Welland River Report

[evster]

I was at my brother in laws place for the weekend in Vineland and we had planned on doing some goose hunting and then some fishing in Jordan Harbour saturday morning. The rain and wind kept us in bed until about 8 then we went down to check out the lake to see how it was, too rough for our 14 foot tinny so we needed another plan. My bro wanted to check out a "creek" he heard is good for duck hunting so we loaded the boat into the truck and hit the road. This "creek" was actually the Welland River. Got there and loaded everything into the river but the motor wouldn't start and it turned out the hose on the inside of the gas tank had fallen off so it wasn't pumping gas. So back to my bro's shop and we fixed it up and went back. By this time it was about 3:30 and we were moving down the river by 4. Our main goal was looking for hunting spots but the logs and weeds on this river were too hard to resist.

 

Pulled this guy off of a lone log with a green buzzbait. He hit right after the bait bounced off the log, so remember to run your baits right into the logs, they can't resist it.

 

 

A bit later my bro got one about the same as that with a chartreuse spinnerbait. And just after that I thought I nailed a monster, but it turned out to be a cat fish, caught on a spinnerbait!

 

That was it for the night as we had to be back to make supper but we decided to give it a go again in the morning. Got there about 7 the next morning, the river was beautiful and flat as a pancake. But boy was she cold.

 

 

Not too long after stopping at a nice looking tree I picked up a nice little bucket using a white spinnerbait. Things slowed down a bit for about an hour until the sun came up and started warming up. My bro was loving fishing with the spinnerbait and used the same one the whole time. In one spot he kept feeling a bite over and over, I just wrote it off as a stick that he was nicking, but then he pulls out this crappie. Another thing we didn't expect to catch on a spinnerbait.

 

 

Soon after that I flipped a Jig 'n Pig beside a downed tree and again thought I hammered a big bucket. Ended up being my first bowfin, a bit disappointing but its another species I haven't caught before.

 

My bro is still throwing that spinnerbait and tosses it deep into a nice tree, looked like a beauty spot. Big hit, and the fish streaks towards us and goes right past the back of the boat. He only had about 10 feet of line out when he got the hit and the fish actually spun our boat. Brings it to the surface and its a nice pike.

 

 

The locals sure were right when they said you can catch pretty much anything on this river. I picked off another little bass off a tree right by where this pike was.

 

Getting near time to go back in but its tough to leave. We come up to a log and my bro point it out to me so I flip the jig right beside it perfectly with no splash (a rare occurrence which makes it worth mentioning), and wham, fish on. Just a little guy but i'll take him.

 

 

Now its definitely time to go as we've worked our way down the river pretty far, and have a 30 minutes drive home and we are supposed to be back in 10 minutes. But up ahead about 30 feet I see a dark spot, away from the wood and away from the weeds, it must have been a log, but I pitched to it and finally pulled a decent sized bucket into the boat.

 

 

I caught 3 or 4 more bass all about the size of the first one, not huge size on average but still fun. It was definitely a good few hours spent on the river though and we will definitely go back again since it is nice and close to my bros and really easy to hand bomb the boat in, and there is a decent free launch there to for when we get a trailer. Next time I want an electric motor though because with some boat control i'm sure we could work the trees much better and pull some good fish out of them. Most of my fish bit either a white spinnerbait or a black/yellow jig with a craw trailer, ALL my bro's fish bit a chartreuse and red spinnerbait, and all of our fish came from the wood and not one from the weeds.

[bassboy]

Some nice fish there Evster. WTG!!!

Catfish on a spinnerbait though?? Thats an odd one. Had crappie take them before but not catfish. Kinda like the guy I saw catch a catfish on a red devil.....

 

Sounds like you had a good weekend. Did you find any good hunting spots or were you pre-occupied?

 

Great report!!

 

 

Bill

[fatherof3]

good report and nice variety of fish

[ccmtcanada]

Great report! Caught a nice variety of species too. That pic of the river in the morning with the fog was really cool. Thanks for the report...nice job out there!

[kennyman]

Evster. Man,where were you guys? Went there yesterday with a buddy and caught nothing all day. We were all around the Chippewa Conservation area fishing the Welland River. We tried everything. We had minnows too. I'd never been anywhere for a whole day and not even gotten one bite with minnows. Not even panfish nibbling!!! I mean NOTHING!!! We tried spinnerbaits,plastics,crankbaits. We threw in the wood,in the pads, everything we could think of. It was quite frustrating because it was such a peacefull place and to me it looked like fish heaven. My buddy kept bugging me about taking him to a place with no fish.

[steverowbotham]

nice. havent seen a white crappie in quite some time.

[tbayboy]

Great report man. I love it when you get a nice mix of fish in a spot - keeps you guessing.

[evster]

Kennyman,

 

We were just up a bit east from you. We put the boat in at Wellandport community center and worked our way east. The first day we worked our way around two of the big bends and then yesterday we went and started where we left off and worked both shorelines to about where the river runs along Old River Road. Where we finished looked like a prime spot, and so you know its just before a while bunch of buoys. Not sure what the buoys are for but I know the logs before them hold some good bass.

 

There is definitely a lot of river to fish. We are going to try and find some more spots to drop in so that we dont have such a long boat ride with the little 9.9hp motor. I'm surprised you guys didn't get anything. I think next time we go we are going to work our way west a bit and try it out. But you are right in saying the water looks like fishing heaven. Its a beautiful river.

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Nice! lOoks like you got out anmd caught a few fish!Thanks for the report!

[scuro]

To be fishing now as you guys did....summers over ...

[Mike the Pike]

Nice fishin report Evster you always make it look too easy MTP

[kennyman]

Kennyman,

 

We were just up a bit east from you. We put the boat in at Wellandport community center and worked our way east. The first day we worked our way around two of the big bends and then yesterday we went and started where we left off and worked both shorelines to about where the river runs along Old River Road. Where we finished looked like a prime spot, and so you know its just before a while bunch of buoys. Not sure what the buoys are for but I know the logs before them hold some good bass.

 

There is definitely a lot of river to fish. We are going to try and find some more spots to drop in so that we dont have such a long boat ride with the little 9.9hp motor. I'm surprised you guys didn't get anything. I think next time we go we are going to work our way west a bit and try it out. But you are right in saying the water looks like fishing heaven. Its a beautiful river.

Thanks. I guess next time we'll start there. I've just never been ANYWHERE where I fished all day and not even a nibble on minnows. It was so nice there I really wanted the fishing to be good.