jediangler

You could try Shades Mill conservation area in Cambridge. Close to Kitchener and they rent canoes. It's also small enough you can fish the whole lake in 4 hrs. The other option might be Valens conservation area. They rent 12' aluminum fishing boats (no motors) as well as canoes and tandem kayaks.

For me the best has been a black jitterbug. Nothing like the sound of a top water hit at night. Just remember don't set the hook until you feel the fish pull.

A buddy of mine caught one in the Grand river at the Elora conservation area 15 years ago. My brother Joonmoon caught a redfin pickeral in a pond off the grand around the same time. They are around, but very few I'm afraid.

If you put your pictures on a hosting site, you can put a link to them in your reports, and have as many as you want. I use myfishingpictures.com or you could use photobucket.com. Great pics of the kids and their catches by the way.

PB = Personal Best Congrats SS, nice fish.

Great report & pics. I've always wanted to try the whirlpool, in the spring they say you can catch almost every specie that lives in the system.

Wow, it's got a trailer hook, on it's trailer hook. I wouldn't want to unhook the musky that inhaled that giant beast.

Initially I wanted to go musky fishing in the Kawarthas this weekend, but just the thought of long weekend traffic was making me ill. I decided that I would stay home, sleep in and fish here at home on the Grand river. Saturday I went solo for some crappie in the kayak. After a treacherous decent from the Doon Pioneer Tower, I was in the water by 2pm. My crappie spot is a 1km paddle from where I put in and is upstream. Once there the fish where eager to bite. I caught 16 crappie and 12 smallmouth in 2 hrs fishing. All the bass were under 12" and all the crappie were between 8-9" except for this puppy that measured 11.5". It was caught on a 1/16oz jig & grub combo in yellow. All the fish were released. Sunday I had the pleasure of fishing with the Shipper who took out his smaller Sportspal complete with electric motor. I again took my kayak. Today our destination was the Freeport bridge where we could fish 2km of the Grand and then return upstream to our cars. We launched at 1pm and fished until 5pm, covering the full distance under the hwy #8 bridge all the way to the weir where you must portage to go any further. We each caught 8 or 9 smallmouth most in the range of this little 12" guy. The Shipper did get the biggest bass of the day at 14.5". All bass were caught on 1/4oz bitsy bug jigs with spider grubs in pumpkinseed and were released. We saw comorants, blue herons and a osprey cruising overhead. We also found a beaver house but he must have went away for the long weekend with the family. I also took this photo of a nice field of lily pads that has become my new desktop photo.

Nice speckies. You should send that last photo to Lund. It looks like it belongs in the brochure.

There are some nice crappies though.

Deep and weedy, no pike.

Nice fish Patrick, you might think I'm crazy but I think that might be a chain pickerel. Maybe some of our southern OFC'ers with more experience with these fish can confirm or deny my claim. If you look at the markings, they are not bean shaped like northern pike's are. The spots are larger and the dark areas between them resemble a chain. If I'm right, that's a very good sized pickerel. And before anyone gets excited with me calling it a pickerel, I mean the one in the pike family, not a walleye. Do you have any other pics of that fish?

Those are some great photos. I'd love to have that for a view.

Hey Johnny Bass, I have the answer to question #3. Seymour Lake. Where hwy #30 crosses the Trent river there is a public launch. Downstream to Seymour lake, or my choice, upstream to an island with deep drop offs on the right side as you approach. I've caught small walleyes, bass and even a musky there on a jig & grub. Even caught this from the shorline across from the island. My other reason for going away from Seymour towards this upstream island is that you can drift back with the current. Sometimes the current is very strong and if you had motor troubles you would never be able to paddle upstream back to the launch ramp. Also caught this PB smallie in Seymour while staying at Lucky Strike Cottages.

Great report and pics. Nice to see the two of you share the passion for fishing. Congrats on your wedding as well.

Well done man. Considering the low water levels you two did very well. I like the lake better early in the season for crappies. Nice pic of WGSF.

I've caught 5 salmon from the Bronte pier and 2 of them have had some sort of severe deformity. That's enough for me to know that there is no way I'm going to eat any fish out of lake O.

Looks like you'll have to take a couple of Mepps musky killers with you as well as spinnerbaits. A few years back 3 of us spent a week at Triple "T" Cedars. We caught 72 largemouth, 9 muskies & 4 walleyes all on spinnerbaits in late July.

Try Fanshawe conservation area. They have bass, pike & walleye in the lake.

The best bet for fishing in that area is spinnerbaits. There are lots of smaller muskies in all the spots you would expect largemouth bass to be. Directly accross from the beach there are some small bays that should produce. On the left side after you go under the bridge is also a good spot. Just outside the swimming area at Triple "T" cedars cottages is also good. Around the floating sign at Fee's Landing is good. And if you go farther north just before it opens into Pigeon lake, look for the cottage in the backround of this picture. There is a stretch of about 100 yds that is deeper and should produce a musky for you. Good luck.

I'll only take the kayak out at night if I'm on a lake that doesn't allow gas powered boats. I did a night fish at Guelph lake once and put my 12 bulb LED flashlight on the floor of the kayak between my knees. When it was turned on it looked like I was in a chinese lantern. You could see me for miles.

The pike in Orangeville were accidentally/illegally stocked. For a while they had a derby to remove as many as possible for the benefit of the largemouth bass as well limiting the number of pike that go downstream and eat trout. They would release all the caught pike in Belwood lake. They decided that fishing for pike still pulled too many bass off their beds and left them vulnerable to the many panfish that love a good meal of bass fry. Now you know why the pike in Belwood are hard to come by. They used to put as mant as 200 every year in Belwood from Orangeville. Personally I'd like to see them go back to putting bounties on the pike for cash prizes like they used to years ago.

Went there once this year and caught some perch. In the past we have had good luck with crappie and largemouth bass. The pike are usually pretty co-operative but small. Water was low when I went over a month ago and it looked like an algae bloom was starting.Here are a few pics of fish from Orangeville. 13.5" crappie. Pops with a sunfish. Double fisted perch. It is a much more productive lake before the end of June IMHO.

This carp didn't pull me very far, rather he just kept pulling me in circles. I bet I did about 4 complete donuts before he tired out. Has anyone had any decent luck at this conservation area in the past? I still feel that in the spring it might be a better bet. I'm sure that the academy will be in touch soon to tell me my film has been nominated in the short film category. I will remember to thank the OFC community in my acceptance speech

The smile on your face in that release shot says it all. Congrats.