Sept 20-21 Night run.

[wuchikubo]

Well, after watching the kids after work for a couple of hours while the missus went out for a girls night dinner. I got the okay to go fishing at about 9 pm. I gave a friend a call to let him know I'd be meeting up with him and a couple of others. Now since my stuff is all in storage offsite, I now had to run to get the items. Target species for the night was walleye, morning target was to be salmon, so I grabbed my 7' fishing rod and my 10.5' noodle rod plus to spares, grabbed the bucket of gulp alive, a net, a flashlight, and a backpack of tackle. Forgot that I had left my waders at my parents place but was lucky that they weren't very far, waders check, wader boots check, okay grabbed 6 cans of "red rave" energy drinks I picked up from costco a few days previously that were on sale. Looked at the time, good god! it's near 10:30. Okay, get another phone call while in Markham from my fishing friend John and was told to meet up at Young's point. Okay, after a roughly two hour drive (ah, yes, I try not to speed too much), I finally arrive and was told that they planned to change location as the fishing was slow (actually, nothing caught). Went to the second spot and it was blowing wind hard and the wave were white capping. Only thing caught was salad on about every cast. Fished about an hour and everyone was calling it quits.

 

One more spot was considered, back at my friend's trailer park docks. Wind wasn't a bad there but the fish didn't like my gulp alive this night and my friend caught two bass with his jighead and minnow rig. Now it was about 3 am at this point and I still hadn't even got the slightest hit at all. Okay, my friends were calling it the night and said they'd be up early to fish for bass. I took a pass on the thought of sleeping and told them I'd be heading to the Notty for a try at salmon. They say, "Are you #@$ nuts? Why drive all that way when we can catch bass in the morning?" Being stubborn as I am, I told them I didn't have a good feeling about the bass and walleye with the windy cold front coming in. So off I went for a drive (another 2 hr 25 min drive).

 

Got to my spot at about 5:45 after getting downing two cans of RR and getting some gas enroute (a little glad that Orillia's gas was 113/L that morning). I was the first car there and I watched as an OPP cruiser just left the area where I parked. Put my waders on and started casting a Long A bomber for a little while. Water was warm, not really a good sign. Other anglers started to show up but all were fishing roe while sitting on shore. Daylight broke and I still had nothing, not even a tap. Changed to my lure which I had Len Thompson customized with my company's logo (caught two salmon last year on it). The sun was up and I was starting to get concerned when there wasn't any fish rising. At about 7:30am I changed the technique a little as I figure the fish were really inactive. Cast, crank, crank, slight tug and stop to let the spoon flutter, repeat crank, crank, flutter. Did this for another 1/2 hour then on one crank I feel a light tap and some weight, set the hook and FISH ON! This fish was bulldogging.

 

Beached this nice 28" Coho. I didn't bring the camera, doh! No matter this one was going to be table fare. Fished until 8:45 and started to pack up when I noticed one of the locals which I met with last weekend for the first time this year. He mentioned that he has not seen anybody catching salmon this week in the river, out in the big bay (G-bay) they had heard of a few steelies caught by boat. Okay, that upped my content level for the drive home.

 

Got home and was greeted by my family at about 11:15am. My daughter (almost 5) grabbed that camera and said she'd take the pictures for me. Okay, I have the pics taken in the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This female was skinny and had underdeveloped eggs which I suspect was due to lack of nutrition partly due to a lamprey that had been attached.

 

Thanks for ready this long winded post.

 

BTW Salmon is what I'm having for lunch today:)

 

Stan

[limeyangler]

Really good report hearingfish, 10 outta 10 for perserverance....even with the energy drinks( i'm a Red Bull drinker myself) i think i would have called it quits long beore the 2nd 2 hour drive, thanks for sharing.

[tonyb]

What a tour, but it paid off in the end! Nice fish there (Chinook actually )

 

Tony

[Leecher]

Great report and pic HearingFish

 

Sweet payout for all your efforts

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[wuchikubo]

What a tour, but it paid off in the end! Nice fish there (Chinook actually )

 

Tony

 

 

Funny, I thought it was a chinny the first time as well, then was told by the local that it was a coho. I'll have to go and check the gums when I get home tonight.

[CLofchik]

It probably is a 'nook (KING!), hard to tell but if the tail is covered in spots it's a chinook. Don't go by the gums, they can be wrong.

 

Nice fish, always nice to show up the roe plunkers with a lure!

[Reef Runner]

Glad the all-nighter paid off for ya. "A" for preserverence. "+" for the RR.lol.

 

Good job on the Salmon.

[wuchikubo]

I'm very pleased you were (finally) able to land something decent, Hearing Fish!

A little surprised of the outcome at Young's Point, it used to be one of my haunts.

 

Ya Paul,

 

it's sure nice to land something other than a nice "pat on the back" for coming out and giving it a go! That's about all I got last week at the same spot, mind you I didn't bring my waders last week expecting the water level to be normally lower (not the case when I got there) and found myself stuck to a small 1 square meter patch to fish from. The waders helped big time this time.

 

stan

 

1 more hour of work to go. woohoo!

[wuchikubo]

Okay, looked at the inside of the frozen salmon head at home. Black mouth and white / grey gums. Thus, according to traditional identification, it is a coho. I recall the tail did have some spots but had a rough feel which also pointed towards ID as Coho.

[Bly]

Nice job Stan.....way to stick with it

[wuchikubo]

Thanks Carole,

 

That was a nice look salmon with a pink belly on it that you caught in Cliff's post.