Rainy Kawartha Weekend report

[Reef Runner]

Headed up to the cottage this weekend with board member addy79. Our mission was to fish Balsam hard on Saturday. We were first travellers to arrive at the lock (9am) and from there made no stops to Balsam. The target was Musky, but wouldnt complain if we hooked into a smallie or walleye. In fact, anything would be better than my last skunking there.

 

We arrived on Balsam to 67degree water, overcast, winds 5km/h from the East. Located a nice weedbed in 7 fow just adjacent to a 20foot basin and started throwing Maraboo's and Believers. Second cast, addy79's 9inch jointed Believer goes sideways and for about two second we thought we were to be blessed with a nice ski. A boil on the surface maybe a foot behind the lure and she was gone. Despite casting big baits all day, that was the most action we would see from a musky all day.

 

We focused our efforts between the Southern tip of Grand Island, around Long Point and little in West Bay, keying in on vegetation. After many hours of casting, trolling, jigging I thought we were in for another skunk. That is until I tossed out a 3/4ounce red/chartruse tandem spinner in heavy weed cover to get this respectable 20inch Walleye

My biggest, although not my PB, in a very long time so we were stoked. If the lift lock didnt close at 5:30pm we would have definately stuck around. I need to be on that lake in the prime morning or evening bite, which I never get a chance, with the lock schedule. Back to the home lake for a few more hours of fishing.

 

Back in known waters, as dusk fell, I tied into this nice largie, this time on a white/chartruse spinnerbait.

Packed it in at 8:30pm, seeing as we've been on the water in excess of 12hours.

 

Early Sunday morning we venutered around my lake. Water still sat at 68degrees. The rain was relentless, at points coming down so hard you could not see 30 feet in front of you, those moments we sat under the canopy of the pontoon tossing out yum dingers. Had about five or six different coloured dingers and found that the fish were biting on a brown flake with a bright green chartruse tip 5inch worm. Every pitch little guys would give it a couple head shakes and maybe a little run, but theye were so small that getting a hook set was diffuicult. We still landed about twenty bass, both smallies and largies. Best results came about 10 feet from shore on weedlines and a midlake sand flat. Here's a pic of our best bass of the day (brown/chartruse dinger) and a decent pike (white spinnerbait).

 

Tight lines and best fishes!

[MCTFisher9120]

Right on man, nice report!

[bigugli]

Sometimes the best fishing is when the skies just open up and dump buckets on you. After 15 minutes I don't even notice the rain too much.

 

Glad you had a successful outing.

[bassjnkie]

Great report!! Nice catch!!!

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Great Report. Musky fishing has been tough on Balsam this year. But it sounds like you sure know where the bass live on your home lake. Thanks for sharing.

[Ramble]

Not a bad way to spend the weekend at all. I'm glad to see the rain didn't discourage you either.

 

-R-

[pokerdemon4]

Great report ReefRunner. Looks like you had a great day on the water with some beauty fish to boot. Congrats on that beauty walleye. Cheers.

[addy79]

Located a nice weedbed in 7 fow just adjacent to a 20foot basin and started throwing Maraboo's and Believers. Second cast, addy79's 9inch jointed Believer goes sideways and for about two second we thought we were to be blessed with a nice ski. A boil on the surface maybe a foot behind the lure and she was gone. Despite casting big baits all day, that was the most action we would see from a musky all day.

 

 

SOOOOO CLOSE MAN!!!!

try n try again....

[Leecher]

Great report and pics reefrunner

 

A good mix bag of fish you guys caught!

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[tibbs]

Great Job!

 

Looks like you caught some nice fish!

[Kerry]

reefrunner,

The last time I was on Balsam I also got skunked which is why we were throwing smaller stuff for bass and walleye.Incidentally my buddy had a 20"walleye on saturday besides my musky.Unfortunately being in the slot doesn't help the dinner plans so we ended up changing over to small jigs and caught enough perch and bluegills to make a dinner for the evening.I have flogged the area around Ant island quite a bit in the last couple of years and had a follow once that I know of for sure.I have however got some huge bass from there in the late fall.I'm still having a hard time dealing with weed pockets but that seems to be a real ticket with kawartha fish as long as you're not being blown all over the place.One thing that is rare on Balsam is calm days or at least the ones that I've gotten there.Good luck on your hunt.

Kerry

[b2kptbo]

Sometimes it's worth toughing out the rain, good report...

[addy79]

its true....the hard rain can slow things down a bit, but once the skies open up, even if just for a few minutes, the bite REALLY heats up