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Sucker Spawn = BIG Smallmouth?? | The Fish'n Canada Show
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Mar 20, 2025
In this Fish’n Canada episode, Angelo Viola and Pete Bowman travel to Sturgeon Lake in Northern Ontario in hopes of stumbling on a recovering population of Walleye. Sturgeon Lake Walleye were on the brink of total collapse due to industrial pollution. Through a strong effort by the MNRF, corporate intervention and local anglers, the fishery has bounced back… in a big way as you’ll see on this show.
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0:01
[Music]
0:04
apparently when you get this happening
0:06
at the right time the mouth of this
0:08
river is just black with Fish And
0:11
they're literally laying on top of each
0:12
other happens all over the place where
0:15
where you'll get fish who were clearly
0:18
already spawned weeks earlier coming
0:20
back into a river that's when you come
0:23
to the North Country Flor right there
0:25
how cool is that nice
0:27
wal the Bell River
0:30
the fishing Canada show brought to you
0:33
in part by Princecraft boats the spirit
0:37
of
0:38
boating Garmin tell a new fish
0:41
story The Outdoor Journal Radio podcast
0:44
Network every Pursuit every platform
0:47
every day and Ontario Canada in
0:51
partnership with destination
0:54
Ontario fish Canada
1:00
hi everyone welcome to this week's
1:02
fishing Canada show in this particular
1:04
episode Pete and I hit yet another Lake
1:07
we've never been on before it makes
1:09
shoots like this one challenging
1:11
adventurous and hopefully extremely
1:13
satisfying our location is Lumberjack
1:16
Lodge on Sturgeon Lake in Northwest
1:17
Ontario now as an FYI there are a bunch
1:20
of sturgeon Lakes sturgeon bays and even
1:22
sturgeon rivers in the North Country
1:24
however the Sturgeon Lake we're on today
1:26
seems to stay well under the radar at
1:28
least to traveling Ang Anglers under the
1:31
radar because the locals here truly know
1:34
the potential of this great body of
1:35
water it holds a wide array of game fish
1:38
species including walleye smallmouth
1:40
bass pike lake trout musky soer white
1:45
fish and yellow
1:48
perch as we normally do when visiting
1:51
Northwestern Ontario we're going to
1:53
concentrate on Walley and smallies and
1:55
cross our fingers that incidental
1:57
catches of any other species will occur
2:00
Sturgeon Lake is located Northeast of
2:01
the town of ignes Ontario this cold deep
2:04
lake is approximately 55 M long has a
2:07
maximum depth of 305 ft an average depth
2:11
of 44 1/2 ft and a perimeter of 399
2:15
Mi on This fishing Cannon Adventure
2:18
we're going to start out looking for
2:19
Walla as there's a very interesting
2:22
story about this particular fishery
2:24
which we'll get into later but in
2:26
typical Northwest Ontario fashion you'll
2:28
see that this lake has much more to off
2:29
offer than just walleye our first stop
2:33
is a Backwater area with mostly shallow
2:35
water it's a perfect post spawn walleye
2:38
hangout now if you'll notice something
2:41
different is going on here it's kind of
2:44
like playtime for us because we're just
2:46
looking for fish and get this me testing
2:50
out my camera operating skills with a
2:52
new toy we recently purchased like right
2:55
now is shooting vertically ah I have
2:57
would a turn flip it back or hey
3:00
sometimes a man's got to do what a man's
3:01
got to
3:02
do what's happening ooh drop the midle
3:06
down on those ones in the live scope
3:12
nice he he pulled drag for god
3:17
sakes
3:19
nice beautiful look at the colors of
3:22
that o w right there that's what you
3:25
come to the North Country for right
3:28
there after catching a few losing a few
3:31
and an honning up on his camera skills
3:33
great job by the way brother we decided
3:35
to pick up our real cameraman and move
3:37
into bigger water what do you got buddy
3:40
do I need to reel in I'm not
3:42
sure I got a net right here waiting for
3:44
you could be a snake could be a walleye
3:47
let's look at it positive it's a walleye
3:49
it's a nice walleye it's it's a walleye
3:52
right on that Brak huh that 10 foot
3:55
10t put right in the cooler there you in
3:58
the middle bucket
4:01
all
4:02
right it a perfect look at
4:04
that hello nice perfect size fish whoa
