Rice Lake, Ontario, Canada

[LittleMac]

Wife and I rented a cottage for the second week in July. We will primarily be targeting largemouth, smallmouth and pickerel(walleye). If you would have any suggestions as to what works the best for catching those three fish, I'd be very grateful.....

This is the "drive into" Rice Lake just above Lake Ontario very near Keene and Peterborough......not the "fly in" Rice Lake elsewhere.

Thank you, Mac

[Ed Stringer]

HI LITTLE MAC NEVER FISHED FOR ANY BASS IN RICE IT'S MAINLY KNOWEN FOR IT'S BLUEGILLS . BIG DADDY GILLS IN FRONT OF THE GAZEBO BY THE BEACH .
I ALSO CAUGHT WALLEYE THE GILLS WERE REAL SLOW FOR A COUPLE DAYS SO WE STARTED TROLLING CRAWLER HARNESS WITH THE BOW MOUNT ELECTRIC MOTOR .
WE SET THE LINES ABOUT 50 YARDS BACK AND ADJUSTED THE DEPTH OF THE BLADES WITH SPLIT SHOT , JUST LIKE IN LSC .
SOME AREAS WE SET THE LINES BACK 15 YARDS YOU MIGHT HAVE TO PLAY WITH IT A LITTLE ,JULY THE WEEDS WILL BE HIGH AND YOU'LL HAVE TO USE LITTLE TO NO WEIGHT .

A/K/A MING MING

[LittleMac]

Thanks Ed, I appreciate the help. Will certainly give the walleye a try for sure. Will rent the boat there, don't think we'll have the trolling motor, but can always drift troll or jig as well.

I've seen photos on the net of some 9.5 pound smallies and was indeed impressed....even 3 and 4 pounders are great. Also haven't had blugill on the table since leaving Michigan 10 years ago...just something about the clear cool waters....

Appreciate your input, thanks again, Mac

[Ed Stringer]

NO SWEAT HOPE YOUR TRIP TURNS OUT AWESOME , THE FUN STARTS IN THE TRUCK THE FISH ARE THE BONUS . BE SAFE HAVE FUN .


LATER MING MING :cool:

[scottyhoover]

I haven't been there in a long time but we trolled for walleye with floating jointed raps and also drifted erie dearies with leeches. Mammoth bluegill,....thats what it is all about.

[Ontario Gunner]

Ive fished that lake pretty much every year for the last 25 years for atleast 1 weekend usually a week every year.

Have never done too hot on walleyes, largemouth fishing is always fun, not nearly as good as it was 15 or so years ago,, its just pressured hard! Just pick one of the billions of weekbeds off an island and start tossing spinnerbaits.

And if you run into one of the kids that sells frogs,, buy a couple dozen, find a little backwater where you can get in at first light and hammer the lilly pads! my best everlgmouth came out of there at 6.75#,, have never seen a smallie over 6#,, maybe 4 or 5 that went 5# or so, gill fishing is phenomenal.

Musky, I won the lodge big fish weekly on a 39" musky that I raced in and successfully released. The guys in that lodge couldnt believe I wasnt going to have that fish mounted,,,, I told them I live 20 minutes from st.clair and if I had that fish mounted I'd be a laughing stock.. I didnt want to even bring it in,, but my buddy convinced me to use it for half off the cost of the accomadations! :D

[duckcommander101]

I have been up there several times and we did real well on perch and gills and also did fine on walleyes.
For the walleyes we used Erie Dearies casted with a crawler and a medium retrieve and it worked well.
We also did some jigging in the weed beds and it was phenomenal for the larger fish. Bucktail jigs with a half crawler just drifting over the beds and dropping it in the openings.
You'll catch fish for sure and plenty of them, but for us in July it seemed as if the walleyes would shut down for a day or two if you had thunderstorms.
Watch for the Ospreys divebombing the water, it's pretty cool to see!