Local Fishing

The beautiful Upper French River and Lake Nipissing watershed…what more needs to be said? The Upper French River is the ultimate display of what Ontario, Canada has to offer to outdoors enthusiasts. It combines unspoiled wilderness, with stunning scenery, a massive river and a wide variety of wildlife.

If you are looking at this though, you are interested in one thing – fishing. As beautiful as the Upper French River is, what really counts is the world under the water that you can’t see. Chaudiere Lodge offers you a chance to fish both the Upper French River and Lake Nippising. These waters are yielding more and more big fish every year, it is prime fishing territory and its waters are well respected amongst the angling community.

A lot of lakes and rivers in Ontario are good for catching numbers, a lot of places offer big fish, and other areas offer a multitude of species. But the Upper French River is unique because it offers a combination of all of the above! Here you can catch big numbers but don’t ever forget you are in world record waters.

Walleye

One of the most sought after species due to its unbelievable taste, the Upper French River offers excellent walleye fishing. Some of the most popular methods of fishing them are jigging, drift fishing and slow trolling in the evening. Some artificial baits are the worm harness, Mepps #3, Rapalla and crank baits like the hot’n tot. The best natural baits are night crawlers and minnows.

Northern Pike

Abundant throughout the season in the waters of the French, Pike are a wonderful eating fish, they grow big and fight hard, not much wonder they are a sportsman’s dream. One of the most popular ways of catching pike is casting crank baits like suspending rapallas, rippling red fins, larger spinner baits, suicks and Mepps #4 spinners.

Large and Smallmouth Bass

Pound for pound arguably the best fighter of all the fresh water fish Large and Smallmouth bass and are not heavily targeted on the Upper French River and Nipissing. As a result we are sitting on one of the best bass fisheries in Ontario. Caught throughout the season and at sizes exceeding 6 pounds they really are a treat to catch. You will not want to come without a few bags of Gary Yamamoto sinkos or Berkley Gulp 6” jerk shads along with the conventional top water plugs, spinner baits and crank baits.

Musky

The uncontested king of the fresh water. Fierce and unpredictable, Musky roam the waters of the Upper French River and Lake Nipissing and will give you the thrill of a life time. The best time to fish for them is middle of August right through to Thanksgiving. Some popular lures used are large crank baits and bucktails top water baits like the suick, also Mepps #5 giant killer, the piky minnow, and you can’t forget our old time favorite the musky hound. The best methods of hooking into one is casting or trolling.

All of the above lures are only suggestions of what has worked in the past and only a general recommendation. Whatever you use and whatever the method, The French river and Lake Nipissing watershed will give you the chance to catch enough walleye to feed yourself a delicious shore lunch. Give you the chance to wrestle with some of the best fighter’s freshwater fishing has to offer; The fierce Northern Pike, Walleye, Large and Smallmouth Bass and last but definitely not least the Musky. It maybe your turn to hook into that elusive monster, the beautiful yet vicious Musky! Imagine holding on to a new world record, they live here, on Chaudiere Lodges door step. Come to the Upper French River and make that dream a reality.