4:08
nice catch thank you wow yeah pretty
4:11
good I'm impressed yeah my athletic
4:14
abilities nice slim little guy yeah
4:17
perfect though post spond yeah now were
4:20
we going to keep some of these for lunch
4:21
what we going to do what's the H that's
4:22
over the that's probably over I would
4:24
think there's your board right beside
4:25
you the silver dollar will tell us oh
4:28
yeah1 yes sir you're lucky
4:31
buddy have a good
4:33
day you're
4:35
lucky all right excellent
4:40
SMS oh that's a good fish buddy bigger
4:43
look at that
4:45
Rod I'm hoping he's not a pike oh maybe
4:48
well nothing wrong with that for lunch
4:50
either yeah true enough Pike if we're
4:51
hungry enough Pike's better than a
4:53
walleye man needs to eat that's a big
4:55
walleye I think isn't it yep it's a
4:56
walleye he's going to be too big to eat
4:58
though yeah damn that's okay it's a nice
5:01
fish good stop that's a good one in that
5:03
same spot right in the same long he is
5:06
Holy
5:08
[Music]
5:10
Smoke good job I knew he was going to do
5:13
that you ate your
5:15
manow gorgeous Walley we're going to
5:17
throw him back buddy we say no I don't
5:19
even measure that that's over 22 for
5:22
sure gorgeous fish nice right in this
5:25
one spot an got the first one we just
5:27
lost two more and this in one little
5:29
area of this whole bank that we're
5:30
trolling is crazy you know what I mean
5:33
like
5:37
[Music]
5:39
wow today's hot spot is a slow tapering
5:42
point on Sturgeon Lake in Northwest
5:44
Ontario the way point on your screen
5:46
will get you right there this area is
5:49
probably the most consistent walleye
5:51
producer of the entire season try
5:53
trolling walleye style crankbaits slow
5:56
pulling spinner rigs with live bait or
5:58
jigging with either PL plastic Ori bait
6:01
by the way this spot replenishes with
6:03
Walley all day long we believe they come
6:06
into the shallower water to feed and
6:08
then Retreat back to deeper water to
6:10
digest the bonus is that it's also a
6:13
great Shor lunch area so here you can
6:16
practice get your release right into the
6:17
Fred pad for more hot spots like this
6:20
one check out fishing canada.com
6:25
[Music]
6:28
[Applause]
6:31
so with decent success in the Backwater
6:33
area as well as in the main Lake we
6:35
decided to take a long tour to an area
6:38
of sergeon Lake that tells an
6:39
interesting story of the Walley here and
6:42
more importantly how the population once
6:44
crashed and now has been rebuilt in
6:47
phenomenal fashion so this is the Bell
6:50
River one of the reasons that we came to
6:52
this lake at the sergeon lake this is a
6:54
really fascinating story about the
6:57
origins um of these fish moving into
7:01
this River in the 70s 60s '70s and
7:04
probably the early part of the ' 80s
7:06
this River was being used as a uh a
7:09
gathering for all the tailings from the
7:11
various mine activity that took place up
7:14
a little bit farther up and consequently
7:16
it caused a lot of pollution in the
7:19
river as far as we know that may have
7:22
caused the total collapse and demise of
7:25
the local walleye fishery that was here
7:28
at that time and for number of years it
7:30
just kind of went dormant nobody did
7:31
anything about it then in the '90s uh
7:34
the local officials along with the M&R
7:37
uh some local businesses and most
7:40
importantly the mining company itself
7:42
decided to resurrect it and bring it
7:44
back to life and aside from cleaning up
7:47
uh everything that they had been dumping
7:49
into the river for the decades prior
7:52
they also decided to stock it again with
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fingerling uh walleye and I believe was
7:57
13 million walleye over years over a
8:00
sevene period so consequently now it's
8:04
become one of the main spawning areas in
8:06
the entire Lake and each year this time
8:09
of year doesn't just draw walleye in it
8:12
but it's now got small mouth in it it's
8:14
got every I think just about everything
8:16
that swims out in the lake in this area
8:19
will come in and spawn or at least
8:20
follow the spawners in and that's what
8:22
we're trying to make some contact with
8:24
today apparently when you get this
8:27
happening at the right time the mouth of
8:29
this river which you can see behind me
