Annual Father/Daughter Fishing Trip to Lake Temagami 2009: Day 6
Day 6: Thursday, July 16, 2009: Road Trip to Red Squirrel Road
Fish Count:
3 – bass
New Temperature High:
At one point it got up to 22 Celsius / 70 Fahrenheit, although it was that warm most of the day. But it was sunny and warm – a good day for a road trip.
One of our traditions during our stay in Temagami is to seek out a back road we haven’t been on and go explore it. Problem is, we’ve been on most of those roads now that we’ve been coming for quite a few years. This year we decided to go back Red Squirrel Road, which we’ve been on numerous times, including two years ago when Stacy and I went on our canoe trip in Temagami. Dad drove us back to Red Squirrel Lake, our put in, and along the way we spotted a moose!
Jim recommended a series of three small lakes that are a part of the Anima Nippising River and eventually lead into Red Squirrel Lake. He has fished for rainbow trout in the third lake. We gave it a shot. He said to put a nightcrawler on the hook, let it sink to the bottom, and just wait for the fish to take it. Here’s the problem: it’s very easy to get hung up this way. And hung up we got. So we decided to just throw bobbers on and dangle the worms in the water. Really not the best method for catching fish (a suspended worm is a little unnatural), but it’s been known to work. Well, we didn’t catch any rainbow trout, but I caught two small bass. So, there’s bass in here too? Dad said next year we’ll have to come back with the minnows and fish that way because it really is a good fishing spot.
We also discovered another fishing spot along Red Squirrel Road – Thieving Bear Lake. There are some rocks there with a pretty decent drop off that we will try next year with the minnows. The rocks also were home to lots of frogs, which I spent some time trying to catch (pretty much unsuccessfully). I really should have gone into biology and wildlife studies.
Yummy fresh caught walleye and bass for dinner and then we went back to back fishing at Caribou and Temagami. While at Caribou we caught 3 (keeper) bass and lost a bunch. We sat for about an hour before we had any action, and then it only lasted about ten minutes before our bobbers were motionless again. There seems to be a pattern, but it doesn’t make fishing for them any easier. You never really know when/if they are going to bite.
We were greeted at the docks of Temagami Shores by a few tweenage kids, who were throwing the large rocks (you know, the ones that keep the lake from washing away the ground?) into the water. I decided it was WAY too early in the summer to be encountering kids again. I said to Dad that I don’t like to see kids during my summer vacation. We went out on the boat for an hour and didn’t catch anything. What happened to our great fishing spot in the bay?
Fish Count: (so far)
10 – bass
3 – walleye
3 – in the slot
Mosquito Count:
Still a lot, but Dad finally gave me the bright idea to turn the fan on while I sleep, so that the breeze keeps them away from my face. It worked! Best night’s sleep I’ve had all week!

