Rich

Yeah. There isn't too many spots to fish out that way besides the pier. Good news is: it's a pretty good spot.

Headed out yesterday with high hopes of bass and pike, but quickly agreed after an hour of casting we wanted to slow it down and do something different. The pond we were fishing is shallow, sloppy and stumpy. Add to that, there's two inches of algae all over the bottom of the place. Really, it's a big swamp. It's full of the biggest carp in the near vacinity to my house, so we figured we'd chase em. We set up where the electric motor spooked the most fish. We quickly learned one anchor is not good enough. If we had bites, we didn't see them because the boat blew around even with the anchor taut. I doubt we had bites though, as our bait came up untouched everytime - covered in a half pound of green algae. Annoying, and disheartening. Plan C comes into place. We move to the edge of the "lily pad field" and sure enough as it always is this time of year, full of carp. But the edges are the main field of activity, judging by the 'feeding bubbles' shooting up like a hot tub all down the edge. We rammed the boat right into the pad field and dropped anchor. This kept the boat stable enough. We chummed, the carp were right next to us. But not a bite. We hadn't solved the algae issue. I've never had it actually work better than another rig for carp for me, but I threw on a float, removed my weights and said if the float stands up I got a fish on. 15 minutes pass, the float slowly veers right, then left.. i think "this is the part where he realizes it's a hook and swims away". The float stands up, slowly moves to the right. "Turtle" I say, with a laugh. PLOP... the float is screaming and so is my drag!! Fish on!! It was an amazingly different and challenging experience fighting him to the edge of the pad field and out of it. Luckily, he wasn't too big and I kept him under control. Fish released, gone to swim again. Buddy Brandon switches to a float. He misses two, and I start to think I just lucked out and got the stupidest carp ever. Then BOOM, mine plops down again.. HUGE fish on, and no chance. He ran a good 150 feet and at least 100 of that was through the pad field. He broke off and we did a coast guard rescue for my bobber. Lucky enough we found it about 100 ft back in the pads , lmao. Got back, anchored and almost instantly lost another fish. Mucked up the hookset. Then an hour and a half passed. Brandon got a call from work. He decided we had to leave, he'd take the shift. I had no qualms with that , obviously, and 5 minutes later Brandon was literally having a power nap and i yelled "YOUR FLOAT!!" He sat up, rubbed his eyes, set the hook, and after a shorter tussle than my fish but still a great open water battle, he landed this one. That rounded the day up! Carp fishin that way was awesome and I just might go back tomorrow morn with a little larger rod and do er again!

Oh they were bored? Well there's lots of lawmen and soldiers who are bored too, maybe the kids can wear targets and run around for them as something to do now!

Well the person who wrote the letter was obviously the one with serious mental limitations I'd say!!!!!! Grrrrrr i hate all the negativity on planet earth nowadays!

Nice first pike to introduce you to the species! Who cares about weight? Pike are measured in inches.

Get the photo paper from Dollarama. It's the best I've found, and its $1 per sheet. Print yourself. My hallway is loaded with pics I did this way , stick in a dollarama frame and $2.50 just got you a beautiful printed photo!

What a beast! Congrats!!

Nice hawg! Congrats!

Thanks everyone! HD, actually only one of them was caught in any real slop, guess which one hint it's my friend Brandon holding it . MoS - not Indian, right next door.. And the lost pics: Eric's shore beast on a buzzbait. Honestly, was a big big fish.. poor photo justice. Too much photo justice. A senko pike that surprised the heck out of us, smashing it in inches of water at Eric's feet. Perfect photo justice.

Interesting. I've fished Caledonia my whole life and never caught or seen one there. No surprise though, I think I'm the last surviving human who has never caught one on long point bay either, lol. I really want to catch one and very much appreciate your advice! Thanks.

No bait, k. Earplugs it is. Joking of course. Any salmon discussion has to include the marshmallows. Lol

Will marshmallows be available at the pier? I'd be interested, depending on the work situation at the time.

I'd take it anyday of the week over bassin off the bank.. or in a canoe for that matter. It's stable, quick, goes anywhere.. and zero emissions!

Fished lots of small lakes, almost all produced a hawg at some point. Still looking for a couple more pics.. but here's the jist of it: Skinny's hawg^^ Enjoy!

I was up north, no power, go figure. Didn't even know it happened.

Sheepheads are tasty, please keep every last one from dunnville. Lol

I have heard of walleye being caught there. All I caught was sunfish and some large crappies. Good luck

Nothing at the pier last night, for the record, lol

30lb is overpowered on my senko rod, it causes the same problems. Its just too thick. Like casting yarn almost. I just deal with the overrun every 6 casts. Lol

I learned a lot of my fishing knowledge as a youngster from Denny. Condolences go to his wonderful family.

Going to try the pier again tonight with a buddy from work, will let you know how it goes. Sometimes in the summer you can luck into smallies out there!

Way to go Lew!

I'm not a byng fan myself. The upper river can be good as mentioned. Or drop bait right at the dunnville dam for bullheads, sheepies and who knows what else. Never been to chippewa.

I like a rubber net for bass, seems to make the whole thing 10 times easier and its gotta be easier on the fish. Obviously you dont need a huge net.. id go with the average sized rubbercoat one at your local shop.

That little laughy face at the bottom meant I was joking.