You win some you loose some?

[tbayboy]

Saturday - 45 miles, 10 hours and 2 fish!

 

Well that about sums it up . Mike and I got together for another trip to our favourite wacky rigging bass lake and I think we've finally pushed out luck to far. We started off with a big bright ball of fire creeping up the sky

 

<a href=" title="Ready to go by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3036/2812860824_cff503f3c2_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Ready to go" /></a>

 

We quickly worked over our regular spots with barely a rock bass to show for it. We then worked a load of pads and pulled in one little runt but that was it. On the way we found a real fisherman:

 

<a href=" title="Ready to fish by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3031/2812862482_76c1d5dde7_b.jpg" width="796" height="1024" alt="Ready to fish" /></a>

 

<a href=" title="Better fisherman than I by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3128/2812861740_2446e28d72_b.jpg" width="1024" height="1001" alt="Better fisherman than I" /></a>

 

Nice pumpkinseed!

 

Anyhoo - we continued working while I played with my new toy - a garmin GPS76. Great unit that was quickly full of tracks criss crossing all over the lake. It was a depressing map to say the least . At the end of the day we made one more run to look over an island with a pretty good drop off. This finally worked for us - the drop off was kinda shaded as well and I think tht was the ticket - with the warm water and sun they'd gone for deep weeds and shade. Finally after 9 1/2 hours I managed to land a couple fish pretty quickly. I didn't even ask Mike to take a picture, it was that kind of day. So I just took a couple quick snaps

 

<a href=" title="Best of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2812015805_2f9844962a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Best of the day" /></a>

 

<a href=" title="First of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2812015135_2be64f87f4_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="First of the day" /></a>

 

And that was it - according to the fancy smanshy GPS we'd covered 45 miles over 10 hours when we put the boat on the trailer. Some days the lake just plain old wins I guess

 

Sunday- Try less, win more!

 

Sunday night I had a dinner and party to go to so I didn't make any plans for fishing. Instead I got up at 10am, made some nice breakfast, watched some TV. Had a nice morning. Around 1ish I realized it was a really nice day out and I was bored so I headed up to Kitchener to kill a few hours on the Grand.

 

I wasn't sure what the water would be like but I saw quickly that there was very little flow which is always a good sign. The water was a little murky but still pretty good for the Grand, especially the way this year has gone.

 

<a href=" title="Grand River by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3031/2815096333_9be0d91d9b_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Grand River" /></a>

 

The first cast with a mepps #3 caught a little bass and I started feeling optimistic. I caught a copule more little guys as I moved along to a spot full of big boulders I like to fish. The current was pretty slow so I put on a 5" pink senko and pretty soon I had a little fight on my hands. Damn I forgot how much fun river smallies are. I hadn't even bothered with my camera but luckily my new phone has a pretty good camera:

 

<a href=" title="Nice worm fish by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3160/2815096597_e14106c4b4_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Nice worm fish" /></a>

 

A couple more little guys played with the worm but I decided to change it up (swear I've got a case of lure ADD). I put on a smallish white spinner bait and second cast I nearly had the rod pulled from my hands. Wow are these current fish strong.

 

<a href=" title="Biggest of the day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3283/2815096929_25e060769c_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Biggest of the day" /></a>

 

And off he went to fight another day

 

<a href=" title="Off to swim another day by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3145/2815948284_4dd7ecca2d_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Off to swim another day" /></a>

 

10 minutes later and I had a blue and white pop-R on (I'd seen a few fish leaping). Sure enough a few casts later and I had another fun fight. Here he is getting ready to swim away

 

<a href=" title="Ready to go by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3126/2815948650_49cd21de4e_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Ready to go" /></a>

 

I had a couple more little guys after that but I had to leave in order to get back to town for the dinner but I gotta admit I was singng along to the radio the whole way back. Those two hours really made my day especially after the marathon of pain that Mike and I had gone through the day before.

 

Monday - Got a hangover cure?

