9 days fishn' on GB close to the magnetewan river

[redskullz]

We have friends that have a family cottage a few km out from the mouth of the Magnetewan river on Georgian Bay. I have fished the area close to the cottage fiercely for about a week a summer for almost 10 years now and have had a very tough time locating fish consistantly. As i talk with more people that fish close to our friends cottage i find out more and more that the fish just dont seem to hold there for some reason, even though there is steep rocky points with nice smaller isolated cabbage beds. Anyways i tried for years and came up with very few fish considering my efforts. SO last year i thought i would try trolling in some areas that were a good few km from our friends cottage and i came across some thick shallow weedbeds surrounded by some 7 fow sparcer weed weedbeds. I hit a bunch of nice pike in this spot last year and i found some very interesting areas close to his weedbed. One is a sunken island thatbrings the water up from 7 feet to 4-5 and has some isolated thick clumps of cabbage. Last year i hit the bass good...and this year....so the tale begins.

 

 

 

We started by arriving at the cottage at about 11 am on saturday. We were supposed to leave friday night but our friends had some car problems are werent able to make it before dusk on friday.(and driving the boat to the island cottage in that area of georgian bay with no electronics at night is insane) Everyone knew i was itchin to fish bigtime so after helping unloading the boat, and putting the groceries away and all that, i was off for fishing. I started by going to my favorite sunken island(30 min drive with the 25hp) and i almost instantly hit a bass on soft plastics that measured out to 16". I fished around that area for a while longer and i came up empty so i went to the 4ft thick cabbage bed and i got hit hard on a 4.5" cotton cordell jerkbait. Reefing the fish out of the weeds i got it lipped and in the boat and it measured 17". I did another drift through the weedbed and ended up with nothing else, so i decided to try another area i located at the end of last years trip. It is a huge expanded weed flat that the water clarity is tannin tea stained and most of the huge bay is only 3.5-4.5 feet and cluttered with weed. However last year i noticed that there was a channel that ran 6 feet around one edge of the weedbed. The 6' section comes up to 5 feet around some rocks. I went and drifted by the first rock and whipped my 3/8oz spinnerbait along the edge and let it sink down a couple of seconds before starting the retrieve. Almost instantly i had a hard hit. After battling the brute, i got her in the boat and measured out a 19" smallie. A few more drifts produced nothing in that area so i tried following the 6 foot channel around the corner through the narrows. I had my portable marcum showdown running for depths and the 6 foot channel dropped to 7, then 8, then 9, then 4...there was a rock shelf running through the narrows and i couldnt believe i caught nothing off it. After the shallower shelf the narrows opened up into a bay and instantly the water dropped to 9 feet! Still no fish there though...on one side of the bay there is a thich clump of cabbage and while i was casting long the deeper edge bang! Another nice bass that measured 18". By that time it was getting close to dinner so i called it day after 4 hours of fishing i ended up with 4 nice bass, a great start for sure! Unfortunately day 1 i forgot the camera, which was quite unfortunate, as the 19 was a hog.

 

 

 

Day 2

 

morning - sigh...the gas tanks on the little boat needing refilling so i had to run into the magnetewan to refuel. I trolled the river and did a bit of casting, hoping for a muskie or any fish but no luck.

 

 

 

afternoon - I went back to the cottage and hung out with my wife and friends and had some lunch, and got back at the fishing holes around 2. The little bass were on like crazy and i ended up getting 14 bass in four hours with the biggest being 17". Forgot the camera again...oh well no fish really pic worthy.

 

 

 

Day 3

 

Day 3 was the day i should not have left the camera at home. I got up at 6am and burned full speed to the fishing hole....in four hours i got a total of 13 bass landed, highlights were one 17", one 18", one 19" and one huge 20 1/2" with a 16" girth. Almost my biggest smallie ever!

 

 

 

Afternoon - i was so pumped to get out again so i burned back to the cottage for some food and drinks and i headed back out again in such a hurry i left the danged camera again...lol

 

Since the morning was so awesome i decided to staty out for longer, so i stayed out for 6 hours. In total i got 20 smaler bass, with the biggest being 16". I also picked up my first pike of the trip which might have measured 20"...lol

 

I saw an older gentleman fishing with live bait and sure enough he pulled up a nice 20"+ eye which got me realllllllllllly excited as they were of the species i had to go for. As he pulled up his stringer he had another small one on there! Woo-hoo was exactly what i said! I trolled the line out of the bay hoping for one myself for the pan but no dice.

