Ol marble eyes, nice to meet you again

[pooch]

Ol' marble eyes, nice to meet you again

 

What a weekend weather wise; snow, rain, cold and windy. Not exactly optimal fishing conditions! I hope all the brave souls that ventured out for the walleye opener got some, you deserve it. I was sort of happy that family commitments kept me off the water, because I know I would have been out there otherwise. Even though I assumed this cold snap would not be welcome for the fish, I was itching to get out. Monday I fished on Chemong Lake for my first shot at walleye this season, and Tuesday on Lake Scugog to pair up with a friend and conveniently a professional fishing guide Scott Homes. I figured the odds were in my favour that I’d boat at least one walleye this week.

 

Monday Chemong Lake

 

Winds were brisk and cold coming from the north east. I thought my best shot at some post spawn walleye would be weed beds in close proximity to spawning areas. I looked on my maps and found a large weed flat that ranged from four to twelve feet deep, remembering to steer well clear of the fishing sanctuaries that are still in place for another week. I started shallow in four to six feet of water and worked my way deeper. 2 hours had past before the target species was finally located and boated, and nice spunky 16" walleye hit my black/red hair jig on the drop. At noon I picked up my neighbour for a few more hours of fishing, but we were unable to get another walleye to cooperate. Oh well, at least it was sunny pleasant day on the water.

 

Tuesday Scugog Lake

 

I was really looking forward to this outing. I’ve known Scott for a couple years and had heard he was a good guy to fish with, knowledgeable about the Kawartha Lakes and willing to teach. We were on the water at 10 a.m. and battled moderately strong east winds to get to spot number one. Locals had been reporting disappointing catch rates over the past weekend and we figured this cold snap was negatively impacting the bite. Similar to my plan on Chemong, Scott’s plan was to fish a weed flat adjacent to spawning areas to catch some hungry post spawn walleye. The first notable fish was a slab crappie on a black/red hair jig estimated at 13-14”; a nice bonus fish on a tough day. Scott said, "I know the walleye are in here, we just have to wait them out. They’ve got to eat.” And sure enough they did. On the third drift we got a nice walleye right in the middle of the slot limit. Another three passes and we boated three more walleye (including one double header!), a couple out-of-season largemouth bass, an out-of-season musky and a few perch one of them a jumbo. It was a great day, in spite of the tough conditions. We snapped a couple pictures of the walleye, crappie and perch and back they went for another day. Thank you to Scott!

 

A couple walleye

 

Bonus fish!

 

What worked?

 

3/8 - 1/2 oz buck tail hair jigs black/red for me, black/blue and black/green for Scott

Shimano Cumulus rod 6’10 medium power, extra fast action

Shimano Stradic CI4 2500 6.0:1 gear ratio

20 lb Power Pro braided fishing line

7’1” Rapala R-type spinning rod med heavy

Rapala R-type 25 spinning reel

30 lb Suffix performance braid

 

Pattern for the day:

No solid pattern emerged, as it was a tough bite but ripping hair jigs caught most of the walleye. On Chemong Lake the lone walleye came in twelve feet of water, and on Scugog five to six feet seemed to be the sweet spot. Weeds were key and water that had low visibility seemed to play a role. On Monday I tried a weed flat on Buckhorn Lake that had clear water and I had no success and saw no bait fish.

 

Weather Conditions:

Chemong Lake

Mostly Sunny

Winds 10-15 km/h from the North West

Water temperatures 48-53 Fahrenheit

Air temperatures reached a high of 15 Celsius

 

Lake Scugog

Overcast

Winds 15-20 km/h from the East

Water temperatures 48-50 Fahrenheit

Air temperatures reached a high of 10 Celsius

[asdve23rveavwa]

Fantastic report...informative, and, entertaining!!!!!

[fish-miester]

great report!

[Sinker]

I wish there were more reports like that, here! Nicely done!

 

I've had similar results with the fishing around here lately. This weather sure doesn't help!!!!

 

S.

[fish-miester]

ya im still trying to figgure out a pattern on these darn walleye

[young_one]

I really enjoy your style of report, informative and precise. I just might adopt a thing or two from yah!

[archie_james_c]

I always love hearing about what rod/reel combos guys are using...

 

and Im jealous of the Walleye .

 

I'm heading out saturday/sunday to a favourite lake to annihalate some Marble Eye's...

