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Ontario Campgrounds
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Lake Nipigon- Ontario’s Best Kept Trout Secret!!
 By:
Tyler Dunn
Tyler Dunn Guiding
Lake Nipigon is arguably the best drive to
trophy trout waters Ontario has to offer. With
an abundance of trophy brook and lake trout for
anglers to chase, it is a no brainer for any
trout bum looking for an incredible adventure.
The following are a few tips for fishing the
waters of famous Lake Nipigon.
Brook Trout
Lake Nipigon is absolutely chalked full of
enormous brook trout. Fish average 18-19 inches
with every couple fish measuring more than 20
inches! Nipigon’s brookies are not only gracious
with size but the quantity is absolutely
amazing. I fished the lake for 7 days this past
June. Our group had a few tough days but we
still managed to average 6 quality fish a day.
We landed several
 over
the 22” slot size and seen some true giants
follow us up to the boat. That being said, I
learned quickly to finish each cast right to the
boat. Quite often you will find yourself casting
the shorelines sitting in 40 to even 100 feet of
water. About half of our fish took our lures
boat side in our full view over water this deep.
As important as finishing each cast was putting
your lures tight to shore on our initial cast
was equally important. A few other anglers we
met on the lake recommended that we cast
extremely tight to shore. This was probably one
of the best tips we were given because we caught
some really nice fish in less than a foot of
water in the middle of the day.
Casting the shorelines of islands on the edges
of the main lake were key areas for big fish.
More important were the points of these islands.
We didn’t always catch great numbers at these
areas but every fish was big. At one of these
spots we saw the biggest speck of our trip. My
cousin Mike had a 24-25” monster mouthing his
spoon right to the boat before torpedoing into
the depths never to be seen by us again. It was
a bummer but really reminded us of where we were
fishing. A potential world record can be caught
on any cast.
Spoons from 1/3-3/4 oz did the damage for us and
gold/orange was hands down the top producing
colours. In fact, by the end of our trip almost
all of our spoons were taped up gold/orange. We
also had 1-1.5” crappie tubes threaded on the
trebles. We would simply remove the treble from
the split ring on the spoon and thread the tube
over the hook then reattach it back to the split
ring. When the aggressive spoon bite seemed to
slow a jig fly would always take a few more
fish. Swimming the jig in the top few feet of
the water column put a few trophy specks in the
boat for us.
Although we did cast 75% of the time on our
trip, trolling did produce some fish for us. We
trolled spoons and minnow baits such as Little
Cleo’s, Gibbs Coho and Rapala Husky Jerks. Key
areas for trolling were long rocky shorelines
and along the edges of saddles between islands.
Remember that Lake Nipigon is a single barbless
lake so be sure to remove any extra hooks on
minnow baits. For more information on lures
contact Chuck Anderson at Nipigon Baits
(807-887-2615).
 Lake
Trout
With the introduction of smelt into the lake
during the 70’s the lake trout found in lake
Nipigon are said to be one of the fastest
growing strains if trout in the world. These
lakers average 10+ pounds with a 20 pounder not
even a true Nipigon trophy. Fish up to 50 pounds
are caught each year! August and September is
trophy laker time with South bay being a hotspot
for many anglers. Cooks point and the mouth of
Blackwater Creek near Beardmore are two other
top producing lake trout areas. Trolling big
over sized spoons like Williams Whitefish, Husky
Sr.’s and Canoe spoons top choice. Giant
Flatfish and Kwikfish are also dynamite lures to
troll for big lakers. Often times adding a white
twister tail in the 3-5” range will get you more
strikes.
Along with the two trout species, walleye, pike,
perch and whitefish are common catches on
different parts of the lake. Lake Nipigon offers
phenomenal fishing to say the least! Get up
there and enjoy it!
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