8:31
about 200 300 yard up is just black with
8:35
Fish And they're literally laying on top
8:37
of each other so hopefully we and let us
8:40
be let be clear we are not fishing
8:42
spawning wal this is well after the
8:44
spawn
8:44
[Music]
8:49
yeah W Walley Walley I think yep y Wy
8:54
beautiful
9:00
so this
9:02
could very well
9:04
be an ancestor of those 13 million fish
9:08
that were put in here in the '90s that
9:10
could be an offspring and of an
9:12
offspring of an
9:15
offspring
9:18
not a bad one if we were looking
9:20
for our Shor lunch that'd be the guy
9:22
right there that's Shor lunch for sure
9:23
that's the perfect one
9:26
okay Peter in order to not lose this
9:29
crank
9:30
bab
9:32
oh oh God now I have to net him he is
9:36
not happy with me
9:39
[Music]
9:44
no dir old biker the eater
9:48
Pike there's the see the shallow see
9:50
that scar on his back right there they
9:53
get scared up so much in the shallows
9:55
after they spawn or while they're
9:57
spawning you see it after they're spawn
10:02
I got scummed Dan
10:04
youo wow look at all those
10:08
eggs that's crazy that fish was right in
10:10
the middle of
10:12
spawning hey what if what if yeah those
10:17
weren't Pike eggs they were sucker eggs
10:19
I bet he he eating them he probably yeah
10:22
cuz Pike eggs are yellow you know what
10:24
you know what you're right you're
10:26
absolutely right
10:31
doubley no sucker that's the sucker
10:33
that's the sucker this is interesting
10:37
did he eat it an yeah this is
10:39
interesting here folks so we think this
10:43
fish right here that we're looking at is
10:45
actually up here spawning and when this
10:47
is a sucker and when they come into
10:49
these creeks and rivers to spawn they
10:51
come in by the thousands they broadcast
10:54
their eggs and what happens is all the
10:56
Predator fish come in behind and
10:58
actually eat up all their eggs Not
10:59
Unusual to see walleye and and Pike
11:02
Smallmouth all in
11:05
here doing exactly
11:10
that that's a beauty SMY actually that's
11:12
nice fish guys are in here look at the
11:15
mou look at it what a pair e what a pair
11:18
can you dig that
11:20
sucker I didn't think we'd got one on a
11:22
on a plug though huh something of
11:25
Interest maybe noteworthy right now is
11:27
to why does that happen and happen all
11:29
over the place not just here where where
11:31
you'll get fish who are clearly already
11:34
spawned weeks earlier coming back into a
11:37
river and most people think it's to do a
11:40
second spawn or or spawning activity but
11:42
in most cases it's not they're coming in
11:45
because there's a lot of nutrients here
11:46
a lot of protein in the way of eggs and
11:49
Fry from all the other species of fish
11:52
that are spawning at various times and
11:54
sometimes shock yourself at the size not
11:57
just the quantity but the size of fish
11:59
come in here especially Northern Pike
12:01
walleye bass there could be some
12:03
monsters in here feeding so let's keep
12:05
our fingers
12:06
crossed what do we
12:10
got mly smly again yep loaded they are
12:15
loaded the Liv scope screen is lit up
12:18
unbelievable we don't even need Liv
12:20
scope on we're just looking at it for
12:21
fun just yeah exactly it's like watching
12:23
the movies yeah wherever the primary is
12:26
wherever those those uh suckers are
12:29
actually spawning and dropping the eggs
12:31
is where you're going to get the
12:32
majority of the action and probably
12:33
bigger fish and these small guys are
12:36
hanging around here at the bottom end
12:38
taking whatever comes down whatever's
12:40
[Music]
12:44
left so there are a few good ones in
12:48
there don't know if that can lift him or
12:50
not I'm going to try it going to try it
12:53
here we
12:54
go whoa
12:59
that's a much better one holy smokes I
13:04
got a we
13:05
guy on a jerk bait
13:08
that's that's what he hit right there
13:11
little Yi little yui
13:14
crankbait my God how many Smallmouth are
13:16
there back here there's got to be
13:18
hundreds right oh my God I would think
13:22
that's bigger one
13:25
again all right let's see if we can
13:29
oh man I don't know oh here we go trying
13:32
to slinging here we
13:37
go wow that's a nice
13:40
fish oh yeah it's a good SMY Bud nice
13:45
small once
13:46
again little tiny little
13:50
