Scumbogery Report

[Ramble]

I was back at the school thing this week, and had a look at my schedule. The 1st week, everyone signs up for labs and seminars. Most of them don’t start until the second week or later. So this week I had no classes Thursday, and 1 lecture Friday…Hmmmm. I figured it was time to apply the “Nothing happens in the 1st week anyway.” rule. Time to get out on the ice.

 

Jeff and I had been looking forward to Scugog again as we did very well last year. He arrived Wed night and after a rum and 5 and a half hours of sleep we were up at 530am out the door by six and headed to Gorskey’s.

 

We stopped to pick up minnows at the Causeway bait shop, and re-discovered the price of his minnows. I remembered why I forced the memory out of my mind lol. It was $4.50 for shiners or pinheads and $6.50 for mud’s. Shiners and mud’s are sold by the dozen, which is exactly 12 if you weren’t aware. We got to the lake, unloaded and marched forth.

 

We got to the spot I marked with the GPS last year, and punched a series of holes looking for the weed line, or at least the gap in the weed line we had done so well on previously. It didn’t exist. Damn it. We went to work with the auger and after about 9 more holes in a line towards the deepwater we were on to it.

 

 

We punched four holes and set the hut up. It was time to get jigging. All the messing around saw us fishing by 9. We weren’t too happy with our timing, as we missed the morning bite. I did manage 1 crappie though.

 

 

The morning rolled on and with the cold temperatures I was happy to be in the hut. Although I did feel like a pansy for ice fishing inside, I was a warm pansy.

 

Jeff was jigging his Orange pimple throughout the morning. Right around 11am he got a hit. After a short scuffle, he pulled a nice little bass from the ice.

 

 

After putting her back in the lake, we decided it was time for lunch. We looked at the menu, and decided hotdogs were in order. The chef went to work on our request.

 

 

With boredom setting in, and lots of little perch scooting around under the ice I scaled way down and tried to temp them into biting. I had to watch for them to pick the bait up, because I couldn’t feel it even on my ultra light. I managed to land a few oh these little guys while Jeff just laughed at me working so hard for dink perch.

 

 

The afternoon passed on by and about 3 we decided we should have dinner before the evening bite began, because we sure were not going to be cooking then. After looking at the dinner menu we decided on the stew, with the last 2 hotdogs added of course. The chef got to cooking, and it wasn’t long before we discovered we were without the necessary cutlery. Then we found some spoons…in orange/gold and fire tiger.

 

 

 

 

After our dinner we prepared for the evening bite, by putting some new minnows on the set lines at about 4, and getting some of the clutter off the ice at our feet.

 

The fish started cooperating around 4:30pm. The crappie had moved in. We ended up with a good number coming through the ice. We never saw any walleye though. We took the pictures once we were home. We didn’t want to waste the time on photos while they were biting.

 

The best fish of the evening. 13.75 inches.

 

We ended up filleting 8 crappie and 1 halfway, descent bluegill that made an appearance.

 

 

 

We left at 7pm.

 

After a rum, we went to bed, and were up at 5 to allow us some more time to set up. We swapped up Jeff’s 8 inch auger for my 6 inch to give us more room in the hut. We set up about 8 feet away from where we had set up the day before to see what the morning bite was like at the spot. We were fishing about ten after 7. It wasn’t long before we noticed our minnows were thrashing extra hard. We were sure there were fish in the area and they just weren’t biting. I thought I saw a tap on my set line so I slowly raised it about 3 feet and they let it fall back down. There was about a 3 second pause, and then there was a definite hit. I set the hook, and after a fight, we had the 1st walleye of the trip.

 

The jigging lines didn’t see any action all morning. The set lines had all kinds of attention. We would see a tap lift the tip, pause at the top and let it fall back down. Crappie were tagging the lure most of the time at the top of the lift. The walleye were whacking the baits at the bottom of the drop. That morning we had 4 more on. I lost a little one around 10-12 inches at the hole. Jeff missed 2 and lost an eater at the hole when the hook pulled out. The walleye were just holding the minnows, and not getting the hook. We had some other bumps which never became anything more. Then the walleye seem to disappear and the crappie showed up. We hit about a dozen of all sizes and then the bite stopped about 9-930am. This was the best crappie of the morning. 11.5 inches.

 

 

As the morning moved on towards afternoon, we made some coffee and kept jigging. A snowmobile went ripping by us out in the deep water and about 2 minutes later a really nice looking walleye made an appearance. He hovered looking at my set line then cruised off towards the weed line and disappeared. After some more time had passed. I look down the hole again, only to see a fish of the same size beside my setline. About the same instant that I realized it was a fish, she took the minnow. I practically dove for my rod and got a nice scrappy fight out of the fish. I was hoping for a walleye, but ended up with a beautiful smallmouth specimen measuring 16.5 inches. She was gorgeous.

 

 

We kept on jigging away and Jeff put on a blade bait of mine to try and call in a fish or 2. After about ten minutes of that he went back to the orange pimple. A few minutes later he says: “Dave there is an ‘eye right at the bottom here.” I didn’t move. We just kept jigging. Jeff gave the pimple a couple more lifts and the fish moved a little closer, then a pause and the fish gently grabbed the shiner tail on the hook. Jeff could see it didn’t have the hooks, and waited. The fish turned and then appeared to have sucked the hook in further. Jeff went for the hook set, but all he did was tear the minnow from the hook. The ‘eye darted off to the weeds and Jeff swore in a manner only fishing can inspire.

 

Some time afterwards we had a nice musky in the 36 inch area cruise under our holes. It was a real treat. She showed no interest in us. She just cruised on by.

