jediangler

Great pics & report. Shade's is one of my favourite spots to fish near home. I really like it on weekdays when you have the whole place to yourself. There are some good bass in there, smallies as well as largies. I've heard stories of bigger pike but have only landed hammer handles out of there.

Decided to try my luck at the Valens "Burns Memorial Derby" today. I arrived with the kayak at 10am and people were already pulling out at the launch. The big bass on the leader board was 5lbs 15oz, so I started to fish for pike. The leading pike was only 24" and under 3 lbs so I thought that would be my best bet. After 2 hours of fighting the wind and dodging other boats I decided to pull up on shore for a break. I then went to my ultralight and panfish jigs to make sure a skunking wasn't coming my way. I caught 5 crappie, all small, and a big bluegill in the next hour while hiding from the wind behind the island. I was banking on winning one of the draw prizes now and as the rain started, I pulled the kayak out. It was 1:15pm and the scales were closed at 2pm followed by the draws and presentations of awards. Here is a shot of the hardware. On the left is the trophy for biggest pike and on the right for biggest bass. You get your named engraved as well as a gift certificate, hat and shirt from Valens. The kids get a trophy for winning biggest bass, pike & panfish. These trophies they can keep and they also got a tackle box and hat. The winning panfish was actually a catfish that they allowed a kid to enter. It was 1lb 8oz. As it says on the sign, all live release fish get an added bonus weight of 6oz. There was a boy of about 5 that showed up to weigh a bass in the last 10minutes and take the lead with 2lbs 4oz. The senior big bass winner was the 5lb 9oz largemouth (5lb 15oz with bonus) but all the pike came in under 5lbs. Last year there were 2 over 10lbs and 8lbs took 3rd. The top three draw prizes were a $300 fishfinder, a $200 portable fishfinder, and a electric anchor winch from Minn Kota. There were also loads of other stuff from water jugs and coolers to BBQ utensils and rod & reel combos. There was even a cool golf bag from Gatorade and some Hamilton Tiger Cats tickets given away. I got squat but had a great time watching all the kids that won stuff. It was my second time at this derby and I think I'll do it again.

Personally, I don't like anything mounted in front of me when I'm kayak fishing. I removed a rod holder that I had mounted on the front of my sit-in-kayak because it was always catching my line. The problem with mounting anything behind you is it's hard to reach. If you get it worked out, post some pics so we can see your solution.

I'd throw the musky buck over weeds and fish the spinnerbait along deep weed edges.

Those guys eat several times their weight in mosquitos a night. That makes them pretty cool in my books.

Elephant lake lodge is great, we stayed there many times between 1991 and 2002. They have a bar and a 9 hole golf course, a small beach and pretty decent rental boats. The walleye were almost impossible to find then, kinda like the muskies are now.That's why we stopped going there for our annual musky hunt. The northern pike taking over has not affected the fantastic bass fishing though. It's a family run operation that is into the third generation I believe.

Thanks all It's not that difficult Phishy. It's all in how close to the camera you can hold the fish Bill, but it did feel bigger when I set the hook. No net needed danw, not much room for one anyway. Joonmoon's right Tiger, it's best fished with a boat. They have 12' tins as well as canoes and kayaks.

An old-timer told me a giant musky story about Sandy lake that took place over 30yrs ago. The fish got away but made quite an impression on all those who witnessed it. They were walleye fishermen and could always feed themselves by trolling original rapalas in gold w/black back. Good luck.

My favourite is any lake I haven't yet fished. Followed by any lake that I haven't fished since last year. Because I like quiet (no gas motors) I frequent the conservation areas quite a bit. This year, for conservation areas, I've fished Kelso, Mountsberg, Orangeville, Guelph and Valens. Other than that I've fished Sturgeon, Pigeon and Eugenia. And lastly my home river, the Grand. I could never understand why golfers would get a club membership, rather than golf a new course every time. I guess that's how I look at fishing holes.

My vote goes for crappie, with roasted garlic & onion Fish Crisp. Mmmmm...good.