yzui 3D XR crank hello that is a shallow
13:56
running little
13:57
bait for big fish
13:59
fantastic what she running about 2 3
14:01
feet you think three at the most well
14:03
this one this one hit as soon as it hit
14:05
the water I saw I cast and then all a
14:07
sudden a swirl underneath it before he
14:09
even hit almost so it was like he was
14:11
anticipating
14:15
it got one hands and it's a walleye Bud
14:18
oh perfect perfect I got to lock it nice
14:22
fish that's what we came here for we'll
14:24
take bonus smalles we'll take bonus
14:26
everything but and big Pike maybe but
14:30
there we go there we go nice I got him
14:32
long and thin huh nice perfect wonder if
14:35
he's a a stalker a restored fish oh oh
14:39
nice that's the way you want them off
14:41
look at there little Yi crankbaits woo
14:44
we're going to have some fun if this
14:45
goes
14:46
on there we go here we go come on Mama
14:51
look at that perfect little
14:53
waly
14:54
perfect man that is just Primo right
14:58
there
14:59
the color of these fish that fish is in
15:01
great shape in the
15:03
current love
15:05
[Applause]
15:07
it see you
15:09
bud that so
15:12
far I mean we're we're going to when you
15:14
come into an area like this it's shallow
15:17
it's like three three feet on the
15:20
Garment 3 to four feet you got to if
15:21
we're going to run crankbaits run you're
15:23
running a twitch bait I've just switched
15:25
up back and forth so the twitch bait
15:27
goes down about 2 feet these crank
15:29
go down to maybe 4T you run them slow
15:31
you try and deal with it if you're going
15:33
to run cranks in these areas so you got
15:34
to be kind of uh you got to use your
15:36
head a little bit so that thing's not a
15:37
deep diver at all and that's what we'll
15:39
be throwing here
15:40
[Music]
15:43
so a double header Break by the body
15:46
follow me an same size look at this that
15:49
one too yeah same size yeah clones yes
15:54
lots of well Northern Ontario I mean
15:56
we're we're used to fish in Southern
15:58
Ontario you're talking Lake Ontario
16:00
actually this Kingston there's Giants
16:02
there right might be a little bit bigger
16:03
than we've been catching Pete better be
16:04
bigger than this one to be proud of
16:06
it yeah that's good that's a decent yeah
16:09
that's definitely getting bigger tiny
16:12
guy double header cranking buddy do
16:16
better than that the small mouth are
16:18
getting a little bit larger so I'm
16:20
hoping that when we get to the very top
16:22
of it which Narrows down to about 20
16:24
feet uh and and just below the Rapids
16:27
that it'll just be crawling with Fish
16:29
And I hope there the big ones up there
16:33
feeding oh look at the one behind them
16:35
bigger oh yeah yeah they B yeah is yeah
16:38
for sure get out there yeah but I don't
16:40
have anything I could drop that look
16:41
there's three of them I know I don't
16:43
have anything I can drop in
16:44
there that's awesome wow three more came
16:48
in behind this guy that were all bigger
16:50
than
16:52
that and that's not a bad one I'm
16:54
telling you the closer we get to that
16:56
mouth I think the bigger the fish you're
16:58
going to get those were nice bigger than
17:00
that by half a pound at
17:03
least now they're a little longer eh up
17:07
here maybe maybe we're finally getting
17:09
up
17:12
there this place is loaded this is sick
17:15
man fish this is sick I mean loaded
17:18
absolutely sick a dream destination oh
17:22
manad pinch me
17:26
quick smly small mouth
17:29
might be a good one though got a lot of
17:31
current to fight too oh does he ever
17:34
stay right in it yeah that adds to the
17:36
fun stay right in
17:39
it one of those longer
17:42
ones not the long one you wanted
17:50
no it went in and came right back out
17:52
again
17:59
got one oh and I'm hung no you got one I
18:04
yeah I got
18:05
one oh good one nice fight I don't know
18:09
it's walleye oh it's a walleye nice
18:11
buddy nice one I'm going to free spool
18:13
mine leave it out there you're going to
18:15
need the net with that
18:17
one scarred up and beat up too get in
18:21
there
18:24
nice look at look scars he's got those
18:27
sores like the in Southern Ontario like
18:30
the on quiny and stuff look at that
18:36
here nice walleye look at these marks
18:39
though so on that side there's one on
