Out4Trout

Feisty Lake Trout from this weekend

A long weekend, calling for hot and sunny, blue skies, high pressure atmosphere, and windy. It was a beautiful day, don't let it get away... A Beautiful Day Exactly the conditions that traditionally will shut down the laker bite. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to dial in the lakers under these tough conditions? A challenge, and I was interested. Primary mission du jour was to test out the newly installed sonar unit. Dual transducers installed, so that I can run two units, one at 83khz and one at 200khz. The secondary challenge was to dial in some trout under non-optimal conditions. So the plan was coming together. Dual Transducers Started by cruising around various depths figuring out the settings on the new sonar, to get the right sensitivity. Previous finder could reliably see my jig or spoon down to 80ft, and the new unit didn't disappoint once I had played with it for a while. Enjoyed the new sonar unit and especially the colour display. Sensitivity is now set as good as my previous, but with additional resolution and easier to read with the bigger screen, even in the sunlight. New Sonar Next I needed to determine if any trout were feeding... and where. Exactly what I was expecting to find under these conditions - the majority of the trout marked were right there... at the top of the bottom, on the edge of the known universe where they wanted to be... At the top of the bottom The challenge now, there must be some that are feeding despite the conditions, and I just need to find them. Where do we go from here... Slipped into a bay that I have marked shadballs on a recent outing. Figured if I find the shad, if there are any trout feeding, that's where they'll be. Eventually a small shad school was found, with several trout feeding....And you give yourself away Shad Ball at 37ft But I still haven't found, what I'm looking for...where was the big school of shad? Finally, BINGO!! The trout were gorging...and lots of em. Found what I'm looking for Now that I was on top of the shad, I had to jig a spoon through the mix. Sure, I could troll through instead, but more fun parking on top and jigging, the full experience of the hit. Not easy with the wind, but last season I figured out a lure / drop weight combo to allow jigging vertical even in a 1mph drift, ideal for exactly these conditions. Rigged up, drifting, thinking... Did I ask too much? More than a lot, You gave me nothing, Now it's all I got... About 8 minutes into the drift game and the line went tight on the drop - the first fish was on. A feisty fella too, he came up fighting. ...One... Don't give up without a fight ...begging to get back, begging to get back.. To the rhythm that yearns To be released from control The moment of surrender A critical factor in sustainable summer laker fishing is to get em back quickly. 74 deg water would feel to a trout like a 200 deg oven to us. As each trout was caught, they were released boatside and returned to the water immediately. Another one on, out and in quick, tail wave back to the deep. More jig-jig-jig when THUMP, the 3rd laker caught pounded and fought hard. This one made my day, feeling every headshake and even slipped the drag a few zips. It was the sweetest thing... Thanks for the fight bud Two more trout, a pair of smallmouth, a successful end to 1/2 day on the water. The new sonar now setup, 5 trout and 2 bonus smallies had come boatside. The challenge was interesting. I hope U2 had a great weekend on the water. Cheers O4T

Thanks for the comments. Fishing Addict - them Leafs beat my Sens... ouch!!

Great report. Being that close to open water would be a bit scary to me as well... Glad you did well, caught some dandies there!

A brisk north wind was blowing, -14C with a windchill of -21C. As we loaded the truck and hit the road, we all knew this was to be a chilly one. The drive was nearly silent, which was OK by me. Once at the lake, we dragged our butts out onto the ice to a spot that has produced in the past. The auger fired up after a couple of pulls and with a few holes drilled we were in the game. Keeping the wind in our backs, the day started off just fine, in some respects, the first true cold day this year. So on we fished with hope clearly trumping sense. The line guides were icing, the holes icing over, the Vex was whirring and after 1 hour it was obvious that the fish weren't biting. These are the days that might make one question their sanity, but that would first require us to have some functioning senses to begin with, which we didn't have much of. So on we fished with hope still ahead but steadily losing ground to sense. I was dressed for the cold, and can generally handle it fine. Buddy is saying something but with the wind blowing and 2 layers of hat, it is just mumbling. Don't feel like turning my face into the wind to hear him, so I nod in agreement without ever hearing what was said. Yeah, yeah, whatever dood. Hope is still there but sense is clearly gaining. Just when the toes started feeling the first hints of the cold, a fish appears on the flasher. Zooms to the lure, and zooms away again. Hmmmmpf. 10 minutes later, another line then a tug, hookset and fish on. A little fella but still a fish, which now prevented us from using "not biting" as an excuse to return to our senses and head back to sanity. So on we fished with even more hope and even less sense. After another 2 hours, none of us were willing to admit that it was not shaping to be an easy day yet all of us were thinking the same thing, did we waste our time and fuel driving here? Any day fishing is worthwhile in my books, and we have been spoiled with the weather so far. So on we fished with hope hanging by a thread. Just about the time when sense moved ahead of hope, another green line appears on the flasher, changing to orange then red. As it approaches the lure, the anticipation causes any feeling of cold to vanish entirely and then... a solid strike yangs the rod tip down. Sweep the set, and the game changes from ho-hum to excitement. Hope meter way up now. Sense losing fast as the red line thickened up towards zero. "got one?" "yep" "a good one?" "not too bad" And in a minute or two, a decent laker is flopping around on the snow. Flash freeze!! Gotta be quick with the camera in that wind... but this fella ensured that the trip was not a waste of time. Hope won!!

I think it's the bow-tie. I've never had any reason to spin my canoe like that, but then, I've never worn a bow-tie in the canoe either.

