solopaddler

You're on fire this year, nice fish once again!

Strangely I never noticed that button before LOL! Thanks!

Hey bud looks like you did some catching to me, nice fish! If anything can be gleaned from your report it's that perseverence pays off .

Thanks boys! I have no idea how to include multiple quotes in a reply (if someone can explain it to me in childlike terms that'd be great ) So.. MTP, check your pm's BPSBassman, thanks and coffee sounds great. Micropterus, yes I'm getting old there's a 2hp Honda on the back of the boat .

There's more than 3 lakes. I fished the park a few times myself many moons ago. Pakeshag always produced best for me...

It's been a hectic time for my little clan with our move to a new house a couple weeks back. The new place is still a disaster, but we took off last Wed for the cabin for a few days of r & r and a bit of fishin'. From North Bay onwards, my daughter Riley who's 4 asked me "daddy are we close to the big fish yet?" about 100 times. There's a giant lake trout in Larder Lake 15 mins from my landing and she always has a coniption when we pass it. This time we stopped and took a picture: It's always a long day when we arrive with unpacking and such, so Wed was mostly just a time to relax on the deck once we were settled in. Thursday Riley and I went out in the morning for a bit while Joanne stayed back at camp with our little one Brendan. Here we are heading over to the pump dock to meet them. Riley was practically hopping up and down with excitement as she actually caught a small walleye all by herself: I managed a bunch of decent fish on Thursday, with the best action occuring from 7-9pm. All the fish were partial to a lindy rig, fluoro leader, single hook and an air injected nightcrawler. Here's one of my Thursday fish: Friday morning my wife says "go out and catch us some fish for lunch!" The kids were watching spongebob on the tube, Jo was into her book, it was daddy time LOL! Fortunately the fish were really on. I kept the first couple then proceeded to throw back a dozen more before I beelined it to my fish cleaning rock: A quick trip back to camp and the fish were in the pan: It was a fabulously sunny, warm afternoon, so after lunch we packed up the boat and headed to the beach in the N/E corner of the lake: My son Brendan who's 21 months seems to have a phobia with sand. If we set him down on the ground you'd swear he was in mortal agony he screamed so loud. Here he is in the safety of my chair screaming at all the hellish sand around him It's really pretty funny 'cause if you put him on a nice flat sloping granite rock he'll run right into the water up to his chin. Anyhow, we stuck it out for a couple of hours for Riley's benefit then hopped in the boat to catch some walleye. My mother in law had placed an order for some fillets so we headed straight for the shoal in front of the cabin to fill it. I dropped a bottom bouncer and spinner rig tipped with a worm down, 6 passes across the shoal, 6 keeper walleye. Gotta love it! . Once again we headed to a nearby island to slice and dice and take the obligatory stringer shot: Back at the camp I lounged on the deck and bbq'd up our dinner: While I watched Jo and the kids check out the minnows at the point: Dinnertime the kids were in a good mood : Brendan will usually throw rocks in the water for 1/2 an hour after dinner, he LOVES it. I think he's going to be either a quarterback or a pitcher . Here he his in his wind up: He's trying to say "the buckets empty daddy!" I said "sorry buddy time for bed.." A second later he started screeching . The weather forecast sounded terrible for Saturday with rain, wind and possible thunderstorms, so Joanne suggested I call my buddy Perry at the marina and see if he maybe wanted to fish with me. (yes, I married the right woman ) A quick call to Perry and plans were set to fish a nearby back lake on Saturday. Here we are with my squareback and gear loaded in his truck ready to go: So anyway, we reach the end of the portage trail and throw the boat in the water. I start organizing the gear and setting up the fishfinder while Perry waits in the bow with his line dangling over the side. Suddenly he starts yelling in French (he does that when he gets excited). You know it's a good lake when a walleye hammers a bare (no worm) spinner rig dangling in 3 feet of water! We proceeded to lay a severe beating on the fish LOL! Jigs, cranks, spinner rigs whatever, they ate it! Without getting into numbers I'll just say we caught a lot and let the pictures do the talking. Most pic's are of Perry as he hates taking pictures almost as much as my son hates sand . Around 2pm it started to pour rain and we heard thunder grumbling off in the distance. We both decided that maybe we should start heading back.... I didn't want to quit yet and zipped over to a nearby point we hadn't fished, dropped down a spinner rig with my baitcaster and BAM fish on! It was MASSIVE, Biggest of the day by far and definitely not a walleye, it was a huge gator. One powerful run and the unthinkable happened: (Actually Perry sat on my rod, but I like my version better ) We did beat it out of there though, and just in time as the heavy rains quickly turned monsoon like. Made it back to camp a bit soggy but very happy, had a nice hot shower, poured a drink (thanks dOUG BTW ) and relaxed with the brood. Later that evening after dinner the skies actually cleared a bit and we went out for one last troll before heading home on Sunday: Didn't catch anything, but no one cared... Another good one for the books! Cheers, Mike

