mepps

This is gonna be a long one! 2007 has been a busy year. Jon and I had only been out fishing once together before the trip to LV, and we were both in need of catching some fish. Our first trip to LV in 2005 was incredible - 7 Pike over 40 inches, and we got a quick glimpse at the elusive 50 incher as it attacked a 20 incher near the boat as I was reeling it in. We had high hopes for 2007. We we didnt bother bring all the lures we did last time though, since 95% of our pike were caught on inline Mepps spinner baits. I made about 10 of my own inlines before the trip and planned to use them majority of the time, unless of course they didnt catch fish - but boy did the catch fish! We covered the 2000km+ in a single drive, only stopping for gas and food. It was suprisingly cold, but we had plenty of layers to keep us warm. Our first fish came shortly after a quick bite at the local bar "The Bomb" from the very dock we would be catching our plane the next morning. We ran in to a group of OFNers as we arrived, and got the bad news that the weather was making pike pretty lethargic. After we arrived, we spent a little time catching up with Connie and then headed straight toward our favorite spots from the last trip. We searched for that first pike over 40inches, but all we found were small pike under 30 inches and it wasn't until later in the day that we caught our first fish over thirty inches. A sub par result compared to our previous visit to the lake where we boated several fish over over thirty two inches in our first day. The wind was cold and our were hands numb, we stopped a few times to admire and film the bald eagles that populate the surrounding area of the lake, but most of all we continued fishing in search of giants. Since Clive has started making his own in-line spinner baits we thought it would be a good opportunity for a bit of side competition, so for this trip Jon would stick mostly to the big Mepps spinners (#5 Black Fury/Aglia, #7 Magnum) and Clive would use mostly his own custom made ones. The goal, of course, to catch the most fish over 40 and hopefully find a 50 incher! Day three started brilliantly, with Jonny 'Depp'Marshall catching one of the longest pike i have seen in person, easily passing 45 inches. This fella was caught trolling a #7 silver Mepps. At this point I was switching back and fourth between #5 Mepps lures and my own #8s. This little guy had taken some serious damage recently, but still hit my spinner with full force. Day four was very rainy, and we started off wet from the day before. We spent some extra time at the dock and caugth a few nice pike. The next couple of days you couldnt buy a spot on the dock, apparently someone let word slip that there were big pike close to home! Despite rain, we continued on in search of giant pike... We had a late start on day five after drinking a majority of our beer. We rolled into the boat sometime after 11am and trolled the same area Jon caught his monster a couple days before. Aprox 150 yards from shore, in 8 feet of water. I used an inline I had made the night before, made very heavy specifically for trolling - and withing five minutes of dropping it in teh water was setting the hooks into this fatty... The rest of the day wasnt terribly exciting, but we explored the northern area of teh lake and covered shallow weedy bays moving a few big fish. We decided we woudl return and catch those big fish the next day, and thats exactly what we did. We pulled into the bay to find it crowded with four other boats, luckily non were in our spot. I had what looked like a big fish surface and slam my lure very hard and take off in the opposite direction - without my lure - so i made another cast wuickly in teh direction he was heading and BANG - fish on, no doubt about it this time! Another fish around 45 inches. And then another big one, this one shorter and thinner. Then soon after, Jon landed another 40+ We moved out when things quieted down and found a few more fish while trolling, including a nice walleye. Our fishing charms really did the trick! (you can see them in many of the pics) That ended our last day on the water. The time passed so quickly, the trip was really jsut a blur until we got to sit and watch footage and look at photos. As we were getting on the plane to leave, we ran into some more OFNers (or maybe lurkers since i havent seen a report yet) We chatted a while, and gave them some tips from our experiences. They asked what lures were cathing fish, so I reached into my tackle box and pulled out my lucky trolling spinner which had caught 2-3 pike over 40 inches and handed it to them - "Just use this, and you will do alright." In hindsight, and should have asked for some cash to cover our gas costs! The price was $1.29L near Red Lake - not to mention Jon managed a speeding ticket going 120 in a 90. It became a pricey trip, but it was more then worth it. In the battle of Mepps spinners Vs. Clive Mathias spinners it was a close match, but I think I edged out Jon by 1 or 2 40 inchers!! We'll have video up soon, and more pictures can be found on our website as usual...

nicely done! My Scugog spinners never fail!

snag - LOTS of bunnies running around!

We decided to take a little trip up to the bay to visit some friends we hadnt seen in a while. They have a 6 month old who we hadnt met yet. It was a long drive from London, especially with no air conditioning. With a pregnant woman on board, we had to make quite a few stops on the way, and decided to check out the Big Apple - we always say we are gonna go try a famous big apple pie, but we are usualyl in a hurry. We stopped, and im glad we did! It was a lot of fun - a great place if you have little kids. There were goats and other animals to see outside, and inside you could watch pies get made. For little ones there is mini golf and other attractions such as The Big Apple. We didnt climb it, but we snapped a few photos infront of it. We spent the rest of the day catching up and got in a little fishing between beers. We came to a small dock that had some great lookign wees near them. We casted spoons and spinners out for pike, but only a few small OOS largies were all that was biting so we packed it in. On the way home we came across a snapping turtle on the road, and I decided to get out and move her off the road and onto the grass. I snuck up behind her so she wouldnt attack me... Once she was off the ground she new something was wrong and made some lunges at me snapping furiously. My smile turned to worry pretty quick and i set her down in teh grass quickly. Despite no fish, we had a great stay in Belleville...

