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There's a group of 4 of us heading to Centennial Lake for a few days next weekend. We've never fished the lake before. We'll be staying at The Eagle's Rest. Does anybody have any tips for decent areas to fish given that we'll be launching from Eagle's Rest each day?
If you want to PM me to avoid announcing your spots to the world then that would be awesome! You don't have to worry about us hitting your spots every weekend as I doubt any of us will make it back to Centennial this summer. Maybe another trip next year if we don't try another lake, but that's about it.
That dam scares the crap out of me.......You drive down that road from Calabogie and you come around the bend and BOOM it's right in front of you...it seems to be 1000ft up high and waiting to burst at any moment..
Scary scary place.....I have some pictures that I will post sometime...
Fishing ontop of it isn't much better.......
Knowing there is a town underneath there somewhere isn't nice to know either.....kinda creepy if you ask me...
plus there is a mine underneath the water too........
Don't know much about the fishing though, sorry.....it used to be a good place for Walleye and everything else. haven't fished there in 8 years but saw the dam a year or two ago and took a bunch of pics....
Never fished there myself but have heard good things about it. The Eagles Rest site states the fishing is 'excellent'. I found it quite interesting that there was an old mining town that was flooded.
Lots of great Pike/Pickeral fishing on that lake. Eagles Rest? Where's that near...is that up by Griffith-Matawatchen area? The dam is down closer to Black Donald area...Calabogie area....I doubt you'll fish the whole lake.....It's hugh, the Madawaska River runs right through it, and into Black Donald Lake, and a Portion of Norcan Lake.
I'm sure you'll have a great fishing experience there.
We usually have a Ice Fishing derby up there....2 years ago, one lad pulled out a 14lb Muskie out of there....threw him back pretty quick though when the wardens were heading across the lake at the time....it was good enough to take a $900 pot though.
Tubalization wrote:Never fished there myself but have heard good things about it. The Eagles Rest site states the fishing is 'excellent'. I found it quite interesting that there was an old mining town that was flooded.
ValleyFish wrote:Lots of great Pike/Pickeral fishing on that lake. Eagles Rest? Where's that near...is that up by Griffith-Matawatchen area? The dam is down closer to Black Donald area...Calabogie area....I doubt you'll fish the whole lake.....It's hugh, the Madawaska River runs right through it, and into Black Donald Lake, and a Portion of Norcan Lake.
I'm sure you'll have a great fishing experience there.
We usually have a Ice Fishing derby up there....2 years ago, one lad pulled out a 14lb Muskie out of there....threw him back pretty quick though when the wardens were heading across the lake at the time....it was good enough to take a $900 pot though.
Good luck
Hey ValleyFish -- I'm not certain but I think The Eagle's Rest is on the North side of the lake off of Centennial Lk Rd before the Madawaska River.
I agree - would take more than a few days to fish the whole lake! But we'll give it our best!
If you are after Walleye at this time of the year work deep structure around mid lake humps during the day and in the evening work top of humps and mid depth flats next to deep water.
We won't be fly-fishing this trip. I'll have my boat up there and we'll be renting another from Eagle's Rest. So we'll pretty much be sticking to bass with some walleye attempts in the evenings and maybe mornings.
That being said, I spent a couple of summers in Calgary fly-fishing. That was 4 years ago. I've still got all my gear but have never looked too much into it out here as I really enjoy bass fishing. I wouldn't mind picking it up again - maybe for the spring before bass season opens.
Any suggestions on where I can fly-fish would be great! Maybe I'll get into it again. I absolutely loved it when I was out West!
I fished Centennial Lake only once and the main hting I remember is I was sure glad I had a GPS, cause a thick fog came down on the lake that night and we couldn't see 2 feet in front of the boat. When we got close to the launch we slowed right down and I took the remote starter for my truck and I was just going to press on it(to hear the horn) when the boat hit the sand of the launch. We were 15 ft away from shore and we couldn't see it.
Im had pretty good luck trolling worm harnesses off of a bottom bouncer around the islands at the right of the boat launch. Sorry but i am not sure if there is only one boat launch there. I just know that we were on the North shore of the lake
disco wrote:That being said, I spent a couple of summers in Calgary fly-fishing. That was 4 years ago. I've still got all my gear but have never looked too much into it out here as I really enjoy bass fishing.
You should try fly fishing for bass. They're a great species on the fly rod. I use my 5wt for smallmouth fishing on the Ottawa, Rideau, Madawaska, Mississipi. Fly rods are for more than just trout
I have not fished Centennial for quite a number of years but used to fish it fairly often and frequently stayed at Eagle's Rest. I was mostly fishing for walleye at the time. I always considered Eagles Rest to be on the Madawaska River about a mile upstream from the bridge which I always understood to be the entrance into the northwest corner of the lake. It is a very big lake that is close to 20 miles long and quite wide in some spots. I would strongly suggest you get a map of the lake as it has alot of different fishing structure and also because of the many bays, islands and changing directions of the lake it can be easy to get turned around out there, especially if you are fishing without GPS and it gets foggy or near dusk. You can probably buy a map at Eagle's Rest. During the summer whe had some luck with walleye in the morning until around 11:00 and in the evening at the southern tip where I believe there is now a provincial park. It is shallow in the end of that bay with some deeper water as you come out of the bay that is often good during late morning and the afternoon. In those days we normally fished with worm harnesses. We had fairly good success with smallmouth bass fishing in about 20 feet of water around the islands and off the points and would often pick up some nice walleye in the same locations. The lake is over 100 feet deep in some areas so you will need to have some electronics to know what depths you are fishing in and to find some of the structure that Sheldon is referring to. There are alot of areas I could point out to you for walleye, bass and pike but you will understand when you see the configuration of the lake that it is very difficult to give you accurate directions to any specific spots. The people at Eagles Rest are very nice and helpful and I know that they will be able to sell you a map and mark it up with some good fishing areas. Also, there is good walleye fishing heading upriver from Eagles Rest and trolling the shoreline on the same side of the river as Eagles Rest is located.