Just finished reading through both part 1 and 2, great stuff thanks for taking the time to post! Timely as well since I'll be fishing a veritable stones throw from Mikwam next week . (Can't wait)

Well done boys, nice fish!

Hey, great report and congrat's on the beauty pike!

I was going to say Ryan's a chip off the old block when it comes to fishing, but then that wouldn't exactly be accurate would it? . (Great report Mike nice to see the smiles on the kids faces.)

I know, read the end of my post LOL!

Never fished it but had heard there were decent walleye in there.

Wow, that second bass looks huge! (Your daughter is a real cutie )

It's pretty obvious you're on to something there! Thinking outside the box pays off!

Definitely a long way for you to go, but it looked like you boys had a blast!

I'll bet you a beer if you call 310-Bell you'll be speaking to someone in India. Guaranteed!

Once again I was getting ready to say "Nice bass Cliff!!", but you let me down, LOL! (Nice report anyhow buddy, it's always a great day out when you learn something new and the company is good! )

Making my kids laugh. Cooking a beautiful meal for the family on a lazy Sunday evening. Finally having a garage! (as of last week)

As you noted the fish you've seen on your graph have been suspended. In the lakes I fish that's usually the case as well in the summer. I sometimes spend more time searching with the graph for concentrations of suspended lakers than actually fishing for them... Unless you already know, learn how to use your graph to it's maximum potential which means using it on manual mode and pumping up the sensitivity. You'll find more fish that way and will actually be able to watch your lure on the screen and sometimes see the fish hit. Once you find them try to stay right on top of them, as vertical as possible with your presentation. If it's windy use your electric if you have one to slow or stop your drift. If you don't have an electric a drift sock will help. If you don't have a drift sock, use a white 5 gallon pail . I like to use a med hvy baitcaster spooled with some type of braid. If I'm marking fish at say 50', I like to fish my jig at roughly 45'. Always a lit bit above them.. I prefer larger bucktail jigs, 3/4-11/2 ounces tipped with either a strip of belly meat from something I've caught previously, or a large minnow. Obviously a trailer hook is mandatory. Here's one of my jigs, usually anything predominantly white works pretty well: The fishes mood will dictate how you jig for them. Sometimes large sweeping jigs of 5-6' with a quick drop is deadly. Other times just a subtle little shimmy and shake is better. Key though is to never let your jig drop loosley, always maintain contact. Many times they'll hit on the drop and if you're not maintaining a tight connection you'll miss them. Good luck and welcome to the board!

Amazing, unbelievable, fantastic report! Incredible number of large pike, and you're right, the size of the walleyes are astounding for that far north! (I feel sick to my stomach now, man I wish I could have joined you, but I just couldn't swing it . I think I know where I'm going next year though .)

Very impressive, those are some nice fish!

Beauty fish bud!

Icredible as usual! How has the flyfishing been this year, any success?

Okay okay, nice bass Roy! (happy now? )