May Wrap Up *PICS*

[steverowbotham]

Well it looks as though I wont be getting back out until the beginning of June, so I figured Id do a May Wrap Up while I have some time. I took a week vacation to enjoy some spring pike fishing this year and what a blast I had! Let's start at the beginning of the month though.

 

Once May rolled around, I was still doing the crappie thing. What a great way to enjoy the water before pike/walleye/lake trout/whities open up! I can say, I've had my fill of crappies now and probably wont need to fish for them until next April/May hahaha. At the end of April we were getting them in deeper (7-11ft) water, but by early May they had migrated to shallower water, into the emerging lily pads and pencil reeds. Up shallow, a float was not stealthy enough, so we used a 1/16oz dropshot rig on 4lbs fluoro with an X-Zone pan slammer and they enjoyed it!

 

 

By now, pike season had opened up on Simcoe/Cooch and I spent a couple days out there looking for em.

 

I spent a long time throwing the X-Zone Swammer and it generated a lot of interest, but not a lot of takers. We switched gears to some smaller jerkbaits and started having some success. The water was still in the mid to low 50s and I think the smaller profile baits were neccessary. The next day we went back and I rigged up a fluke on a 1/16oz head just to give it some weight. It was my most successful bait of the day for sure. I landed a few pike, one nice one (though it looked very beat up and skinny), and also got my first musky on Cooch. It was released quickly, but it was very cool to see them around. She had beautiful spotted colouring and measured 42 inches.

 

 

After a few more days off, Muskoka pike season opened up and that is always a favourite for me. All of those lakes have giants and we hit a few different lakes in search of them. Every day was different and they're kind of blurred together at this point but the go to bait for the week was far and away an X-Zone Mega Swammer. I fished it two ways; weightless on a 6/0 hook and on a skirted jig to add bulk to it. When it got tough, I had a 5" grub rigged up to swim or hop slowly, though it generally only accounted for smaller fish, with the exception of one 36 incher.

On Saturday, I had my dad visiting from Halifax and we headed up to get some giant snotters. The day started slowly, but it quickly turned into one of the best days of pike fishing I have ever experienced. We landed 3 fish over 40 inches, a 37, a 39 and a half dozen others over 30. One fish, a 41 incher, had me wrapped up in a downed tree so bad that i debated cutting the line, but then it surfaced and got stuck on a branch where I was able to take the trolling motor over and just net it, with 30 feet of line still out and wrapped up. It was pretty wild. Later that day. my dad hooks his PB 43.5 incher and I set the camera up on the tripod to capture the fight. During the excitement of landing it, the tripod got knocked into the lake. I dove in without hesitation, but those things sink fast and 25 feet of dark water was too much for me. We lost pretty much the entire day, though it was a day we will not forget, and I have to be thankful for that. We still got a wet cell pic of his tank. I bought a new Nikon when we got home and was back out again the next day. Saw lots of bigguns, but only convinced two to go and one broke off. All in all, a fantastic month and I look forward to the rest of 2012! Tight lines!

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwg0s06e8cI&feature=g-upl

[corvette1]

nice gators

[mercman]

Great May Steve !! Love them Gators !!!!

[hoby5]

nice gators for sure and those slabs looked delicious

 

 

[JoshS]

You should enter the Muskoka pike fishing tourny next year.

 

Nice fish!!!

[danklegrand]

Great report and awesome fish! Bet those gators were a blast!

[Gregoire]

Thanks for sharing

[Lunker777]

second pic looks like it should be in a magazine !

[Christopheraaron]

So does the fifth.

[Ralph Field]

I didn't know crappie came that large in Canada.

[misfish]

Nice fish and vid Steve.

[davey buoy]

A buddy of mine hooked in to a musky about 42" the other day on Simcoe.Great pics Steve,hope to get into a couple of Pike myself very shortly(my favorite),biting at the bit ,really need to get going.lol.

Edited May 29, 2012 by davey buoy

[Djeep]

some reaaal nice pike man, sweet video too

[Jigger]

Nice gators Steve! Thought that last fish was going to put you in the drink!

[Joey]

Wow, awesome report and pics

[Rizzo]

you call that a month? That's a good year for me!

[steverowbotham]

Nice gators Steve! Thought that last fish was going to put you in the drink!

Lol. So did I!

Felt worse than it looked too!

[puncho]

Wow nice pikes congrats

[Jacob]

Great report, nice pike.

[steverowbotham]

thanks guys! Was a very fun month!