Finally the long weekend in May had arrived. Myself and a bunch of my buddies get together every year to go to our cabin retreat, for some great Ontario brook trout fishing. My cabin is not exactly like the log cabin you see in so many of the pictures on the front of outdoor magazines. It is not quite as elaborate as that, but it is very comfortable and not much on cabin luxury.

This year was no different, we're headed to the northern woods of Ontario. Northern Ontario as some of the greatest fishing in the world. With over half a million lakes and streams and rivers, is it any wonder. Fishing for brook trout can vary, from stream trout fishing all the way up to fishing the mighty rivers and lakes that populate the northern landscape of Ontario.

The smaller streams will mostly produce smaller trout with the odd big one thrown in just to keep you coming back. The smaller streams offer a great place to try some fly fishing for brook trout. For brook trout flies mostly dry and wet flies will serve you well. Now if you are looking for a world record brook trout you probably will have to fish the larger lakes and rivers.

We arrived in the early morning to our lakefront cabin. We took the shutters off the windows and cleaned up. Our cabin pets (mice) had not got into anything over the winter. By lunchtime we had everything out of the vehicles and into place, along with most of fishing gear down by the dock. It took about an hour to get the boats and motors together. They where in good shape and seem to have survived their winter sleep with no problems.

There are so many options when it comes to fishing up at our cabin retreat. The group of guys divided up into groups of two. Each group doing their own thing. We decided to take a couple of canoes and head down to Cabin Lake.

The lake had a history of producing some nice sized brook trout. We where both full of excitement after a winter of dreaming about landing these colorful trout. A side benefit of this northern jewel of a lake is that the scenery and landscape is awesome.

We made our way down this old logging road used earlier in time to transport logs out of this area and deliver them to the local lumber mill. Because of lack of activity at the local mill the road proved to be a bit rough because it had not been very well maintained in the last few years. However the rough and not so traveled road had a side benefit of causing fisherman to go elsewhere, and by this happening it reduces fishing pressure on the smaller lakes in this area.

On our way to the lake we came upon a mother bear with 3 cubs walking down the road. This is not that unusual though it is quite common to see wildlife along these roads. We only seen the bears for a second, because as we rounded the bend they quickly disappeared into the woods.

Once at the lake we quickly unloaded the canoes from our homemade trailer and set out to re-explore Cabin Lake. Of all the trout fishing lakes in the area I have to admit my fondness for this lake. It had served me well in the past, it seems not to matter if I was spinning or fly fishing brook trout.

However the best trout fishing I had experienced was spinning with an ultra light so that was my choice. My buddy decided to do some fly fishing for these wonderful colored trout.

I used some small spinners in the 0 to 1 size. He used some dry and wet flies. The Royal Wuff performed well for him as did the muddler minnow pattern. For fishing trout in northern Ontario either of these methods can and do work well. Depending on the day one method might be better then the other. Trout river fishing can also be productive using these methods. However I personally like using live bait in this situation.

That day I hooked lots of small brookies and a nice large one around 16 inches. My buddy did quite well with the fly rod also. We kept a few brook trout for supper. Back at our lakeside cabin we cleaned the fish and got them ready for our first supper of trout that season.