That's why its called fishing

tbayboy · July 15, 2008

Well like they say, you can't win 'em all. The last couple weeks have certainly shown that - after the great Canada day weekend I thought July was gonna be a banner fishing month but so far it's giving me a work out. That said I figured a report about bad fishing and what you can learn from it might be welcome enough on the board so here goes my 4 days of not fishing well!

It started last weekend when Mikeh and I hooked up for a trip to Georgian Bay. I've never been but to the area but Mike grew up in the area so I was all set for dozens of monster smallies and at least 10 50" muskies before the day was out.

We hit the water around 8:30 in the AM on a beautiful day and headed out for some smallies to warm up. Mike worked the top water while I switched up between top water (skitter prop), cranks (x-raps in a variety of colours) and tubes (brown puke) but nothing was happening. At one point I had one follow my tube out of a rock pile but he just watched it regardless of what I did. Another followed a blue and white x-rap the same way - curious but no reactions. Then we saw the mayfly skins and I think we'd figured out the problem. We moved on to try our luck at some of these giant Georgian Bay muskies. We worked several shoals til our arms hurt but nothing raised out of the depths (or shallows). That was our pattern for the day - for 8 hours we switched locations, tried different patterns, all failed. At one point we came up behind an island and saw 3 boats working the area so we figured that must be a sign and one guy trolling held up a nice stringer of smallies so we camped out but still nothing. He was trolling live bait by the looks of it, good on him, bad on us .

Finally Mike suggested we head to some pad for a guarantee of fish (or at least to raise them with some frog baits). Well we get in there and see a gar pike. Than another than another, than 3 together. The place was infested with them and they weren't spooked by anything nor would the attack anything (not that we had any idea what to do with a Gar). Obviously we couldn't find a bass to save our lives, not sure if all the Gar had something to do with it but we left the pads with our tails between our legs and swung by one last spot. This was a drift along a weed edge outlying a bay in 10-15 FOW. I put on a perch pattern x-shad rap and started cranking away about 5' down ticking the weed tops. As we neared the end of our first drift I felt tap tap then nothing - stuck on some weeds again. Ugh, I said out loud - got a good pile of weeds here. At this point the part of my brain that remembers growing up in NW Ontario gave up and shut down at my stupidity. Luckily the x-shad comes with some good hooks. I pull at the weeds to get loose and see that the weeds are gold - lots of gold! Holy crap, its a huge eye! Mike grabs the net and my day is salvaged with my new personal best: 5lb 3oz (didn't get a length). Here she is nice and calm in the classic walleye sleeper hold:

After that we figured we could try the drift again. About half way through Mike gets our first targetted species:

So 8 hours of fishing and we get our only 2 fish in the last 1/2 hour. Well at least we learned a patten that worked but boy that was a lousy day.

Sunday I had some running around to do so I hit the Grand river for 3 hours - hit a spot that's produced last year and the water looked good. Too bad there's too much of the water (or at least I think thats the reason) as the fish just weren't where they should be. I had one little guy spit out my tube and one solid hit that I lost 30 seconds later because I'm an idiot - Hold the rod up you rookie!!!! Then I get home and hear from Mike - he went to scugog and caught 5 bass and 2 muskie including a 40+ incher. Gahh - I missed that?

Ok fast forward to this weekend. Mike and I head back to the bog for some muskie hunting. We've done well there this year so I'm feeling good. Here's what I learned after that long long day - be willing to adapt. We spent all day focusing on Musky and I really think, in retrospect, downsizing to some regular spinner baits would have saved the day with a mix of bass and smaller muskies. We learned this near the end of the day when we went to a spot we'd never been to before and found a nice trough to run through. I'd finally given up on the big girls and was tossing a 1/4 oz white spinner bait when I saw a little torpedo swing behind it, pull a U-turn and come back for more. Hooray, the skunk is over!

In the same trough Mike starts tossing a mid sized orange and black spinner and gets the slightly bigger brother:

We worked at it for a while longer but as Mike said the next day "we were just punishing ourselves". Talking to guys at the launch they said going with small spinners really worked for them. Ah well, we found a new spot on the lake and learned a lesson about changing up when things aren't working.

