kayaking the Grand river

[jediangler]

Initially I wanted to go musky fishing in the Kawarthas this weekend, but just the thought of long weekend traffic was making me ill. I decided that I would stay home, sleep in and fish here at home on the Grand river. Saturday I went solo for some crappie in the kayak. After a treacherous decent from the Doon Pioneer Tower, I was in the water by 2pm. My crappie spot is a 1km paddle from where I put in and is upstream. Once there the fish where eager to bite. I caught 16 crappie and 12 smallmouth in 2 hrs fishing. All the bass were under 12" and all the crappie were between 8-9" except for this puppy that measured 11.5".

It was caught on a 1/16oz jig & grub combo in yellow. All the fish were released.

 

Sunday I had the pleasure of fishing with the Shipper who took out his smaller Sportspal complete with electric motor. I again took my kayak. Today our destination was the Freeport bridge where we could fish 2km of the Grand and then return upstream to our cars. We launched at 1pm and fished until 5pm, covering the full distance under the hwy #8 bridge all the way to the weir where you must portage to go any further. We each caught 8 or 9 smallmouth most in the range of this little 12" guy.

The Shipper did get the biggest bass of the day at 14.5". All bass were caught on 1/4oz bitsy bug jigs with spider grubs in pumpkinseed and were released.

We saw comorants, blue herons and a osprey cruising overhead. We also found a beaver house but he must have went away for the long weekend with the family. I also took this photo of a nice field of lily pads that has become my new desktop photo.

[fatherof3]

nice report looks like you had a good time

[danbouck]

Great Report!

[Mike Pike]

Terrific report, Jedi, and pics. Thanks, too, for your detail regarding your baits of choice.

 

Looks like a great time and you're really able to cover a lot of water in that kayak, eh.

 

Cheers!

[bbog]

Nice report and pictures Jedi.

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Nice crappie! That is one sweet lookin field of lily pads!

[mason05]

Nice work Jedi. Sounds like you got your share of fish over the weekend.

 

Corn Nug

[joonmoon]

WTG Bro, good to see ya get the Shipper out for some local Bass fishin. Traffic wasn't bad to the Kawarthas and even the boat traffic wasn't too bad...at least where we were anyways. Had to get out to see if my thumb could handle chuckin bucks...not so good. Beauty Crappie spot too.