Temagami, Nip, Bernard, Muskoka

johnnyb · February 19, 2009

Laker Jessy and I had high hopes for our weekend of ice-fishing, and even though things didn’t go exactly as planned…we put on lots of kms, tried a few new spots and made some new friends.

Here’s a brief recap:

Day one – After sleeping in Muskoka on Saturday night, we hit Temagami early, and were in the Hub, near Ketch-un-eny lodge by about 9:30am. I drilled a pile of holes looking for some deep water, and settled on the edge of a 60 foot basin, in 40-50 FOW. The first sign of life was losing my entire spool of tip-up line down the hole – d’oh! Only had my back turned for a minute…. :wallbash:

Decided that moving Jessy and her Aqua-vu to that hole might help us see if we could spot any of the line down there. All we ended up discovering was the transition from a hard sandy bottom to a mucky bottom. About half an hour later, this 22 incher nailed my white tube tipped with a salted minnow!

We moved closer to a shoal for lunch, had a few small ones teasing the tip-up line, and that was it. Off we went to North Bay, where a hotel room and hot shower were just what the doctor ordered.

By morning of day two, Jess wasn’t feeling so hot, but, being the oh-so-wonderful wife that she is, she suggested I meet up with the guys who were taking us out on Nipissing, while she slept. :sleeping_02:

Out I went to enjoy a beautiful sunrise on Nip…. and a couple small perch…and that was about it. The guys I met up with were a solid bunch though…and tried their best to get me onto my first winter walleye.

Picked Jessy up for noon, and by the time we were headed through Sundridge, she felt up for sampling the action on Lake Bernard. No fish…no pics. :whistling:

Finally, on a whim, we gave our friends who were staying at their parents cottage on Lake Muskoka a call. He has never been icefishing, and really wanted to try it, so when we pulled in, he was ready to go. I had no idea what depth we were at on the lake, so I picked a likely looking island, and we were rewarded with a perch double header. Not very big, but fish nonetheless. I was pleasantly surprised at the thrill of putting a newbie onto a fish, small as it was, and on a lake that I was going into blind.

All in all, it was a weekend spent enjoying gorgeous weather with my sweetie, and making new friends. Till next time….