"The chunky 3 pounder was in my grasp. Today, that same bucketmouth is there in the photo album, and even more importantly, etched every bit as clearly in my bass fishing memory."

Bill Rivers, Ontario Fisherman Magazine.

Located approximately 22 miles northwest of the Lake St-John airbase (near Orillia, ON), Lone Lake is one of seven outpost lakes serviced by Stanton Airways featuring Southern Ontario fly-in bass fishing. The comfortable and spacious 6-man camp there is equipped with propane appliances, boats & motors, a complete kitchen, wood stove and bunk beds.

Lone Lake is a small, 2-mile long, tannin-stained, clear-water lake and home to a healthy population of largemouth bass which occasionally reach five pounds. More typically, however, bass will measure in between 1 and 3 pounds, with very few smaller fish also showing up. Our experience suggested that Lone Lake offers more of a quality than a quantity bass fishery.

Lone Lake offers limited shoreline cover, some wood and a few distinct deep weedlines to probe with either live baits or artificials. The use of frogs, leeches, crawfish and real worms is a time-honoured, proven and popular approach to catching big bass. Remember to check MNR regulations regarding live bait before bringing live baitfish or craws to any lake.

Lone Lake does not offer many classic live-bait spots - out from beaver lodges, fast breaking points, mid-lake shoals or extensive weedbeds. Instead, the best locations for presenting a tempting live-bait offering are the distinct weedlines / breaklines that parallel a select few shoreline stretches. At these locations, the weedlines end abruptly and the bottom falls away sharply at the 8 or 9-foot contour.

Live-bait caught fish, when deeply (gut) hooked, do not make good release candidates. Keep any fish that bleeds profusely or does not resuscitate immediately. Limit your catches when fishing live baits, switching over to artificials once you have caught enough for shore lunch or located an active school of fish. Remember, "Limit your kill, don't kill your limit".

For largemouth bass, today's soft plastic "creature" baits - worms, lizards, craws, frogs, slugs - are hard to beat. If smallmouth are available, add plastic minnows, leeches, "tubes", hellgrammites and twistertail grubs to the list. Fished on a mushroom jig, rigged Texas-style (weedless) or used as a trailer on a flippin' jig, spinnerbait or spoon, creatures catch bass. Work these baits over the weed tops, next to stumps and logs, or at the base of a weedline, and bass will greedily respond.

Another exciting and productive strategy for back-lakes bassin' is the topwater approach - twitchbaits, buzzbaits, poppers & chuggers, prop baits, "creatures" and "bass bugs". Indeed, for many anglers, it just isn't bass fishing if it isn't topwater. The absolute best times to take the topwater approach include the early morning, evening, and darkness periods, as well as grey / overcast days when there is a slight ripple on the surface and bass are active. At these times, a minnow-imitating bait outperforms all others. If bass are surface shy or spooked, switching to a salt & pepper tube jig or a 4-inch weighted Slug-Go will usually tempt bass into taking the bait.

A second proven hard-bait approach for bass is casting spinnerbaits, crankbaits or spinners. Many times, many places, a small white spinnerbait, lipless rattlin' minnow, # 3 in-line spinner, or crawdad-pattern, lipped crankbait is all that's needed to generate some hard hitting bass action.

Lone Lake, like many cottage-country lakes, features many small back bays with shallow water (less than 6 feet deep) and lined with a common variety of overhanging brush. Often littered with stumps and / or sunken logs and sporting scattered mats of lily pads, these small sites offer great early or late-in-the-day bassin' hotspots, no matter what the approach. Work these back bays quietly, slowly and thoroughly.

In small lakes like Lone Lake, bass populations could not withstand the ongoing harvest of big fish, but, as observed in recent years, keeping fish is no longer the rule, but the exception - and there are still plenty of big bass in the swim at Lone Lake.

Ontario Fisherman Magazine