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Report: Sean vs Scugog

tbayboy

By tbayboy
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tbayboy

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First off thanks to all the people who replied to my queries about a boat rental for Scugog on Saturday. I'd love to say that it went great but ... well lets just start with report shall we :)

 

Saturday - Patrick and Sean and a crappy motor

PatrickG and I had been talking about going muskie hunting for a few weeks now and after my success the week before with Mikeh we decided to go for it. Off I went to BPS to buy $50 worth of muskie lures (2 cranks, one bucktail/spinner) and I was set. Saturday AM we hooked up and headed out to Goreski's to pick up our 14' 9.9hp tinny. I knew it meant it would it take a while to get to the spots I wanted to try but it was the closest rental and they'd let us keep the boat til 8:30 so we figured we'd be fine.

 

First problem: We show up at 10am and they're putting up a bunch of tents, seats and .. oh no .. a weigh in station. Yep, its a tournament day. Dang - we know that means that all the pads will be camped until the tournament was over (we planned on doing pad based bass first) but oh well, we're here so lets go.

 

Second problem: The girl working the marina hops in our boat and tests the motor - won't start. Hmm ok, she hops into the next one and it starts up right away. I should have taken that as a sign but we were eager to go so off we went.

 

We got out of the channel and hit the first mound of weeds. After a couple jiggles Patrick got the motor trimmed up so we putted along til we found some open water and then he dropped it down and off we went. The boat didn't seem very fast though but we were stopping at every group of pads we saw so I didn't think much of it. We worked along the shore without much luck and discusses where to go. We realized that the boat being so slow meant our plan of flying all over the place wasn't such a good idea so we picked a spot I knew and off we went - at a crawl.

 

Third problem: The trim busted - the motor just refused to lift :(. It was like it was never meant to and eventually we gave up (though all day Patrick would wack at it to the point where I expected the thing to fall of the end).

 

Fourth problem: The motor won't go 100% if there's been any weed anywhere near it. I guess it's an overheating protection feature or something but even after clearing the prop it would chug along at 50% or so. Eventually we realized that if you shut down the motor and restarted then you'd be back to full power... at least until you got another weed near it (you try avoiding all weeds on Scogug - ugh).

 

Ok so the boat is a bit of an issue but we eventually make it to where I want to be and the wind is nice and slow and drifts us right over the edge of the weed beds. The perch were having a great time with our tubes and spinner bait which started to get a little annoying but finally something with a bit more weight took off with my tube right under the boat. After a bit of a fight my skunk was over:

 

<a href=" 3lb largie title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1408/1109413184_ad7073dad8_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="3lb largie" /></a>

 

We setup for another drift but the only thing that rose was a loon - right beside the boat. I've never seen one come up that close so I grabbed the camera:

 

<a href=" Where'd he go title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1383/1109410716_6d24738200.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Where'd he go" /></a>

 

Yep, one of those days and then the weather decides to join the 'we hate you' club. After 2 drifts the wind stopped and the sun nearly killed us - we were roasting out there to the point where we were thinking of looking for a shady spot when suddenly the wind change direction 180 degrees and really picked up. I was looking for the storm that must have been coming given the amount of wind and suddenness of the change but no storm - just a lot of wind and out little boat just couldn't handle it.

 

We headed out as fast as the crappy little motor would let us and tried to find some sheltered fishing spots. The first few spots gave us only this guy, my second WGSF of the day:

 

<a href=" WGSF title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1224/1108573267_385bd72e64.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="WGSF" /></a>

 

Eventually we found a nice line of pads and cane and just when we though Patrick was doomed to be skunked he pulled this scrapper out:

 

<a href=" Patricks only of the day title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1135/1109424346_ea0fae4288_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Patricks only of the day" /></a>

 

Not a huge fish but you can tell from the smile how nice it was to end the skunk on this miserable day.

 

After that we putted back to the marina and as soon as we were near the dock Patrick tells them that there's something seriously wrong with the motor - no reaction at all - they just drifted away from us. I didn't make a big deal out of it when paying since it's just some summer kid trying to close up and go home but all the way back to Toronto we kept repeating to ourselves "hate that lake", "hate that boat", "hate those weeds", "never going back".

 

I qualified never going back with "Only going back if somebody with a nice boat offers me a spot - then MAYBE I'd go back."

 

Sunday - what a difference a boat can make

Let me start by asking Patrick to stop reading. Please stop reading now - your just going to want to punch the computer :(

 

I got home at 10:30pm and my first stop is OFC and there's a message from Mikeh - "hey Sean I'm going to Scugog tomorrow morning - interested?". I just shook my head at the coincidence. I wasn't sure I'd be up for it but come Sunday a.m. I realized that I'd be an idiot to pass up a chance to go fishing with Mike so off I headed to do battle with this damned lake again (back on the horse I guess).

