|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lone LakeFly-in Ontario bass fishing. Located approximately 18 miles northwest of the Sparrow
Lake airbase 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 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" 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. 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 John Stanton has 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.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||