GTA Smorgasborg Report

tbayboy · May 21, 2007

Hi everyone, bit of a long report but I hope you'll take the time to give it a look and see the kinds of things you can do around the GTA area when you get a long weekend and no plans to get in the way

Saturday: The skunk

Met up with PatrickG at 10am for a day of pike hunting at the T.O. Islands. Once we crossed over we saw that water was solid mud (well dark green but whatever). Didn't look good but second cast this happens:

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Feel kinda bad about the scar we left that guy with but at least we figured the water colour/clarity might not be a problem. Cue the foreshadowing music .... yup that was it. Patrick had a few follows, I had nothing but this feathered fish:

A bit later we ran into EHG and he was having the same luck. He, however, was more prepared than us and was switching over to catfish mode with some worms at the ready. Hopefully he had some better luck with that.

Ah well, the weather was great and the scenery was beautiful, especially the one on the bike wearing the tight weatpant shorts and the loose ... oh right fishing report, sorry

So a nice day on the islands but not the best fishing day.

Sunday, freezing for panfish

Sunday morning I thought about the list of things I needed to do around the house and then checked the weather for Orangeville. 15degrees, mostly sunny, wind of 10kph. Screw housework time to hit Island lake (or the reservoir as some know it) and rent a canoe.

As I'm driving I'm thinking "boy seems awefully cold and windy but the weather guys are never wrong!". Sigh... I get out there and the wind is blowing like mad and its FREEZING cold. I look in my trunk and kick myself for taking out the spare fleece jacket last week. Oh well I'm out here so I might as well try the shoreline since there's no way I'm renting a canoe in these winds.

So for the next hour and a half I tried a few spots tossing pike lures but thing. Eventually I switched to the float and worm and hit some spots that always worked for me but all I managed was this little guy:

Then I nearly walked into this little surprise:

So now I'm freezing, not catching anything and somewhat disgusted. To hell with this I figure and head back. As I pass the office and the rental boats I think about what I'm going to do when I get home - clean the gutters, fix the lawn... who am I kidding, I can't leave a day this poorly when there's still time left. So in I go and drop the $50 for a little tinny and its electric motor (good for 6 hours).

At first I thought I'd try trolling for some pike but the wind was just too much of a hastle and I was loosing the feeling in my hands so instead I found a little bay that was more or less wind free and hooked up the float. What a great idea - a few hours later and I was reminded of how much fun panfish can be. Pumpkinseed were cruising all over and I got to see how the make nests (doing little circles in the dirt). was very cool to watch and site fishing for panfish is always fun. Wasn't anything huge, for the most part they were like this one, the first of the day:

And every now and then I'd see some perch swim by - damn those fish are easy to catch Just drag the worm anywhere near them, doesn't matter how much noise you make:

A bit later the wind swung my boat over a bit and I was introduced to "lou" the bass:

I'll be coming back to meet him again in a few weeks but for today he just hung around those pads and didn't seem the least concerned with my presence so I kept pulling in the perch and pumpkinseeds including this guy, a personal best:

And of course Island Lake is always good for some wildlife and today it was ducks with ducklings:

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A bit later I heard this huge commotion and looked over to see all the duckling beelining it for deep water and the mother splashing like mad then out comes an otter who took off with mother duck chasing all the way. Guess he thought he might snack on some baby duck but mom was having nothing of it.

In the end yeah I spent $50 to catch a few panfish most of which were 6 inches long but I still think it was worth it - once I was out of the wind it was a great few hours spent with peace and quiet, great scenery and fun with the ultralight gear.

Sunday, It just keeps getting better!

The lousy and unexpected weather Saturday was a curse to some but a blessing to me. It tuns out Lexxington has been planning to go salmon fishing Saturday but the wind was crazy and he had to reschedule it to Monday. Unfortunately his buddy couldn't make it Monday so Lexx dropped me a line to see if I wanted to go out. Hmmm an offer to go fishing for salmon for the first time ever with a guy I know will actually teach me what I need to know in addition to being a guaranteed good time? Damn straight I jumped all over that.

6:30 am found me pulling in at the Port Credit Marina complete with gloves, 4 layers of clothes and my ice fishing leggings (after Saturday I wasn't taking any chances) and Lexx had his survival suit on. The weather called for 10k winds with gust to 15 but after the weirdness Saturday Lexx was worried about how it would go Sunday so we weren't even sure we'd get out today but sure enough, not even a breeze as we pulled out. In fact it turned out to be a gorgeous day, go figure .

Oh yeah and did I mention we got some fishing in? Lexx started out showing me how the downrigger and dipsy divers worked (did I mention I'm a total rookie at deep water fishing) which was great (vs some charter that just hand you the rod and do the rest of the work, this was much better). About a half hour later I'm adjusting one line and look over at another - hey Lexx (ok I used his name not Lexx) is that line suppose to do that?" (once again - I'm a total rookie at this). Lexx grabs the rod sets the hook and a little later our first fish is in, a nice 8 pounder that goes in the well. Lexx has the pics of his fish on his camera, hopefully he can post some here as a follow up (I was generally just trying not to screw up and stay out of the way).

