Back from summer vacation.......

[Billy - Curtiss]

Two Saturdays ago, my girl Sabina and I made the trek to the Lakefield area for 3.5 days of cottaging on Lake Katchewanooka. Check in was 4:00 PM and our first stop was at Lakefield Bait and Tackle where I plied the dude working for any and all possible insight he had to offer. He told me the lake was full of musky but I didn't see a single one for the duration of our stay. When I asked him about walleye, he said they were next to non-existent and near impossible to catch this time of year. I asked him what I should be using for bass and he hooked me right up. Apparently, Texas-rigged weightless plastics were the way to go and rather than pitch me the Yamamoto's, he sold me on the christmas tree Wave Worms which were half the price. This was my first experience fishing this style and the bass (both smallies and bucketmouths) were all over it.

 

The cottage was situated right across from a massive reed island and I honestly didn't need to stray from it at all. Katchewanooka is shallow and weedy and hence a veritable haven for bass. The first day, when not fishing from the dock, we were out in a pedal boat which goes nowhere fast but was actually quite comfortable. Here's my first fish from the dock:

 

 

 

As dusk approached, I tried out rigging the Wave Worms and some trial casts to get the hang of it. Am I ever glad I did. My first cast, I'm jerking her along bottom and just as the bait gets right beside the dock, I notice a nice sized bass. It totally inhaled the worm and I was able to see first hand the art of this style. Had I not witnessed it, I likely would have lost a lot of fish by trying to set the hook too soon. Patience is the key and dead-stickin' was the way to land them time and time again. Here's the first bass:

 

 

Over the course of our stay my buddy Greg and I caught more bass than I can possibly count. 5:00 AM roll calls were the norm and we fished dusk every day until the mosquitoes became too much to handle. Here are some more fish:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the first time, I also tried my hand at using a cheap weedless frog I picked up at Walmart. This was one of the most exciting moments as the sucker got totally smashed on the first cast. We were fishing heavy weed cover in only about 2 feet of water and the fish put up an admirable fight. I didn't expect this at all:

 

 

20 inches of glorious pan fried goodness! I also caught another 19 " walleye the next day but failed to bring the camera. All in all, I would say the fishing was amazing. We caught many fish every day and I left quite satisfied!

 

After spending one night at my Mom's in Corbeil outside of North Bay, we went to my buddy Dave's out on Wasi Lake which is another amazing bass fishery. I didn't even bother going out in the boat but fished dusk from shore. I caught some average sized bass on the Wave Worms. Then I went back to the trusty frog and caught my PB smallie. The beautiful thing about this, is it was pitch black and midnight when I landed it. I was bouncing the frog around top water a mere foot from shore in about 1.5 feet of water and something kept smashing at the frog. I kept missing the hookset and figured it was just a dink but after about 10 minutes, this sucker inhaled it and then I pulled the flashlight out of my pocket to behold this goodness!

 

 

I caught several more smallies the next morning before making the trek to Sudbury where my girl's folks live. But first we stopped in at the family camp on the west arm of Lake Nipissing and I caught a nice sized pike and another nice smallie from the dock. Even though I grew up in the North Bay area, I had never fished Nipissing and I'd take advantage of it more often if Sab's Dad wasn't out there every single weekend fishing and entertaining hoards of Czech tramps as they so proudly call themselves!

 

In Sudbury, Sab's folks live on Ramsey Lake and I always have fun catching pike and smallies from their dock and the adjacent rock cuts. But the real point of this portion of our trip was an outing for specks with my buddy Dan who promised to get me into my first speck. We went up the East Branch Road north of Espanola to a little alleged honey hole called Tower Lake. Dan's PB speck came out of this lake and weighed in at 6.5 pounds. I've seen a few others around the same size culled from the same waters posted on the OFAH awards website. Unfortunately. Because we didn't catch nor see a darned thing and it appears this once secret spot is now fairly well known. Which sucks. I mean, anyone can get their hands on the MNR stocking list and they stock this lake with 500 of them every year, but when we got there, we found two boats chained up to trees in the bush and it seems the place is getting milked, which isn't the sensible thing to do. Dan and I mainly fish the many lakes in and around this area and we only hit a lake once a year out of respect for the resource. Others evidently don't feel the same.

 

So there you have it in a nut. Even though I have no inches to contribute to the team (though I did my darnedest!) I had an astounding time even if it all ended on a rather sour note. The only thing to do is get back out there and persevere!

 

Edited August 7, 2008 by Billy - Curtiss

[tibbs]

Great Report!

 

That one smallie's massive!

[urbanangler1990]

awsome report and nice fish

 

 

last pic has me memorized

[Billy - Curtiss]

Great Report!

 

That one smallie's massive!

 

Yeah, no doubt! I wish I was the one who landed it!

[goodtimer]

yeah that last picture is verrrrry cool..

 

nice report, thanks for sharing!

[highdrifter]

Good one brah!! That's one heck of a trip.

 

I cringe when I look at that first shot.. I'm reminded of the poor guy who got his septum pierced by a crank bait ahaah. Oooooohhh

 

That last shot is wicked. It looks like you were in heaven, literally.

 

Thanks for the report bud. We'll have to test those skills again this weekend!

 

HD

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Excellent report! Your buddy has a monster smallie. But why does he look so peed off?lol Some nice pickerel too.

 

I'm surprised you didn't catch any at Wasi Lake. It used to be a pickerel hot spot. I was thinking of buying a camp ground for sale on that lake. But it is just too far. Anyways, thanks for sharing.

[Billy - Curtiss]

Excellent report! Your buddy has a monster smallie. But why does he look so peed off?lol Some nice pickerel too.

 

I'm surprised you didn't catch any at Wasi Lake. It used to be a pickerel hot spot. I was thinking of buying a camp ground for sale on that lake. But it is just too far. Anyways, thanks for sharing.

 

Ha! He's intentionally making a 'metal face!' There are still definitely lots of pickeralleyes in Wasi Lake but I wasn't targeting them and I seldom catch them from shore there.

[Musky or Specks]

Tackle guy was right there is a ton of musky in Katchabazooka as we call it. My single best day of musky fishing was there. 14 fish in the boat and 4 or five missed.

 

This was the best of the bunch and was my PB at 47 inches until I got a bigger one on the French a couple yrs ago

 

 

 

 

Glad to hear you had a good time and it sounds like the bass were on. Keep up the good work nice report.

[Reef Runner]

Very nice pics and a great report.

 

Thanks for sharing your vacation with us!

 

Good "metal" face, lol.

[Leecher]

Great report and pics Billy

It looks like you had lots of fun and caught a good mix bag of fish.

 

Good read and thanks for sharing.

Leechman

[b2kptbo]

WOW, cool report, musta been a great time...