tbayboy

14 hours 44 minutes left in the summer as I write this. Lets just hope the fall turns out better is all I can say Saturday Mike and I hooked up Saturday for another day of bass hunting but it seems the bass have figure out our tricks. We scooted up to our first spot and proceeded to get skunked. On the way to the next 'sure thing' spot Mike landed our first keeper of the day: <a href=" title="That's a keeper by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/2877569252_e0a03105b4.jpg" width="367" height="500" alt="That's a keeper" /></a> Mr goby didn't get back into the water, thanks for playing Our sure thing spot of course didn't produce so much as a follow so we started trying a mix of known spot and new spots during our bass hunting but we just couldn't get a pattern down. We picked up a fish here and there but never using the same approach or in the same spots. Talk about frustrating. Anyhow, here's the bass: The first off the day, taken off a pad: <a href=" title="First real fish by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/2876737697_c83b10bcc0_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="First real fish" /></a> Next up was a smallie taken of a white/chartruese spinner bait <a href=" title="Let go of my spinner! by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3027/2877570398_571539d77f_b.jpg" width="647" height="1024" alt="Let go of my spinner!" /></a> <a href=" title="Without the spinner bait by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2876738583_fd3b94286a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="769" alt="Without the spinner bait" /></a> Mike finally upgraded his Goby with this decent largie (forget what he came on) <a href=" title="Mikes first of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2877571348_6176183987_b.jpg" width="951" height="1024" alt="Mikes first of the day" /></a> A while later I landed another largie by hitting him on the head with a red spinner bait <a href=" title="rock shelf largie by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/2877572052_c4e33f47d1_b.jpg" width="805" height="1024" alt="rock shelf largie" /></a> Mike with a little largie that torpedo'd from under a pad for the pink frog <a href=" title="Really wanted that pink frog by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3134/2876740283_e60b4a0520_b.jpg" width="663" height="1024" alt="Really wanted that pink frog" /></a> The frog patterned popper also got Mike a couple <a href=" title="Top water bass by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2877573218_ceb367de7f_b.jpg" width="790" height="1024" alt="Top water bass" /></a> <a href=" title="Another on the frog popper by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/2876741307_74db59faac_b.jpg" width="652" height="1024" alt="Another on the frog popper" /></a> That was it for the bass - never two the same and no real size of note. At the end of the day Mike wanted to target pike at a spot he knew and sure enough HE found a pattern. A red/black slop master got mike 3 pike in 3 passes. I had a push that didn't hit again and spinner bait that came off when I reeled in too fast getting the net for Mike's fish. Figures - he gets the fish and I loose the lure . Anyhow, here's a water shot of one of the guys <a href=" title="One of the days pike by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3226/2877574946_3e28616932_b.jpg" width="1024" height="878" alt="One of the days pike" /></a> That was it for that day. On the way home I told Mike I was planning to take it easy Sunday, maybe hit the Grand but basically sleep in, do some stuff around the house, etc. Mike says 'want to hit Sugog for musky instead?' Okie dokie, my plans are changed: Sunday Holy cold day batman! We left a little late after the long Saturday and arrive to a cold wind. We bundled up with the extra clothes Mike had on the boat and proceeded to have what's politely called "one of those days". Two hours in and Mike finally gets the first action of they day. We thought it was a good start (we're hunting Musky so going a couple hours before the first fish isn't too bad). Unfortunately it wasn't a musky, it was a nice largie on Mike's now favourite spinner - the red/black slop master: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2877586640/" title="Nice hat! by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2877586640_ddaa898f7e_b.jpg" width="1024" height="1018" alt="Nice hat!" /></a> Note the stylish hat Not 15 minutes later and Mike corrects the species mistake with this scrapper: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2876755383/" title="Scugog muskie by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3218/2876755383_b64a19a9b2_b.jpg" width="1024" height="807" alt="Scugog muskie" /></a> Ok, we're onto something right? Wrong - over the next 6 hours Mike caught a rock bass (a nice one however) and I caught a one pound largie. Sigh.... We called it at 5 to avoid punishing ourselves any more. Talking to some other guys it sounds like no one had a particularly good day so I guess we can always fall back into the old cliche of "Misery loves company". Well misery loves more fish too . So thats it for summer 2008 - now on to the fall bite, bring it on!!!