So now I kinda know how to setup the lines and I know what it looks like when a fish take a swipe (as Lexx put it 'Salmon don't nibble') so sure enough there's no confusion when the next rod goes off. I'm up and pull the rod from the holder and give it a yank to set the hook. WUMP. After a day of panfish with 4lb line on a 5' rod this is a serious kick in the ass! Away I go with Lexx clearing lines and giving me advice all the time somehow managing not to laugh his ass of at my fumbling attempts. His tips are great (like keep the tip up, stop pumping so fast, try to be smoother with the reel, etc etc). All this time I'm trying to figure out whether I want the reel face up or down (I'm use to spinning gear) and trying to find a spot to put this long pole that isn't gonna ruin my chances to have kids. All this time this fish is going on runs and I'm not sure whether the drag is too tight, too loose or what. Lexx summed it up best - that fish was solidly hooked as I gave it every opportunity to get off with my disaster of a fight .

All the time Lexx is asking me "so hows that perch feel?" (last time I hooked up with Lexx was the perch festival in Orillia). Well I think it was a pretty decent "perch":

17 lbs, a new personal best (pretty easy when its your first salmon ever). Damn that was fun but after my disaster of a retrieve I nearly froze my hands off reviving him but eventually he recovered and off he went.

The day could have ended then and I'd have been happy but we weren't quite done yet. Next up was a pound or so shaker' (see now I'm an expert - even have the lingo down) that unfortunately got the hook in its gills kinda badly so he'll be a little bbq treat for Lexx and the family.

The next one was mine again, this time I think I did a bit better as I pulled in this 12 pounder:

A bit later the same line went off again (blue seemed to be the winner today 5 hits vs 1 on the apparently legendary green frog) and Lexx gave it a yank and he knew it was a good one but a few seconds later it managed to get off, our only loss of the day . Ah well, reset and not long later Lexx was back at it again. I grabbed a quick pic he started bringing it in before I had to put the camera down and get lines out of the way.

That one turned out to be a nice 10 pounder. During that fight I looked over and noticed a big black cloud over a part of the skyline. We weren't sure what happened but it looked like an apartment fire perhaps. Maybe we'll find out on tonights news:

Turns out that was the last fish for the morning. All said in 4 1/2 hours we went 5 for 6. Oh and of course the 15 kph wind gusts and freezing weather - well you saw it today, we were in shirts and slathering on the suntan lotion by hour #2.

Gotta say thanks to Lexx from giving me my first salmon trip, what a great way to end a weekend that in retrospects shows you how great the fishing around the GTA can be. From downtown shoreling pike fishing to back lake panfish fun to deep water salmon none of which took me longer than an hour to get to from my home in Markham, what a great great weekend. Now maybe I'll think about cleaning those gutters - or maybe a nap is in order

Edited May 22, 2007 by TbayBoy

bassmaster4 · May 21, 2007

great report thanks for the pics

TangerineDream · May 21, 2007

Nice weekend Tbay.. Nice fish as well. Guess if we went together the other day we could have both been cold lol.... A+ For the effort bud! Lazy people that don't brave the elements often miss the best opportunities in fishing.

ehg · May 21, 2007

Nice meeting you and PatrickGG at the islands Saturday.

Actually i tried the worms for catfish but after a bit with no bites decided to pack it in as well.

Nice weekend of fishing for you there!

cheers,

ehg

PatrickGG · May 22, 2007

Nice pics Tbay, looks like you had some fun, I took a little trip to grenadier pond stayed there for a couple of hours and landed a Crappie and a pumpkinseed and was nearly trampled when i released them buy some people who wanted them.

P.S

Nice bluegill.

LeXXington · May 22, 2007

Hey TbayBoy

Great having you in my boat again, Glad you had a good time and we did not get skunked. Learning is all part of the game. besides that just means next time I don't have to hold your hand .

Here is the pic of one of the fish

So we ended up

1 pound shaker ummmm on the BBQ

10 pound

13 pound

8 pound

and the biggeest of the year so far 17lb

plus my 35lb that got away

Not bad for the first time on lake 'O' thanks to all who gave me a little heads up at depth and colour... Gave us the opening we needed

LEXX

PatrickGG · May 22, 2007

I see you guys did some down rigging what water temps and how many FOW did you nail those silvers at?

fishdawg · May 22, 2007

"hows thta perch feel?" LOL!

nice going guys

ccmtcanada · May 22, 2007

Wow...great report....video, pics and fish!! Couldn't ask for a better combination!! Thanks for taking the time to post...uploading vids to youtube and all those pics takes time...

tbayboy · May 22, 2007

Hey Patrick, we had 4 lines out of which 2 were on the downriggers and 2 on dispy divers but only one of those had a line counter. And of course 4 of the 6 hits came from the fourth line that was just floating back on a dipsy diver with no line counter so I couldn't tell you how deep it was. The others were running maybe 40-50ish when they hit but we weren't being really picky about the setups, we were marking them from 40 to 80 for the most part (if I recall correctly). The few times I glanced at the water temps they seemed to be high 40s but don't quote me on that.

lunkerbasshunter · May 22, 2007

im very impressed with that report! great info, great pics and a couple vids to boot!

Thanks for sharing and thanks for the effort in your report!

Cheers!

Markystang · May 22, 2007

Awesome report!

Now I'm itching to go Salmon fishing...

GTA Smorgasborg Report

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