 

 

 

Day 4

 

morning - gas run...man is that newer Johnston a fuel burner!! I didnt fish the river as the weather was looking very nastly and i just wanted to get gas and get across the 2 km stretch of open water before the swells rolled in.

 

 

 

 

afternoon

 

the weather cleared a bit and i went out for some fish...in 5 hours i got only 6 bass with the biggest being 17"

 

 

 

Day 5

 

morning - went out for 5 hours at 6am and got 10 bass with the biggest being 17"...the weather started to look nasty once again, but i had to try again!

 

 

 

afternoon - with the potentially stormy weather i decided to dedicate the day to catching a fish for the pan. I went amed with worms and a harness and i started drifting. Hit after hit i lost worms and pulled up tiny perch, but not eyes. After the 1.5 dozen worms i brought were gone i tried trolling the 10ft deep channel with a shad rap type bait that runs 8.5feet. 10 minutes into it bang, fish on! I force it to the top and it skates all the way to the boat without even thrashing...sure enough its a nice little eye that measured just undered the slot at 15.5"...sweet!! One for the pan! I had my pan fish so i went back to some fun bass. Got 8 smaller smallies with the biggest being 17". I also got one small 24" pike in the shallow cabbage bed. The rain really started coming and i was a good bunch of km from the cottage(across potentially dangerous water for 1km if the swells come up) so i packed it in. Got back to the cottage and i had my wife take this pic of wally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6 -

 

morning - i had to help my friends do some work around the cottage.

 

afternoon - went out for 5 hours..tough fishing after the weird weather front...got 3 bass 15" and smaller

 

 

 

Day 7

 

morning - in six hours i hit 6 smallies, one was 18, one was 17...i also picked up one 14.5" eye, and one 30" pike

 

 

 

18" smallie

 

 

 

 

17" smallie

 

 

 

 

14.5" eye (kept for the pan and had a pic taken back at the cottage with our friends baby and our friend tammy in the pic) Another eye on a trolled shad bait! Sweet!

 

 

 

 

30" pike

 

Now this was awesome....i was fishing off the tip of the point of the submerged island and in the open water i spotted a long fish cruising about 6 feet under and off to the side of the boat. I threw my 4.5" tube ahead of the cruising pike about 10 feet in front and let it sink in its path...fish on and landed. I knew i tied those custom wire leaders onto the big tube baits for a reason!

 

 

 

 

Afternoon - hit the water the afternoon again and hit 'em hard again...eight bass landed with one 18", 2 X17" the rest smaller. Also got one 24" pike. Lost a 15" eye netting...its hard to net by yourself!! (thats my excuse iand i am sticking to it!)

 

18" smallie

 

 

 

 

17" smallie

 

 

 

 

17" smallie

 

 

 

 

I also saw a pair of ducks(teals?) and i followed them for a bit and took a few pics:

 

 

 

 

Day 8

 

Morning - gas run once again (buying some big gerry cans for next year!!)

 

Afternoon - Wifey wanted me to hang out for the day so no fishn'

 

 

 

Day 9

 

Morning - 3 hours got 3 bass one was 18", one 17" and one 16". Fishing wasnt too great and i had to run our friend Carlos ino town so i was back by 10:00. On the way home i spotted a mink about 10 yards away so i stopped the boat and took some pics.

 

At first i just observed him and took a bunch of pics on X12 zoom while he played on the rocks.

 

 

 

 

Then i made a slight chirp/click noise and sure enough he sat up look at me and then entered the water coming todard me! Probably 8 yards away.

 

 

 

 

I couldnt believe ho close he came to the boat...seriously i could have reached out and grabbed him at one point...awesome experience!

 

 

 

 

He lost interest and went back to the original shore he came from. He started playing around a marker post and i nabbed this cool shot. I wish it was in focus better. Probably about 13-14 yards.

 

 

 

 

Cool...back to the cottage and took carlos into town...weather really looked nasty and started raining on me as i was getting some supplies we needed...grrr...oh well. Back to cottage for lunch.

