steverowbotham

Lol. So did I! Felt worse than it looked too!

Looks like an awesome trip!

nice greaser! Gotta love those dartees

awesome! I'm officially jealous

Well it looks as though I wont be getting back out until the beginning of June, so I figured Id do a May Wrap Up while I have some time. I took a week vacation to enjoy some spring pike fishing this year and what a blast I had! Let's start at the beginning of the month though. Once May rolled around, I was still doing the crappie thing. What a great way to enjoy the water before pike/walleye/lake trout/whities open up! I can say, I've had my fill of crappies now and probably wont need to fish for them until next April/May hahaha. At the end of April we were getting them in deeper (7-11ft) water, but by early May they had migrated to shallower water, into the emerging lily pads and pencil reeds. Up shallow, a float was not stealthy enough, so we used a 1/16oz dropshot rig on 4lbs fluoro with an X-Zone pan slammer and they enjoyed it! By now, pike season had opened up on Simcoe/Cooch and I spent a couple days out there looking for em. I spent a long time throwing the X-Zone Swammer and it generated a lot of interest, but not a lot of takers. We switched gears to some smaller jerkbaits and started having some success. The water was still in the mid to low 50s and I think the smaller profile baits were neccessary. The next day we went back and I rigged up a fluke on a 1/16oz head just to give it some weight. It was my most successful bait of the day for sure. I landed a few pike, one nice one (though it looked very beat up and skinny), and also got my first musky on Cooch. It was released quickly, but it was very cool to see them around. She had beautiful spotted colouring and measured 42 inches. After a few more days off, Muskoka pike season opened up and that is always a favourite for me. All of those lakes have giants and we hit a few different lakes in search of them. Every day was different and they're kind of blurred together at this point but the go to bait for the week was far and away an X-Zone Mega Swammer. I fished it two ways; weightless on a 6/0 hook and on a skirted jig to add bulk to it. When it got tough, I had a 5" grub rigged up to swim or hop slowly, though it generally only accounted for smaller fish, with the exception of one 36 incher. On Saturday, I had my dad visiting from Halifax and we headed up to get some giant snotters. The day started slowly, but it quickly turned into one of the best days of pike fishing I have ever experienced. We landed 3 fish over 40 inches, a 37, a 39 and a half dozen others over 30. One fish, a 41 incher, had me wrapped up in a downed tree so bad that i debated cutting the line, but then it surfaced and got stuck on a branch where I was able to take the trolling motor over and just net it, with 30 feet of line still out and wrapped up. It was pretty wild. Later that day. my dad hooks his PB 43.5 incher and I set the camera up on the tripod to capture the fight. During the excitement of landing it, the tripod got knocked into the lake. I dove in without hesitation, but those things sink fast and 25 feet of dark water was too much for me. We lost pretty much the entire day, though it was a day we will not forget, and I have to be thankful for that. We still got a wet cell pic of his tank. I bought a new Nikon when we got home and was back out again the next day. Saw lots of bigguns, but only convinced two to go and one broke off. All in all, a fantastic month and I look forward to the rest of 2012! Tight lines! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwg0s06e8cI&feature=g-upl

For the amount of time I spend on the water I actually have very limited experience with this. I once removed a hook from a clients ear, though it wasnt very deep. On thursday I had my second experience when I took a co-worker out pike fishing and he hooked his finger in one side and out the other. That made it easy as the bard was already out and exposed. We snipped the hook and pulled it out. After a dose of hydrogen peroxide, he wanted to keep fishing.

Herring, I see them on the surface all the time out there, especially in the morning and evening hours

Seconded if you want to go to the north end If not, use the town docks in Orillia, fantastic launch

We've always used the cheapies with good results, peanut butter or cheese whiz have always worked. Since I'm not a particular fan of cheese whiz, the peanut butter usually has better stock when it comes trappin time!

I dont want to ruffle any feathers, and I have a feeling it would

LOL

awesome fish!!

nice specks!!

Well another opener has come and gone. I've been working overnights, so I havent been getting to the lake until 830-9am, but its enough time to get it done. Went to Couchiching to avoid Cooks Bay traffic and we were into fish right away. Had a lot of interest in the Swammers, but only one taker, which broke me off on the hookset. My buddy, Kyle, got into them good with the Live Target Smelt jerkbait and he had 3 in the boat in the first 45 mins. Me, I had to work hard for my bites and they werent coming! lol When the sun got up, we got into a favourite shallow bay of mine. It's really a nothing spot, it is sand bottom in 6-7 feet, but there are random weed clumps here and there where the pike seem to take cover in early season. Long casts are super important as these fish spook very easily in such clear water. Finesse is key in here and one of my go-to baits is a small fluke on a 1/16 oz jighead, I'll snap it sporadically to draw reaction strikes. I landed a nice pike on just the second weed clump. She was a really red fish, pretty beat up from the spawn I guess, but back she went to get some real food into her. After about 10 more clumps and only one OOS largie to show for it, we started making our way back out and I made a long bomb cast to the last clump on the way out. I missed by a fair bit, but it didnt matter as a long dark shadow rushed my bait in seconds and it was on! Turned out to be a 41 inch muskie. Simcoe/Cooch have a closed muskie season year round in an attempt to rehabilitate and grow the dwindling populations, so it was really exciting to see such a quality fish in there! I didnt get a weight or girth as I wanted to get her back quickly. Was a great finish to the day and I hope to see more around in the future. Check out www.MuskiesCanada.ca for more info on the project.

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nicely done!

Slabs. Was a great day for it!

I just picked a song on the playlist that was the same length as the video haha. Musical tastes will always vary, but thanks for the input. And yes the pants issue comes out to play again. I've always been bad for it, but especially since losing 60lbs and not fully updating the wardrobe. Ah well. haha

Beds around clumps of emerging lily pads

Lol

Thats a gumbo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvtggT_4Zq8

Find weeds anywhere in 7-12ft and start chuckin... Theres lots in there!

I just mentioned that they were moving towards their typical locations. Once we got into them it was game on!

don't know the weight, but she was 15.75in which is a definite PB