Grand river bonanza

[tbayboy]

After a bad trip to Balsam last week PatrickG and I decided to try the Grand again. Our first stop in KW is at Natural Sports for tubes and jig heads (big plug for those guys - they know and carry exactly the right stuff for the region and are very friendly). They're starting to gear up for salmon but tell us the bass are definitely on as well. Great we think and head to Patrick's spot on the river. Last time we fished here he outfished me 20 to 7 so I had spent the meantime stocking up on all the same gear as his - this time it would be different I thought!

 

Before I get into the report a little diversion about the pics. I had recently picked up an AquaPac which is basically a waterproof camera bag (thats much cheaper than the official waterproof housing). I bought it because I found myself shying away from deeper water in fear of ruining my camera. This thing is actually pretty cool and works well except that when you take it out of the water you have to remember to wipe the lens side of the bag otherwise you've got water droplets and smudges (the grand leaves this sediment on everything when it dries). Next time I'll remember this better so please excuse the picture quality.

 

Anyhow, back to the story - my turn to show Patrick how to fish the grand. Patricks first cast - fish on. Ah crap here we go again. Just a liittle guy but its the first bloody cast. 20 minutes later its 5 nothing. I've missed one but thats it. I switch to a topwater (getting desperate) and Patrick continues tossing the same jig with tube and boom - he's into a nice fish. He's yelling at me to come over with the camera and I'm swearing at him, at my rod, at the river. "Yeah yeah, its a big one, good for you, (stupid cheating son of a ...)"

 

Turns out it was a nice one. In fact a solid 3 pounder:

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1032/1424776083_7cbf4e40ce_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Fishing while using shrooms?" /></a>

 

As you can see I've blurred the background and even the fish - wouldn't want anyone knowing what we're doing right? Like I said, still learning how to use the new camera bag, this one came out a bit better

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1073/1424775387_d50d731a6a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Fishing while using shrooms?" /></a>

 

Patrick started giving me some advice and I realized I just wasn't feeling it with this ironsilk mono line. Patrick swears by it on the river and it seemed nice but I just didn't feel the bottom enough with the light jig heads. I switched to the spool of 8lb fireline crystal I had (handy thing with spinning gear) and it felt a million times better. Sure enough second cast:

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1007/1425661634_4354d8196a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="On of zillions of the little guys" /></a>

 

Took a pic of the little guy because I was worried that would be it for the day for me. Couldn't have been further from the truth. The wind was really blowing (this was Saturday) and was pushing against the current. As we walked down I noticed a break in the waves where a shelf dropped off into a bunch of big rocks with a big hole in the middle. "Oh yeah", says I, "thats gotta hold a fish". The second the tube hit the water I had a fish. Then another and another. Patrick starting working the area and it was on. Fish after fish hit from this 30 foot long honey hole. We were upset if you went two casts without a strike. Now to be fair the vast majority were like these guys from a double header:

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1418/1424782167_13e0588dfe_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Double header mini fish!" /></a>

 

But there were some big guys too including my best of the day (wish we'd brought a scale, not sure about weights):

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1049/1425662294_46e22f0d4d_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="My best of the day" /></a>

 

And Patrick had a couple more that we figured around the 3 lb mark:

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1314/1425659304_17cab6bef6_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Nice one" /></a>

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1122/1425663500_551b1b7c28_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="10 minutes later another" /></a>

 

As for the contest - well i stopped counting at 19 to 15 in Patrick's favour but I'm sure we ended up around the 50 mark in total so we'll call it a draw.

 

As for the camera the other thing I wanted to do was try some in water video. The results were ummmm mixed . But I had to put the clips together just because the commentary on some is pretty funny. I didn't think it would even pick up sound in there but it sure did and the clip where I stepped off a shelf into water almost over my waders is pretty funny (in that self deprecating humour type of way) and there's a good audio playback of me getting excited about a fish (yeah, yeah, I'm easily impressed):

 

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="

name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

 

So there it is - after a day of 2 hour drives, expensive boat rentals, bags and bags of gear, rods all over the place and next to nothing to show for it we spend $10 on gas, $6 for a pack of tubes, $4 for some jig heads and take one rod and some waders and have what so far is my best day of fishing this year, go figure . Big thanks to Patrick for all the river fishing know how he's passed on and please don't PM me asking for locations - this is PatrickGs spot and isn't big enough for any pressure so there's no way in hell I'm sharing it - the Grand is full of great fishing so go explore it and find your own spots

[pikehunter]

this is PatrickGs spot and isn't big enough for any pressure so there's no way in hell I'm sharing it - the Grand is full of great fishing so go explore it and find your own spots

Don't blame you bit!

 

That was a good day fishing, Goes to show you that a fortune needent be spent to catch fish.

[fatherof3]

looks like you guys had a great time,congrats

[LeXXington]

Great report, Glad you got out, Love the grand for bass:)

[packrat]

Thanks for the report and pics.

 

 

The Grand has a fantastic bass population, guard that location with your life.

 

Also fished the Grand Sat----no piggies like some you boys caught-----but not bad.

 

 

Gord

[joonmoon]

Good job, got some of them fav spots in the Grand as well. Lots of fish in the river just gotta find the best places to get em.

[PatrickGG]

Thanks for including me in your report T-Bay and it was one of the best days so far and it seems to get better everytime we go there hopefully we can get in one more day in before bass closes.

Edited September 25, 2007 by PatrickG

[Greencoachdog]

JHC!!! I'm trippin' man!!!

[BITEME]

NICE MAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike the Pike]

Nice report boys wow 50 smallies.I have to admit the video was making me sea sick but I did love the under water release shots.You really know how to turn your friend Patrick into a conehead though.

 

MTP

[PatrickGG]

Nice report boys wow 50 smallies.I have to admit the video was making me sea sick but I did love the under water release shots.You really know how to turn your friend Patrick into a conehead though.

 

MTP

 

 

LOL!

almost looks like a bad trip if you ask me.

[ccmtcanada]

LOL...another great report Sean!! Looked like a great time out there...the video was a very nice touch...pretty cool release shots there. Oh yeah....Loved how you prefaced the pictures as well....I had a good laugh....keep up the great work and reports!!!

[mikeh]

another great report, those are some nice smallies, congrats.

[FinS]

thanks for sharing nice fish

[gimby]

hey i fish near natural sports quite often where u fishing near the train brige or not

and great report

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Those are some nice smallies. I respect the fact that you dont want anyone to know your spot, BUT why did you have to ruin the actual fish pictures??? You could have just blocked out the scenery! Oh and by the way, did you watch the movie the ring??? Every time they photographed someones picture and it was blurry, something bad would happen.lol

[addict]

nice report.but those first few pics reminded me of a crazy mushroom trip i was on.wait maybe im having a flashback they were blurry right?

[tbayboy]

heheh I promise next time I'll remember to wipe the water off the camera bag guys. Wouldn't want to trigger any more flashbacks

[Mike Pike]

Always enjoy the reports from the river. That's a good bunch and bass and a terrific average size.

 

Congratulations on some grand Grand Smallies!!!

Edited September 26, 2007 by Mike Pike