[fish-miester]

well I can tell you what has not been working on my 7'M shimano Compre / Sedona and my 7'mh Compre/Zillion.. that would be any kind of grubs + gulp worms + xraps + walleye divers + drop shot minnows + small white jerk shads + white hair jigs

 

but I do agree I love reading what you guys are catching stuff on !

Edited May 13, 2010 by fish-meister

[archie_james_c]

Heading out tomorrow afternoon for an over nighter in search of Gold backs. Primarily be running 2 rod/reel combos.

 

7' St.Croix Legend Tournament Walleye Medium, Moderate/Daiwa Advantage 2500 w/15# PP and 10# Suffix Siege.

 

6' St.Croix " " Light, Fast/Daiwa Tierra 2000 w/6# Stren Tough Knot and 10# PP.

 

I'll be pitching 1/16 oz white and green jigs with 3" Black Shad GULP/minnows along and into weed beds and drop offs, trolling perch coloured colorado blade worm harnesses and at night I'll rip my favourite crank bait (#10 XRap in Clown) off the shore lines for Ol' Marble Eye's.

[pooch]

Good luck! Don't forget to rip a hair jig!

[archie_james_c]

Came back this afternoon. MAN...my new boat is MUCH harder to control than my old 12 footer!! Last evening we fished from 6:30-9:00, we pitched jigs and twister tails into 3 feet of weedy shoreline and that produced a nice 21" Walleye, burning a Yellow Perch Clackin Rap off the same shore got a nice 4-5 pound pike, other than that...nothing.

 

This morning and afternoon was a right off, waaaaay to nice. Sun, sun and more sun, lake was glass all day...they had to have been down deeper and today was the day my fish finders main power harness wanted to go on the fritz.

 

90% of my problems right now are that I'm still getting used to my new (bigger) boat. Winds catches it and pushes it worse, backtrolls faster, and is slower to turn than my old little Dingy. I'm going to pick up a drift sock to try and slow it down, hopefully that will remedy alot of the problem along with eventually getting a bow mount motor on it.

[pooch]

Oh well, that’s fishin' sometimes!

I remember my science teacher once told me, when a science experiment didn’t turn out as expected, he said, “You can learn a lot from what didn’t happen.” Well I guess I learned a lot from today’s fishing outing.

 

I was in a small walleye tournament on Rice Lake this past Sunday with nine boats from the Canadian Bass Anglers Federation. I enjoy these early season tournaments as they give me a chance to iron out any problems with the boat, tackle and equipment. I was teamed up with Jason Zigomanis from the Kawartha Lakes Fishing Club to fish for the day. Our game plane was to hit some weed beds adjacent to spawning areas, and work them with buck tail jigs, or jig and grub combos. I figured the bite would be similar to Chemong Lake and Lake Scugog, only better. With a bright sunny day forecast, we were optimistic the walleye would start to feed aggressively. The winner of the tournament would be determined by the boat that weighted in the heaviest four walleye within the 35cm - 50cm slot limit. Our finally day tally was two muskie, four largemouth bass, three smallmouth bass, a few perch, bluegill, and a dozen jumbo rock bass (if there is even such a name) oh and zero walleye. Yep, zero walleye in a walleye tournament! Argh, not exactly how I had visualized the day would go. Of the nine boats in the tournament only three caught walleye in the slot limit and only six walleye in total were weighed in. To say it was a tough bite would be an understatement. Congratulation to Garnet Armitage and Larry Courtice for weighing in three walleye for a total weight of 4.85 lbs.

 

To be honest, we had a fun day, even though we were frustrated by the end result. It was a beautiful day to be on the water, not a lot of other boats out there and the fish were biting, just not the walleye. I remember nearing noon with no walleye in the boat and every time we set the hook on a fish you could hear a whisper, “be a walleye, please be a walleye.” Oh well, that’s fishin’ sometimes!

What worked?

 

Well, here’s what did not work:

 

I threw buck tail jigs most of the day, as my partner changed things up. Together we tried; jig/grub combos, beetle spins, X-raps and numerous crankbaits in various colours.

Shimano Cumulus rod 6’10 medium power, extra fast action

Shimano Stradic CI4 2500 6.0:1 gear ratio

20 lb Power Pro braided fishing line

 

Pattern for the day:

 

Pattern? Hmmm, not much to say here

 

Weather Conditions:

Mostly Sunny

Winds 10-15 km/h from the North East

Water temperatures 52-56 Fahrenheit

Air temperatures reached a high of 19 Celsius