 

Sunday night was well... (sorry can't embed facebook images you'll have to click the link)

 

Facebook Photo

 

Enough said about that . So needless to say I was hurting Monday. As I nursed my poisoned body back to life I looked over the pictures from Sunday and this little voice kept telling me to quit my whining and get back out there. So at 3pm I pulled up to the same parking spot with a box of chicken nuggets and a big iced coffee ready to try again. Let me tell you - 30 degrees with that big ball of fire in the sky just isn't the hang over cure you'd think it would be

 

And of course the fish had to throw in their 2 bits as well. Everything that worked the day before was being flatly ignored today. I had a couple little (like 5" little) guys but that was it. I gave it a couple hours and was ready to throw in the towel when I saw a big jump a ways away so I figure how much worse can it get right? So I trudged up and tossed the pink senko I had out in the area a couple times and finally got my reward. Right away I knew this was a nice fish - I grabbed the camera as he ran circles around me and snapped a couple pics

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2820019730/" title="Come to poppa by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2820019730_d93df0485d_b.jpg" width="1014" height="1024" alt="Come to poppa" /></a>

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2819175923/" title="Ready for my closeup by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3034/2819175923_79d240cbd4_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Ready for my closeup" /></a>

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2820020600/" title="Release shot by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2820020600_78bd019ce0_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Release shot" /></a>

 

At least I ended the day right .

 

So anyhow, thats how I spent my labour day long weekend, hope yours was enjoyable!

 

Sean

[ccmtcanada]

Wow...you really need to get out fishing more Sean....LOL.

 

We're lucky to get out one day on the weekends. At least you had GREAT weather out there....I think that's what happened, the fish were off....they were all confused because of the lack of rain recently.

 

Bly and I went for more muskie on Saturday....launched at noon, came in at 7. We had 5 follows right to the boat, but no takers. Oh well, had a great time out there anyways. At least you caught fish...haha.

 

Great report as usual....also good to see your pics fitting in the width of my screen....LOL.

[Leecher]

Great report and pics Sean

 

Some days the fish cooperates and some days they don't......at least you had a good ending

 

Good looking bass you caught!

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[sharper]

Sounds like some of the best fishing doesn't have to be far from home. Great way to end the long weekend!

[Greencoachdog]

Great report and some really nice pics!!!

 

You're really hooked on the wacky rig eh!... wonder how that'll work for ya thru the ice?

[TJQ]

Nice report! Thanks .... busier than my weekend...... I was sick for most of it, and not from a hangover....

[johnnyb]

Hey are those heart-shaped sunglasses polarized? Could help you out in the boat... Nice report, and well done!

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Great Report. At least you got out this long weekend and enjoyed the great weather! Sounds like the rivers(especially with current) were less affected by this heat wave.

[tbayboy]

Thanks guys. Way I figure it Johnny is that the river fish don't have as many spots to hide in the heat (river only gets 5-6 feet deep) but I'm guessing once it cools off a bit more they'll really be on (at least I hope so)

[limeyangler]

Awesome...awesome report...must have taken a while to compile (lol...take it from one who knows....lol). What camera are ya using???!! those shots are fantastic!...even your phone camera shots are amazing...great stuff...thanks for sharing that.

[tbayboy]

Took longer to remember things than to put the report together The camera is a Canon S3 IS - run about $200 used here in Toronto - pretty happy with it (next step is crazy SLR land and I don't want to go there). The phone camera is from a Nokia N95 - best mobile camera out there right now (5MP, all the bells and whistles, even geotags and uploads directly to my flickr feed).

 

EDIT, its an S3 not an S5

Edited September 2, 2008 by TbayBoy

[ehg]

Great report and pictures as usual. The heron pictures are real clear and close.

September and October are big time musky months.

 

Thanks for sharing,

ehg

[mikeh]

great report Sean, and nice pictures. Saturday was definately a tough fishing day, we sure did a lot of exploring new areas that day.

[LeXXington]

great report Sean thanks for sharing

[highdrifter]

Well done Sean. That heron in the lillies was well captured!

 

You've got a steady hand and a good camera... I'm always reminded that I need an upgrade everytime I admire your shots.

 

cheers!

HD

[fishnsled]

More women next time OK? Great report as always. Love the heron pics and nice to know that I wasn't the only one struggling on Saturday.

 

Thanks for the report.

[tbayboy]

Well done Sean. That heron in the lillies was well captured!

 

You've got a steady hand and a good camera... I'm always reminded that I need an upgrade everytime I admire your shots.

 

cheers!

HD

Not a steady hand - camera has image stabilization and a 10x zoom - don't get a camera without it. Then I did some cropping to zoom in the heron. I'm really surprised how much of a difference cropping can make once you get over that whole "I'm removing stuff!" feeling.

 

More women next time OK? biggrin.gif Great report as always. Love the heron pics and nice to know that I wasn't the only one struggling on Saturday.

Both the women in that picture are taken unfortunately but I'll try . Yeah Saturday was one rough day on the water - don't want to go through that again.

Edited September 3, 2008 by TbayBoy