French River report---LOUSY

[bigcreekdad]

Just got back from 6 days on the French. As usual, we stayed at Lochaven, which is just a great lodge, run by Ed and Sue Crane. I cannot recommend it highly enough. However, this trip goes down as my worst in over 40 years, and 90 odd trips, to Canada. My best day was 6 fish.....I used to catch this many just going out for a couple hours after dinner. Biggest was a 28' pike, and a 15" smallmouth. Oh....I also caught a catfish that was likely 8 pounds or so. Never saw a muskie. It wasn't just me. Almost everyone in camp was doing as poorly. One poor guy came up by himself for a 2 day trip, and didn't catch a single fish. I tried to tell him that he should not consider this normal by any means, by I doubt he'll return.

 

It was quite warm most days, and that usually puts off the fishing, but I've always had success under such conditions by concentrating on morning, late afternoon, and evening fishing. As for methods, we did it all.....live bait, wacky worms, Gulp minnows, spinners, surface patterns, cranks, and even fly rod streamers.

 

I saw a few mayflies, but not enough to indicate that there was a major nighttime hatch (where I've experienced bad fishing as the fish gorge themselves on the emerging nymphs all night).

 

In any case, I'm not whining or complaining, and I have no qualms about continuing to fish that area,

 

I'm just perplexed.

[Squid]

God I hope the fishing changes for the better!! I am going up there in a couple of weeks.

[woodenboater]

whew, I was going to make a quick trip this weekend to Wolseley Bay but am going to the West Arm instead. Heard the bite is pretty good there so far, according to the bin of entrails in the fish hut

Edited July 6, 2012 by woodenboater

[Rich Clemens]

I sure hope things pick up, and they should, for September. I'll be fishing the same area one of those weeks out of Wolseley Lodge. We've been skunked on muskies up there quite often, but we keep on coming back and will do so as long as we are able.

 

Had a real good trip to the West Arm a couple weeks ago landing two muskies and lost a third. So, hopefully the bite is still on for ya WB. Post some of those "BIG FISH" pics when ya get back.

 

The Double Cowgirl has been my go-to bait for muskies the past couple years and so far, it's paying off. Got a few more on order right now from Rollie and Helens. Should have them in a week or two.

Edited July 6, 2012 by Rich Clemens

[johnnyb]

Sorry to hear you had a rough go....at least you were on the French though....definitely beautiful country

[woodenboater]

Post some of those "BIG FISH" pics when ya get back.

Hopefully I won't have to resort to the 'hold the fish up close to the camera' trick lol

[Raf]

how low was the water bcd?

[Squid]

French River

At Dry Pine Bay, the river level on July 3, 2012, was 180.37 metres, which corresponds to a flow of 43 cubic metres per second. The river level is 64 centimetres below the long-term average, which corresponds to a flow of 90 cubic metres per second below the long-term average. The river is expected to be stable during the next few days. Further change in the river levels will be dependent on the amount of inflows and precipitation.

 

The next update will be on Monday, July 09, 2012.

 

 

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[bigcreekdad]

I'd say it was pretty low.....as low as last Fall.

 

 

how low was the water bcd?

[spincast]

Sorry to hear about your slow days. Its really tough when you make along special trip and get phhhhhhhhhhhhhftttttttttttt.

 

I (and many others I have talked to) have found the fish are not where they normally are, when they normally are, nor feeding when they normally do. On Lake O they are way more shallow than normal at this time of year, and the a.m. bite seems to happen betwewen 8:30 and 10:30, instead of 4:30 and 7:30. . I have had several Lakers on dipseys, which is unusual. And the biggest kings in the period between 11 and 1.

When up at Gowganda, with one exception, we caught all our biggest fish between 11:00 and 4:00 when they are usually the least active, and we really struggled at sun up and sun down.

Blame it on winds, warm spring, or climate change, but much of what I have done in the past to catch fish is out the window this year. Change it up is my rule for boating them in 2012. Hopefully you will finish off the year with some better results.