Cardiff / Hermitage trout fishing report

[Brandonkop]

Hey... I'm a long time absentee and not even sure if reports are a thing than happen here.

Was out at Cardiff on Thursday... are there big ones in there? Must be. All I could find were the newly stocked bows about 5 to 6 inchers (5 of them) and three brown Trout the biggest being 14 inch. I believe the browns were just stocked for the first time this September. The 14 incher I kept and it was full of little crayfish. So if anyone is after the bigger fish I'm betting a crayfish imitation is your ticket.

Yesterday went out to Hermitage and it is still very alive!!! This is a fishery I hate to see die off every year. An unutilized close to home great little fishery. So recommend getting out there and giving it a try if you have a spare morning or evening.

I got out there around 10am and caught two bows pretty quick. Around noon got two browns as well. They seemed pretty aggressive when they come around. There might not be many in there at this point in the game, but they're all decent size and not too hard to catch!

If anyone has any Cardiff stories of larger fish I'd love to hear them. Even though it's a small lake it really has some interesting structure... hard to figure out where the big fish are cruising in a day. This was the second time I had ever fished it.


Anyways. Best of luck out there guys and Merry Christmas to all!





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[Red Bullets]

A few years ago I went ice fishing to Cardiff and went to a little cove bay on the west side of the reservoir. About 3 feet of water under the 6 inches of ice. While watching down the hole a big rainbow came in and sucked up my little russian hook. It weighed 7.25 lbs. Have caught a couple in the 5 lb. range over the years too. I really want to go back to try for some tiger trout now. They should be excellent if they are eating crayfish.

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

A few years ago I went ice fishing to Cardiff and went to a little cove bay on the west side of the reservoir. About 3 feet of water under the 6 inches of ice. While watching down the hole a big rainbow came in and sucked up my little russian hook. It weighed 7.25 lbs. Have caught a couple in the 5 lb. range over the years too. I really want to go back to try for some tiger trout now. They should be excellent if they are eating crayfish.

Beauties... good to hear they are in there! Maybe I'd try it again sometime. Definitely the day I was there the big girls and even the spring stockers weren't cruising.

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[lakerman]

The shoulder to shoulder people with buckets of prussians may have something to do with it. Those trout are massive these days for that fishery.

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by lakerman

The shoulder to shoulder people with buckets of prussians may have something to do with it. Those trout are massive these days for that fishery.

I did see one photo of a Prussian... no good. Let them pull the Prussians out. Unfortunate people put them in there in the first place. I think the big trout eat the small Prussian. Maybe that's why they stocked browns now. Let them eat the Prussian.

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[Brandonkop]

Just an FYI... been driving around looking at different trout ponds. Seems what I've been up to this year since not usually here this early in the year.

Drove by St. Paul this AM since read they have a trout pond. It's a dinky dugout and we found it completely fenced and gates all locked. Seems stocked with browns, bows and tigers. 3000 a year about. I Imagine they over winter, but with that density wonder how big they get. Didn't get to check it out though since the aerator is on and gates locked, like I said.


Found another pond and fished one evening. Always shocking to see the size these 3N bows can get. So much growth potential in these fisheries. So much better than the places that get stocked with perch.

Keep perch outta these ponds please, just ruins it.

For example fished the West Rivers pond in the Fort. It used to have great growth rates. Now since the province purposely stocked perch, the lake is full of pesky little perch. The trout growth rate seems slow compared to prior. We caught a couple smaller trout and dad lost probably a second season trout which was the biggest either, but lost in the hole. The browns do seem to like eating perch as this little brown hit my perch rapala three times before it hooked up.

Photos for comparison... perch, no perch.



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