Beats

The pics are from the summer time and the water is no where near that muddy currently. There is a creek flowing right by the pit but I don't think it feeds into it since I haven't seen a creek flowing out... The only real structure is the bushes all around the outside edges and any branches etc. that have fallen in near shore. Currently the water isn't gin clear by any means but is much much cleaner than the pics I posted. I'm not too sure about the depths yet. Some sections are alot more shallow than I would have guessed for a pit. The entire bottom of the pond is covered with green algae that covers deep diving rapalas every cast which makes me think the entire bottom of gravel must be hidden with growth. I was actually using a wacky rigged pink senko yesterday, trying to throw it into the centre parts of the pit, thinking that they would logically be the deepest spots. I was also throwing big spinner baits around the shoreline but only excited the crappie. There is a tiny island in the middle of the pit (like most gravel pits) so I just assummed that the water must be somewhat deep since they must have had trucks/heavy equipment in there a long time ago. There is no doubt in my mind that in the summer I will be able to catch them.. hopefully as easily as i remember catching them as a kid. If I make it out there again today I'll post current pics. If not I'll have to wait for the weekend.

I was wondering if anyone knows any strategies for fall lm bass. My parents bought a property that backs onto an old gravel pit that has been abandoned for I'd guess atleast 20 years and has completely overgrown. If you didn't look hard at it you would probably just think it was a pond. There are lm bass, white crappie and supposedly some pike in it. 15 years ago or so I fished there as a small kid and remember catching big lm's on 2 out of 3 casts from shore. I distinctly remember them eating anything you threw at them. I just returned there and began fishing it recently and so far have only caught white crappie (very tiny ones) while I tried for bass. The closest I've gotten to a lm so far was a week ago when I was taking my lure out of the water after retrieving it and the second I lifted my rainbow trout pattern jointed rap from the water a Lm came 1/2 out of the water after it and obviously missed it. So I know that the bass are still in there but Im wondering if the temperature has made them semi dormant for the winter.(?) I tried throwing spinners and jointed raps mostly at first and ended up only catching the odd crappie with a spinner. I think as long as you use a small enough bait tthe crappie will hit just about anything. I tried for bass again yesterday and didn't see any signs of them. I was throwing all kinds of different raps from countdowns to xraps to ones to merely drag the bottom to see if the bass were sitting on the bottom. All I managed were some clumps of algae. I even tried a senko worm and figured it would work seeing as its a pit and has some deep spots, but nothing. The crappie I have caught so far have all been tiny, if not stunted, and Its my thought that they must be the food supply for the bass. I believe the bass average 1.5 lbs + (or atleast they used to) and the only real predator I can think of is that there is atleast one beaver lodge on the pit and a few snappers probably and I've been told of pike but never seen one. It's a pit that is set back from the road and surrounded by woods meaning that only people who know of it would ever find it. I remember a few others fishing it when I was there as a kid, but recently I have not ever seen another person there. So it definately hasn't been fished out or anything. Does anyone have any tips or strategies for late fall Lm bass in this kind of setting? Here are a few pics from a few months back.

I just did that and after a few seconds it worked for me. I regularly only see clockwise. After covering the feet and convincing myself to see CCW I finally saw the switch. After that, took my hand off the body and it spun the other way.

yeah I too only see clockwise spinning. I don't see CCW at all. Is it supposed to be an optical illusion like how if you stare at a moving cars tires they appear to be going the correct way for a few seconds and then appear to change and go the other?

They did a big piece in either Ontario Out of Doors of Outdoors Canada a few years ago about this. I still have it somewhere but it had the same result that orange was the best colour.

Below the dam (trout creek) I have only ever caught sm bass, lm bass, pike, bullheads, rock bass, perch. Of course carp are there as well. You can easily catch a bullhead down there for every cast out you make if you are there when they are active. They will pick off anything that doesn't move fast enough to escape them. I always found that the sm bass down there were about 2/3 bigger than any of the lm bass that I caught down there. The lm bass are quite rare to catch at the bottom of the dam and are really small if you do get one. I've probably only ever managed to catch 2 or 3 tiny perch and maybe a few rock bass that happened to pick off my bait that was intended for pike. I remember a coworker telling me years ago that his brother had caught a big white bass down there but I figured he was just mistaken. Having caught a few white bass in the area of the Forks of the Thames I know that it is atleast possible for them to get that far with springbank dam being out. Its a long shot that they would get/want to get that far up there but I guess its possible. I also know that the Harrington pond was (still is?) stocked with brook trout each year and that they get out and into Wildwood. I met a guy that had caught a few in Harrington 10 or so years ago. Never seen or heard of any being caught in the lake though.

not alot of ppl commenting on the post.. must be worried their massive sigs will give them away.

