Luck of the Irish, they say, and I believe it after fishing alongside Gary McEnelly (In-Fisherman’s former financial officer) the past five years during our annual “trout opener” trip into northwest Ontario. I was on hand to photograph his first lake trout five years ago and many trout since. Truth is, he usually catches the most, often the largest, and occasionally the most largest—this, without having a clue but to follow closely behind whoever happens to be leading the patrol and dropping his lure down the first hole that someone opens.

Then last year—it was bound to happen—he has a bad day. A good day is, oh, 25 fish or so among a group of four anglers, and as I’ve said, Mac usually gets more than his share. Too, being the major bean counter he is, he’s always keeping score. Given that he’s always counting and, at least when things are going well, always providing a running score during the day and long into the evening afterwards, when he has caught no fish by noon, things begin to get, well, tense, especially when the rest of us are catching at least an occasional fish. So justice prevails, although I wish poor luck on no man, even a rather tedious CPA.

The principal pattern that day, like so many other days we’ve spent fishing lakes in the northwest corner of Ontario just after the season opener on January 1, was to fish along portions of rock bluffs where deep water pushes right up against a rock wall, the better if the water pushing into shore is at least 40 to 60 feet deep, the better still if at least 80 feet of water is nearby.

Sometimes these spots coincide with the sides of short ledge-rock points. Other times, they occur along long portions of rock bluff. They may occur in the main lake or in deep bays just off the main lake. The best spots early on often are in deep bays, deep meaning water at least 60 feet deep.

Holes often are cut no more than 60 feet off shore. Most of the fishing is 20 to 40 feet down over water that ranges from 20 to 80 feet deep. Lake trout herd ciscoes and perhaps other forage fish like perch against these walls. The biggest trout tend to ride higher in the water column than smaller fish, although this isn’t an absolute rule.

The second principal pattern is one most anglers trained in basic fishing principles would immediately suspect. Trout often hold on shallow-to-deep-dropping shoreline points, or sunken islands with edges that drop off into deep water. Again, these structural elements might be in the main lake or in deep bays connected to the main lake. Once again, too, the best spots early during the trout season tend to be in deep bays or at the mouth of deep bays adjacent to the the main lake.