Eric and I headed to the Elliot Lake area last week for a kayak fishing adventure at Laurentian Lodge, aiming to target smallmouth bass and lake trout. What I love about exploring this area is its rugged, natural backcountry beauty, yet there are cozy accommodations and all the amenities close by. Of course, the area has fantastic fishing as well! For the past three years, I’ve had the pleasure of partnering with the City of Elliot Lake to explore and share some of the fishing opportunities found across this beautiful part of Northern Ontario. Every adventure has been unique, and I have checked off various fish species along with new bodies of water during each visit. This recent trip was yet another memorable experience!
Accommodations & Dining at Laurentian Lodge
Our plan was to explore lakes north of the City, so Laurentian Lodge was the perfect location to stay for a few days. I visited Laurentian Lodge back in September for a solo kayak fishing adventure, and was excited for Eric to join me this time around. Laurentian Lodge is located around 30 kilometers north of Elliot Lake. It’s a popular destination offering a range of accommodations options, from cottages and chalets to cozy room rentals. We stayed in one of their Fireplace Rooms which overlooks Flack Lake. As for dining, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are conveniently available on-site. Just like on my last visit, the service was excellent and the meals were delicious! I’ll drop a few favourite dishes below.
Photos: Over easy eggs, a western omelette, toast, and home friends (left), penne chicken pasta, caesar salad, and french onion soup (middle), cannelloni pasta, steak, vegetables and potatoes with gravy (right).
Flack Lake
We arrived Thursday evening and, after dinner at the lodge, headed to the shoreline with our fishing rods to explore Flack Lake. I’m so glad we did because we caught a number of feisty smallmouth bass and some rock bass in no time at all! We were both rigged up with micro Ned rigs, myself with a Z-Man Tiny TicklerZ and Eric using a Z-Man LarvaZ. We previously fished on Flack Lake by kayak back in 2023, which I shared about in this blog post. Below is my biggest catch from shore during this outing.
Mikel Lake
After spending some time fishing Flack Lake, we followed the wooden walkway down to the bottom of the beautiful waterfall which flows into Mikel Lake. We also got into some fish at the base of the falls. What a view! With the trip just beginning, it was already off to an awesome start! The bugs were certainly active during this trip, so we came prepared with our bug suits.
Photos: Eric with a smallmouth bass at the base of the falls (left), and myself with a smallmouth bass (right).
Photo: Launching our kayaks just behind the main lodge on Mikel Lake.
The following morning we woke up to rain along with high winds gusting over 60 kilometers per hour. Fortunately the wind completely laid down after lunch, so we decided with the shortened day to set out on Mikel Lake in our kayaks. This is one of my favourite lakes I’ve explored in the area, so I was excited for Eric to experience it for the first time. What a fun afternoon it turned out to be! The fog over Mikel Lake created such a scenic backdrop.
We both caught so many smallmouth here, including a 20.75″ at 4.67 pounds for Eric, and a 20.25″ at 4.01 pounds for myself. These gorgeous fish were definitely among highlights of the trip!
Photos: Eric with his biggest smallmouth (left), and myself with mine (right).
Eric was focused on fishing in around 15 to 20 feet of water using a soft plastic minnow on a light jighead that he hovered and strolled in the water column. I spent the majority of the outing in shallow water, around 3-5 feet. I found the most success along the shoreline where there was vegetation. At times, I was even seeing bass follow my bait back to the kayak and striking right beside me! I was once again using a Ned rig, however this time it was the Z-Man TicklerZ with a Z-Man TT Lures NedlockZ HD in 1/10oz.
We fished until nearly 9pm, and by the time we wrapped up, the restaurant at Laurentian had closed so we made our way into Elliot Lake for a late dinner. There was a big concert taking place on Friday night, the Heritage Days Street Dance which featured Kim Mitchell, The 99s, Dayton Station Rebels, and Railroad Steele. Unfortunately we did not make it into town in time for the event. The Elliot Lake area is always seems to be buzzing with events and activities! We enjoyed tasty burgers at Chuck’s Roadhouse, and then made our way back to Laurentian.
Photo: A grilled chicken club & fries.
Cobre Lake
Our original plan was to explore Semiwhite Lake at Mississagi Park on our final day here, however with a windy forecast, we decided on venturing out on a smaller lake for more shelter in the kayaks. Fortunately there are many smaller lakes to choose from in the area! We had our sights set on Cobre Lake, which was located less than 5 kilometers north of the lodge. Over breakfast, we spoke with Doug, one of the owners of Laurentian Lodge. He shared some of the lake’s mining history and also spoke about the lake trout fishing. We decided to venture out there for a few hours in pursuit of lakers.
Photos: Old signage at Cobre Lake (left), our kayaks at the access (right).
Cobre Lake is incredibly scenic and home to a native lake trout population. It was also stocked back in the 1980s, but hasn’t been stocked since. Our day began with excitement pretty quickly as Eric landed the first fish of the day in around 40 feet of water on a soft plastic minnow on a light jighead. Shortly afterwards, I hooked up as well! As the lake trout reached the surface, it rolled and tossed the hook, disappearing back to the depths. It looked like a nice, long fish, so I was a bit disappointed I didn’t get a better look at it. Eric landed another chunky lake trout and lost two more, on a soft plastic minnow once again. These fish were stunning! We covered a lot of water at various depths and marked some large fish on Garmin LiveScope, but could not convince them to bite. Nonetheless, we enjoyed spending a few hours exploring this picturesque lake that we had all to ourselves. We did bump into a couple of groups who were out enjoying the hiking trail along the lake.
Photos: Eric’s beautiful chunky lake trout from Cobre Lake.
After a day on the water, we wrapped up our day with a late dinner at Fireside Classic Grill which is one of my must-visit spots whenever I’m in Elliot Lake.
Photo: Chicken pesto gnocchi and garlic bread, (top) italian shrimp bake and garlic bread (bottom).
A big thank you to the City of Elliot Lake and Laurentian Lodge for hosting us! We had yet another unforgettable experience!
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