Wildwood lake is the result of damming Trout Creek which dumps into the Thames river near St. Marys. The old minnow guy in Stratford told me he used to fish the creek before the dam went in and used to catch trout (specks I believe, possibly rainbows as well) as well as perch in there. He was telling me that the perch all had massive bellies on them. Not because they were fat, but because there were so many of them that they were starving to death. He was implying that for some reason the fish got "fat" or bloated due to lack of food for them to eat because their numbers were too high. He claimed the ministry went in and added either 100 or 200 pike to the lake to take the perch population down once the lake had been created. Now its predominately a pike lake.

just a note: I have never caught a salmon of any kind in my life. I tried in years past, and based on seeing how it was done never had any interest in it again.

I just don't see why people want to catch fish that already look dead by the time you reel them in. Fishing for salmon at piers and mouths of rivers is ok as the fish usually have some colour and life to them still and haven't yet been beat up by the rocks and brush of the rivers and creeks . IMO once they hit the creek rivers and especially the creek-sized rivers, they should be left alone to do their thing. I know they will bite/attack spoons and other baits when they are entering the rivers but trying to get a near dead fish to EAT your lure in a pool the size of a hot tub and 3 feet deep is probably about as likely as having a carp randomly decide to chase and eat your spoon. I just don't understand why ppl enjoy the act of catching fish that look like they are rotten/decaying. It must just be for the overall size/weight of the fish to impress others. I mean, if you were to show a pic of a river/creek salmon to your uncle who doesn't fish or your grandmother they would probably think that you caught the fish of a lifetime. In reality, the fish is near death and most likely could be kicked onto shore and merely picked up. A few years ago I visited Bronte creek for the first time and was amazed at the literally hundreds of dead salmon along the creek that were in piles all over the place where people had clearly stood over small pools and snagged fish, slit the bellies, taken the eggs, and then threw them into piles 1 foot from shore in the water and as well scattered them all over the shore I guess that's fishing...

I've had the same issue my whole life of fishing. I've never had a boat so I have always fished from shore in shallow rivers. The key is to more or less buy tackle that floats or atleast floats at idle and sinks depending on the speed of your retrieve. Floating jointed Rapalas and other lures like that are good because you can cast them a fair distance and they only dive based on how fast you retrieve. If you see a log/snag that your lure is approaching all you have to do is either slow the retrieve so the lure rises a little or you can pause and let the lure float back up to the surface before beginning your retrieve again. Also, small spinners work really well in shallow rocky water. The way to fish them is to start reeling fairly quickly the second the lure hits the water and make sure your rod tip is up. The quick retrieve and the high rod tip should keep the spinner just an inch or 2 below the surface of the water. I find most snags in shallow water with a spinner or anything with some weight to it usually happens when the lure initially hits the water and sinks before you start your retrieve. Also try poppers at dusk and if you are worried about losing alot of money on lures, buy a pack of grubs and jigheads as they are quite cheap to replace when lost. I am mostly fishing the Thames in and around London and catching lots of fish in the tiny bit of water that is there currently. Most of the fish I've caught in teh last couple of months have come out of 3ft of water or less, and have been caught on small jointed rapalas and spinners of different sorts.

How about saying "nice fish".

thx for identifying the bird for me. I had no idea what it was.

I was out around the Thames River in London yesterday and came across a rather large bird up in a tree and I was wondering if anyone could identify it. I was on the other side of the river from the bird and it was way up in a tree, so my pictures really aren't very good since the camera is at max zoom and I couldn't get any closer. I was kind of thinking there's a slight chance its a peregrine falcon. I know there are a few birds that nest in downtown London which is a few blocks from this location. The bird took off 15 or so minutes later and was gliding like a hawk but was covering a fairly large area instead of the circle-style flying hawks tend to do. Perhaps its just a hawk or even an owl? If anyone can tell me what it might be that would be great. Sorry for the lack of detailed pics. I have more pics but they are basically all the exact same. I was just trying to get the most detailed pic I could from a far distance. I'm horrible at photo editing, so you may need to zoom in on the pics yourself to get a better look. Thanks.

Ive seen this fishing in a few documentaries on Tv over the years and have always remembered it since its so unusual. A particular skill is needed to get the birds back to the boat right after they catch a fish because after a while the birds learn that if they are fast neough they can manage to swallow the smaller fish before being pulled back to the boat.

That just made my day. Good night.

the first pic definately looks like a sucker. the colouration and size of scales in the 2nd pic make it look carp-like, but its a really big sucker

yeah it looks quite nice. Be sure to figure out a plan on storing it out of the elements for the winter.