 

 

 

Afternoon - Okay nasty rainy weather...could get some bass likely and maybe a few pike....but summer rain = walleyes right? That was the target!! I took worms out again and tried in a different area had found that is 12-15 feet deep with scattered cabbage and sure enough trolling again with the shad bait pegged me a 15" eye shortly into the run.(didnt bother with pics as its the same as the other 2...lol) I kept the harness rigged with a worm and watched the sonar closely looking for a school...sure enough the screen flicked with many marks and i quickly reeled in my shad and dropped the harness...thump, thump...i threw the hook at him but i didnt get a good hook set. The big eye was on and i fought him for 2 minutes before getting a good look and seeing a beauty walleye in the 5-7 pound size, before a lucky head shake rips the worm harness hooks free...gah!! Had my chance and lost it!!

 

Also got 2 small bass and 2 small pike landed and released...kept the camera out of the rain.

 

 

 

Day 10

 

morning - Cold front after the storm from the night before. Went for a tour with my wife and our friend tammy as well as our two dogs to where i fish. DId a bit of trolling, but it really was a half arse attempt, and i missed a few fish.

 

 

 

afternoon - 2 small bass. I went and tried another area i had got some pike in last year and was hoping for a chance at a good pike since i hadnt really got any, not to mention the wind was very strong and drift fishing my normal spots was not happening. Using the 3/8oz spinnerbait i got a nice solid hit, and it turned out to be the biggest of the trip.(estimated at 36-38")

 

 

 

 

I saw another pike which was probably 3 lbs or so bigger than that one, but it swpied at my spinnerbait once and i missed it...tried the area a couple of more times but no luck....next year she'll be bigger and meaner.

 

 

 

AT one point it looked like it was going to rain, and there was some nasty dark clouds in the area but it passed overhead. Interesting i got a rainbow show on the way home and took a pic.

 

 

 

 

I got a few other neat pics of some stuff you guys will like:

 

 

 

Green Tree Frog:

 

 

 

 

Mayfly on macro:

 

 

 

 

Talk about cool rock formations:

 

 

 

 

Talk about treacherous boating water!!

 

 

 

 

How one of our puppies loves to spend her time at the cottage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

How our other puppy loves to spend her time at the cottage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And thats the end of my cottage adventure for this year! Cant wait to go back!

 

 

[Rich Clemens]

Awesome report. Always hate to see the trip end, especially when you know you have to wait until the next year to go again. Don't ya just love the Canadian Shield.

[spincast]

great report - thanks for sharing

[Roy]

Thanks for the report. You didn't happen to use any of your painted baits did you?

 

And yes Rich, our great Canadian shield. The only place in the world where a day of fishing involves pole dancin' weasels.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Great report. Sounds like you had a blast. Love the mink "shots".

[corvette1]

awesome report nice bass and pike pictures of the mink cool

[mercman]

Fantastic report and pics

Looks like an excellent vacation site.Beautiful fish.

[redskullz]

Thanks for the report. You didn't happen to use any of your painted baits did you?

 

And yes Rich, our great Canadian shield. The only place in the world where a day of fishing involves pole dancin' weasels.

 

Crankbaits werent happening for the most part so i didnt get to use my baits too much. The only cranks i found to work were the ones that mimic the hordes of shiners that were everywhere. Next year i will be making some of my own patterns that mimiic shiners.

[discophish]

Great report! Thanks for sharing your vacation experiences. I'm not too far from your friends cottage. It's great to a see post from an experience just around the corner. Too bad about the pickerel, but isn't that what keeps you returning year after year?! For sure! You are already looking forward to next year!

[redskullz]

Great report! Thanks for sharing your vacation experiences. I'm not too far from your friends cottage. It's great to a see post from an experience just around the corner. Too bad about the pickerel, but isn't that what keeps you returning year after year?! For sure! You are already looking forward to next year!

 

I absolutely love that area. Its so nice there, but way out of my price range to buy land unfortunately. As for the lost 'eye, its all good. You win some, and you lose some. Like you said next year. I am going to get some better rods, and we'll see what happens.

I can't wait till next years trip. I am also going to do some camping up there next year earlier season.

[discophish]

Send me a PM if you would like to know some amazing options for camping in the area ... that is if you don't know them already. You will need to bring a canoe and an appetite for some awesome scenery and good times. I'm heading up myself for the next 2 weeks, leaving tomorrow. Hopefully we will get into some big eyes and lakers. If not, we'll definitely have fun trying!

[redskullz]

I am always looking for camping options to tread new water especially canoe friendly water! Sending pm now! Thanks