Samuel de Champlain park

[Fossil Fish]

My family and I are heading to Sam de Cham for the August long weekend. It is east of North Bay, closer to Mattawa for those that don't know. Just curious if anyone has ever been there, what the fishing is like and what I can reasonably expect to catch. Anything I look at online says the usual pike, bass, walleye -the typical targets. I'm more interested in what else is around that people wouldn't normally target. There are several lakes within the park with the largest being Moore Lake. It should be a good time regardless what I catch, I'm just hoping the weather cooperates.

[Fossil Fish]

I'm back and I figured I'd post a report of my trip. We went up Saturday and by the time we got there, set up and ate, there wasn't much time for fishing, so we just explored the park. There are plenty of places to fish and you'd need more time than I had, or do nothing but fish, to cover them all. Sunday morning had me up and out on the main lake (Moore) by 6am in my inflatable. This is the only lake there that allows motors (up to 10 HP) and there are a lot of canoes and kayaks. I got several nibbles, but only one catch, a personal record pike.     Of course the record is smallest one yet, but still nice to get something. Not long after that, I came in for breakfast then took my son out for a bit. No catches and the wind was starting to pick up when my wife texts me telling us to come back to camp -the tarp had ripped in the wind and was flapping wildly. We didn't get anywhere near the weather that the GTA got Sunday, just an hour of real light rain about 3pm, but it was windy. Saturday night my wife took the 2 youngest kids out to another lake while I was on fire duty and all of them caught largemouth bass.
Monday morning I was at it again pre-sunrise at a spot along the Amable du Fond River drifting worms. My first catch was a small bass, very green, but I wasn't sure which kind as there wasn't much light and I was in the shadows. I suspected smallmouth and this was confirmed later once I saw a photo with a flash. Next was a pleasant surprise. Using the same approach, I landed the first of several fallfish, a lifer species for me.     As fun as that was, I had other spots I wanted to try. I went to spot along the Mattawa River and threw in a line but all I got there was a rock bass, albeit a good sized one and the darkest coloured one I'd seen. Finally I went to another spot along the A du F and caught a couple more fallfish and a couple of smallmouths including this one, very dark and my personal best but sure to be beaten.     Lots of fun on the ultralight. Who would have thought that although I live on Simcoe, I'd have to travel 300+ km to get my first smallies. Monday afternoon saw us knee deep in water where the 2 rivers meet and that produced several smallies and a few fallfish including my sons first. Monday night my son and I went back to the spot where I'd caught the dark smallie, but only managed a couple of juvenile fallfish.
Tuesday morning I was back where the rivers meet but this time in my boat looking for largemouth in the pads. Casting a Senko, I eventually got a hit but was surprised when I pulled up a rather greedy rock bass. I eventually gave up and went back to UL and brought in a few more smallies and one last fallfish. Breakfast and packing finished my trip but I'd certainly go back.    

[zippyFX]

Nice report! Looks like you had a great time. That bass is really cool.

[ST_ShoreFisher]

nice report..tho that pike might have died upon release:
http://www.bishfish.co.nz/articles/fresh...d-kill.htm (for trout, but I assume most fish's have a similar anatomy)

[OldTimer]

Great report.

Nice pics (particularly the scenery shot).

Cheers,

OldTimer

[GailBait]

Nice catches. Bass is very dark!

[OldTimer]

I agree - that's probably the blackest black bass I've seen.

[Fossil Fish]

He was caught in the shadows under a bridge. I guess he'd been living there for a while. Any others I caught in more open waters were much more green