Fishing Tips by Jim Clark

Equipment

Use a 6 foot medium action spinning rod with 6 or 8 pound test clear low visibility monofilament. You can also use ultra-lite equipment, a fly rod, or bait casting outfits too. Put your tackle in a small flat plastic packable tackle box or one of those nylon "soft boxes".

Surface Baits & Crankbaits

Heddon Baby Torpedoes and Pop-rs are my favorite topwater bass plugs, but Zara Spookes, Hula-Poppers, and other surface baits will work well too. I use silver/chrome, frog, and light colors in the day, and dark colors or black in the evening. Jigs work all season long and if you don't have a favorite, use mine; 1/8 ounce fluorescent green or orange heads with 4 inch Berkley Power Worms. Best colors for worms and jigs are black, white, yellow, motor oil, chartreuse, and pumpkinseed. Sassy Shads, Beetle Spins, and Twister Tails work too, and these patterns work well for walleye and smallmouth. The best crankbaits are ½ ounce Hot N' Tots, Rapala Shad Raps, Rapala Husky Jerks, and #11 jointed Rapalas. Silver, shad, gold, and fluorescent colors are best. Real Eppinger red and white Daredevil spoons, and plastic skirted spinner baits are best for big pike, and bass too! My favorites are 3/8 ounce Strike King or Stanley Vibra-Shaft spinner baits with chartreuse or white skirts and tandem gold/silver willow blades.

Lake trout hit crankbaits, Cleo, Daredevil and Sutton Spoons when they are shallow in the spring and fall. In the summer, troll a 3 ounce bead chain sinker 4 feet in front of a deep diving crankbait; Hot N' Tots are best. Vertical jig for trout with ½ ounce Heddon Sonars, or 3/8 ounce white or yellow Maribou hair jigs and jigging spoons.

Walleye & Topwater Bass

If you use a fly rod, bring a 7 or 8 weight rod, 8-9 ½ feet in length. You will need a fast sinking line, and floating line with 5 to 7 foot leaders and an 8# tippet. Bring bunny leeches, muddler minnows, Mickey Finns, and Clouser deep minnows for walleye. Use yellow hairy bugs, mouse imitations, poppers, and Dahlberg divers for topwater bass.

Additional Tips

No live bait, leeches, or nightcrawlers are allowed in Quetico, and you must remove the barbs on your artificial lures. Use a needle nose pliers and flatten or crush the barbs on those hooks before casting. I use the rear treble hook only on my plugs and crankbaits; removing any others. Multiple treble hooks tend to snag fish injuring eyes and gills, and snag fishermen too! Keep a fish or two to eat, quickly releasing all others. If you want to anchor, bring along a small stuff sack or mesh bag with 50 feet of ¼ inch rope. Use with a few rocks in the bag as needed.

We Will Show You Our Best “Fishing Holes”

When we do your map routing in Atikokan, we will show you our best "fishing holes" along your route, and you'll discover many new ones on your own! Remember that "barbless hooks" and a needle nose pliers makes a live release of the fish you don't need to keep much easier.