Ice Fishing Photo Gallery

For the last several years I have been fortunate enough to enjoy a winter fishing vacation at my buddy’s camp in northern Ontario, just south of Gogama. Gerry Heels has a cabin up there with two ski-doos that we use to fish different lakes each day. We usually go up there for a week around New Year’s and try to get in around mid-March as well.  Our target species include lake trout, splake, brook trout and occasionally rainbows.  One of the main lakes up there only has a short winter laker season, from mid-February to mid-March, so we planned our trip to coincide with the last few days of the lake trout season.  

Lake Simcoe Hut Operator Directory. Fishing Lake Simcoe provides the most updated map of ice hut operators on Lake Simcoe.

Meegs lures have been around for awhile now and it's about time someone told people how to really catch more fish with them! What's a Meegs? It's only the greatest thing to hit ice fishing since the creation of frozen water! The action of a Meegs lure is designed to imitate that of a feeding or a wounded minnow, it just depends on how you jig it!

Its as easy as a flick of a your wrist. As a minnow begins to feed off of organisms from the lake bed below they sit at a 45degree angle so they can eat more easily. Meegs lures are designed to copy that of a minnow's action while feeding.

Man it was cold! That morning in mid January 2009 we heard it was -35 with the wind chill in Toronto, and we were up along the north shores of Lake Simcoe so it was that much colder. "Perhaps the other guys who decided not to come at the last minute were smarter than we think," my son Izaak said as we headed out into the bitter wind onto the frozen lake. Still, the sunrise was gorgeous … and our hopes were high for yet, another terrific day on the ice.

Q: How was the decision to reduce stocking of lake trout made?

A: The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources made the decision following a comprehensive review of fisheries information and stocking options which was guided by the advice from two Lake Simcoe committees, the Lake Simcoe Fisheries Stakeholder Committee representing a broad range of fisheries interests in the watershed; and the Lake Simcoe Fisheries Management Committee, a government committee comprised of fisheries and water quality scientists, biologists, policy and management staff.

Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching Fishing Regulations
MNR

Review of Lake Simcoe's Coldwater Fish Stocking Program
MNR Publication

Lake Simcoe Lake Trout Stocking Reduction
Questions and Answers

Lake Simcoe has been known for decades as the "Ice Fishing Capital of North America" and it's no wonder, considering that more people fish this inland lake during the winter than any other body of water in the province. Despite its fame among the ice angling crowd however, Lake Simcoe is still one of the most productive hard water fisheries anywhere on the continent.