A true outpost experience.
This Fish’n Canada episode was by far Pete’s most anticipated, “I can’t wait for it” trip of the year. No, it wasn’t about humongous, heavy current white sturgeon, it wasn’t about giant fly-in pike and lake trout, it wasn’t a shot at a late fall massive Striper, and it wasn’t a crack at a 1,000-pound tuna. Believe it or not, it was about a tiny little bass lake that’s kinda hard to get to. Since largemouth and smallmouth bass are Pete’s absolute favourite fish to target…this was the perfect trip for him!
The Location
Joining Pete were Steve Niedzwiecki, Dean Taylor (drone pilot), and Vova Babushkin (camera op).
This team was in for a bit of a different experience as compared to all of this season’s previous trips. The Hastie Lake cabin is “self-sustaining” if you will. A true outpost experience where we bring in all of our food and cook for ourselves. Pete knew Steve could handle it. He figured Dean would adapt well since he has a similar cabin not too far from where we were, but this is his first season with us and his first season in Canada. We had full faith (since the mosquitoes would probably be non-existent) that he’d survive.
Hastie is a fly-in with a surprisingly brief flight. You literally take off from Lake Lauzon Aviation, fly over a few hilltops and drop into Hastie Lake. Easy Peasy!
The Lake
Hastie Lake is small in size. It has largemouth and smallmouth bass, as well as lake trout and whitefish. Its maximum depth is around 80 feet. We were 100% after the bass…either species, as we aren’t picky and love both.
Exploring Hastie Lake
When we finally got on the water, we commenced with a bit of a charting session. Dean is in one boat, and Pete and Steve are on another. The boys figured that if they ran two GPS units with map drawing capabilities, they could get a great idea of mid-lake hotspots that would have probably been missed by previous guests. Garmin’s “Quickdraw” feature is perfect if you are fishing an uncharted lake.
Turns out they did find some isolated areas BUT, but they weren’t stacked with fish like I thought they would be. However, adjacent to these areas were LOTS of fish. smallmouth bass in loose schools… perfect!
The Fishing
This shoot was all over the place in terms of baits and presentations, and we would expect nothing less since largemouth and smallmouth were involved. Of these two, I’d say smallies are more predictable. Largemouth can be so finicky at times!
Pete and Steve flew in with a plane load of hard baits as well as plastics.
Some of the main players for this trip were the Yo-Zuri Pencil Popper in both the small and the large sizes. The large one (bone colour) actually caught the biggest fish of the trip. Around a 4-pound smallmouth. It hit during a rainstorm, so we didn’t have the main camera running; however, Steve did get the footage on a phone…What a save!
Steve threw around a Yo-Zuri 3DR-X FLAT CRANK small-sized crankbait that he simply called his “coffin bill”. The reason is that the bill is actually somewhat shaped like an old-school Dracula coffin.
Highlights
One of the coolest things we encountered on this trip (there’s always a story) was that Pete had a tiny largemouth on at the boat side. All of a sudden, a big smallmouth came in chasing the largie. The smallie literally proceeded to bite the largie’s tail. It didn’t attempt to eat the entire fish (which it easily could have since it was probably a 4-pounder vs. a quarter-pounder at best), it just kept nipping at and hanging on to the tail… STRANGE but so cool!
Another interesting note was that while fishing on one of my previous trips’ “big bass” areas, Pete spotted a small school of big fish on the LiveScope. Pete dunked down a drop shot rig and instantly hooked up. As Steve was reeling in to get prepped with the net, he too hooked up. Within seconds, we knew these weren’t smallies as neither of them jumped. Ended up being a pair of incidental Lakers. You never know what you’ll get in these diverse Algoma lakes!
The 3rd experience in the awesome department is with the ever-advancing electronics in the fishing world, we inevitably encounter new discoveries over and over. In this case, we had an old area of the lake that always produced good fish, but we could never tell exactly why. Well, with the aid of LiveScope, we pretty much nailed it. A fallen, sunken tree in 30-plus feet of water… WOW!
Conclusion
This trip didn’t disappoint at all. No, the boys didn’t catch the complete “hawgs” that they were after; however, they caught so many fish (including a couple of lake trout) that there’s no way they could have kept count.
“Actually,” says Pete, “that’s a great premise for a return visit to Hastie Lake, counting each and every bass”.
Somebody’s gonna be busy!”
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About the Author
For over three decades, The Fish'n Canada Show has been a staple of Canadian outdoor television. Hosted by anglers Angelo Viola and Pete Bowman, the show takes viewers on high-energy angling adventures across North America—from remote wilderness fly-in lodges to urban waterways. Combining expert fishing tactics, conservation advocacy, and genuine banter, Fish'n Canada continues to inspire generations of anglers to get out on the water.
