Fun family fishing weekend for me

[pooch]

What a weekend weather wise! Hope you have a chance to get on the water, seems most boaters in Ontario did; the waterways were very very busy.

 

This weekend I was at our cottage on Buckhorn Lake with the family. Luckily my two girls (Reese five years old and Zoe two years old) love fishing almost as much as I do. The problem is they are good and I'm too busy unhooking their catch to fish myself! I'm not really complaining, getting out fishing with them is a lot of fun, and teaching them about life through the eye's of a fish is great too.

 

I got out for a couple hours each day with them, and the fishing was surprisingly good considering the amount of boat traffic on the lakes. Each time out we hit a spot not far from our cottage. The plan was to rig up the girls tackle for pan fish, while I tried to connect with ol' marble eyes. Each outing I think the girls out fished me 5:1. This was good news since it kept them interested and more importantly kept us out on the water for a couple hours at a time. One tip for parent’s fishing with their kids; put their catch in the live well (or a bucket if you don't have a live well). This seems to keep them interested even when the fish are not biting.

 

 

Make sure your live well is working too! Unfortunately on Sunday the timer on my live well malfunctioned and two of the walleye I caught went belly up. Not too big problem, since I am overdue for a dinner of fresh walleye. I laboured my way through the cleaning procedures (I’m really not very adept with a filet knife) then gave the fillets a quick shake in some fish crisp and pan fried them. We had a delicious feast of walleye for dinner which the girls really enjoyed also.

 

Seems I am not the only one getting into fish lately. I talked with several friends over the weekend, and the walleye are on the feed, aggressively snapping up any grubs, hair jigs and crankbaits offered to them. If you have a favourite walleye spot, I recommend you get out there and enjoy the great fishing going on right now around the Kawartha Lakes.

 

What worked?

 

Black/purple buck tail jig

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:

 

For the walleye; a hair jig, ripped in 8-10 ft of water just outside thick clumps of weeds on Buckhorn Lake, a couple feet shallower on Chemong Lake. The weeds are getting pretty thick and heavy in some places, which may be the reason the walleye are relating to the outside edges or maybe I can only catch them in the more sparse cover. For the crappie, bluegills and pumpkinseed the hot bait was a 1 ½” power bait tube jig about 24-36 inches below a float on an ultra light set-up.

 

Weather Conditions:

 

Mostly Sunny

South West winds 5-15 km/h

Water temperatures 63-67 Fahrenheit

Air temperatures 22-30 Celsius

[pikehunter]

Like they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Great picture.

[Bly]

Thanks! Nice read with my morning Coffee. Nice of you to include the particulars at the end.

[skeeter]

nice pickeral.

did you measure and weigh them?

 

why are you holding the girls fish and she holding yours????

[pooch]

Thanks for the feedback, I think all my pictures improve immensely when they include the kids.

 

As for that walleye, I kept a couple from the day before so after a quick picture back it went.

[Terry]

sounds like a great time with the kids