Thames Tonight

[Beats]

Went out fishing with a buddy at Fanshawe Lake tonight for a few hours. We have found a spot on the lake that is only a few minutes walk from the car where we have been having good luck catching pickerel from shore. Fish are all being caught between about 8:20 and 9:20. When the sun is almost gone to about 20 mintues after its dark are when I'm getting them. All the pickerel are quite tiny so far but I have hopes of finding some bigger ones in there. I saw a pic the other day of a 4.5 lber caught last week there. Tonight we tried the main lake area near the beach but found the waves too much to fish, so we moved to the lower dam. Walked downstream of the dam quite a ways and tried some spots I've been told that are known to hold the odd pickerel. Had no luck and headed back to the dam at dusk to get the car. Made a few more casts at the dam before leaving and hooked into what I thought must have been a 1-2 lb pickerel. Got it to shore and my pickerel turned into a pike, which eventually turned into a gar as I got it out of the water. Totally by surprise. Not that most people target them, but I made a post a few months back stating that this was the first season I had ever seen gar in the Thames, and they are everywhere this year. I must have seen 50 so far this season, pretty much everywhere I fish. I've been catching my little pickerel on a Mepps #4 spinner with a stinger hook with a big, whole worm on it. Tonight I had the same setup but since I knew I was only making a few casts I didn't bother with the stinger. Surprised the hook stuck without the help of a stinger. Fish was hooked in the mouth and not the snout. Guess that may have helped. Now that I've caught one, I'd be fine not to get another one. It pulled a little bit coming in but once I laid it down on the rock it didn't move at all until I attempted to grab it.

 

Here's a couple of pics of the gar tonight and a few of the tiny pickerel from the lake over my last few visits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the pickerel I have caught so far are the exact same size. I'm limited to shore fishing and while I like the spot I'm fishing from, I may start exploring for spots with bigger fish. I'll have to keep fishing some more and if I don't get any of more substantial size I'll move on til I do.

[ccmtcanada]

VERY cool gar you got there! Nice job out there....night fishing yields my best results from shore!

[Headhunter]

Hey Beats, thanks for the report! As always, nice to see what's happening in my old stompin grounds! Yah there are plenty of Gar in the Thames and once you catch one, well, you won't bother to target them again... no fight, no fun.

I must say I am very pleased to see you catchin those small Pickereyes there, really bodes well for the future of the Thames fishery!

Congrats and keep lookin for those breeders!

HH

[Greencoachdog]

Nice report and pics!!!

 

Keep plugging away at those fish! You've got to sort thru the small ones to get to the big ones!!!

[Leecher]

Cool....gar on a Mepps Good job Beats

Great report and pics

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[JohnF]

Interesting collection of fish. Small is certainly better than no fish at all. That should become the Thames mantra this year. I noticed that even Marko's carp were little guys.

 

JF

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Looks like there will be lots of pickerel for the future years. And thats a nice Gar pike. Always a pleasant surprise to catch something different. Thanks for sharing.

[Rich]

That's awesome!