Brettiop

Well the camping trip was amazing, the fishing not so much.

Struggled to find any bass on any of the shoals i tried.....but got onto awesome popper bites late casting to shorelines, but they were all small. I lost the only decent ones i hooked, about 2 lbs.

Got one decent Pike when trolling A DBL 10 Handlebarz bucktail, and the wife did good catching her first ever topwater fish and a decent pike on a tube. Really want to go back already though! 

The Islands that were once on the Navionics that are now 1' under water almost got me a few times, but i managed to not destroy me prop or lower end!

Weather forecast certainly could be better! But I personally like the idea of 19 degrees better then 29...

The Wife not so much!

18 hours ago, Reef Runner said:

Should still be in the summer pattern.  I was up there this weekend and the leaves aren't even starting to change and the water was still warm enough.  Moon Basin out to the Bay still is holding big smallies out on deeper humps.  Unless there's a cold snap can't seeing it change in a few weeks time.

Put in on Three-legged lake for a day to change it up, man that lake is full of dinks....lots of them.  Didn't catch anything over two pounds but caught lots.  Marked big lakers and saw a boat down-rigging for them that got one to the net.  Didn't bring the riggers and my jigging technique apparently isn't that refined lol couldn't entice one to go.

I head up there in a few hours!

hoping to find some Big bass! And ill be trolling musky lures to and from campsites and bass spots!

Awesome report!

Ill be there in about a month now so cant wait and hearing good reports only adds to the excitement

18 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

The pike follow the Walleye in the fall. They definitely are harder to catch, but If you go where the Walleye are being caught in abundance the pike will be there too.

you are bang on about the bass September vs October, two totally different patterns. I think it has something to do with the shiners being on the move, although it still seems to be too late for that kind of pattern. So I’m not sure. 

One thing is for sure that once Labor Day hits the topwater bite basically completely disappears. I slow right down, head out to open water near where I caught them all summer and find humps. The smallies come in waves and when you find the wave of big ones you can have one of the most fun days you’ve ever had Fishing. If you time it right, it’s the type of fishing where you’ll get your 20lb bag in a span of 5 minutes.

Then October hits and so does the cold weather and sure enough the fish head right back up to where you caught them in July. Only difference I find is that the really shallow shoreline bite isn’t there. You gotta be out off of the shore in 15-30fow. I throw paddle tails and drop shots, but prefer the paddle tail because it consistently gets the big big bites. I had a morning last year where I had 11 and a half pounds off of two fish 10 minutes apart. That’s really saying something that far north, we don’t typically get that size like they do down on Erie st Lawrence and simcoe. 

 

If you are struggling for fall Walleye, try and do some research, fall is the premiere time to catch Walleye on the bay, the fish all move up the tributaries to feed. 100+ fish days are not out of the question at all. You’ll catch everything from dink’s to 10lbers. The numbers are absolutely nuts.

 

I hope the top water bite sticks around an extra week this year!

I would much rather fish deep on the shoals then cast to shorelines, so hopefully the bass are schooled up deep and i can get on some of those epic days yo describe!

Last time i was up in the PAB area you helped me get onto these big boys, came on a tube back to back casts on a big shoal topping out at about 12' right next to 60'+

Want some more of that!
 

On 7/26/2019 at 6:59 PM, BillM said:

Early Sept I'd be vertical jigging bass with big flutter spoons.   You'll find wolfpacks of them just roaming around.  My fav time of year to be fishing smallies.  I won't even start fishing until I've marked them however.  Definitely a cat and mouse game.

That sounds pretty exciting, never tried the flutter spoon thing....wolf packs of bass sound awesome though!

How deep do you usually start looking for them?

On 7/24/2019 at 4:01 PM, AKRISONER said:

praying for you that they arent in their totally wierd vanishing mode. I swear every year in september i run into a weekend where I cant find a single damn fish, and then like magic they reappear in droves again just in a different area. Its almost like they all decide to pack up house and move at the same time, and no ones eating like a salmon while they are migrating. Early September last year was really good I ended up catching the big fish in a derby on a dropshot and won myself some money. Thenholy crap did it get cold, it went from being 30+ degrees to like 8 degrees one weekend to the next and I ended up absolutely slaying them throwing basically everything in the cold. Then late september the fishing just completely fell off, then 2 weeks later they were in fall mode and I caught a PB, it was a friggin rollercoaster.

Thanks AKRI, I'm hoping we dont run into that! 

I'm pretty excited just to be out on a new body of water and doing some exploring, been awhile! My motor blew up last year and i just got a new (used) one and am back on the water. it was a long 11 months

Love exploring Gbay

When i fish large mouths, 99% of the time its with a frog... its so fun....cant put the frog down even when hits are few and far between...i cant seem to stop froggin

My hook up percentages arent amazing, but some days they just wont truly eat it like alot of others have said.