This one isnt edited, the orange one looks human-like to me! I also saw Jesus in my Cherios this morning...

great report as always Connie!

My biggest fish I have a photo of is from salt water, a 5+ foot long tarpon - 60-80lb im guessing?

Made a visit to Kitchener this afternoon to have our 3d/4d ultrasound. The little guy looked great, despite his unwillingness to show his entire face. It was pretty amazing seeing the video of him moving around! He is 27 weeks old, and around 2-3 pounds right now!

I just got 99.6 in Belleville

I do both aswell. I love finding deals on ebay, I also buy lure parts online, and pute the baits together myself.

Great job!!

I started with a Shimano Calcutta 251 paired with a Shimano Compre and 50lb Power Pro (the reel is most cetaintly over $200 in stores, but you may find one on ebay) It dosnt hold alot of heavy line, and its a fairly slow retrive, but it has met all my Kawartha fishign needs so far. Most will tell you you want bigger reel, but i fished happily for pike, musky (and tarpon!) and bass with it for the past 3-4 years. I now use a Quantum Cabo, that is much bigger the then Calcutta, and its spooled with about 280 yards of 65lb power Pro. I've been using 80lb fluro -10-15 inches for big pike this year (havnt been out for mushk yet in 2007) I were to fish bigger musky waters I would use heavier leaders for sure.

great job! We were finding all our fish in lees the 8 feet of water - majority in 2-3 feet of depth...how bout you guys?

I think some one posted teh video of its capture a while back - should be on youtube...

Quantum PTi is my top choice

I cant say enough good things about GULP baits. I left one outside my house to see how long it would take to completely deteriorate, and its still around 2 years later- it is of course muuuch smaller.

I saw Bill Dance use teh yank procedure several years ago on his show - it looks liek its more traumatic then it needs to be. I've always pushed hooks though and cut of the end. You may be left with 2 holes, but I think its the best way to go personally.

nice fish!

I'm inclined to think he is referring to the lake, not the land. Perhaps its discolouration from rain and sediment.

LOL! We'll be at it again im sure - we only have a weekend or two available for fishing before we are moving! Congrats JJ - our due date is September 16. We will be heading out east for his birth.

Thanks Connie! I'm not letting this one go!

I wouldnt normally use an ultralight - the carp in the area arnt very big - it was either musky rod and reel, or ultra light!

welcome!

Good to see you into some big fish again!

I'm sure some of you are waiting for the second half of the LV pike report - it should be ready any day now, we are jsut working on editing some videos! Today Gillian and I decided to head down the street to the river and see if we could catch some carp. There are several spots that I have seen carp swimming around in so I was confident we would find some fish. As soon as we arrived I threw out several handfulls of corn and then we got our equipment ready and started to fish. There were carp in the area within minutes. Despite several ducks stealing the corn, Gillian had a fish on within 20 minutes! Armed with a Quantum 20 PTi and an UglyStik (a combo I refer to as beauty and the beast) she was caught off guard when line started peeling off the reel. The drag screamed as the fish headed down stream. I quickly realized her drag was set really light since I had last used it for walleye up at LV. After a huge run, I looked down at her reel and could see that the bottom of the spool was fast approaching, Gillian was a step ahead of me though and was already starting to head down the shore in chase. She was quickly running out of room and needed to scale down a 6 foot wall to get to the shore in order resume her chase. Being nearly 7 months pregnant, this was not an option - she handed me the rod, and I jumped down the wall as the last few strands of line were about to unravel. I grabbed the line and pulled, turning the carp. I quickly adjusted the drag by this time Gillian had found her way down the wall, so I handed her back the rod. The fish was now in the current and despite a legendary effort, Gillian could not get him to move. After several minutes he charged back up stream and Gillian was able to gain back some line. Finally we had a good look at the fish, a solid 6-8lbs - A very nice sized carp for this area of the river. She slipped on a glove and held the fish for a quick photo and a release as a small crowd watched from the top of the wall. Thirty minutes later it was my turn. I watched a small carp moving straight toward my bait and I held on tight expecting another epic battle. I was using my ultralight rod (5'2 UglyStik) with 10lb powerpro. I set the hook and....nothing . The carp flipped and flopped a couple times and I was able to grab it within a minute. Quite a disapointment after seeing how hard Gillian's carp faught. We called it a day shortly after, but we were both very pleased that both of us landed a fish. This scrappy little guy made it all teh way down to those rocks near the next bridge before we were able to gain any ground on him... The first in-utero fish!! My baby boy has got an ealy start Thought I'd add one more - this was from earlier in the day - further north on the Thames...