A couple of buddies and I decided to go to Valens conservation area for the evening bite tonight. They had a Sportspal canoe and I had my trusty yak. With the weather changing we hoped we would really slay 'em. We put into the water at 6:30pm and fished until 9pm. I started out throwing a 1/16oz jig & grub in chartruese and caught 3 crappie and 3 bluegill in the first 1/2 hour. The crappie were all under 9" but one of the bluegills was photo worthy. The boys caught 3 pike, the biggest was 24". They also caught 2 largemouth, one 13" and one 14". They were using texas rigged wooly beavertails and bitsy jigs with power craw trailers. I caught the big bass of the evening at around 8pm on a white tube and 3/8oz jig. It was 17.5" and very healthy. Would have liked to spend a little more time out there on the water. It was so nice with only two other boats fishing on the lake. The Burns memorial fishing derby is this Saturday July 14th at Valens and is a great derby for the kids as well as the competitive bass & pike anglers. I noticed that they have 4 tandem sit-on-top kayaks for rent now. They are Malibu two kayaks from Ocean Kayak and look like a lot of fun. Maybe I'll try one out next time.

Nice fish man, it's great to see anglers from around the globe sharing their catches with us. Welcome to OFC and keep 'em coming.

The big bass are still there, they just need to be finessed a bit. In the past anyone with a live minnow could catch a 5lb'er and they would take home a limit of them. Now you have to work for them. Gone are the days of people with no skill taking a limit (or more) on live bait. Now dedicated catch & release bass fishermen love the lake for it's challenges. If you like deep weeds, rocks, shallow stumps, slop or downed tree trunks, you'll love Eugenia. It's like fishing 5 different lakes in one. Be careful on the east side where the stumps are, you could do some major damage to your motor there. I posted a report from Eugenia about two weeks ago, do a search, I'm sure there are more. Good luck.

Great report & pics guys. My fave has gotta be the double fisted rockbass pic.

Great pics, especially of the kids, and great report. Anyone get any musky while you were up there?

Hey danw, as long as you can get the nose of your kayak around to face the wake you'll be OK. I use a bucktail for kayak musky fishing, but with only a single treble hook. It's addictive so be prepared to never want to fish any other way again.

Just a heads up for OFC'ers that the Burns memorial fishing derby at Valens is this Saturday. This is a great family event as children can enter any panfish to get great prizes. For the adults there are categories for largemouth and pike. This is a live release derby with bonus weight added if your fish swims away. They have many 12' aluminum boats for rental if you don't own one yourself. Here's a link to the events page. http://www.conservationhamilton.ca/parks/events/default.asp At Valens there are great campsites and a really nice beach for the kiddies. Just thought some of the fishing families would enjoy it.

Well done. Just goes to show, with a little patience, you can land big fish on light tackle. Congrats.

Unless you don't care if you lose the odd fish PP would be OK. Why don't you try flourocarbon? I trust only steel and titanium for musky fishing. How long do you think PP would last in this mess of teeth?

Rather than figure 8, try a few big ovals with about 2' of line out at the end of your cast. Put your rod in the water almost to the reel. I do a couple on one side of the boat and then change hands and do a couple on the other side of the boat, without removing the bucktail from the water. When I'm pretty certain I have no followers then I'll cast again. I've landed three this year from Sturgeon but I'm hoping to try Pigeon this coming weekend. Good luck.

Hey Douger, a rattletrap is a lipless crankbait. Other similar lures are rattle spots and rattle raps. The rapala rattle rap is the most indestructable of the three. They all have a different wobble and different size rattles. Some days the fish will only hit one, other days they will hit anything. One night in September there were 12 guys fishing off the Bronte pier and 5 fish were caught. I caught 3 and another guy caught 2. We were the only ones using rattle raps. My biggest salmon came from the same pier on a rattle spot when only glow in the dark cleos were producing for anyone else. My rattle spot was destroyed by that 30lb'er, pulling the back hooks off and bending the front ones. Keep an eye on what the other fishermen are getting their fish on, especially size and colour, and stock your tackle box accordingly.Good luck.

You could use some very tiny jig & grub combos. Something in the 1/32oz or 1/64oz sizes.

Just bought a black and orange one from Fishing Fanatics in Waterloo for $14.99. Last one I bought was $19.99 from Natural Sports in Kitchener. Haven't used them much yet, but I will.

Emily PP just north of Omemee.

Congrats to you and the wife, You're going to love fatherhood.