Canada Day Bassin'

[bicephalic]

After many failed attempts, and only one other trip out on open water this year, Johnnyb and I *FINALLY* managed to get out on Canada day. Target species, large and smallmouth bass with the possibility for some laker action in between.

 

As usual I was about 30 minutes late, and was trying my best to make up time as I headed towards Minden. Opted to trust a shortcut offered by 'Miss Lola' the GPS, and while bombing along a dirt road near Norland, I came around a bend to see a big black shaggy head poke out of the top of 6' bushes beside the road about 30' ahead. Hammered the brakes for a closer look, and watched as a big sow black bear sprinted across the road in front of me and actually laughed out loud as not one, but two cubs clumsily followed her lead.

 

Tried for pictures, but they were moving so fast the camera hadn't even booted before they were gone.

 

OK wildlife show over; I rambled the blazer back up to 'rattling tin can warp speeds' and met JB in his in-laws driveway only about 15 minutes behind schedule.

 

A quick grunt in each others direction and we loaded the boat with gear and snacks and off we went.

 

I started out with a home made Jika rig and JB was chucking a wacky rigged sinkworm. He was getting more attention with the worm at our first spot, so I switched up, and whammo:

 

 

 

 

Not to be outdone, he followed up with a solid bucket of his own.

 

 

I wasn't happy with the Jika's action once we started fishing deeper cover, and ripped the weight off. Man was THAT fun to fish.

 

It could either be slowly crawled under the pads on bottom, or ripped across the top like a wake bait/frog. It was equally effective either way. Any missed fish got a follow up with the wacky rigged sink worm. Really solidified a few new techniques for me. Really happy with the setups.

 

A few fish for JB later (sorry I missed the pictures trying to get a fish of my own...oOps! ) we were on the move. We headed down to the far end of the lake, where I picked up one more for fun:

 

 

Then, just for the experience, we jumped over the rollers into the next lake...we threw a few casts in the current here:

 

 

but were too intrigued by the weedy channel heading into a culvert to hang around lone, so off we went

 

 

On the other side...

 

Bass paradise

 

 

Only took pictures of a fraction of the fish we landed, we were simply too busy setting the hook on aggressive bass - sure was a blast.

 

This tank took JB's top-prop HARD and almost took his rod and rod holder with it while we trolled along a weed edge!

 

 

Gettin a little peckish...

 

 

A few more this size:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And even more about this size:

 

 

 

One avec le Solo pose:

 

 

On the way back to the cottage we spent a bit more time on the middle lake of our tour, and noticed a few hooks on the finder in a deeper channel. Down went the rigger as I sent out a deep diving crank on the line counter.

 

20 seconds after JB threw out the cheater spoon...yes the cheater again - Cousin Larry came to play.

 

 

We trolled the channel a few more times changing baits on every pass, but no further hits or fish, so we jumped the rollers back into the big lake, and trolled home with a dipsy and the rigger but no more of our burping friends of the deep felt like playing!

 

And the end result for the table:

 

 

Well Bro-migo, we did it again! Pleasure as always!

 

Hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed catching them peeps!

[Rod Caster]

Good arm workout!

[mercman]

A1 !!!!!!!!!! Beautiful colored fish. Amazing the color variation from one lake to another.

Congrats on the success

 

Paul

 

 

[limeyangler]

Good stuff!

 

Non stop action....looks like a lot of fun.

 

Watch out for the sushi...tape worm dontchaknow

[johnnyb]

Was a great day out...thanks for posting the report 'cuz Only 17 days till Long Weekend shenanigans....possibly a repeat performance?

[rhymobot]

damn that looks like fun.

[bicephalic]

Thanks for the feedback guys - hopefully have another report in a coupla weeks!