Big East Lake is a lake located just North of Minden in Ontario. The Haliburton Highlands Water Trail is managed through the Township of the Algonquin Highlands, and this lake is connected to the Poker Lake system. The municipality allows camping at designated campsites located around this lake as well as a few others in this system. You can get more information at their website: algonquinhighlands.ca.
It’s sunrise on a relatively warm winter’s day, actually, January 27, 2018. We woke up and left the house at five am to drive an hour and a half to my little secret Splake lake. Two cars, ten people, goose stew for lunch, it should be a good day. We’re armed with some Pinheads and larger Emerald Shiners, a bunch of rods and all the tackle we own, just to be safe.
The parking is located just off the 118, just west of Carnovan by about 15 minutes, which I have marked with a black rectangle. There’s very little in terms of markings that are visible in the dark. From there it’s 50 m walk to the launch. We took a sled and ferried all the gear from the launch to the closest, deepest section of the lake near the channel, marked with a 1 in black.
It’s about 30 meters deep and we figured that it would be a killer spot. At approximately 09:00, using a simple jig hook and an a Pinhead, our friend Ashley caught her first fish ever, and it was a beauty. About two pounds and some amazing colours.
However, by that time, I had moved to spot 2 with some of the other guys. At about the same time, using a center-balanced lime green ice jig with two trebles on either end, baited with orange trout bait, my friend Nick landed a killer Splake. We were not more then 5 meters from shore. We hung around there, catching perch and slowly migrating away from shore to deeper waters.
Around eleven, the group from spot 1 migrated to spot 2 and we fished without success for an hour or so. We migrated to shore and started a fire to heat our goose stew (recipe to follow if we can find the photographs). After that, one group stayed in the center of that spot 2 basin and caught 4 or 5 perch and one decent sized Splake.
I joined the other group and we took the sled to spot 3, near the campsite I stayed at last year. I recommend that spot if you’re going to camp at Big East. At this point, we were using a wide variety of lures. Fishing was slow, but around 13:30 my buddy Matt pulled out a beauty using a Pinhead on a small spoon. Quick to try I spoon and a Pinhead, I pulled out some wicked Bass for an hour before I decided that his catch was just luck.
Pinheads on glow-in-the-dark jigs are what I used for the majority of the day, but it was only the morning that had the most action. The day was very warm, and by the afternoon we were standing in two inches of water atop the ice. So that could have had something to do with the limited success of the day. By about 16:00, we made our way to spot four, fishing every twenty feet or so on the way with no luck. By 15:00 the sun was getting low on the horizon and we made our way back to spot 1 for half an hour. No luck, rejoined the rest of the group in spot 2. Some action during sun down using jigs and the orange trout bait as the three hundred minnows we brought were gone.
That was the day, play by play. Do I recommend it, yes. What would I do differently next time? Stay till lunch and make my way to the red X spot on the map. Whats at the red X you ask? “Additional Zone 15 Fishing Opportunities; Brook Trout open all year; Ketch Lake.” Page 69, Recreational Fishing Regulations 2018. Need I say more. You can grab the regulations book in Minden at the tackle shop on your way. Ketch Lake parking lot is the area by the cell phone tower, you wont miss it. Then there’s a “trail”.. I didn’t make it to the Ketch Lake but we had someone walk from spot 1 to Ketch Lake and back and it took an hour and a half. But now we know that parking lot and trail so it was time well spent.
Additionally, we were able to buy bait fish in Norland at 05:30 at the store at the corner of the only set of lights in town. You wont be able to miss it. They also have extra gear if you left without your rods… for some reason.
I would also recommend buying the Backroads Map Book of Zone 15 , which I think I picked up in Minden the year prior when I went camping at Big East. It has depth charts and stocking information on Splake in Big East. But I’d recommend looking at the website Fish-ON where you can search so, so many lakes in Ontario, like by species, for example. I would also try my luck at Little East Lake however the creek that runs that way through Moosetrack Lake to Little East wasn’t frozen and didn’t look to safe on our mild winter day. It’s stocked with Splake and not fished as hard as Big East.
Fish on!
Rex & the gang!
Plaid 'n' Paddles 