Jump to content

Mixed bag in Kawartha Dairy country


johnnyb

Recommended Posts

OKay, so we (the lovely Laker Jessy and I) have 3 weeks unil the dockside wedding on Gull Lake near Minden. This means we should be getting the apartment packed up and ready to move into the new place...finalizing guest lists....scheduling rehearsal/ceremony/reception stuff....but it's at the cottage! How hard can it be?!?! And with the weather so nice, the best thing we can do is work on our relationship, right? Translastion -- let's get in the boat and go fishing!

So we head out on Sunday morning (stupid work on Saturday...) looking to see what the bass fishing is like on Gull Lake. Headed for a likely looking shoal, and pulled this half-decent fish out with my new Mercer's Magic DT-10 Flatside. Man, that lure's name is a mouthful!

n595006200_1421693_6127.jpg

 

We nailed another bass, on the good ol' Zara Spook, and Jessy thought it would be tasty. And the mere thought of eating also made her realize she had skipped breakfast, so, back to the dock we went, fish in tow.

Upon our arrival, her 5-year old nephew Jonah, an aspiring fisherman himself, was up and about, and thought that he should pose with the bass, who he was quick to point out, went by the name of Fred.

n595006200_1421696_6947.jpg

 

In fact, since Fred was still quite spunky and full of life, Jonah convinced his aunt Jessy that Fred should move to the dock, and live there for the summer. I agreed that it certainly would be easier to release the bass than clean and fillet it, so, into the drink he went.

n595006200_1421697_7234.jpg

 

We had a quick bite, and went back out to find some more bass. This time, seeing as how he was already awake, we took Jonah along to see if he could pull his first bass out of the lake. After scaling down the lure size so that he could hook something, he came up with this little guy, who he was much happier to hold than the 18 inch "Fred".

n595006200_1421698_7516.jpg

 

After dropping Jonah off, Jessy wanted to take one more crack at it, so off we went. While I was pondering aloud as to the possiblity of Largemouth Bass in Gull Lake, this chunky fella thumped my green tube jig, rigged weedless with no weight.

n595006200_1421699_7814.jpg

 

So Gull Lake is looking like a pretty decent little lake, with a few nice bass to show for not much effort. But what Jessy wants is to go after some of these Musky I keep telling her about. So the boat gets loaded up into the truck, and we roll down the road, which conveniently took us past the ice cream store, to one of the many lakes in the area known to hold Musky. Bolstered by the advice of a couple very helpful OFC'ers, I had a decent enough idea of where we should go, once we got there. This was especially helpful, because it was a pretty non descript lake, at first glance

n595006200_1421700_8110.jpg

 

See? Just a lot of water...and uh...yeah. I sure like having Jessy in the boat with me :whistling:

As it turns out, the lake had some pretty healthy weed beds, and more than a few shoals. We trolled until we found a likely looking spot, which had the right mix of rocks and weeds, in about 8-10 FOW. Jessy was tossing a firetiger Super ShadRap, and got the first follow. Having never seen a Musky in person before, she was getting pretty excited. The breeze was working with us for a nice drift, so we made a few more, and Jessy actually got a couple more follows and a wicked strike, the drag started peeling out, and the fish, which appeared to be in the mid 30-inch range, was gone. But somebody was hooked on Musky!

 

Some more cruising around, while I'm trying to remember the instructions I've been given on this lake. Dodged a few rocks, but couldn't find too many weeds....until I saw 3 boats, all about 150 yards apart, but in a relatively straight line from each other. I figured they were out there either for Musky or Walleye, as I had seen a few Walleye fishermen pass by already.

We head over to the general area, and are greeted with some very healthy weeds in what looks to be 8-10 FOW. Hmmm....time to start casting me thinks....

I figured I would give my clown coloured Buchertail a few more minutes before switching to something similar to what Jessy had been getting all the action on. A few more minutes was all I needed though, as I got a massive hit, looked up to see a huge boil on the water, and we were off! Not the fish -- us! He started towing us as he tried to bury himself in the weeds. I was pretty sure I had a PB on, but didn't confirm it until I got my first look at him. Then the legs started shaking....the camera started rolling (I'll figure out how to post a video soon), and I figured it was a good time to mention that I didn't bring the net. :rolleyes:

10 or 15 minutes later, after some blazing runs, lots of yelling and "Oh my GOSH's", I had a 47 inch musky in the boat with us. WOW!

n595006200_1421702_8670.jpg

 

Really healthy fish...the best fight I've ever had, and some awesome memories. Didn't take too long to revive, and swam away strong....can't wait to come back!

n595006200_1421704_9245.jpg

 

Going to try this video ... here goes....best I can do is a link to it....haven't figured out how to embed yet.

Edited by johnnyb
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice fish and what an awesome lake. I just love the scenery in that shot! ;)

 

Did you hit up the Kawartha Dairy?!!!!

 

 

Did I hit up the Kawartha Dairy?!?!?! Like a champ!!! Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, and a take home tub for snackin!!!!! :thumbsup_anim:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait...there was a huge muskie in this report? For some reason I didn't get past a certain picture.

 

I'll go back and look......

 

Congrats on the PB!!! A great fish for sure....will look forward to seeing the video too.

 

Great report and pics Johnny...already looking forward to the next one!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Johnny Bass

Very nice Musky, and you had your babe there with you to enjoy it. Excellent! Great Video too. But I think its time to invest in a big net.lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recent Topics

    Popular Topics

    Upcoming Events

    No upcoming events found

×
×
  • Create New...