also known locally as pickerel) is found throughout the Kenora area. This species is found in abundance in a wide range of waters.
Walleye thrive in a range of river and lake conditions from cold, clear water to warm, weedy and stained water. Preferred cover includes weed, wood and rock. Bottom types can be anything from soft mud to flooded timber, rubble or bedrock.
The walleye is a light-avoiding fish, caught most often under low light conditions. Fishing is generally best on cloudy or overcast days, or on days when waves keep light from penetrating too deeply into the water.
In springtime walleye will take almost any bait or lure, but may be more challenging to catch through the summer months. Fall often brings another peak of walleye feeding activity.
Casting or trolling with spinners or minnow-imitating plugs is a good bet. Special worm harness rigs of spinners and beads are often trolled. Jigs, either traditional bucktails, or tipped with any of the modern plastics, a piece of worm or minnow are walleye angling favorites.
Excellent live bait includes:
- minnows;
- earthworms; and,
- leeches
Live baits are often still-fished, drifted or trolled on slip-sinker or "bottom-bouncing" rigs. Walleye are readily caught through the ice, usually on jigs, jigging spoons or minnows.
NORTHERN PIKE
Pike are widely distributed in the Kenora area, and are found in most waterbodies.
In a lake environment pike prefer weedy bays, estuaries and shoals as spring and summer habitat. During cool autumn days pike are most likely to seek deeper water.
Pike are aggressive feeders through spring, summer and fall and continue to be caught through the ice during the winter months. Pike will take just about every kind of live and artificial bait, including very large streamer flies. For trolling or casting try:
- spoons;
- bucktail spinners;
- crankbaits;
- topwater lures;
- spinnerbaits; and,
- buzzbaits.
Live baits include large chubs and shiners.
MUSKIE
Less than one per cent of the world's fresh water holds the mighty muskellunge and much of that water is in Ontario. This highly prized trophy fish is found in many of the large lakes and rivers in the Kenora area.
The muskellunge is usually found concealed among aquatic plants at the sides of channels, or off shelving rocks and offshore shoals in lakes and rivers in summer. It moves into the shallow waters in the fall.
Because of its large size and fighting qualities, the muskellunge is one of Ontario's most renowned game fish. Heavy casting tackle is used because of the great strength of this fish, which can reach weights of over 22 kg. (50 pounds). All of the following have been used with considerable success:
- large wooden plugs;
- spoons;
- combination spoon and feather;
- bucktail baits;
- surface lures; and,
- large bass plugs.
SMALLMOUTH BASS
Smallmouth bass can be found in hundreds of lakes throughout the Kenora area.
Lakes and rivers that are clear enough and rocky enough to be suitable for trout, but in which the water temperature is too high for trout, are generally good smallmouth bass habitat. Bass concentrate around shoreline rocks and points as well as offshore shoals, often in deep water.
Popular baits are:
- suspending jerk baits;
- flukes;
- poppers; and,
- leeches.
Small, deep-diving plugs and lures, and surface lures (in early morning and evening) are effective. But soft plastic lures in the form of crayfish imitations, twister tails and small worms or tubes are among the best smallmouth baits. These are often fished deep, in combination with a jig.
LARGEMOUTH BASS
The largemouth bass often occurs in habitats similar to those preferred by the smallmouth bass and muskellunge.
This fine game fish has adapted to a large variety of habitats, from the clear and rocky lakes preferred by smallmouth bass to sloughs and sluggish waters. It thrives in shallow, mud-bottomed lakes and slow-moving streams which contain an abundance of aquatic vegetation.
Largemouth are brawling fish, often eager to strike most, if not all, artificial lures, including bass bugs and flies, with enthusiasm. Favorite bass baits include:
- spinnerbaits;
- spoons;
- topwater plugs;
- buzzbaits;
- crankbaits; and,
- jigs;
- as well as a whole range of soft plastics.
Minnows and crayfish are good live baits.
Largemouth like cover and are often caught in weeds, lily pads and among sunken timber. Overhanging trees, docks and swimming floats also provide good largemouth hideouts.
LAKE TROUT
The lake trout occurs in the deep, cold lakes of the Kenora area.
Lake trout normally inhabit only lakes with a depth greater than 15 meters (50 feet).
In spring, just after ice goes out, lake trout are found near the surface and can be taken on a fly rod, or with spinners, spoons and plugs. As the water warms up they go deep and must be sought with special deep-water tackle -- wire line, lead-core line, downriggers, diving planers, etc. Large spoons, spinners and plugs are good summer trolling baits. Jigging, or still-fishing with large, dead minnows in deep water, are sometimes effective in summer. Ice fishing for lake trout is often done with tube jigs or by jigging with spoons with bait attached.
CRAPPIE
Crappie are found in many of the large and small waterbodies throughout the Kenora area. The Black Crappie is characterized by a flat greenish or darker body with a lighter to white underside, all over their bodies ar darker spots and mottled stripes. Thet have a small head, with a large pertruding forehead. their fins are rounded and may have a pink or yellow tinted stomach.
These fish are found along grassy patches in deeper water, but ventures into spawning waters, shallow grassy beds, during the first of the year to early spring.
Shore minnows, very small baitfish, grass shrimp and earthworms make for the best natural bait, while jigs, spinners and plugs make for the best artificial bait.
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