Opeongo, Backcountry camping trip

Took my sister & her kids, and my daughter up the lake and stayed a couple nights.
Got the nephew into a few smallies and he was thrilled with "the biggest fish I ever caught for sure!"

Weather saturday was a bit of a crap-shoot...every time the mist/drizzle would let up, we'd gather up some life jackets, climb out from under our tarp and get ready to hop in the boat, and then the rain would start and send us for cover again. Spent a good chunk of the day playing games and eating under a tarp...kids somehow didn't drive us completely crazy!

Friday was calling for hot and sunny...didn't happen. No sun all day and cool.
Saturday-poured like crazy 3-7am, then rain/drizzle all day long

Looking south from our site on Sunday

Sunday morning I was up first, very cool and windy. I was making myself a coffee...and the little guy comes out all excited to go in the boat. So off we go to his smallie spot, where we struggle a while, then land a few small ones, then I get a good one hooked and pass him the rod ...he struggles to hold on and hangs in there, but the fish eventually gets off, and we didn't get a look at it.

I asked if he wanted to get an even bigger one...he's all in!
Off to a spot I like to fish lakers...put out a few hundred feet of steel line, 20 minutes...fish on! I can tell it's a pretty good one, and I'm trying to get my nephew to come grab the rod. I said I'll help you...and he was kinda scared watching me with a wild laker pounding the rod.
He goes "I'm pretty sure I'm not big enough for that one" and sat down in the front seat of the boat.
Took me around 10 min to get it to the boat(no net I might add...seems to be my thing lately).

When I grabbed the spoon and lifted the fish over the side into the boat my nephew looked like he saw a whale! "I didn't know we could even get one that big!"

Hahaha

You can see him just over the fish's mouth

No scale, but measured length/girth estimates 7.6 lb.
Had a tag by its dorsal, which I returned to the fish lab.

The seagulls had dragged the head/carcass of that fish out of the water after hours of trying. we loaded all of our gear into the boat and were idling away from our campsite to come down the lake and home. The second we got 50 metres away from shore, a bald eagle swooped down out of the sky and grabbed the fish carcass, and carried it across to a secluded bay, a seagull chasing close behind, then giving up.

Crap weather really cut into my fishing time, but we all had a great trip still.

Maybe next time I'll forget the net on purpose.

Great report!...really enjoyed it!...and good for you for hanging in there!!

Nice report. The little guy is gonna remember that “whale” for years to come

Looked like a great camping trip. Weather gave you some windows to catch a few. Great post, thanks for sharing

Way to go Drew to get the kids involved.

Fantastic report truly enjoyed it

nice good you were able to get out. had to cancel our trip this week .not happy about it .young ones will always remember nice trout. if you want to give up your spot pm me lol would be interested to know if you fished the south arm. dan

I tried the south arm a bit...got all our smallies there,
Marked a million fish trolling in 60 feet near sunny side, couldn't buy one.
I usually fish lakers not far from 'our' site

I tried the south arm a bit...got all our smallies there,
Marked a million fish trolling in 60 feet near sunny side, couldn't buy one.
I usually fish lakers not far from 'our' site

always a ton of marks around sunnyside only ever got a couple there.a couple years back we rented a cabin in the mountains in california . there was a book in there about fishing.in it , it talked about a species of whitefish only found in opeongo.could be the marks we see at sunnyside. always wanted to talk to the people at harkness about it but havn't had the chance.

Cool sounding trip Drew. You picked some tough little campers if they will stick around with that kind of weather.The park is a good place to be whatever the weather brings.
Nice laker too ..... you can only catch a fish like that without a net in the boat.😀