Sam Really sorry to hear that. I bought quite a bit of gear at your store and the staff were always top notch. Going to miss the Kent loads this fall, your prices last fall were superb. Goes to show what happens when local businesses are not supported. Sad, really. I may just move a few purchases ahead by a month or two... if you are still open 'til Sept 12th?

Nice mess of perch!! Man - you sure are early though - is that a Treestand in your truck???

Hi freshwaterfanatic I'm NE of Kingston. They're pulling a few slabs in along the Rideau as well...

I've done both shore and boat this spring - the last two reports (larger slabs) were caught from my boat... shallow water without shore access.

Yet another crappie outing last night. Fished for about 1 hour without even a TAP!! Then, fish on!! Always nice to get the first slab, because they come in a group... I find them to be a nice fish - the pictures don't capture the purple sheen or the mirror shine under the scales... This fellow is around 13" in length - with his lips extended!! Otherwise only 12"... Another Dinnerplate Slab!! Total of 6 slabs were invited over for dinner... I'm having fun this spring with the Crappie!!! I hear that the season is later around central Ontario... Good luck to all when it opens there... O4T

Managed to get out for some Crappie fun again last night. Got to my favourite spot - no crappie!! Water level was down, only 2 perch and a LM bass... :? !!!So I changed to a different spot that looked promising - haven't fished it before for slabs... Fish on!!! This time I hit PAYDIRT... the slabs are a bit larger than at my prev spot, and man were they ON FIRE!! Dinnerplate Slabs 12.5" SLAB 10 keepers, as well as the requisite Perch for garnish ... Had a great time - Slaying the Slabs... looking fwd to the dinner bell... A few tips For anyone who hasn't caught crappie yet - here's a couple of tips...get your boat anchored near an inflow in shallow water (6-8'). Drop anchor - toss out the jig under a bobber... ideally near structure. Tug - stop - wait - tug - stop - wait - hey - bobber is moving sideways - Sweep set the hook - repeat... O4T

Uh-oh!!! I better head over there RIGHT NOW!!! j/k - my wife picked him up (hmmmmmm ... Mariko... yep I looked again.... )

Thursday evening, end of a short week - drop my son off at Cadets for 7pm. Softwater season - no bugs - who could ask for anything better than a crappie fest!! I winged over to a local lake for a fish, arrived in my favourite spot at 7:20pm. Nobody else in sight - sweet. First bite @ 7:45pm, a decent slab. 2 more slabs by 9:30pm, then a jumbo perch nailed the jig. 2 more slabs, then another perch, then a largemouth bass... now 10:45pm SQUAAAAAAAAWK!!! I nearly fell in the lake. A heron had come in without me noticing, and was standing about 10ft from where I was fishing. He must have walked along the shore, then had a good laugh at how he startled me. Things slowed down a bit, but managed one more slab by 11:15p and headed for home. Filleted the fish this morning - fish fry planned with the family this afternoon. Fresh spring crappie and perch - delightful!!! Some technical details... 8 fow, 4 out of the 6 slabs were taken with a tiny orange jig, with a white Gulp Alive fish fry skewered on the back. 2 out of the 6 and both perch taken with a glow Genz bug - with a white Gulp Alive fish fry skewered on the back O4T

I hear ya Sinker - I usually do well in the corn fields. Wife wouldn't let my son play hooky for hunting though... but it is tempting for sure!! We have some grassy lawns at the lake here that sometimes have 50-100 geese in it by August - moms and dads and their new families... fattening up for the fall migration. The cottagers and lake association all like the geese but hate the numbers, definitely would allow me to do a couple of hunts - but the regs win! Maybe someday there will be a controlled hunt, I'm in if that ever happens!!

There is a spring hunt for geese in my area, (Eastern ON) but it ended mid March before the migration started. Sinker is bang-on - only the resident canada's are undesirable. That is why the bag limit was higher for the early part of the season in some areas- before the northern birds migrated south to our area... There is a big problem up north with the Snow geese- very liberal limits and seasons now exist. We took 2 snows this past fall, but they are more common in Quebec. You are also now allowed to use electronic calls for Snows only. The ones we took decoyed into our Canada decoys, but Canadas will not decoy into Snows - the Snows are the more aggressive of the two... My opinion is that a late August hunt would be the way to control the resident population. I would love a hunt then, before the kids are back in school - my son really enjoys goose hunting and is a better caller than me already!!! O4T

Here's an old trick that works really well... Take the door off, then place a 1/4 nut over the bolt and easy out. Tack weld the inside of the nut to the easy-out and bolt. Before it has completely cooled, use a wrench on the nut - and turn the bolt out of the hole. Hope this helps - it's worked wonders for me...

Re: schooling - Yes - lakers do school - but they tend to group by size. For example, if you catch a 4lber the ones swimming around it will also be in the 3-5lb range. If you catch a 1lb trout, time to move - no biguns will be nearby. The bigger they are the less they school - it is a survival instinct, and the bigger trout no longer need the protection of a school. The only time you will get a mix in an area is if there are a whack of baitfish congregated in one spot.

We saw one at Moon River while fishing. Interesting, the rattle was more like an insect buzz. This was not a fox snake, but a Massassauga - as the rattle was quite visible. Glad we don't have Timber rattlers here, they are in Pennsylvania in the mountains - saw one there at a friend's hunting camp in the woodpile. Much larger and scarier than our little Massassaugas.

Fishful Thinking with Charlie Wray is the only one that I enjoy. Charlie doesn't hype things up like some of the other shows. Put another way, I would gladly go fishing with Charlie, but not with too many of the others. Can't stand their attitudes.