Lake Temagami Fishing Report - Summer 2025
In the second-to-last week of the 2025 lake trout season, Mason Bonner and I packed up our respective Lund and Alumacraft and headed north to Lake Temagami in search of a true giant — a 40”-class fish that this lake is famous for.
Our destination was Ket-Chun-Eny Lodge, a beautiful island-based, year-round operation run by husband and wife duo Rielly and Dom. We were there to chase trophy lake trout, explore new structure, and see for ourselves why Temagami has earned its reputation as one of Ontario’s most storied fishing lakes.
Day 1 – Settling In & Finding Our First Temagami Lakers
After unloading at the end of the access road, we made the short boat ride over to the island to settle in. Rielly met us at the dock and showed us around — several guest cabins, a fish-cleaning hut, and plenty of docking for those bringing their own boats, with rental options available too.
We traded ideas on trout spots, and Rielly shared some helpful intel on areas where big fish had been caught that season. Once unpacked, we tied up fresh rigs and head out to one of the many deep basins on the lake for our first evening on the water.
Our first stop was a deep ledge dropping sharply into a basin. The top of the ledge ranged from 50 to 90 feet, with occasional shoals and scattered boulders — classic Temagami structure. I started with a 5/8 oz Nishine Smelt Head paired with a 4” Z-Man Diezel Minnow, and it didn’t take long to find our first several lake trout in the 20” range.
As we worked upwind, we found an area where the ledge broke into several humps topping out between 40–70 feet, holding bigger marks on Livescope. The fish were active but hesitant — chasing high into the column but rarely committing — something Rielly mentioned could happen due to the lake’s clear water. Rielly offers guide services year round on Temagami and surrounding back lakes for Lake Trout, Walleye, Smallmouth Bass and Brook Trout.
Because of the trophy potential here, I prefer running 15–20 lb leaders to shorten fight time and minimize lactic acid buildup, protecting these older fish (which have been aged at over 40 years old in similar northern Ontario systems). For example with the 1oz swimbait hook i used most of the trip which had a stout 5/0 or 6/0 hook i used 20lb braid and 20lb fluoro leader. Temagami’s water is so clear it’s tempting to downsize, but with fish of this caliber, heavier leaders are a more ethical choice in my opinion.
Just before sunset, I finally connected with a solid 33” lake trout, a perfect way to end the first day. We headed back to the lodge to rest and prep for an early start on day two.
Day 2 – Deep Basins, Cisco Schools & the Giant
We were on the water before sunrise, returning to the same basin to continue exploring. This time, I focused on the opposite side of the deep ledge. Early on, I experimented with more finesse-style presentations — forked-tail plastics and shaking the bait on bottom — trying to trigger the hesitant fish like we’d seen the night before.
The finesse bottom-bait presentations are always at least a little enticing to me because I feel like they’re under-utilized by many anglers targeting lake trout. Also, many shield lakes have deep-water forage like sculpins that live right on bottom. But this experience at Temagami helped cement the idea in my mind that these bottom presentations are most effective on tannin, tea-stained trout lakes, where visibility is lower. In those tannin systems, the fish can lose sight of the bait entirely if you swim it away too quickly or pull it more than 20 feet away during the chase, whereas bottom baits can keep their interest. On clear lakes like Temagami however, it often seems like the fish getting a good look at the bait is the kiss of death for your chances at getting it to commit.
But the results told the story with the bottom bait experiments: countless follows, nose-down looks, and fish spooking off the bait. With whitefish stacked on bottom on many of the shoals and ledges mixed in with the lake trout, it made for time consuming structure to fish. Returning to the swimbaits I was able to get a few nice fish in the boat in the 30-33” range that morning. I’d yet to encounter any really expansive cisco schools roaming around this ledge, so I had the idea to spend the afternoon switching to looking for cisco in windblown areas adjacent to a piece of structure. I was starting to get the feeling that positioning around the bait schools was going to be the key to this trip.
By mid-morning we paused for an early lunch back at the lodge before moving to fish new water. I changed tactics completely — spot-locking in 120 ft and aiming my Livescope out into open water, scanning for cisco schools instead of lakers on the shoal. I kept the trolling motor on full speed searching quickly around the shoal. Once I found a large school of cisco suspended over 120–130 ft, I spot locked and started marking large trout chasing them. The cisco schools on temagami can be enormous, at times 70+ft tall and 100+ft long
Pitching to the lakers was a challenge — by the time the bait fell through that deep water, the trout often had zipped 50ft in another direction chasing the cisco. I was throwing a 1 oz jig, which I’d later learn from Mason Bonner could be upsized to a 2oz with great results, and would have been a great option in the deeper water that afternoon.
After a few minutes fishing marks crashing into this school of cisco, an absolutely massive mark appeared on screen lumbering around the lower edges of the cisco school down 90ft in 120ft of water. I fired a cast just ahead of the fish in the direction I guessed it was swimming from the livescope. I got the bait to fall within range, and the fish noticed it and accelerated immediately. I quickly had to reel out the slack and get the bait swimming away fast, matching its speed. After chasing the bait up nearly 60 feet , the mark engulfed my 5” Z-Man Diezel Minnow on a 1 oz head.
The hookset felt pretty ideal, I was able to get a second and third set into the fish to secure the stout larger wire swimbait hook. The fish tore line back to bottom twice before I could slow it down and start lifting it. I knew this was the kind of fish we’d come for.
I called mason over the VHF radio, who was just out of earshot on the other side of the shoal, and told him that I had hooked into a massive laker (temagami is largely without cell service so multiple means of propulsion and proper communication are a must!). He motored over in his boat to help net and photograph the catch, jumping into my boat and spot locking his alongside. After about a 4 minute fight, we slid her into the RS Nets Solo Slimer. It was a massive 39.5” Temagami lake trout, just shy of the 40” mark.
We unhooked her, got a quick length measurement and snapped a few photos before the release. A true northern giant — and all the more reason to return next season for another adventure!
Stay Tuned for Part Two
Stay tuned for part two of this trip report, where we cover Days 3 and 4 — including Mason’s trophy lake trout and the walleye of a lifetime that capped off an unforgettable week at Ket-Chun-Eny Lodge on Lake Temagami.
If you’re interested in booking your own Lake Temagami fishing charter, reach out through the Wood Angling contact page. I am currently booking for 2026 summer trips to Lake Temagami and can accommodate up to 6 guests on 2 boat charters with Mason Bonner.
Our guided trips are built around education, technique, and trophy potential — helping you learn patterns you can take to any northern lake.
