New Trips – Why Canada?

We now offer 3 fishing trips to Canadian Lodges.  Why?  It’s simple–
Tremendous (and overlooked) fishing! 

Many fly fishers travel to distant waters in the Bahamas, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, and other remote locations.  But far fewer go to nearby Canada.  This is because many places in the Caribbean and South America are continuously hyped and promoted in the fly fishing industry, so a large bread trail to them has been established.  But this also means that crowding and fishing pressure is quite heavy in many of these locations, and the better fishing was years ago.

Meanwhile, Canada has tens of thousands of pristine lakes, many rivers, and large amounts of lightly fished waters.      And for great species like smallmouth bass, northern pike, and lake trout, Canada’s waters are unrivaled.  Smallmouth Angler staff have fished Canadian waters for decades, and we are still amazed at the quality of its fishing.  It is also amazing how few fly anglers realize this, and how many miss out on this tremendous resource just over our border.

Sure, a passport is required, but the language is the same, laws are similar, food is great, no need to change your money and, frankly, many Canadians are friendlier than many Americans.   It’s a great country to spend time in, even if the fishing was a bust, which it rarely is.

There’s another reason Canada is off the radar of most American fly rodders. It is because they don’t realize how phenomenal pike on the fly can be.  This is changing, and huge Far North lakes like Wollaston are seeing more and more world traveling fly guys coming up to battle pike.  But most fellas who only follow what most of the American fly industry tells them aren’t aware of the pike’s potential. Especially huge ones like Wollaston Lake offers.  So if you’re a person willing to color outside the lines a little bit, you should seriously consider crossing the border to our neighbor to the north.

A reason why even fly fishers who love smallmouth overlook Canada is because they believe lake fishing for smallies is a deep, difficult and tedious affair.  They like rivers, since the fish are shallow and relatively easy targets with a fly rod.  Well the lake trips we offer a lot like river fishing, and even better in some ways.  In the spring and fall, North Country lake smallmouth are shallow, and sight fishing is often a possibility.  Also, there are no tricky currents to contend with, craft handling is easier, waters are very uncrowded, and the average size of the smallmouth is very large.

If all this isn’t enough to pump your blood, when you focus on the lakes we fish in Ontario you find something even more attractive.  An amazing number of excellent gamefish species, all confined to a very small geographical area.  Not just smallmouth, but excellent numbers of big largemouth bass, many pike, muskies, shallow water lake trout, and walleyes.  Almost no other place can you find all of these species in such a small area.  This offers anglers a great choice in what species they want to pursue each day, and it also means if one or two species aren’t biting some others almost certainly are.

Isn’t it time for you to take a Canadian trip this year?

1) Giant Pike in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada: Four-Day Trip (Openings mid-June through July, 2022)

2) Multi-Species Lakes in Ontario, Canada: Five-Day Trip — May 21 to 27, 2022 (Filled– Join us in 2023)

3) Trophy Smallmouth at Century Lodge on Eagle Lake, Ontario: 6-Day Trip — September 10 to 16, 2022 (New Trip — Spots Still Open)

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