tbayboy

Cool trip guys - nice to see you didn't let the wind ruin a great day.

Congrats on an amazing afternoon. You sure aren't kidding about them turning on with the weather change. Thanks for the great pics and report

Congrats John. Good to here the Thames is producing, haven't seen many reports from it this summer.

Yeah I'd say thats a decent 90 minutes worth. Thanks for the great photos.

Very hard core JB, glad to hear it's nothing worse, figure a sprain like that should have got you at least one nice smallie from the karma gods but maybe next time. Nice report guys, keep 'em coming.

Sure sure Cliff, we believe you, sure we do hehe, just kidding, sounds like a great day, thanks for sharing.

Wow Dan, beautiful beautiful fish. You really do take some amazing pictures. Makes me wonder why I'm going walleye fishing this week when a short drive away are fish like that, one of these days I'm gonna blow off my buddies and you and I are going fishing!

Wow, that is one mutant fish you go there. Congrats on the wonderful mix of fish, sounds like a great day.

Evening everyone. Next week is the annual boys trip to the boonies of Thunder Bay (otherwise known as Lac des Milles Lac) so I didn't have too much time this weekend for fishing as I had to buy a whole wack of unneeded lures and baits and then find a way to pack it all in one suit case (clothes? feh, same shirt for 5 days will be fine if it means one more bag of plastics can fit). <h2>Saturday</h2> So anyhoo, Saturday i found myself done shopping at 1pm and conveniently had a rod and my waders in the car so off to the KW area I went to see if the Grand river still hated me. I didn't bother with the camera as the couple times I've tried the Grand this year have been pretty disappointing. My first stop was a fairly popular hole and another guy was already there but was very friendly and told me he didn't mind sharing the spot. He was tossing a tube jig with a little success so I tied one of the fancy new Coffee tubes I'd been hearing so much about and flipped it up against the structure and it didn't sink 2 inches before it went nuts. This was obviously better than my average from the Grand. She went on several runs while I just held the tip up and prayed she didn't jump too high and spit it. Luckily she didn't and I landed a nice 16 incher. Since I didn't bring the camera you'll just have to take my word for it when I say I looked just like this <image src="http://img5.allocine.fr/acmedia/medias/nmedia/18/65/35/50/18855719.jpg"> But with a bass . Let that be a lesson - leave the camera at home and the fish will bite since they know you can't prove it. Actually just as I was about to let her go I remembered my phone, behold the best of 2005 camera phone technology! <a href=" title="Grand River smallie by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2726781040_f511c7dc6c.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="Grand River smallie" /></a> I wasn't even sure it had caught the fish in its little camera so I put the phone away and spent another couple hours catching a few more smallies at this spot and another. Was a really fun couple of hours and when I got back into town there was a message from Mike saying we were on for Sunday. He suggested another day of wacky rigged bass hunting and I was happy to agree. <h2>Sunday</h2> <a href=" title="Scenery by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2730549298_3d0eaa863d_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Scenery" /></a> 8:30am and we were on the water in what was suppose to be a windy and very sunny day. We fired up the new spark plugs in Mikes skeeter and flew up to our first spot clocking 54.5MPH (couldn't quite get that last 1/2 MPH). While Mike was busy stowing gear I took the opportunity to land our first of the day: <a href=" title="Bucket moth by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3091/2729731129_9c37c5ef71_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Bucket moth" /></a> He wasn't that big so I employed the classic pose trick <a href=" title="Making it look big by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3012/2729738899_620a01767e_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Making it look big" /></a> Oh yeah, much better . Soon a smallie joined the fun, you can see the winning colour of the day here - brown heavy sinking power bait worm: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2730582530/" title="The brown worm by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/2730582530_2bb6029416_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="The brown worm" /></a> Mike still wasn't convinced that I had the magic colour and tried to prove it with his chartruese tipped number: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2730590598/" title="Chartruese tipped worm by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3074/2730590598_df0b311036_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Chartruese tipped worm" /></a> You can really see how dead on the weather guys were with their clear sunny day forecast We moved on to the second spot we'd found last week and it produced again <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2729766481/" title="Typical largie by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/2729766481_cf4bfecd9c_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Typical largie" /></a> Here's Mike with what I think was the best of the day (note how he had to borrow one of my worms ) <a href=" title="Little salad with the bass by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/2729774113_bef7934a30_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Little salad with the bass" /></a> Then IT happened. We decided to move on and explore some new water. When we got to our first stop Mike realized his lucky hat must have blown away. Then I pulled out a banana for a snack but I'm still saying it was the loss of the hat. I say that because from then on we didn't get anything over 12 inches and very few under. Here's hatless Mike with one of the last <a href=" title="Last picture fish of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3263/2729782363_6dd6be7f8a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Last picture fish of the day" /></a> Very slow end to what started as a great day but what can you do - we tried to find new water and didn't find any, it happens. <h2>Monday</h2> Today I had to pack all my gear but just in case I left one spinning reel out and a few tubes... just in case Sure enough I was done by noon so I threw the waders back in the car and drove up the 401 back to the Grand. First stop was where I got the big guy on Saturday and sure enough a few casts in the same general area and it was game on. This one was bigger though and much as I hate to do it I'm gonna tell the story of the one that got away. Yep - just as I was realizing how big this fish must be he breached a full foot out of the water and while my heart lept as I saw the size of him the tube popped out and my heart fell to the bottom of my stocking footed waders. That was a nice fish and I apologize to the kids down the river who must have heard the liteny of curses that flew out of my mouth. Ahh well, didn't have my camera so you guys wouldn't have believed me anyhow . After venting for a bit I got back to business and soon had another nice fish on. I knew this one wasn't in the same league as the last but he gave a good account of himself anyhow. When I got him in I held up to my rod and he was exactly the lenght of my cork. I just measured that and its 13" so the big guy must have topped 18, if you believe anything I'm saying of course . I headed off to the second spot but its really rocky and I kept snagging the tubes. I didn't have any snagproof hooks with me but I remembered Mike Pike's post and how spinners had worked for him so I put on a #2 long agilara (or however you spell it) and boy was that the ticket. No monsters but a couple hours of action kept me smiling. So now I've got my bass fill and my jigs and worm harnesses are packed as I head up north for a much anticpated vacation. Have a good week everyone, I hope to have a good report when I get back (and I think I've convinved the guys to mix up the walleye's with ah hours or two a day of hunting the lakes smallies as well - hard to convince a NW ontario resident that there are other things worth fishing for sometimes hehe) Sean