Was out there as well and had about the same day as you if you makes you feel any better (didn't sound like anyone had a good day out there from what we heard). Ah well, its a day on the water right?

Can't answer your questions JF but thanks a bunch for sharing all the details. Posts like that are why I love this board!

SWEEEET fish Patrick! Congratulations!

Beauty pics and stories Dano, thanks for sharing.

Some really colourful fish there guys. Sounds like a great way to spend the day. Thanks for the report and pics

Simcoe has been stingy this year hasn't it? That said you guys did all right, I'm still looking for a legit 4lber this year so congrats and thanks for the update.

Nice stuff Cliff, persistance pays off after all!

Ditto on the PVC tube (I still have to give Cliff back his hehe). In addition to stuffing the ends with socks or whatever I also wrap the rods up around the middle so that that don't move around at all once in the tubes (which is really what the foam in the crazy expensive plano tube is for). Used it a few times now without any problems (just remember that the airlines have some size limits you may need to be aware of especially if your planning to build a tube for one piece rods).

Nice report and a beauty fish too boot. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Congrats Beats - nice to see efforts paying off like that. Sure looks like a tasty dinner to me!

Congrats - funny how they never come when your trying for them eh

Saturday Sept 13, Georgian Bay "Lets try Georgian Bay again" read the message from Mike. Oh yeah sure, the place I fell out of the boat - why not temp fate twice? Actually it did sound like a good idea, we had a nice time last week so we headed out Saturday morning. By 7:30 we'd hit our first spot and the sky looked wonderful <a href=" title="Day break by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2854038767_c5c9148b06_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Day break" /></a> There was no wind at all with mostly overcast skies. Can someone say topwater? Early on a decent muskie followed my skitter walk to the boat but didn't seem very interested and didn't come back for any of our follow ups . Unfortunately other than that we didn't have much luck in the deeper spots that had worked the week earlier so we ended up exploring. And of course nothing makes exploring easier than having a GPS. I bought a new one recently and Mike also has one. Guess which one of us didn't bring theirs - yeah both of us. Ah well, Mike knows the area so we had some ideas and it take too long for mike to get into every NW ontario guys favourite fish <a href=" title="Bringing her in by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2854874614_d1c0fc3cbd_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Bringing her in" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2854040057/" title="Pike with salad by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2854040057_f294a3258f_b.jpg" width="933" height="1024" alt="Pike with salad" /></a> Three of them were of a decent size and the one that smashed the top water sure woke us up. Here's a couple pics of the slimers: <a href=" title="First pike by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2854040573_5ec419cfdc_b.jpg" width="1024" height="809" alt="First pike" /></a> <a href=" title="Skinny pike by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/2854041279_31726d65ef_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Skinny pike" /></a> Somehow I managed to avoid all the pike until near the end of a day when I got a token snot rocket (no picture taken). The problem of course is that we were bass hunting. We moved on to some shallow weedbeds with rock shoals and tossed on the topwaters and first cast I had a little guy in the boat. Then Mike got one and we were off. I was trying out some new lures (skitter walk) and had quite a few hits but still tended to pull them out of the mouth (I was working them fast so I always seems to be in mid twitch when the bugger rose). Mike missed a couple then got more serious with the popper taking the time to let them grab it before setting the hook. It certainly paid off with some fish including this 3 1/3 lb smallie - Mike won the fight but I think the fish is winning this staring contest: <a href=" title="You talking to me? by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2854877008_831be28b21_b.jpg" width="1024" height="772" alt="You talking to me?" /></a> After that area dried up we moved on to brand new water to kill the last hour of the day. Ended up being a couple hours as we found lots of interesting areas but the fish all came from shallow(ish) water again which was a change from last week but we were happy to find the pattern. We even found some pads so I put a frog on my medium rod and zinged it into the back of the pads and had a boil right away, one more twitch another boil but no follow. Gave it another pull to just outside the pads and let it sit forever when the fish finally made up its mind and left no doubt that it wanted the frog. He gave a good accordance of himself on the lighter gear but we got a net under him and a quick scale showed him at 3' 9oz. Still haven't topped 4 but he was close <a href=" title="Days biggest by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3169/2854042355_80ae34eb57_b.jpg" width="1024" height="969" alt="Days biggest" /></a> Had another hit in the pads but pulled it out of his mouth - I gotta learn some patience . That said I'm sure starting to like this pad fishing, apparently its a really new pattern in bass fishing Anyhow, after some more exploring and another pike for Mike we had a our first double header, a couple largies that totalled about 12". We should have taken that as a sign to leave but stuck just long enough to get stuck in the rain on the way back. Ah well, wasn't too much rain and we'd found some new fishing grounds so all in all a nice day on the water. The fact that I didn't fall out of the boat was a plus as well Technical recap: Today we did probably 75% topwater and 25% spinner baits. Small walk baits (skitter walks) and medium poppers (skitter pop, PopR) worked well in 3-6 feet of water over weedbeds with deep water (main channels) nearby. The spinner baits were productive in slightly deeper water (up to 8') with bigger clumps of weeds spread out all over. We tried some deeper stuff but never really found anything, same with open rock piles which were good producers last week but didn't show us anything this time around. Worms and tubes were also a bust this week for some reason (not that we really worked them alot but figured we'd get some action but nope). Looking forward to trying the area again, this time with the GPS and maps perhaps (ok so I was suppose to bring it - at least I remembered the camera right?)

