A couple of days in Algonquin Highlands, A graphic content warning - SNOW

Had a late but eventful trout opener. Fished Friday from 4PM and Sat from 9AM to 4PM. Fishing was tough in cold conditions. A bit of snow on Friday and then Saturday morning had a beautiful trip to Lake Opeongo. Caught 5 lakers in total. The largest was 59cm. Caught four in 50-60' and before leaving on the second day tried shallow near the shore thinking about brookies, but caught another laker in 15'. Saw more marks, but they were SMBs.
Met a moose and some bird. Stopped to let 3 ladies to make photos of the bird with powerful lenses each had. Then drove closer to make my photo and scared of course...
The phone added some light to the photo of the moose, but it was very dark. It was standing on the opposite side of the road and only move when I stopped like 15' from it. Glad I spotted it from a distance. Those signs should be taken seriously, especially at night...
The first laker was about 21" and I caught it on a 3" fluke minnow. I guess I should bring larger baits for lakers as it regurgitated a 10-11" cisco or whitefish to my net...

It wanted a little snack...

The bird

The moose

Highway 60 on May 2 morning

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They eat big bait thats for sure! Yesterday we had one with a tail sticking out of its mouth probably a 7-10” Cisco, the trout was only about 20-22” as well.
How busy was that launch on Opeongo? Many boats out for opener?

Right on, good you were able to get a few fish during less than ideal conditions and get a look at a swamp donkey too.

Fishing in the cold...good job. Cool picture, the bird is an Osprey. My pair of Osprey outfished me on Friday but were a big help on Saturday, marking the fish. That last picture of the lake is outstanding, you should put that scene in a frame.

Sounds like an awesome trip congrats, and thanks for sharing your pictures

Made another photo of that cotton covered forrest with 3x magnification.

Let me know if you want the original photos sent separately

Google Lens accepted and recognized the bird. It was a Bittern. Unique posture and hard to spot on a similar background like on this photo.

The launch was fine, another boat went in while I was preparing mine. I thought it is good. Then I drove to the parking lot and the first one was full with one trailer already on the grass. OMG. Hopefully the second lot has some space and indeed there were only 5 trailers.
But on the lake I mostly fished with 3-4 boats around me. Not sure where the rest of the fleet hid. May try to find it next time

It’s a big lake, and usually there’s not many boats all in one area. Sometimes in busiest weekends of summer there’s 7-8 boats all within a small section of the east arm, but overall there’s enough room to spread out. Then not everyone is on the water at the same time, and a bunch of them just camp, not fish. Still, I think the lake has been going downhill for the last decade or more (lake trout catch rates)… just a lot of pressure during open season. I’d like to see a 20hp reg like a lot of other lakes in the Park, just to limit access a bit more. Obviously there’s science, and people who know more than me… just my observations.

Looks like a great trip. Great pics as well.