Grassy Lake July 1st - 8th

[Netman]

Our trip to Grassy started out like all the others, the truck was loaded the night before and a sleepless night lead up to an early morning start for our first night stay in North Bay. I took a slightly different route this year, as I had a short job to do in Meadville PA. On our way across the PA turnpike heading towards interstate 79 we found ourselves in a 1 hour standstill. 2 tractor trailers had collided and shut down the westbound lanes. After an hour they opened up the road and we were on our way again. Our stop in Meadville went smooth and we crossed the border without any significant delay(approx 20 min). The drive up 400 and up to the 11 interchange was however the worst we have ever experienced. We ended up getting off the highway and working our way up through the town of Barrie and linked back up with 11 where the traffic finally lessened. The next morning we were on our way to Temiscaming with a quick stop by Trapper Joe?s to pick up worms. We arrived at Grassy lake without incident, loaded our gear in the boat, and headed for our cabin. The weather was Hot, the mosquitos were abundant and the deer flies were hungry! The fishing however was the best we have experienced. The two of us boated a 25 two 26?s a 27.5 and a 28 inch walleye. Three 41 inch northern pike were also caught and released (Along with a couple 36?s and bunch on 18?s ? 24?s). Most days we had to work hard to find a few 16 to 17 inch fish for dinner while releasing around 10 to 15 21 ? 23 inch fish per day. One day we boated and released 12 over 21 inches within 3 hours. We found a lot of fish up very shallow(2 to 10 feet) on rock piles, but the 28 incher came from 22 feet down.  Fish were caught on tube jigs, slash bates, Hot-n-Tots, slip bobbers with worms and bottom bouncers with a worm harness. Jimmy's cabin was clean and inviting with a hot shower and has gravity fed lake water to the kitchen sink. The weather was very hot the first few days but improved after the rain came on Wednesday. Grassy is a dark water lake and several days the fishing was best in the morning and around 12:00.

One quick note - We had extra worms at the end of the week and decided to return them to Trappeer Joe's on our way out with a request that they donate them to kids. We didn't feel good just dumping them and could not take them back into the US.

Good luck to everyone. I hope you enjoy your trip as much as I did!

[Jay Thomas]

Thanks for your trip report Netman. Sorry to read about your travel problems - always a bummer. Your fishing experience was awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Jay

[Jig and drift]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like the fishing was fantastic which makes the drive worth it. We go to Dumoine which is past Grassy. Have to ?love? that drive deep into the Bearn road. The hills and the rocks are tough, but no traffic jams back there.   How many cabins do they have on Grassy ?   

[Netman]

Jimmy Constant (Grassy Lake Outfitter) has 3 cabins on the lake. One is a drive in cabin and the other 2 are boat in. The Bearn road does get kind of rough after you cross the Kipawa river. You just have to take it easy up and down the hills. The Bearn looked like it had been Graded recently back aways past Red Pine road, and they were doing some repairs to a couple of culvert washout.

The drive up was hard - but we new it may be since we were  traveling on a Friday before Canada Day. Any drive that ends with me catching Walleye and enjoying the Canadian bush is worth it. We were the only boat on the lake the whole week other than when Jimmy came up to check in on us!

I have never fished Dumoine but have heard good reports from there. We did talk to a couple of fishermen on there way into Dumoine on our way out. That was the only truck we saw that far back on the Bearn.

[Jig and drift]

Never have been to Grassy but always good to have options. Dumoine is a big lake so even when others are there we rarely cross paths.  No road work going on when we went up in late June.  Thanks for the info.

[bucknbull]

Aside from traffic and a few hungry bugs, your trip sounds awesome !
Those are some quality fish you got into. 👍