Probably my last Fishing Report for a while - full of fishin' pics

[007]

Hi all,

 

Well I've finally thawed out and got the use of my fingers back from spending most of Saturday fishing up at the Barrie marina on Lake Simcoe in the freezing cold, so here's my report.

 

My fishing bud from work wanted to go fishing with me one last time before I headed back home across the pond. We considered our shore fishing options for a fun-packed day of fishing and came up with a very short list - Barrie marina. We had fished it last Decemebr so we knew what to expect - non-stop perchin' fun. Fishing the marina is not the best fishing experience if you like nature and solitude (like I generally wish for) but if you want to have some fun, catch fish and avoid the skunk then its worth trying at least once.

 

The day started out early for me as I had to head down to Union Station to catch the bus to Newmarket where I would be picked up for the drive to Barrie. Once in Barrie, we visited the Simcoe Bait and Tackle shop to get some minnows and some advice. We cruised along the lakeshore and found that people were fishing a number of different spots along the shoreline and there were even a few boats out fishing the bay too. We decided not to fish from the pontoons in the marina as only a few were open and they were quite crowded plus (as misfish & others had warned in another post) they looked very icy and treacherous - I didn't want to go for a swim with the fish! Instead we chose to fish from the breakwall into the marina, which was also a lot less crowded.

 

 

We started fishing at about 10.15am and had not caught a single fish by 11am and were beginning to question our choice of spot to fish, especially as a few people were catching perch from the pontoons. The difficulty was we had started fishing with rods that we had set up the night before for fishing from the docks - fairly light tackle with short rods and fixed floats. Problem was - from where we were, we needed to be able to cast against the strong SW wind and get our tackle down deep for the perch. So a change of tackle was required, and sure enough as soon we changed to longer rods and heavier floats with more depth - fishing at about 8ft in about 9-10ft of water - we struck gold or should I say green with black stripes!

 

My first fish of the day...

 

 

I started out by fishing with small minnows hooked on small jigheads below a float. The fishing started off slowly with mainly fish in the 7-8 inch size bracket. But the action was enough to keep us warm and it's always a pleasure to catch perch - with their positive bites and scrappy fight. They are also some of the most attractive coloured fish out there....

 

 

 

 

Afer a while we got into a groove and were pulling out fish every cast using minnows as bait and the size of fish was increasing to on average 9-10 inches. Here's a few of the bigger ones...

 

 

 

 

 

My fishing partner Alex and I decided to add a little competitive edge to the fishing - so we started counting the catch to see who could get to 50 first! After a couple of hours I reached 30 fish, so decided to change baits to see what else the perch would hit. I had some left over worms from fall bass fishing so cut those in half and fished those on the jighead and sure enough the perch kept biting. Typically you hear that worms catch smaller perch than minnows but this didn't seem to happen as I still caught a few 9-10 inch fish with them. I then tried some berkeley curly-tail grubs and minnows, which I did also get bites on but few hook-ups - maybe the size of these baits was the issue, as they were bigger than the small live minnows we had. The other reason for using the alternative baits was because putting my hand in a bucket of cold water to get a minnow after virtually every two fish caught (every few minutes) was really causing my hand problems - it was going purple with frostbite!

 

Once I reached the 50 fish mark I decided to put the rod down, have a snack and walk around to warm up. As I was taking a few pictures of the area I noticed a long brown furry creature hopping around the rocks on the breakwall about 5m away from me. As I watched it, it went for a swim - diving down and swimming underwater for about a minute or two. The funny thing was you could see a line of bubbles on the surface as it swam. So I got the camera ready and followed the bubbles until it came back on shore and I snapped a shot of him - pity the camera's autofocus didn't get a sharp image - but as you can see the furry creature was a large mink. I've seen a few while fishing this year in Toronto but had never seen one go for a swim before but I have since read it is quite common as they will eat fish, frogs as well as their favourite muskrats.

