Ramble

What a weekend! The weather was beautiful, food was fantastic, and the fishing ended on a strong note.

 

 

 

Well, let’s get going shall we…

 

 

 

Friday mom showed up, I piled all my crap into the van and we headed for home. The colour was GREAT. Once home I sorted out my stuff (tossed it in my room and shut the door) Then I grabbed the fly rod and took off for the Moira which is just down the road. I fished the old dam across from the Yardmen Arena. Usually a good spot where I can catch dink smallies on the fly until I’ve had enough or it gets too dark. However, I could NOT raise 1 fish. Since they put the new hydro dam in just down stream, the increased water levels put the places I usually fish under an extra 3-4 feet of water. I tried a few spots the fish should be and NOTHING. I did see massive beaver though…and I do mean massive. It was like an aquatic Rottwieler with buck teeth and a wood fetish.

 

 

 

The beast watched me from afar and I started wondering if a beaver that size craves human flesh. Not wanting to discover the answer too badly, I moved upstream from the dam. I was fishing a section of the river that wasn’t effected by the new dam, and found the smallies I was after sans man-eating beaver. The biggest smallie that night might have gone 6 inches. Then I headed home at dark satisfied.

 

 

 

Saturday dad and I were on a time line. We left about 11:30 and had to be home BY 3, or we risk the wrath of my mother. (and that would be worse then finding out the answer to my beaver question is yes)

 

 

 

We went for a drive up the highway and ended up at Moira lake. The colour was BEAUTFUL and I left the *%&$# camera in the van. Typical.

 

 

 

I think this was the 1st time I’ve ever fished that lake, and put forth a meager effort. I was just glad to be out. Dad and I were chatting as we tried to entice the fish to bite. When 2 rolled around we headed home with a Skunk we had EARNED. We had the turkey, I endured my sisters ratchet-jawed, boy friend and then I headed down to my buddies place for his birthday party.

 

 

 

Sunday morning I was out of bed on the second try at about 9:30. Other then a headache I was feeling pretty good considering the evening before. I had some turkey for breakfast and about 10 we loaded up and headed for the County. We took the long way, and eventually ended up at Black Creek. Water levels were LOW. I forgot how the river drops in the late summer, and I bet it was down 3 feet. We headed up stream to find the river choked with algae for the most part. It didn’t look good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were out to see the river more then hammer the fish so we kept going. We’d find pockets of deep water in most of the river bends and I’d probe the depths with a small white spinner bait while dad swore at his algae gathering husky jerk.

 

 

 

 

I had one pathetic strike, and we saw all kinds of bait. There was common and golden shiners, creek chub and a whole kaleidoscope of other cyprinids. We turned around and headed towards the big lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way to the lake we past this little dude, and with some quick hands we had the 1st catch of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gotta love the colours.

 

 

 

 

The river mouth to Lake Ontario was more productive. We were now seeing fish follow to the boat and running from the boat. After a bit of fooling around out their. Dad says to me “What are we doing out here in the wind anyway?” I replied “ I really have no idea, wanna get some food and head to east like?” “Sounds good.” So we paddled back and loaded up the van. Had a pop, small bag of chips and some curd from the cheese factory and headed for our usually stomping grounds on east lake.

 

 

 

We had the canoe in the water about 3pm and headed for…you guessed it the cattails. I tried senkos for the1st time and dad was using a white popper. We had a few small largies to the boat before long. We were both happy to be on open clear water with some cooperative fish around. I never felt, or saw the 1st descent fish of the day pick up the senko, but after the hook set he was scrappy as ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The senko was working well for me. But I was learning quick why my buddy Mark, told me I should by them 3 packs at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was well ahead of dad before long, but he was still finding fish with the top water gear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty much every point had a fish or 2 waiting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were also working the outside edges on the bulrush beds. Areas like this we found were the most productive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before long I ran through the pack of senkos and switched over to the big-o. The water was down from when I was last their with Sweet Pea, and we had to run them slow to keep them off the bottom. The fish were all over them. It took a little persuading but dad switched up to one as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would go in and out of fish. Some places were stacked and others were sparse. I had a good stretch of 3 fish in 3 casts. Dad was doing his best to keep up as the sun sunk lower, and graced us with a golden glow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The average sized fish.

 

 

 

 

We keep fishing the lake side of the cattails, and started working our way back to the launch. We hit a bit of a slow period, and decided to try some coon tail clumps and we were back into the fish.

 

 

 

The sun sunk lower and we were into some pretty shallow water over a thick mat of vegetation. We were still using our big-o’s and kept the casts short and slow, with a good pause when they hit the water. They'd go about 5 feet before running into teh weed mat on bottom. The 1st fish to the boat was a spunky blue gill. Dad and the fish had a brief “tussle” in the back of the boat, I think it stuck him about six times as it flopped around like an epileptic at a Pink Floyd concert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually he got the better of his "trophy" and was glad of it.

 

 

 

 

Off a bed of dead pickerel reeds, I hooked up with the best fish of the day. But when she came to the boat I could see she only barely hooked. Sure enough she thrashed and was gone. I thought we were going to get pooched in the good fish department, when dad made a good cast to a point on a clump of the pickerel reeds. He barely moved the bait when a surge of water went racing to his bait from about 3 feet away. WHAM! She slammed his lure, and he set the hook. With only about 12 inches of water she had only one way to go …UP! She danced all the way to the boat.

 

 

 

Dad was all smiles as he regained his usual place with the best fish of the day.

 

 

 

 

Here is another shot.

 

 

 

 

With that fish we decided to head back to the dock and get the canoe on the van while we still had a little light.

 

 

 

All in all we had a great day. We had 40-50 largies to the boat between us and while they may not have been the biggest fish ever they were a damn good time, and exactly what I was looking for. We also landed 2 snot rocks, which weren’t really photo worthy.

 

It was a great weekend of canoeing and fishing. Can't wait for redding break next week lol.

 

 

 

Tight Lines.

 

 

-R-