Fish-Hawk.Net

looking for any suggestions on some lakes/rivers, close to the Ottawa/Quebec border that my wife and I can try icefishing, ideally for walleye or crappie. from central Ontario but will be staying in the area for a week in march. What type of rigs are used locally? normally here I would jig a spoon or rapala, or a 3 way spreader, but have never fished walleye or crappie through the ice. Thank you for your time.

Not sure about Quebec, but walleye season closes after March 1st on the Ontario side (Zone 18), but you can still fish for them on the Ottawa River (Zone 12) until March 31st. For walleye a tip-up with a minnow works well, as does a jigging spoon (Acme Kastmaster and Northland Macho Minnow work well for me) or Rapala jigging rap type bait. I usually tip with a minnow head.

You can get crappies on the Ottawa River and Rideau River system. For lakes there are Mississippi and Clayton lake, but they are both further from the border.
For crappies a dead stick with a small live minnow, a small tungsten jig tipped with a wax worm or soft plastic, or a smaller size jigging rap all work well.

Hi,

Well the rideau is close and between manotick and kemptville on this river there is easy access to several spots. I've been doing well enough so far on walleye on the rideau jigging a small spoon with a minnow head on the treble. Whitelake is also close enough (1.5hrs) and it's great for perch and walleye too. Same tactics work there. I always jig one hole and dead stick or use a tip up on another but for some reason this year it's the jigging presentation that catches them - not sure if this is what others are experiencing and I don't know why this is...but such is fishing I guess. I haven't tried any morning fishing expeditions but I find at about 4pm to 7/8pm things light right up in about 10-15 ft of water then shut right back down no later than 9pm. so just enough time to have some fun but not long enough to get frozen stiff so a win/win there.

Good luck