 

 

 

After I had warmed up a bit I went back to fishing and it wasn't long before I had caught over 70 perch. All fish were released unharmed - much to the surprise of those with buckets and nets who didn't seem to be catching as many as us from across the docks! Most people were keeping the fish they caught but for us it was all about the pleasure of one last day fishing together. It was funny to see the strange looks we got for being so excited about catching perch after perch and releasing every one, even the bigger ones - most of the guys there didn't look like they were enjoying the fishing experience but were simply there to suffer for the end result - a bucket full of fish. Each to their own I suppose. I do still have my concerns about the sustainability of such harvesting but only time will tell if the limits are appropriate and I can't help thinking how big the perch could grow in Simcoe if more were released. Imagine the fun if you caught half as many fish but they were twice the size!

 

Here's a few more close-up shots of Perca Flavescens or Yellow Perch...

 

 

 

 

Well after catching about 150 perch between us and many of a respectable if not 'jumbo' size the sun began to set on probably my last fishing trip in Ontario for a long while. What a day - certainly worth freezing for!

 

Hope you enjoyed the read.

 

007

 

p.s. Look out for my post summarising my almost 3 years of Canadian fishing adventures coming soon to a screen near you!

 

[fatherof3]

great report and pics,will miss your reports as they are always a good read

[ccmtcanada]

007....150 fish? That's not too shabby at all!!! I will miss your reports, but will look forward to your fishing summary.

 

Those fish are pretty aggressive!!! That third pic (second fish pic) shows that Perch trying to eat your thumb...LOL

[Greencoachdog]

Great report and pics!!!

 

I felt as though I was freezing right there beside you... 'cept for the freezin part.

Edited November 25, 2007 by Greencoachdog

[Fisherman]

Great report, nice pictures to boot.

[tbayboy]

Great report as always, thats a whole wackload of perch way to go. Can't wait to read the summary.

[Mike Pike]

Wow, a what a report and what pics!

 

Thanks 007. You really took us all right along the freezing shores of Lake Simcoe with you.

 

Thanks for that. Who need fishin' mags!

 

Cheers!

[Photoz]

Great report . . . . better average size fish than I expected! I'm amazed they were biting at all, the unsettled weather usually shuts 'em right down! Ya gotta watch those mink . . . . if you are there in the winter, and just put your 'keepers' on the ice, they'll sneak out from under the docks, like shot and cart 'em away! There was even a pair of otters hangin' around for a while a few winters ago . . . . they caught their own though! If it ever warms up a bit, I'm gonna take a buzz up before Christmas for a shot at it . . . . . with all the cold weather predictions . . . . might be choppin' a hole in the ice by then?

[misfish]

Glad yer visit to Barrie was enjoyable and succesful.

I drove by in the morning ,and yep those docks looked slippery and very crowded.

I like to throw the furry little guys a perch or two.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[pikehunter]

can't help thinking how big the perch could grow in Simcoe if more were released. Imagine the fun if you caught half as many fish but they were twice the size!

Have to agree with you about that, too many small ones being kept for the frying pan. Wonder if a limit of 20 would make a difference after a few years of being enforced?

 

Good report on a good days fishing.

[Rich]

Great report, very entertaining read. Looks like a great time.

 

On the subject of releasing fish, I believe the reason the fish are stunted is because there are too many of them. The more fish there are, the smaller they are, at least that's usually the way it is.

[snag]

I look forward to posts from across the pond.

 

We don't get enough international posts (except for the annoying gigantic pike pic from Europe)

 

Have a good trip!

[tbayboy]

hehe Snag, I expect to see that pic with 007s face pasted in a month after the move back

[007]

Thanks for the kind words guys - makes the effort of posting worthwhile.

 

I will hopefully post my mammoth "3-year summary" report tonight - did you know that the limit of pictures per single post is 50?! You might want to pour a good cup of coffee before you start to read it!

 

Cliff - LOL They really were hungry and given the chance they enjoyed a good nibble on my thumb - I have the teeth marks to prove it - the little devils!

 

Rich - I hear you about the stunted fish but I thought that mainly applied to small bodies of water not big ones like Simcoe? It would be nice to think that there's a few 3-4lbers out there somewhere eating all the dinks!

 

SNAG - Have you forgotten all those "International" posts from the shirtless wonder that is Greencoachdog! I will definitely do my best to get out and fish back home and try to post some reports from England.

 

Damn you TBayboy - now I'll have to think of another first post from across the pond!

 

007

[lunkerbasshunter]

fun report thanks for sharing!

 

Cheers!