As the pontoon boat moved lazily into the cove, my
son Sebastian yelled, Dad, a huge Pike! I looked at
the water in the direction the boat was moving,
scanned left and right all the way to the shore,
nothing! In my thoughts, I said to myself, child
imagination, the same he uses making sea monsters
out of the minnows in the ever-present bait pail.
As those thoughts clear my head, I cast a chartreuse
and yellow Clauser minnow to the port side shore. While
retrieving it, I got a strike, a smallie, nothing to
write home about, but listen! A smallie is a smallie,
and those in the French River tend to be in the heavy
side. Then, I saw the monster! It looked like a piece
of a sycamore tree trunk, sort of grey and perhaps a
foot in diameter speeding toward the struggling smallie.
The outcome was anticlimactic; the muskie grabbed the
bass and cut me out in a single motion. That was the
last time I saw or felt the big fellow.
Happy Sebastian at full throttle taking us to the middle
of the river channel
To be honest, I never saw the muskie head or tail,
just the center, and it was impressive. Our guide,
as he took care of changing a lure to my son's
spinning rod, lowered his head, and said, "It happens
all the time."
Well, how come it had never happened to us before!
My fishing gang (and family) had fished this river
perhaps five times during the last decade. It is
ur smallmouth bass Nirvana. During the bass season,
from mid-June to September, it is a fifty
fish-per-person-per-day river. Of course you have to
check out that the river is not too high or too low,
or things might not be that easy.
View from the cabin in Cranes Lochaven Lodge. This
is a particularly good place for early morning and
evening walleyes.
The French River crosses several hundred kilometers
of prime Ontario forest, from the Mippising Lake to
the Bay of Quinte in lake Huron. It is a substantial
river with low current and multiple large islands
(giving you the impression you are fishing a lake).
It is quite pristine and undeveloped, with lots of
beaver, mink, deer, black bear and all kinds of birds,
a place for the nature lover in you. The fishing lodge
we always visit is called Crane's Locheaven Lodge. It
is a well-established family run operation by the Crane
family, and a true family place for family guests. We
have been taking our kid there since he was 7 months,
and now he is nearly 8 years old. There is a virtue in
returning to a well-run fishing lodge, you develop a
special relation with your hosts and guides, and it is
the synergy obtained when you mix a great deal of
friendship with admiration and respect. Besides, you
get to know most of the repeat guests, some of which
become your friends. Needless to say we feel at home
in Locheaven Lodge.
My wife Marta is a dedicated small mouth bass person.
Nothing more fun than connecting to a jumping smallie
trying to shake out a woolly worm.
We particularly enjoy fishing with two of their guides.
Jackie, who was our first guide at the lodge whom we
have seen prematurely loosing some of his hair through
the last decade. I am sure in no small part due to the
toil of chasing and taking care of what was then my baby,
then a toddler and now a full fledge over-inquisitive boy.
The other guide Ed, is the oldest son of the Crane family.
Both of these gentlemen are quite sociable, smart and
understand the particular needs of the fly fishing guest,
Ed being a fly fisherman himself.
Our friend and guide Ed with a good walleye. He gave
my son the solid lenses from the walleye. He treasures
that souvenir.
For the self-guided fly-fisherman, Locheaven lodge
can be sort of an all-inclusive operation. It operates
under the American plan; that is, it includes breakfast,
lunch, and dinner. All served at the lodge dinning hall.
For your fishing adventures you receive a well appointed
steel boat (yes, steel, with all the rocks in the river
is the material of choice for a working vessel, even if
it is 16 feet in length) with an electric start motor.
If you are fishing with a partner or your family, I
recommend you hire a guide. It is inexpensive, and it
will entitle you to travel in a pontoon boat, so everyone
in your party can fish simultaneously, rather than you
handling the boat while your partner fishes, with the kid
bouncing up and down in the middle and messing up the
casting by tangling the floating line. A related feature
of the pontoon boat is that the child will see it as a
wide and stable platform where to roam and play away from
the bow area were most of the casting is done.
Jackie and Marta checking out a smallie caught by the
rock behind them. Jackie is a long time friend and guide
from the Lochaven lodge.
This summer the river was a bit too high for our taste.
The fishing was, how shall we say, not quite as furious
as to yield 50 smallies per day, but fast enough as to
keep our enthusiasm, (a dozen fish each with a few good
smallies and many of the ever cooperative rock bass to
keep Sebastian happy). Of course there are always the
pike. Oh, what a joy! There are plenty of pike in the
3 to 6 pounds category and you should be able to land
a few over ten pounds in a week.
A veritable bonanza of small pike in this river. They
are aggressive and suckers for Clouser minnows. They
are small, but, careful handling them, their teeth
are like little knives.
We release all the bass, but if we land a keeper pike
(or a walleye), that means shore lunch. If we have the
guide to clean and carve the fish, prepare the fire and
cook-it, so much the better. This time Sebastian was
curious of what the pike have in their entrails, what
sort of pray this super-predator eats. Needless to say,
we endured Jackie (and in due time Ed), as they dissected
the fish and gave Sebastian a fish anatomy class. Perhaps
the greatest pleasure of having a guide do the shore
lunch for you, is that they know the best and most
scenic places in the river. Those places with the right
amount of wind to keep the bugs away and right wind
direction to keep the smoke away from your face.
Jackie getting ready to start the fire for a shore
lunch. Beautiful places like this one are common along
the French River, and these guys know them all.
The guides always select places that are great for fishing,
near good coves with the right rocky structure. Besides,
they can point out and name all the trees, plants, and
wildlife. This last time, the highlight was a cave with
a pair of turkey vultures and their chicks. That was
quite enlightening to our young naturalist, Sebastian.
My wife Marta, always fishes this river with a small
(7.5 foot) five weight Sage, her favorite rod because
it's stiff and light. Well, she outfishes me most of
the time, even when I cast farther than her with my 7
weight. She always uses light and small streamers, which
are easy to cast. I always use large streamers, with the
hope that large bait might lure a large fish. Well, maybe
there is a message somewhere for us guys.
A happy fly fisherman (the author) with his prey. This
is such a productive and fun river, and the lodge is
a great and affordable family place.
So, if you like fly-fishing for smallmouth bass and
pike, enjoy family atmosphere and unspoiled nature,
give the French River area a try. You will not be
disappointed. You can view the Cranes Lockhaven
website at: https://www.cranes-lochavenlodge.com/
~ Jorge J. Santiago-Avilés
Our Man In Canada Archives
