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Day on the bay

tbayboy

By tbayboy
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tbayboy

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Saturday Sept 13, Georgian Bay

"Lets try Georgian Bay again" read the message from Mike. Oh yeah sure, the place I fell out of the boat - why not temp fate twice? Actually it did sound like a good idea, we had a nice time last week so we headed out Saturday morning. By 7:30 we'd hit our first spot and the sky looked wonderful

 

<a href=" Day break title="Day break by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2854038767_c5c9148b06_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Day break" /></a>

 

There was no wind at all with mostly overcast skies. Can someone say topwater? Early on a decent muskie followed my skitter walk to the boat but didn't seem very interested and didn't come back for any of our follow ups :(. Unfortunately other than that we didn't have much luck in the deeper spots that had worked the week earlier so we ended up exploring. And of course nothing makes exploring easier than having a GPS. I bought a new one recently and Mike also has one. Guess which one of us didn't bring theirs - yeah both of us. :blush: Ah well, Mike knows the area so we had some ideas and it take too long for mike to get into every NW ontario guys favourite fish

 

<a href=" Bringing her in title="Bringing her in by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2854874614_d1c0fc3cbd_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Bringing her in" /></a>

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2854040057/" title="Pike with salad by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2854040057_f294a3258f_b.jpg" width="933" height="1024" alt="Pike with salad" /></a>

 

Three of them were of a decent size and the one that smashed the top water sure woke us up. Here's a couple pics of the slimers:

 

<a href=" First pike title="First pike by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2854040573_5ec419cfdc_b.jpg" width="1024" height="809" alt="First pike" /></a>

 

<a href=" Skinny pike title="Skinny pike by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/2854041279_31726d65ef_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Skinny pike" /></a>

 

Somehow I managed to avoid all the pike until near the end of a day when I got a token snot rocket (no picture taken). The problem of course is that we were bass hunting. We moved on to some shallow weedbeds with rock shoals and tossed on the topwaters and first cast I had a little guy in the boat. Then Mike got one and we were off. I was trying out some new lures (skitter walk) and had quite a few hits but still tended to pull them out of the mouth (I was working them fast so I always seems to be in mid twitch when the bugger rose). Mike missed a couple then got more serious with the popper taking the time to let them grab it before setting the hook. It certainly paid off with some fish including this 3 1/3 lb smallie - Mike won the fight but I think the fish is winning this staring contest:

 

<a href=" You talking to me? title="You talking to me? by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2854877008_831be28b21_b.jpg" width="1024" height="772" alt="You talking to me?" /></a>

 

After that area dried up we moved on to brand new water to kill the last hour of the day. Ended up being a couple hours as we found lots of interesting areas but the fish all came from shallow(ish) water again which was a change from last week but we were happy to find the pattern. We even found some pads so I put a frog on my medium rod and zinged it into the back of the pads and had a boil right away, one more twitch another boil but no follow. Gave it another pull to just outside the pads and let it sit forever when the fish finally made up its mind and left no doubt that it wanted the frog. He gave a good accordance of himself on the lighter gear but we got a net under him and a quick scale showed him at 3' 9oz. Still haven't topped 4 but he was close

 

<a href=" Days biggest title="Days biggest by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3169/2854042355_80ae34eb57_b.jpg" width="1024" height="969" alt="Days biggest" /></a>

 

Had another hit in the pads but pulled it out of his mouth - I gotta learn some patience :wallbash:. That said I'm sure starting to like this pad fishing, apparently its a really new pattern in bass fishing :)

 

Anyhow, after some more exploring and another pike for Mike we had a our first double header, a couple largies that totalled about 12". We should have taken that as a sign to leave but stuck just long enough to get stuck in the rain on the way back. Ah well, wasn't too much rain and we'd found some new fishing grounds so all in all a nice day on the water. The fact that I didn't fall out of the boat was a plus as well :)

 

Technical recap:

Today we did probably 75% topwater and 25% spinner baits. Small walk baits (skitter walks) and medium poppers (skitter pop, PopR) worked well in 3-6 feet of water over weedbeds with deep water (main channels) nearby. The spinner baits were productive in slightly deeper water (up to 8') with bigger clumps of weeds spread out all over. We tried some deeper stuff but never really found anything, same with open rock piles which were good producers last week but didn't show us anything this time around. Worms and tubes were also a bust this week for some reason (not that we really worked them alot but figured we'd get some action but nope).

 

Looking forward to trying the area again, this time with the GPS and maps perhaps (ok so I was suppose to bring it - at least I remembered the camera right?)

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mikeh Guide

mikeh

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Posted

great report Sean, the highlight of my day was the pike that hit my top water pop'r. Just before the pike hit a largemouth jumped clear out of the water beside my bait and then 15 seonds later the pike hit, I figure that the pike was chasing the bass and missed it then hit my pop'r.

 

overall I thought it was a good day and that last area we fished seemed to hold a lot of fish.

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brickNblock Guide

brickNblock

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Sean..........great day out for you fellas for sure and congrats... :clapping:

 

About the topwaters.......?????????

Ive always loved the clear/mirror waters for them..'specially the oversized ZaraSpooks but,(they look too cool)

But after an episode on MuskyHunter I became to understand that topwaters are better in rough water, when there is a little turbulence on the top ..the action/rattle and motion.... the fish dont get a good hard look at your bait.

I continue the mirror like waters but have just started on other situations with quite a bit of luck bud!...just ah heads up if'n you wish to try is all.

We had success doing the pre-fish up at Stony this past weekend before the tourney next weekend with this method....almost the same % you posted.

I dont know if I can get away with from topwatering the mirror water (the baits sure look great) but the little rougher water works and

...a topwater hit is one of the best next to a boat side/figure8 for sure.

Keep these reports comming..they are great.

BnB

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johnnyb All Knowing Angler

johnnyb

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nice report -- love the technical recap :D As for the topwater thing...lately I've been finding that with extremely calm and clear water, a subtle bait, like a tiny torpedo with one prop on the back, or a jiterbug retrieved slowly so you only get a faint "plip-plop" has really been working well.

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