Travers

[Sir. Kenneth]

I was thinking of heading down to Travers next week. I have never been there, is there a decent place to launch the boat near the spillway? I have a 12' aluminum, no trailer so even if there is a beach i can just carry it down. I hear the spillway is usually the best spot to fish, i was looking at a depth chart of the lake, 110 feet at the spillway, what depth would walleye be suspended at this time of year? Any tips would be much appreciated.
Cheers,

Ken

[nicemustang]

Yo Ken,

The spillway is in a different spot than the damn, which is where the deep water is. the spillway is on the NE arm, connected to the canal from mcgregor. max 15 FOW over in that arm this time of year. I think the canals are not running anymore so the spillway isn't going to be flowing. Usually fishing wont be that great there at this time of year although sometimes pike can be there. But since the spillway is new and they made a hole there, maybe it will be better fishing there this winter...not sure.

This time of year, it can be harder to find the walleye. There are a couple of spots that can be good. Stick to drop offs and be prepared to move a lot. They should be 15-25 FOW of water this time of year, but possibly a bit deeper. I tend to stick to cliff faces on the windward side of the slope on the drop offs on the SE arm towards the damn side. The bays and such are known as the fingers. there is a lot of them, be prepared to move if you get no action. Use agressive attack, large minnows, sweedish pimples, etc.

As far as launching, if you can carry your boat, there is a road way that connects down to the spillway. There is enough room to walk the boat down and put in the water. That would be preferrible unless you want to cruise down from the Provincial park, cause it's a long ways. But at this time of year, the river channel near the PP can be good fishing too.

Let me know if you need more info. When are you going? Depending on when, I could maybe tag along.

[uicehole]

I was there 3 weekends ago. It was blowing so hard that I ended up turning around. But I can tell you that the spillway was definitely not running. The north road accessing the dam was closed and barricaded just past the old campsite/rec area. It was dark so I couldn't see if there was a way around it (not that I'm suggesting you should try). If you're carrying your boat, you should have no probs launching at the campsite. That should get you fairly close to the dam and cliffs.

[Sir. Kenneth]

well we did make it out on Travers on Wednesday, managed to get about 90 minutes of fishing in before it got pretty rough. We ended up being blown off the lake and having to walk about 12 KM back to the truck in a 60 km/hr head wind. Man did that ever suck! We did get one small Pike in the 90 mins so i guess not all was lost. I seriously doubt i will be heading back to that lake without a bigger boat though.

[The Fisherman Guy]

The wind can get pretty harsh down there, especially in the winter. Summer time, it is much calmer for the most part. Good lake, although heavy traffic can make it a bit of a traffic jam.

Took a friend and his son for their first Walleye experience one weekend to PCR and then Travers. Got them hooked on the Walters on saturday at PCR, then moved over to where the big dogs eat. The little dude was doing well, for the most part as we fished the spillway. Then a storm blew up on us, and the wind almost blew us off the lake. We hammered to shore, and trotted around the resort to the other side of the big point, to get out of the waves that were starting to splash into the stern of my friends jet boat. Poor little dude was TERRIFIED, I have not seen so much fear in a kid in my life. I mean past crying, this little guy was fighting off spells of shakes and white knuckles that would consume his whole body. We got around the point, and into some calmer water where we cooked up our first fish I caught that day at the spillway, a 55cm Wally. As we got the stove fired up, we calmed the dude down and put a rod in his hands. BANG! 4.5lb pike! HE was STOKED!!! Had a nice shore lunch, as the storm blew past. About an hour and a half later, when the wind stopped, we went back to the spillway, reassuring the little guy we would not die. Dropped the anchor, and the bite was on!!!

Did'nt take long, and the dude was shouting fish on every two minutes. When he hooked into this bad boy, I looked at his rod, which was double bent over. I mentioned to his pops, "he's got a good one"... The expression on his face says it all. The fish are in there, just have to put some fear on the hook!