I bailed on the whole "wait 2 seconds" thing.....I usually set it as hard and as fast as i can the second i see it hit.....But i watch my frog really closely and can usually tell pretty decently if the frog was inhaled or not. 

Use heavy gear and never stop reeling, i fish super heavy cover and if you dont keep them coming towards you they'll bury and then your going to have a tough time.

OK, im going froggin tonight that settles it

OH Yea, that you tube channel Tactical Bassin someone just posted.... is an amazing Bass resource, Ill listen to Anything Matt Allen tells me is a good idea.

Thanks! 

I love drop shotting, and even better deep cranking shoals. So hopefully the fish have moved onto them by then.

It'll be the weekend after labour day so still early fall. With this crazy year for weather who knows what itll be like that weekend.

Cant wait to head up!

Hey OFC! 

I'm planning a trip to the Massasauga park in early September, wondering if anyone has advice on where to find some fish

Ill likely try and spend most of my time Smallmouth fishing, and try for musky and pike here are there as well. Will be in a 19' Lund 

For two nights ill be staying at some of the furthest out into the bay campsites, in my mind getting out and near the deeper water might result in bigger fish.

The areas surrounding Wreck island is kinda of what I'm looking at now

Shallow to mid range shoals and islands right near the deep water sound about right?

Anyone have any general September Georgian bay advice that would be helpful as well! thanks
 

People fishing outta Mitchell bay already down on lake st clair

I live just down the road in Dresden, work in wallaceburg.

The town itself is nice enough, there are some sketchy party though, a lot of tweakers wondering around town from time to time....but if your considering Hamilton im sure Wallaceburg is a cake walk in that department...

As far as fishing goes, wont find a better place south of Toronto as far as a good central location, year round there is somewhere to catch something, lots of variety. 10 minutes to st clair, 30 minutes to huron or erie, 1.5 hr to the detroit river...then all the gill and crappie spots u could hope for everywhere in between.

Same, don't do a ton of fishing for the next few months....Ducks are where its at for now.

Nice Fish Bill!

The first big Ski is certainly a Rush, still searching for a real biggun myself.

Looks a lot bigger then 4.11 no doubt in my mind anyways

If that is only 4.11 my biggest large mouth weighs about 1.8 lbs lol

the pic posted is the one in question right? Throw up the pic of the 7.6lber I would love to see that

NIce video Pbenson

Topwater bassin is about as fun as it gets, i have been catching lots of buzz baits this year. What a blast watching them explode on top.

Buzz baits have

Well got out for a couple hours today between errands (why are "vacations" at the cottage always full of work to do?). Tried focusing on the more open water - the mouth of the channel and down the channel a bit going slow using a senko and a chatter bait. Other than a couple little nibbles on the senko (local bluegills etc I'd assume) it was quiet. Then switched back to a white/chartreuse spinner bait with colorado blades and got 4 pike in about 20 minutes (one 24" the other three were snot rockets). So the spinner bait is staying tied on (its also responsible for all of the bass including one decent one). So after 3 days of a couple hours each day the only sure thing is the one spot I expected: the mouths of the canals as the enter/exit the "pond/lake". Still no idea about the acres of pads but at least there's been no skunks.

Try buzzbaits in the pads, open pockets over right over the pads in some cases...Maybe need some noise to get them looking up.

Buzzbaits have been rocking for me so far this year,

Never had a bad time trusting Sailflow.

I usually check a few sites before going out, but Sailflow has been the best by far.

 

Great going, I used to like the smaller guys, dipped in egg and rolled in cornmeal/flour mixture and pan fried.

I may keep one soon and try it out, have never had local catfish...tried some in restaurants and like it before.

I was told they are very good smoked!

Got a bunch of big cats on the weekend, most on stinky old shrimp! One nice one on worms as well but the shrimp was the ticket!

Landed 4 fish over 24" and a few little guys...

28 1/2" that somehow looks small to me...

30 1/4"...this was an epic fight!!

Everyone saying get a C3 over a C4 is right on the money.

The C4 is a great reel, just not what you want for throwing big mucky baits

you can find it on genesis or exodus or whatever the current one is

 

i enjoyed seasons 1 and 3, 2 sucked with season one still being the best one. this one seems to be getting away from the whole alone thing. see how it goes.

2 sucked? i thought they have all been equally great!

Nothing on my end!

Ended up switching to try for some walleye half way through and boated 1 walter and some pike.

Got the skunk out of the boat but no slime! Hopefully i can change that this week.

stay shallow watch your water color.

Come on outlaw give us some more!

Should we be focusing on dirtier water?

Looks like there is alot out there, cleaning up quick though

Anyone going?

 

Wind report for Saturday looks promising

 

 

Ill be out there! Wind looks great, water color looks great!

Bringing some first time fishermen out there for some slime...probably stick to trolling only for that reason.

Hopefully put some bigguns in the boat!

Good luck to you!