Musky or Specks

Excellent report Bet it was great to spend that time with your dad doing something you both enjoy

This trip all started to jell with letsgofishing's post about fishing Algonquin for the end of the trout season. I hadn't been to the park all season and really wanted to not miss the opportunity to fish it this season. My fishing buddy John could make it for an overnighter if we left early Saturady morning and were back by supper on Sunday. The catch was we were to enjoy the company of his young son and 5 month old mastiff/lab cross. Being with a child fishing is always a pleasure and the pup is going to have to learn to canoe someday, might as well be sooner rather than later. After much discussion and quid pro quo with a fellow board member who I discuss brook trout fishing with a lot via PM he was generous enough to give me a lake that I hadn't tied yet. Not only that, he lent me his canoe cart, a device which with its simplicity and ease of use makes me ponder my wisdom or lack thereof of insisting upon carrying my canoe upon my aging shoulders all these years. A shout out to that member! who shall remain anonymous so that he is not bombarded with PM's. We departed Glenn Allen at @ 6:30 am Saturday morning in doubtful weather. We stopped at the Tim's in Arthur to gas up and grab some breakfast bagels for our tummies. To continue to build the lads enjoyment of the trip I bought him a smile cookie for when we reached the halfway point. Arriving at the west gate of the park @ 11 am we were greeted by rangers directing traffic into the gatehouse. They asked what we were doing and directed us around the detour and wished us good luck. Seems they were making sure the touristas were buying their day passes as fall colours were at their peak and it is illegal to stop in the park for any reason without a pass. We had decided to go right to Cannis Bay and set up camp so that after a grueling day of portaging and fishing all we would have to do when we got back was cook/eat/build/fire---DRINK BEER. Finally we set off to catch some last chance specks! Being careful to unload our canoe into the bush so no passing cars saw us(Not an easy feet with all the camera crowd that was present)We began our BLANK kilometer portage into the lake. I swear it was uphill all the way in but it turns out there was just as much uphill on the way out.The sounds of the highway were quickly left behind as we armed ourselves with our walkin gum(KID TREAT)and let the dog off its leash so it would hopefully be tired out when it was time to get in the canoe. The glory that is Algonquin finally opens before us as we are greeted by a picturesque little lake surrounded by a lining of conifers giving way to the full beauty of the fall colours. Boomer was very happy to and helped himself to a drink. A rambunctious puppy the size of a small horse and a young child do not make an ideal situation and despite my fears that we were very quickly going to end up going for a swim we managed to stay upright and got our rods into the water. Both my buddy and myself are using ultralight combos. He is casting from the bow with a Mepps and I'm trolling a wolf river rig with a 1/4 oz bell sinker/30 inches of 6 lb flouro and an olive and silver Yozuri Minnow. Several "Down Boomer Down" and fifteen minutes pass when my rod starts bouncing. I reach to my feet and set the hook and the battle is on. I quickly get the fish to within 30 feet of the boat when I see a flash through the gin clear water and it realizes its being yanked out of its habitat. The flash is good and I inform John that its a good fish. The battle continues for a while with many good runs and an unwillingness on the fishes part to come to the net. Finally exhausted the fish slides into the net and having some experience with large trout I exclaim excitedly that "that my friend is a 20". We unhook him in the net in the water and in consideration of his valiant struggle quickly snap a photo and measure him and sure enough he's and even twenty inches of God's Canvas and we've only just begun fishing... With some tender loving care he swims away to sex up some female brooky in a couple weeks. I hope he enjoys that as much as I enjoyed catching him. We continue to troll/cast down the shore when RJ(da boy) says he wants to get out and explore the tiny island in the lake. We do such and have a bite to eat and I show him the purity of brook trout water by drinking several cupfuls of water right from the lake. We tell him its time to start fishing and he insist that he doesn't want to any more he wants to stay on the island and play with the dog. We give in and tell him that he has to keep his life jacket on and we just troll around the island. He's having a gay old time on the island with his dog and his dad and wax poetic about the joys of childhood and the simple things that can bring such pleasure to the young when about 45 minutes later my rod starts bouncing again. Another battle with another fish but this one is only 16" inches. At this point Boomer decides he's had enough of the island and swims out to the canoe and attempts to climb into the boat almost capsize us and despite our best efforts will no longer remain on the island with RJ and so having caught a couple of good fish we decide to make a day of it and start the journey out. We leave the canoe and gear at the lake so we don't have to carry it in again tomorrow and hike out reaching the road by 5PM and driving back to our campsite. We start a big ole campfire and roast hotdogs and sausages on buns for supper. We are pretty happy, an unfamiliar lake and two good brook trout in around two hours of fishing time not to bad. The night is beautiful and unseasonably warm and the beers go down very nicely. We awake at the crack of 9 o'clock and take our time eating a breakfast of poptarts and applejuice. We strike camp and prepare to leave, hopefully getting another couple of hours in before it's time to head back to KW. We walk uphill all the way in again and launch by 11:30 am. Riley doesn't even want to fish today he just wants to be "KING OF THE ISLAND" We again take advantage of this and stay close and fish when about half an hour later ye olde ultralight starts bouncing around the canoe again at my feet."Nother one John!" I gloat as he's kicked my ass the last couple of trips we've been on. This one is another beauty at 18 inches The day is beautiful and it strikes me once again how lucky we are to have a treasure like Algonquin here in southern Ontario and it makes me a little melancholy to realize that I won't be back to fish it till next spring. One of these days I'm going to have to do a fall trip on the Pett for musky just to extend my enjoyment of the park. About an hour after that John's son is yelling something indistinguishable at us and we turn to look at what all the hubbubs about. We are about a klick away from the island and Boomer has again decided that he misses us and is swimming for the canoe a couple of quick swears later and we dig hard for the island so the dang mutt doesn't drown himself. Rescued dog and a "I wanna go home now" from RJ and we decide to pack it in but troll on the way out. Just before we reach the take out point guess who's rod starts bouncing in the canoe again. A few comments and curses from John and I land the last brook trout of the season. A small one that I promised RJ before we left that if we caught a small one he could eat it for supper. It was a great trip even with some of the more trying aspects of it and I can't wait to get up next spring. Da horse and me PS : Sorry for the quality of the photos in our rush to get up there we both forgot our digitals and had to use a disposable old style camera very tuff to find a place that still develops film.