Was out fishing the Greenway Park area in London this afternoon and managed to catch 6 bass all near the train bridge over the river. All of the bass were quite small so I didn't bother to take any pics of them. On my way home I saw a very rare animal basking in the sun. It was by far the largest soft-shelled turtle I have ever seen. I've now seen 3 in my life. One at the lower dam of the Sydenham in Strathroy about 15 years ago and one at the lower Pittock Dam in Woodstock about 2 years ago. Both of these turtles had shells about the size of a CD, the one today was easily 4-5 times that. I didn't know they got this big. I took 2 pics of the turtle before it saw me and shot into the water. I was way up on some sort of concrete breakwall off the beaten path. The 2 other baby turtles appear to be snappers to me. Odd shaped shells on them. Unfortunately the pics aren't too detailed since I was so far from the turtles. I'll be going back soon to see if it frequents that spot for basking.

So I was fishing the usual couple of spots I fish near downtown London after work on Friday. I didn't see a sign of a bass and just kept moving from spot to spot. I got to the last spot I decided to try before going home and started casting in a fan-like style for a few minutes. After quite a few casts I kinda withdrew and was still casting but my head was elsewhere thinking about things besides fishing. I had been casting my usual small jointed orange Rapala that catches me most of my bass but had switched to a fairly heavy spinner for the simple reason that I could cast it further across the river and it had some sinking value to it. The Rapala works great but you can't cast it all too far without adding weight to it, but since there is alot of random trash/snags in this area of the Thames I opt for a floating lure most of the time which I can quickly get to the surface by simply not retrieving and letting the lure float to the surface. I had just switched to the spinner and was doing a straightforward retrieve perhaps a tad faster than the norm with the spinner running I'd say about 4 inches under the surface of the water. The spinner was about 1/2 way back to me from the cast I had made when WHAM! I saw a fish very quickly come up from the depths (not really depths since its shallow, but deep enough so I couldn't see it normally) and it nailed my spinner really hard. I thought it was a pike for sure since what I was was a long slender fish hit he bait near the surface and I saw the flash of the side of the fish as it turned sideways as pike do more often than not. I was excited as I had never caught a pike in the Thames that wasn't near a dam. The fish fought with strength...and just as I got it near shore I realized it wasn't a pike at all, and was a species I had never yet caught before. It was a 2.1 lb Channel cat that was my fist channel cat ever. Kinda cool. I weighed it on my digital boga grip style scale that i have. I couldn't believe that this fish would rise so close to the surface and nail this spinner just under the water's surface. I thought it was hard to get bullhead's to open their mouths to get a hook out until I caught this guy. All I got to say is thank God I had jaw spreaders in my backpack. The heads on these things feel like solid bone. He was out of water for longer than I would have liked due to the inability to get its mouth open at first. I had to let him back in the water for a few seconds to "catch his breath" before attempting to use the spreader on him. I got the hook out no problem and the fish was released back to the Thames. I had heard of channel cats in there before but had never caught one in there myself. Since moving to London a number of weeks ago I have caught both a white bass and a channel cat now by complete surprise (both of which I had never caught before) while fishing for bass. All photos are of the same fish and of the lure that he went for.

Same general thing happened to me a few years ago. I also had my expensive brand new camera in a boat that was rented while staying at a lodge up north. The boat must have had a small leak in it and slowly took on water. This was no big deal as it was just an aluminum boat. While taking a picture I somehow dropped my camera and didn't remember the water in the boat which had become about 3-4 inches deep and my camera was completely submerged for about 5 seconds. Like yours, mine still works great. With all those tiny holes in digital cameras for recording sound and playing it back i assumed the worst.

Should note as well that I was basically forced into writing an email to London city hall after fishing the spot that 6 of the eight fish were caught. I counted no less than 30 syringe packages scattered under the bridge along with modified plastic bottles, condoms, dime bags and one actual needle. Makes me think the other 29 or so unaccounted for syringes are on the bottom of the Thames. Basically have to wear shoes with steel shanks and plastic gloves to go fishing there.

Here's a few pics of some fish I caught downtown London this morning. In all, I managed 8 bass in about 2 hrs. 7 SM bass and my first ever white bass. One bass was around 2 lbs and the others were all smaller and a few were rock bass sized. All were caught on a small orange jointed Rapala except the white bass which went for my Mepps Comet.

Basically all pike and rock bass in the Pinery have tons of black spots all over them. Seem healthy other than the spots.

Those are massive for rock bass. Ive only ever caught them by chance while fishing for other fish, but they will hit anything that they can just ambush quickly and return to their hiding spot.