Hi All,
i have been neglecting this site and the generous folks i have met here...but here goes anyway with a whole month (and a bit ) of reporting from NW Ontario.
the reports start mid August and end as of last week....lots of pics and video, too much for one sitting i accept but what can i say?
Got out again with my new fishing buddy Cliff to a very small local 'pond'.
Cliff was doubtful of the venue choice given that it's so small, practically in town with easy access. I too was sceptical about this lake when it was introduced to me 4 years ago....lol....and after Cliff got his second fish not 10 minutes after we started which measured 26" those doubts faded.
We started off with walleye spinners and minnows. I had hammered bronze blade and Cliff had a psychedelic day glow perch pattern blade...he got the big fish...nuff said.
When we switched to jigs I was using minnows and leeches, he was using minnows with a chunk of night crawler, I got most of the fish when we were jigging, minnows seemed to be king, however, the last fish caught was a beauty 27" which again went to Cliff....it fell for a piece of night crawler Cliff had put on to try and catch a few of the numerous big perch we were catching.
The fish were in the 11' to 12'FOW range, in or around the tall cabbage. The lake probably averages around 8' deep with one spot that gets to around 18' deep.
I was due to hit up a lake with Cliff in a couple of days, but before that trip i got a session in at our local provincial park where we camped over night for my wife's birthday.
The lake at this park is a deep lake that holds Lakers too, i usually catch at least 4 or 5 lakers when jigging in the boat in summer, but the trout have been few and far between this year.
However, i have been catching walleye like never before....and like most walleye from deep trout lakes....they are big! I had caught some really nice walleye in a spot there 2 weeks before and decided to give it another shot....see if it was just chance or i'd stumbled onto something.
After 2 hours of seeing walleye on the bottom not responding to anything i put in front of them i wandered off in search a trout.... LOL....and caught a walleye in 56' FOW!
I headed back to the original spot and not long after the bite turned on. I think i got around 6 or 7 walleye none under 22" with a real pig and this year's PB for me at 28".
As mentioned before.....i planned to make a trip into a more restricted access lake with Cliff, and a few days after catching my PB walleye for the year we were at it again.....3 hours total time spent getting in and out...about an hour and a half fishing.
That trip was followed by a disgusting work schedule for the next 4 days then i did manage to get out on my home lake for an hour and a bit as mum and son slept.
Wanted to grab a few walleye for lunch the next day, so headed to my sure bet spots.
Was marking lots of bait and fish on the graph at my first spot...really light bites. Also the fish would follow and hit right up to the surface......not even a perch ill normally do that.
Turned out i'd found some crappie.
I have been trying to locate these crappie in this lake during summer for at least 3 years. I can get into them in the spring when they are in shallow in the weeds spawning....but after that they all but vanish.
Oh well...i wont complain....kinda weird cuz i've fished in that spot before actually trying to find them on numerous occasions and drew a blank...weird....but i'll take it.
Best one was 13.5"
It kinda sucked that i had to get back so soon...would have liked to explored that a bit more.
However, getting back early enabled me to clean the fish before Jack woke up, and he had supper early....and guess where he wanted to go after supper.....we did not catch anything....but we spent a good 2 hours out in the boat floating around our bay.
Jack was in hysterics for at least half an hour....we saw another boat out there....and Jack says to me...
"daddy....i think the seagulls are going to poop on the man in that boat"
LET'S GO FISHING DAD
About a week after that i went out for a few hours at William's Bay on lac Seul.
The first couple hours produced the usual suspects of 20" to 24" fish with some keepers and even lost what was probably my biggest ever SMbass..oh well.
After that i tried deep but the majority of the fish were small. Despite the size the fishing was non stop...even in 37'FOW it was a bite a cast. Because of this i started experimenting and messing around with baits etc...slip bobbers, twister tails(i never use them) and even four inch white tube jigs inspired by a smelt a walleye coughed up all worked. Slip bobbering in nearly 40 feet of water was funny.
Jigs with minnows, leeches, suckers and nightcrawlers all worked...so did combinations. A good lazy , hot day on Lac Seul...just what the doctor ordered!
VIDEO SOME PICS
After finding the crappie on my home lake accidentally i went out with a buddy of mine looking for crappie in a lake that neither of us had fished before. Swen had heard a rumour that there were crappie in there and wanted to catch one since he never had before. I love the challenge of fishing a new lake. getting there with no idea of depth or structure...hell...with this lake we could not even confirm there were any fish in there!