Awesome job guys, sounds like you found action just about everywhere you went. Gotta love days like that.

Congrats Kemper and welcome to the river smallie addiction - we meet regulary

That's terrible news indeed Paul. You have my condolences

So just to sum up real quickly - this has been a very bad week for me. Just all kinds of stuff from lousy traffic to work sssues to lost passports, anything that can happen seems to have happened this week so boy was I looking forward to getting on the water. Mike spend last weekend on Georgian Bay and lay a beating on the smallies so we wanted to see if we could repeat. Sure the weather is 100% different but who cares. At 7:30 we were nearing our first stop with the sun rising on an overcast calm day <a href=" title="Ready to start by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3016/2837410069_ca3fcbfb71_b.jpg" width="1024" height="629" alt="Ready to start" /></a> That just meant topwater to me so before we even pulled in I tossed my favourite Pop'R out and what do you know - first cast first fish. A pound 1/2 smallie - nothing really big so I didn't bother with a picture but it sure was a nice way to start the morning. Mike followed up a bit later with our first largies. Figured we needed to get our first pic out of the way: <a href=" title="Second of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/2837410615_274127bf74_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Second of the day" /></a> Mike then quickly made that one redudant with a nice smallie 15 minutes later: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2838245268/" title="One of mikes three biggies by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/2838245268_4db92e856d_b.jpg" width="946" height="1024" alt="One of mikes three biggies" /></a> Then .. IT .. happened I was looking at his spinner bait thinking one more by Mike and I was switching up. Sure enough shortly after he's got another nice smallie on. As I mutter about where my spinner baits are I offered to help land it. I leaned over and saw that the fish wasn't very well hooked but pashawed Mike's net comment and grabbed the lip. Of course that's what the fish was waiting for and he gave a solid shake the all of a sudden he no longer has a hook in his mouth OR my hand on his lip. I couldn't believe it - there was Mike's big smallie just sitting there mocking me from the water. Of course I did what all people who haven't quite woke up enough would do - I grabbed for the little bugger. Sure enough he laughed and swam away and just I realized how pointless that attempt was I realized that my center of gravity was now about a foot two OVER the side of the boat. I made a couple desperate flop attempts with my legs to stop the inevitable but in to the drink I went . My first thought, was "you IDIOT", second was "hey the waters pretty warm". Luckily Mike decided to help instead of just grabbing the camera and shooting away while laughing to which I'll be forever in his debt and I was soon back on the boat feeling very good about my decision to put everything that was in my pockets into my tackle bag when we left the launch. No injuries, no lost or broken gear, even my hat and glasses stayed on - if I was going in at least I did it right. I realized however that I was wearing all cotton clothes and it was still cold and raining out . Luckily Mike has fallen out the boat in the past and is smart enough to carry a spare sweathshirt and pants in the boat so a quick change and I was back in the game if a bit chilly. So yeah - the week of all things sucking ends with me falling out of a boat - couldn't have planned it better myself. Anyhoo - apparently I also scared the fish with my aggressive fishing technique and things slowed down but I didn run into a couple pike and after the grief I got for water releasing the big pike up north I figured I'd better get a pic of these. Note the layers of clothes (including life jacket - just in case hehe): <a href=" title="GBay Pike by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/2837412235_845225cece_b.jpg" width="1024" height="894" alt="GBay Pike" /></a> <a href=" title="Another snake by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3280/2837412867_ed8a2d4c5f_b.jpg" width="1024" height="877" alt="Another snake" /></a> Eventually the rain stopped and I managed to dry off enough to shed a layer or two and finally got a decent smallie of my own: <a href=" title="My best smallie of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/2837413397_5c8c99ff72_b.jpg" width="841" height="1024" alt="My best smallie of the day" /></a> As the sun finally poked out Mike also got another after loosing a real tank on a great top water hit (got the topwater - kept it on when it jumped then lost it beside the boat - ouch). This one came on a spinner: <a href=" title="Last of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3024/2837414253_16b10bab41_b.jpg" width="1004" height="1024" alt="Last of the day" /></a> And that was pretty much it for the day (couple other little guys we didn't bother taking pics of). So - here's the technical recap: Small (think beetle bug spinner size) spinnner baits in white did the best though I lost one on a white xrap as well and we landed a couple on more regular sized white spinner baits. Productive areas included 7-10 feet of water with mixed weeds coming up to about 2 or 3 from the top (not thick thick weeds but not barren). Top water was working as well when the wind was low (frog pattern skitter pop and blue/white pop'R) over rock piles and some weeds. Couple fish also came on pink senkos wacky rigged on rock/weed lines right up near shore. If you'll excuse me now I have to go dry out some clothes and put spare shoes in my trunk (driving home from BPS where Mike and I met up in cold wet runners is no fun). Sean

Congrats to all 3 of you. Sounds like a great wet day on the water. I see the big 50 in Bly's near future!

No idea about the clips but nice fish, sounds like you salvaged a couple nice days without poison ivy

How did I miss this this morning? Congratulations Cliff, nice to see the evening reports again!

Cool stuff Bill, bring on part 2!

Too funny. Anyhow, nice report, looks like you got into enough fish to make loosing one or two not so bad. Congrats on a nice day.

Stunning, just stunning Moosebunk. You have a wonderful knack for both pictures and words and the fact that you get out to some fishing spots the rest of us just dream about only makes it better. Those char are simply unreal looking fish. Time to start saving up I think!

Great idea Mike, sure looks like a lot more fun that a day in the office. Thanks for sharing

Not a steady hand - camera has image stabilization and a 10x zoom - don't get a camera without it. Then I did some cropping to zoom in the heron. I'm really surprised how much of a difference cropping can make once you get over that whole "I'm removing stuff!" feeling. Both the women in that picture are taken unfortunately but I'll try . Yeah Saturday was one rough day on the water - don't want to go through that again.