After hearing from multiple sources that Schooner Lake was spectacular, I decided to make it my destination for a short 2-day camping trip. My camping/fishing partner (John Verbaas) was keen, so we made quick preparations and hesitantly headed out early on June 26th (Monday). Hesitantly – since the weather forecast was not looking the best and a wet June would bring out the mosquitoes!
After a pit stop in Almonte for coffee (Equator), we made it to the Schooner Lake access by 11 am or so. The back road into Schooner Lake is excellent and is about a 30-minute drive from Highway 509. The turn-off from 509 to Mountain Road is next to the Home Hardware in Plevna.
Schooner Lake is two lakes connected by a narrow channel – Long and Round Schooner. The access is at the south end of Long Schooner, and our campsite was on Round Schooner - so we had a bit of paddling to do. It was a great morning to be traversing Long Schooner. It was a bit cool for late June, but we had some sun and a light breeze. We fished the western shoreline of Long Schooner but no luck. Long Schooner is about 3 km long and has four islands toward the northern half.
Once you turn west into the inter-lake channel, you start to see the impressive rocky cliffs that make Round Schooner so spectacular. The cliffs must be 200ft in height along the channel and on the northern side of Round Schooner Lake.
We settled on campsite #8 and had some lunch. After lunch, John got a nice size smallmouth bass casting from the campsite shore. A good thing -- since that would turn out to be the only decent size fish we would catch on the whole trip. Schooner Lake is known to have Lake Trout (stocked), bass, walleye, and pike. But, over two days of casting and trolling, we caught mostly rock bass!
The rain mostly held off on Monday until the evening, and then it wasn’t enough to impact our dinner time. Also, to our great surprise, mosquitoes were MIA! We enjoyed a great dinner by the campfire (bass fillet, rice, corn-on-the-cob, wine, etc.). After dinner, we did try for some quiet late evening fishing, but the rainstorm started to make a comeback, so we retreated to the campsite. In the end, not much happen, and we had a great evening by the campfire. Parts of the sky did eventually clear up and allowed for a bit of stargazing!
We started Tuesday morning by going out on the lake for some fishing – nothing except more rock bass. After a big breakfast, we packed up the camp and started heading back. As soon as we began paddling, a storm came through, and we took shelter onshore. The storm pattern repeated itself a few more times on our way out. The weather would change every hour – dark clouds and rolling thunder, then some rain, then some sun, and then repeat. On the way, we mostly fished around the islands and boulders in the channel, but there was no action. The 3 km paddle across Long Schooner was against a moderate breeze but nothing too scary. It was around 3 pm when we loaded our gear in the car and started the 2-hour drive back to Almonte.
It was a great trip overall, except for the fishing. Round Schooner Lake is a lake that I plan to try out again in the future. A fall trip (late September) would be ideal here.
The Township of North Frontenac manages the camping reservations for these Frontenac crown-land lakes. Click the "North Frontenac camping" link below.
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