Anyway....we found the crappie, so the rumours Swen had heard were right. They were close to shore among fallen trees between 5' and 15'FOW. Small jigs and minnows for the first couple, then we switched to powerbait micro tubes, with the occasional leech and night crawler used too.
Half way through the morning Swen suggested we head off at around 1pm to try our luck at Scout Bay on Lac Seul for some walleye....lol....sounded good to me...so 3 fish short of 1 person's crappie limit (i did not want to keep any as i had just had a feed of crappie 2 days previous) we headed up the road for 1/2 an hour to Lac Seul.
I don’t know what happened....but in 3 hours of fishing we caught 2 walleye...Swen in fact did not catch anything....ON LAC SEUL???????? what the hell!!!!
I have never had such awful fishing on Lac Seul before. Ok...so it was a 'new Lake" situation as I’d never fished that area before....but I’m pretty good at sniffing out a walleye by process of elimination.
This area had all the usual fish holding structure to choose from too. There was nice deep water, deep water near islands with varying drop off gradients. We found sand bars with deep water on one side and shallower rockier on the other, mid water structure, mid range depth windswept shore (nice westerlies all day too) hell you name it we tried it, the only thing stopping us getting further out was not wanting to get caught in big water with a 9.9hp in a 14'.
At least when we got back we heard from everyone at the landing that they had had their worst days fishing that day...phew....made the experience a little less humbling....but still...humbled was what i felt like.
NICE LANDING AT LAKE 'X'
THE WEATHER IMPROVED, WIND DIED RIGHT DOWN JUST AS WE LAUNCHED
SWEN GOT HIS FIRST EVER CRAPPIE
LOTS OF REALLY LITTLE ONES
A FEW BASS AND PIKE WERE CAUGHT TOO
LEFT AFTER 2 HOURS OR SO TO PURSUE WALLEYE
HERE'S THE VIDEO FROM THE CRAPPIE LAKEAND HERE'S THE BETTER OF THE 2 WALLEYE I GOT LATER ON
During the last month i've done a fair bit of shore fishing with my son, but we also get out in the boat sometimes too.
He loves being out in the boat but fishing is definitely not the focus.
Its just nice being out there with him. He is such a lovely person, great sense of humour, amazing imagination and great company...all wrapped up in a small, curly, redhead package.
My next trip found me going back to the small local 'pond' to get some walleye for the table. Lots of jackfish in this lake, but lots of nice walleye too.
Spinners and jigs with minnows and/or nightcrawlers were the bait, fish holding near...but not in...tall cabbage in 12 FOW.
About another week went by after that and I was beginning to go a bit stir crazy up . Despite the lack of fish on Lac Seul this trip, it was still an awesome day off in beautiful NW Ontario....just what my soul needed.
I DECIDED TO TRY OUT MY UNDERWATER CAMERA HOUSING THAT DAY TOO....LOL....WITH MIXED RESULTS....BUT ITS A START!
JUST AFTER TAKING THOSE SHOTS OF MY NEW GADGET, I NOTICED THE BAMBIS FEEDING WITH MUM OUTSIDE, ALWAYS COOL TO SEE.
FALL IS DEFINITELY HERE, THE CHICKENS WERE EVERYWHERE ON THE TRIP UP.
THE WIND HAD JUST STARTED TO PICK UP (CONTRARY TO THE WEATHER REPORT...SURPRISE SURPRISE) AS I ARRIVED AT THE LANDING.
I DECIDED TO TRY TROLLING CRANKS AFTER SEEING LOTS OF REPORTS ABOUT IT, NO LUCK, BUT NICE DAY TO CRUISE ABOUT FOR A COUPLE HOURS.
AFTER A WHOLE SERIES OF ISSUES THAT PUT A DENT IN MY INTENDED PLANS, I MANAGED ONLY 2 MORE WALLEYE (SMALL). BUT SOME NICE SIZED SMALLIES MADE UP FOR THAT.
GOT BACK TO THE LANDING AT DUSK...ONLY ONE OTHER CREATURE THERE, NOT LONG BEFORE HE'S GONE SOUTH NOW.
HERE IS THE VIDEO FROM THE DAYIf you made it this far i salute you
, this trip was just a couple of days ago back at the 'local pond' for an evening bite....a couple of walleye but mostly young pike.
Did get the opportunity to play with the underwater camera housing again. Got a good clip of a crayfish too from that afternoon when playing with my boy on our shoreline.
Just jigs and spinners with minnows, a couple of minutes with a crankbait got another pike.
Anyway...here's the vids.
UNDERWATER SHOTSSNOT ROCKETSUntil next time...tight lines all. Gotta love the fall!