What an amazing pile of fish. You owe your buddy huge for finding that lake - so care to post the location here on this here public forum?

Congrats on a real beauty and kudo's to Mark - heard nothing but good things about the man.

Great stuff Mike. I was out there as well for a couple hours yesterday and your dead right about the water - still not normal but much better than it has been and the smallies seems to be getting fidgity again, they were hitting just about anything (tubes, topwater, worms, spinner). I didn't get the average size you did (well done!) but I managed one above average fish that had his way with me for quite a while before I finally got him in. Your dead on about how much fun they are when your up to your chest in water - hold the tip up and hang on!. Unfortunately I didn't take great pictures so good on you for remembering the camera! Thanks for the great read - makes we want to head back there tommororw (just might pull it off too!)

Wonderful trip guys. Looks like a fun adventure for sure.

Congrats, sounds like a great day to me.

Wonderful hiking trails - from easy day hikes to overnighters around the whole peninsula and also grueling climbs up the chimney (up a chute to the top of the spine). Not much for fishing I'm afraid (or at least not that I ever saw or heard of), also a small tin rental might be outclassed in the waters there, be careful and keep an eye on the weather.

Congratulations! Look at the head on that brute - and a boatside hit too - talk about exciting. I bet your still shaking!

Nice report, sounds like a great week. Looking forward to the august report.

Me two years and way to many lost pay checks ago - great stuff there Pachone, keep 'em coming.

Congrats, sounds like a beautiful place to tie the knot.

Great report as always. The rock bass picture is a classic, oh and congrats on the smallie - at least he didn't soil himself

Funny looking laker for sure! Congrats on a real beauty FD.

I've had lots of success with the bubble gum tiki worm, in both 4 and 5". Have fun with 'em but its always a good idea to have another colour and/or sizes handy in case the fish don't like what you've got.

Love the middle one, cool murky ghost like look Dan.

I was looking at the 76cxs before this but didn't like using it for in car driving, the buttons and small screen were hard to use while driving solo as well as not having voice assisted turn by turn directions and the easy point of location lookups. The map costs make the cheaper hand held a wash though you'd still have to buy the hydro maps The battery is a good point if you plan to be out for more than 5 or 6 hours but it is a user replaceable standard lithium ion (same as your cell phones) so you can buy a spare and bring it along (but much more expensive than a couple double As for sure). I did notice it doesn't do text to speech (it'll say "turn left in 500 feet" vs "turn left on Sheppard avenue") which kinda sucks considering you get that with a $250 model but I guess they had to compromise some stuff. Anyhow, i'll wait for some user reviews before saying one way or the other but I like what I see as I wanted a car navigator (I need driving help more than anything) that can also be used on the water.

I grabbed some at bass pro that came with a little helper tool (http://www.wackytool.com/) to get them on the worm but really thats a rip off, just go to home depot (look for 1/4" or smaller, depends on the worm) Thats a nice trick as well Hows the arm doing? won't take much to get the wacky going - just say when (hell you got me hooked on the worms in the first place)