That's the one

Sorry for you. My dog of 13 yrs is probably going to be put down in the next couple days and I'm dreading it.

Dana another great doc is "A River Never Sleeps" based on the Roderick Haig Brown book.

horrible news Thoughts are with you and yours

Dana youtube Algonquin's Natural Brook Trout its an awesome documentary

They are salt impregnated. So even though the salt on the outside washes off when the fish picks it up it still taste real.

I'm guessing schooled up getting ready to waste their reproductive abilities. I'd look for shoal boulders in 15 to 25 feet of water I don't think there is an inflow there also try just off were the hatchery truck dumps them off as fingerlings. Hatchery fish will gather were they were first planted in the lake at spawning time.

Great job. This was just an awesome weekend to share fishing and family

I bet he will. I wasn't sure my son would and it only took about three years and he's even more hooked than he was as a child,although girlfriend is still his #1 priority

To bad McNab didn't produce. They stock the snot out of it. Good job otherwise.

Thanks for that report Dan. What no ice fishing out of the cottage?

Best wishes to all on the board Two Things I'm thankful for 1- The generosity and spirit of sharing that exist on this board despite its sometimes trying aspects 2- That turkeys are numerous and stupid

No water skiers on Puslinch right now and the weeds will be thinning out should be able to catch a lot of hammer handles.

Yes I'm guessing he was catching bait. I catch my own suckers for musky in the fall right in Waterloo with a rod and bait.

Looks like a great time was had by all. Thanks for the report.

Thanks he's really loving it.

Yes absolutely great fish porn thanks for the report. I remember a day after doing a day trip in early June into a lake that starts with an M at the Northern arm of this lake. The weather was hot and sweaty. When we got back I was like eff it I'm going to dive in of this very dock in the picture. I don't think my gonads have ever hit my brain pan so hard. Dam your water stays so cold up there.

My son this summer has recently rediscovered his love of fishing and we've managed to get out river bassin 5 or six times together but the action has never been hot and heavy. 5 or 6 fish a trip but no huge fish and no days were we slayed em. With the upcoming weather forecast I knew today would be an excellent opportunity to get out and lay a beating on them. My day started at 8 am with getting out a bed to meet RL42 who had purchased my old steelhead rod and was coming from London to pick it up. Rob it was nice to meet you and I hope someday we can meet up for some fishing. Maybe I'll show you my musky spots on your home water. Hopped in the car and went to pick up timmies for the house and got home and started to make breakfast for everyone. Cheesy eggs,Bacon and English Muffins. Leisurely breakfast and watching Friday night PVR of Blue Bloods(Great Show)behind us we get our gear together and talked about what we should do. Finally we get to the river and walk to our spot wetting our lines by about 1:30 which was my plan from the start as I wanted to give the sun a chance to get those sunfish moving. Its such an incredible joy for me to watch the happiness on my son's face as he lands the first fish of the day. The size doesn't matter to him or I, you can tell he's really Jonesing for fishing again and that warms me heart. Like I figured the fish were schooled up in here and had the feed bag on. Its soooo awesome when a plan comes to fruition. Da fish He beat me in numbers but I did manage the biggest a 19 inch oinker A couple of very short videos taken with my camera so the quality is kind of lacking http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePdsharpe#p/a/u/1/B4Igqp82_uk http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePdsharpe#p/a/u/0/IKLU7hsW9xg We definitely saved our best day of fishing for last. While he goes out to his girlfriends for thanksgiving dinner with her I just might sneak out on my own tomorrow Everyone has got to take advantage of this weather. Fish were all caught on Yum tubes or Yamato worms

Anything I'm selling in the classifieds LOL

My buddy and I have always fished out of Belle River with no luck for skis we want to try something different next Sunday and have heard good things about the mouth of the Thames at this time of the year. My question for the LSC guys is where to launch or do we have to run from Belle River. PS Any tips or locations are welcome by PM. Thanks Brad

Oh that sucks. Better road means more pressure. McNab and 89

You can eat anything Dana whether or not it taste good is the question. The whitefish limit is high because they are not really targeted except during the icefishing season. Hit up Strathy 25 for something different. Its on the other side of T off Lowell Lake RD Look for the access near the Hydro towers

If you can find it "Steelheading in Ontario" by Daryll Cronzy complete pool by pool breakdown of the Saugeen and Bighead Rivers. Didn't make him a very popular guy.