 

As we're heading up we figured we'd be on the water by 10:30 so first fish had to be by 11. Yeah sure I'm thinking. Well we got on the water at 10:20 so I reminded Mike - only got til 10:50 now. 10 minutes later we're at the first spot (that took us nearly an hour to get to on Saturday - yeah I like Mike's boat better). 10:45am and I have a fish in the boat but didn't take a picture ("he's small and I'll catch lots more" - foreshadowing anyone?) and 10:47 Mike's kept the promise too:

 

<a href=" First fish title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1085/1108582213_1376ab2121_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="First fish" /></a>

 

Gonna be a great day thinks I - sure they started small but thats OK, nowhere to go but up. We continued working the weedbeds tossing my new Muskie lures, some spinner baits, tubes and topwaters. The bite, as seemed to be my Scugog luck, died off with Mike getting one nice topwater fish:

 

<a href=" The lift title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1166/1108593307_b19f72c21f_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="The lift" /></a>

 

But nothing else. Then the rain came in - boy did it come in. We put on the rain gear and stuck it out though and after an hour or so of rain including 30 minutes of solid soaking it cleared up and we headed for another spot where Mike wanted to try the pads. I still suck at flipping so I went back to tossing a tube near the edges and got another little largie:

 

<a href=" Little largie title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1293/1109434166_689c1bd8f3_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Little largie" /></a>

 

Then Mike had to go and out do me so I took a lousy picture for revenge :)

 

<a href=" Mike's Bass title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1050/1108595665_d8938949a8_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Mike's Bass" /></a>

 

As the afternoon came to an end we headed to a spot to try our luck with the muskies. We spent a good hour or so tossing the big lures but nothing wanted to hit them. I decided to go back to my trusty tube but by now the sky and the water were conspiring to make it impossible for me to really see the weed beds so I was more or less tossing randomly when my rod bent over. Oooh nice smallie I think then I see the flash of a long side and then he cleared the water in a beautiful leap - tube musky ($20 muskie lures beaten by a $1 weighted hook and a 50 cent tube - figures). He gave a great fight, weaving all over the place, jumping in the air, diving in the weeds, you name it. Eventually he tired out and we got him along side and into the boat for some quick pics. Not a huge one by any measure but what a fun fight for a 36" fish.

 

<a href=" I'm so cool title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/1109443374_8c07998f17_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="I'm so cool" /></a>

 

This pic cracks me up - looks like I sat on the lure while holding him:

 

<a href=" What did I sit on title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1368/1109398316_f238cb30e8_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="What did I sit on" /></a>

 

After a little reviving he was off:

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1109401102/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1141/1109401102_f0a7dd6718_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Releasing the muskie" /></a>

 

Since the tube caught the muskie I put on a spinner to catch - well anything. And a few minutes later I was back in the game - a wee bit smaller though - say 33" smaller ?

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1108557975/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1356/1108557975_e7d3ea14c3_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Suicide Perch" /></a>

 

But hey two fish in a row - back out goes the spinner and a few minutes later the line is tugging and I can't figure out what it is - not acting like a bass and not a muskie, whats going on? Get him up and what do you know - my first southern ontario walleye and species #4 for the day:

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1108560739/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1243/1108560739_c8d4ffda55_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Scugog walleye" /></a>

 

Now Mike's giving me a funny look because I did this last week - skunked all day then hit them all from 6pm on. I kinda laugh and say the only thing I need now is a smallie but I'm down to my last 'magic' tube. In she goes and yup - you know it was coming, just shy of 3lbs:

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1109408580/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1061/1109408580_0420e3e5de_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Nice smallmouth" /></a>

 

That was it for the day and we headed back. I'm starting to think that I should stay away from scugog until the sun starts setting - I just flat out suck at daytime fishing on that lake but I've got a giant horseshoe up my back side during the early evening.

 

So I guess I'd call it a draw when it comes to me vs Scugog - really the lake won when you consider the amount of hours put in (20 hours total over 2 days) vs the number of fish I landed (10 I think including a couple rock bass and that perch). Ah well, I guess that means I need to try the bog again sometime.

 

Big thanks to Patrick for driving and putting up with that horrible first day (we'll hit a different lake before the summers up and make up for it) and Mike for the invite Sunday. Also big thanks to Chompers for creating my magic tube - all of my gear reeks of garlic now but damn that tube works well.

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Guest Johnny Bass

Guest Johnny Bass

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Another excellant report! The thing about Scugog is, you dont need expensive musky baits to catch musky. All you need is bass and pickeral lures!

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lookinforwalleye All Knowing Angler

lookinforwalleye

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I have a trailer at Goreski`s and while it`s a great place their rental boats just plain stink, I saw another group being towed in Saturday afternoon I don`t know why anybody would rent one of their rigs.

 

The tourney on Saturday was a Bassmanisa event and judging by the winning weight the Bass fishery on Scugog is alive and well the winning weight was over 22 pounds for 5 fish thats well over a 4 pound average which is very good for any body of water.

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ccmtcanada Fishing God

ccmtcanada

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Sean...at least you've caught fish on that lake...even with the rental...LOL. Bly and I have rented there twice to fish...not a single fish caught...mind you, we have no idea what we are doing in a boat. Sorry to hear the rental thing didn't work out...at least we've never had issues with the boats we've had.

 

That second day was classic! Congrats on the muskie....great job! Thanks for the detailed report...makes for some fun reading when I see you've posted something.

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Bly Fishing Icon

Bly

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"all the way back to Toronto we kept repeating to ourselves "hate that lake", "hate that boat", "hate those weeds", "never going back"."

 

I have often muttered similar statements all the way home from that lake.... :lol:

 

Loved the report and congratulations on your success!

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