Amateur seeking advice on Northern Ontario camping trip

[wlemst88]

Hello all,

I am a father of four who's sum total of fishing knowledge is to put a worm on a hook and a bobber above it, then throw the worm in the water and drown it. We came back from Killbear park last week and I completely struck out while those around me were pulling in lake trout. They were using jigs, I think they're called.I do have some random jigs, spoons and spinners that came with a generic tackle box "kit"; I threw these into the water too, but no luck.

So later this month we're going on a 3 week camping trip of northern Ontario, staying at Chutes, Pancake Bay, Sleeping Giant, Aaron, Kakabeka, Wakimi, and Grundy Provincial parks. All these parks have access to water.

In the next couple weeks I was hoping to improve my tackle box and knowledge to hopefully try to catch some fish. My kids are getting turned off of fishing because we never catch anything.

I've been doing some reading this week, and it seems the expanse of knowledge required to fish is incredible! It seems the best advice I've read is to go to local bait/tackle shops and ask what works there. I don't want to spend much time at bait/tackle shops while on vacation either though.

I've walked through the fishing aisles at Cabelas and get overwhelmed. So with this in mind, are there 5-10 "staple" lures that I should have? Or any primers they can link to that I can read - something catered towards summertime shore fishing in northern Ontario? Should I stick with worms? I'm willing to put some work into research but I'd rather not make a career out of it too.

If you can't tell, I'm a bit discouraged and would appreciate any advice you all can share.

Wes