 

Around 2pm Jeff’s pimple saw some more action, and he pulled his 1st largie of the year through his hole.

 

 

Dinner was about 3:30 and we had an entire meal of fish. We ate all of the fillets we had acquired the day before and they were goooood.

 

 

 

The rest of the evening saw very little action. The evening bite was non existent. We managed 3 or 4 crappie and Jeff landed a really nice slab. 14.25 inches.

 

 

The place we were fishing had exactly 10.5 inches of ice. There were several people out tempting fate and insurance rates over the days we were their.

 

 

We left at 7pm, and decided to forgo the filleting as we were tired and the fish were frozen. We discussed other fishing options, and decided to flip a coin. The nickel sent us back to the Scugog. So we had a rum and went to bed.

 

Up at 5 again, and off we went. We had the timing and driving down to an art now. The moon was going down as we set up, and we were jigging at 7am in the same spot as the day before.

 

 

The morning bite was non existent. We had 1 bump and landed 1 crappie which was too small to keep. At 9:30 we decided to go try a spot in the weeds. We pulled up camp, and made for shallower water. We were jigging for about 20 minutes and I picked up a crappie. It went out on the ice, and we went back to work jigging. Around noon we decided that we should try and find a better spot along the outside weed edge before the hoards of people showed up. The day before was pretty ridicules. There were power augers going constantly and people on snow machines and quads ripping past. It became very annoying, very fast.

 

I went to work filleting and Jeff kept jigging.

 

 

 

We moved down the lake north of our position, and started punching holes. We also walked around looking for weeds around old holes. We ended up finding a spot we thought was the weed line and set up shop. Turned out not to be the outside edge, but an opening in the weed about 10 feet across. If you got down on your hands and knees, and stuffed your face into the hole, it was obviously an opening near the weed edge. Almost immediately we saw more and larger perch, then at any of the other spots we had been to.

 

We set everything up, and started on dinner, another feed of fish.

 

 

 

 

We were defiantly full after that meal and started jigging. The people just kept pilling onto the ice. Two guys of questionable intelligence set up disturbing close to us. I went over later to chat as we packed up and it took me about 6 steps.

 

We saw lots of vehicles on the ice as well that evening. With all the people and holes I saw punched through the ice on that lake, there is no way you would ever get me out on it in a vehicle. Ever.

 

We managed 3 crappie during the evening bite, with only 1 being a keeper. We didn’t hear of any one else catching fish either. The 2 guys practically on top of us only managed 3 crappie, and I donated our single keeper to their pile.

 

We left at quarter to 7pm and got back to my place in good time. We killed a bottle of Bacardi, and got some sleep. We were going to go out today as well, but with the fishing getting worse the more we fished, we decided to bail. I don’t mind sitting around on the ice not catching fish too much, but Jeff isn’t a big fan of it.

 

After 3 days of fishing we had 2 good feeds of fish, and had a great time. My abs were sore from laughing after the 1st day. It was good to catch up, as we hadn’t been fishing together since last winter. We both guide in different corners of the country during the summer.

 

The high pressure system which set up earlier this week put a hurt on the fishing. Guys had been doing well but we only talked to 1 guy on the 1st day who had caught a walleye. The set lines had a ¼ oz glow head jig at the bottom and a single hook about a foot above it. The single, took most of the crappie, and the jigs received the walleye attention. As far as jigging spoons go, the orange pimple did the best, yet again, followed by a silver buckshot rattle spoon. Set lines caught the majority of fish, however, it seemed jigging spoons were critical to our success. The jigging seems to bring the fish into the area.

 

As far as bait goes, mud minnows (dace) well out preformed the shiners. As usually shiner die faster on the hook, and look a lot more stupid then your average dace lol. Fish were all caught on dace. Only the walleye Jeff encountered seemed to have an interest in any part of a shiner.

 

The dude at the bait shop said that “the guys” are having a very hard time patterning the fish this year. They seem to be one spot one day and gone the next. They haven’t set up a usual pattern yet. We thought that was pretty interesting, and it might explain how we had good fishing one morning, and that night it was terrible.

 

Anyway I had another great few days on the ice. So far this year I have 7 days out fishing. Not too bad.

 

Tight Lines

 

-R-

[ccmtcanada]

Great report Ramble! Looks like you had a great few days out there. I've been ice fishing there one time...skunked...guess I should try again seeing as I live only 25 minutes from there from my door to Port Perry launch.

[tibbs]

Great Report!

 

Looks like you had a blast!

[Greencoachdog]

Very nice report and pics!!!

 

Weekend traffic on a lake can kill the fishin' quick!

 

It sounds to me like the pattern for the fish is nomadic schools... they do that to me down here too!

[Ramble]

I was considering the stinger hook option Clamp-it. But decided i didnt care enough at the time to do anything about it. Next time i think i might give it a go. Any ideas about a good way to set up a stinger combo that might have helped?

 

-R-

[Stoty]

Nice report!

 

Quick question....how long does a tank of propane last in that heater?

I was thinking about getting one.

[Ramble]

Ummm....it was going from 7am to 7pm most days on high. i think it was 2 of the green tanks. It may be half a tank either way cause we moved a bit, and my memoery is a little fuzzy on the subject lol

 

-R-

[Stoty]

haha, sweet, thanks very much.

appreciate the info.

[lunkerbasshunter]

mmmmmm yummy snack you guys cooked up there! Cheers!

[BUSTER]

nice report

[crabbs]

Thanks for the report, we landed just one crappy last night and did far better last Sunday(3 pics and 2 crappy during freezing rain), kinda new before heading out the high pressure system would kill the bite.

[solopaddler]

Another great report, once again well done!

[mattyk]

great report, some really nice slabs!