Sunday we decided to hit a different part of the lake and focus on Bass. As we got to the launch we realized there must be a tournament on. Oh well, we headed out and started a drift (very windy day, great for drifting with and without the socks) near the launch. I was tossing the classic white spinner blade (colorado) and Mike was mixing a firetiger/chartruese spinner blade with top waters. 20 minutes into the day and I get a hit right by the boat. Woohoo, bass time! Then Mike notices its a walleye. Well I'll be damned. I reach down to grab the line and watch him pop off the hook. I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed anywhere near NW Ontario after that mistake . But seeing the eyeball I figure I'm going to see if there's anymore and tie on a bucktail with a white grub and start flipping it out. Pretty soon I feel a tick tick and the NW ontario breeding finally wakes up and I drop the tip give him a sec and pop a sure thing:

What do you know, there are walleye in this lake! Sure enough Mike quickly gets one on his spinner blade and the skunk is off the boat early in the day:

Soon after I got a little bass but didn't bother with a picture - he's too small, I tell Mike, I'll get a better one for the picture. Yeah you know what that means . Mike landed a couple little guys as well but it got tough. Luckily Mike managed to find one the pros forgot:

After that we moved all over trying to find a productive spot like we'd had in the morning but nothing worked. Technically I'm going to put it down to the sun coming out and the dozens of bass pro's working the lake but boy did it put a damper on the day. We kept working for that one last good fish to save the day but it wasn't to be.

I was pretty bitter by the end of the day but as we packed up I thought about the great start to the day and the walleye pattern that we'll be sure to use again and I realized that this is part of what keeps us fishing. That drive to not be beaten by the fish or the lake - I can't wait to get back out there and prove that I can do better and learn from my the bad days. Of course I may bring the ultralite and slip floats - just in case

Hope you enjoyed the read

Sean

Edited July 15, 2008 by TbayBoy

lunkerbasshunter · July 15, 2008

hey great report! to bad the fishing was tough but you guys stuck it out and got a few anyway.

Cheers!

MCTFisher9120 · July 15, 2008

Great Report!!

JeffBornFishin · July 15, 2008

Sounds like you had quite the workout. Great spot to be though!

Excellent report and pics thanks! :clapping:

July 15, 2008

Excellent report as usual! That sucks about the slow fishing, but you did catch some fish, got a PB, found some new spots and some very valuable lessons. When fish aren't biting its good to slow it down or downsize your bait! Thanks for sharing.

solopaddler · July 15, 2008

Hey bud looks like you did some catching to me, nice fish!

If anything can be gleaned from your report it's that perseverence pays off :clapping: .

Victor · July 15, 2008

That didn't look so bad for a couple days of fishing. My year's been worse so far ... hopefully it'll turn around soon time.

Thanks for the report, enjoyed the read and congrats on the new PB eye!

TroutnMuskieHunter · July 15, 2008

nice report Sean....in my mind, just the fact that you were able to get outa the jungle and spend 4 days of fishing and R & R is good enough....it could have been worse...you could have gone home with that smell of "skunk" on both of ya's :Gonefishing:

ccmtcanada · July 15, 2008

Ok...so you caught fish every time and it's a bad day?? Jeez...how soon you forget those shore days where one fish is a good day....LOL.

You've had a banner year so far Sean....sometimes things get slow, but hey, you got out there and caught a few.

Congrats on the PB walleye....always nice to catch a surprise fish!

mikeh · July 15, 2008

great report Sean, did you take apart that abu 6501 yet?

tbayboy · July 15, 2008

great report Sean, did you take apart that abu 6501 yet?

Dang, I'd almost forgotten that stupid thing. Talk about backlashes from hell . Took it apart and it looks fine so I tightened everything up and will give it another go.

fishnsled · July 15, 2008

Great report and some sweet fish for having a tough go at it. Congrats on the PB walleye, nice looking fish. :thumbsup_anim:

LeXXington · July 15, 2008

That sounds like some great fishing too me

ehg · July 15, 2008

After those reports from Scugog with the great musky and bass catching a couple of weekends ago, of course you'll be disappointed .

But catching a PB walleye and those others ain't too shabby either.

Great report and pictures again,

ehg

That's why its called fishing

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