18:41
that side wow that's nice catch buddy
18:43
but on this side look at that yeah look
18:47
at that like sores or yeah and I'm just
18:50
wondering if they're not banging up
18:51
against these rocks although you
18:52
wouldn't think that would a fish would
18:54
be that D that right yeah oh good stuff
18:57
see the head in that fish right there
18:58
the shape of the head of that fish folks
19:00
this fish is made for holding a current
19:02
better than anything else in here got a
19:03
big flat shovel head smallo they're
19:05
going to hide to the top and and very
19:09
this way that guy's got a pointed face
19:11
he can sit in that current and he just
19:12
the probably the perfect predator for a
19:14
current wire and a testament to good
19:17
fish
19:17
[Music]
19:19
management got one buddy
19:22
got
19:24
uh he hit right I'm right up in the
19:27
rocks oh well yeah yeah oh it's a big
19:30
walleye it's a big walleye hung up too
19:32
big walleye you hung too yes yeah I'm
19:35
locked so we should be all oh he's
19:36
coming in the current
19:37
now oh nice one oh yeah good walleye
19:42
buddy you big bugger okay I'll bring
19:44
them right to you we got him yes good
19:47
job bud good job buddy woo that's the
19:52
one holy smokes look at the size of that
19:55
good job that's oh my God see that's
19:58
some of the we were seeing in here were
19:59
like that but they weren't biting buddy
20:02
nice Bish how cool is that nice
20:05
walleye Bell River Lake
20:09
sturgeon every I think every freshwater
20:11
species we've seen here pretty much
20:13
small moou Pike walleye whatever they
20:16
have here we've seen suckers yeah holy
20:20
smokes I got to put him back what a
20:22
fight thanks to good fisheries
20:24
management right there that's it thank
20:26
you good work
20:29
nice job slime let me slime you with
20:31
that how about the fist that is
20:34
fantastic listen I don't want to
20:36
overstate what we just experienced here
20:38
but it's worth taking a moment just
20:40
talking about it we every year we travel
20:43
to places all across the country that
20:45
have got fantastic fishing opportunities
20:48
and don't get me wrong there's there's
20:50
tons of them out there but I got to tell
20:51
you this is now going to officially be
20:54
I'd say in the top 10 or 15 that we've
20:57
experienced uh not only in terms of
20:59
numbers but obviously in quality as well
21:03
and more importantly just the venue the
21:06
this whole venue that we've uh
21:08
experienced here at Lumberjack is just
21:11
Lumberjack Resort Lodge absolutely
21:14
outstanding
21:15
job so as you can see the Sturgeon Lake
21:18
Walley population has rebounded in a
21:20
fantastic manner in fact in our opinions
21:23
Sturgeon Lake is comparable to any and
21:25
all of the Fantastic walleye Fisheries
21:27
in all of Northwestern Ontario well done
21:30
to all
21:31
involved getting there brought to you by
21:34
The Outdoor Journal Radio podcast
21:38
Network to get to Lumberjack Lodge we
21:40
first drove North on Highway 400 which
21:42
eventually turns into Highway 69 we next
21:45
turned West on Trans Canada Highway 17
21:48
we continued on 17 all the way to
21:50
Highway 599 we then traveled North on
21:53
599 until we reached Lumberjack
21:55
Lodge located in Northwest Ontario
21:58
lumberjack Lodge offers modern
21:59
housekeeping cabins that sit on the
22:01
southern shore of the famous Sturgeon
22:02
Lake this 65m long body of water is home
22:05
to Trophy lake trout walleye northern
22:08
pike white fish and perch the cabins are
22:11
completely furnished including full
22:12
kitchen facilities washrooms and showers
22:16
whether you want to experience some of
22:17
the best fishing and hunting this
22:18
country has to offer or just the Great
22:19
Outdoors you will find it
22:24
here the fishing Canada show brought to
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22:44
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22:46
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22:48
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22:50
Adventure come along to our cabin in the
22:53
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22:56
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22:58
yes we're in for something
23:04
[Music]
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