From Kashagawigamog to Canning - Family Cottage Week 2017 - Fishing Report

[hutch4113]

First -> want to send some thanks to Singing Dog and Musky or Specks for their suggestions on where to fish for Musky. While the tips did not pan out, I really appreciate the shared information.

 

Every year we do a family cottage week with the Wife's side of the family. Generally speaking I am in charge of finding/renting the cottage we will use. I usually look for lakes that we have not been on before, with an eye to fishing of course . Some choices have been bad (Kennisis Lake - I hate you), to moderate (Healey Lake/Little Redstone Lake), to what I would call Epic (Bob's Lake).

 

However my Epic now has a new category all by itself -> the chain of 5 lakes in Haliburton.

 

I had never fished any of these lakes before. I knew however that they contained Musky based on some discussions with friends, etc. That was enough to get me. So once a suitable cottage was found that the entire family agreed to, we were off to Lake Kashagawigamog.

 

Now I have a bit of an issue when I am going for a specific species of fish. I concentrate almost entirely on them, and when I do not have success - get a little discouraged. Combine that with hunting Musky on new water and I am sure most would understand the issues that would come up.

 

NAMELY NO MUSKY

 

The weather did not help, as the first day we were there a cold front came through. That really knocked back the fishing. In fact we (my Brother In-Law joins me) never got a real bite the 1st two days. I had a nudge on the 1st day, and my Bro had a smack on the 2nd day (20+ plus feet - think it was something big).

 

However that changed in a big way by day 3 when we decided to venture down to Canning Lake. Because this was a new Lake we did a lot of trolling, so we could get an idea of structure. Also discovered a bit of current which seemed to be key for the big guys.

 

All of this ended up in a new PB Bass for me (5.5 Pounds).

 

 

 

 

Bon Voyage

 

 

Needless to say this got us both pumped - but that was it for the day.

 

This led me to make a new challenge for myself - try to catch a fish in each of the 5 lakes. I basically had given up on targeting Musky at this point, as the only thing that seemed to be active were the Bass - so when in Rome and all that.

 

Tried Soyer Lake the next day, and had some fun.

 

 

 

Then we went back to Canning Lake - I was tired of Bass so tried for some Musky again - and ended up with this (4.5 Pounds):

 

 

Again Bass seemed to rule the day. But at least I had knocked off 3 of the lakes at this point. Next Lake to try was Grass - again tried to for Musky 1st, but quickly gave up. There was a rocky point that I was sure had a fish in it - and sure enough it was a Bass.

 

 

So that was pretty much it. We had crisscrossed the lakes, and I had caught in 4 out of the 5 - so not too bad. The fishing had been a marathon to say the least, often involving us being out all day - from early morning to late evening. It is amazing how time flies. Before we knew it, it was pack up the Cottage day.

 

For some reason however, that morning i woke up really early - around 5:30AM. There are a lot of ducks in this area, and one was really cranky that morning - which disturbed my sleep. As I lie in bed, I heard my Barometric Pressure app (from another member on the board) go off, telling me conditions were optimal. As I continued to lie there, I got to thinking, I am not going to get back to sleep - why not do a quick troll? Checking my Solunar time, also showed a spike of activity - so I quietly exited the cottage, and jumped on the water.

 

I started trolling as soon as I got off the dock, and BAMMMMMMMMMMMMM....about 30 feet from the Dock, got the largest hit of the week. At this point my heart is pounding as I felt the power on the other end. The fish jumped, and my 1st thought was - great - another Bass. But as it got closer, I realized I had finally hit what I was looking for:

 

 

It took me a while to get it in the boat - when bringing the fish in, it went through a large ball of weeds, which made finding the hook fun. As such, I did not take any time to measure or weigh it, as it needed to get back in the Water. But as you can tell from my face, it was heavy. Going to guess 10 to 12 pounds, which would put it around 33 to 35 inches. Not my biggest Musky, but probably one that fought the hardest.

 

Held it gently in the water until it revived, at which point I was rewarded with a well deserved tail slap to the face .

 

So that is the trip. It was by far the best cottage lake we had been on. I caught the majority of the fish trolling, and basically used one Lure the entire time, as it produced everywhere we went. The only Lake I was not able to catch anything in was Head Lake - but I am ok with it . My Brother In-Law may disagree as he did not catch a lot - but was a great NET man, which is always appreciated.

 

 

[Sinker]

I am actually pretty surprised you didn't get into more musky. I have had pretty good luck in that chain for musky. Mostly in head lake and the north end of Kash...there are some HUGE fish in there too.

 

Looks like a great vacation though, good stuff.

 

S.

[hutch4113]

I am actually pretty surprised you didn't get into more musky. I have had pretty good luck in that chain for musky. Mostly in head lake and the north end of Kash...there are some HUGE fish in there too.

 

Looks like a great vacation though, good stuff.

 

S.

 

I am pretty new to Musky fishing, and have not targeted them in Summer - so pretty sure it was more me than the fish - lol.

[lastcall]

thanks for the report. I have a cottage on Kash and I agree with you that the Musky has been a challenge. I'm getting ready to spend 24 days up there starting next week and plan on targeting them a bit more than I normally do. I have got 2 this year on a Senko wacky rigged fishing for bass talk about being surprised. Both times I thought I had world record Bass hooked. Maybe that's the secret, target Bass and catch Musky.

[Bass Tard]

Cool report! Well timed, too. I just landed on Kashagawigamog last night due to many many technical difficulties. Had a smallmouth off the dock in about 5 minutes. Looking forward to throwing some tubes, and kinda-maybe-hopefully finding some eyes.

[hutch4113]

thanks for the report. I have a cottage on Kash and I agree with you that the Musky has been a challenge. I'm getting ready to spend 24 days up there starting next week and plan on targeting them a bit more than I normally do. I have got 2 this year on a Senko wacky rigged fishing for bass talk about being surprised. Both times I thought I had world record Bass hooked. Maybe that's the secret, target Bass and catch Musky.

 

That is one reason I decided to keep targeting bass. I got my 1st big Musky with a Bass Lure casting towards Docks. Figured if it worked then - it might work again.

​Spoke to another fisherman on Head Lake - he said the bite has been really slow, ever since the opener - on Head Lake at least.

[hutch4113]

Cool report! Well timed, too. I just landed on Kashagawigamog last night due to many many technical difficulties. Had a smallmouth off the dock in about 5 minutes. Looking forward to throwing some tubes, and kinda-maybe-hopefully finding some eyes.

 

Have fun. Hope the weather works better for you, then it did for me.

[misfish]

Enjoyed the read.

 

This looks like a nice place to flip around on the toon

 

[msp]

Well done. Thanks for sharing

[Rizzo]

Great stuff! And that musky looks more like 36-38 inches in my opinion. Fisherman usually don't sell themselves short on a fish tale but you may have!

[fishboy]

Nicely done..always enjoy fishing those lakes!