A family and friends fishing report

[BassMan11]

For the last 5 years in the summer my wife and I rent a cottage somewhere within a 2ish hour drive from Ottawa for a week of fishing and relaxing. March of last year our little guy was born and the trip has turned into more of a family vacation than a fishing trip as expected. Last year we found a cottage we really enjoyed with great fishing and decided to book it again for our 2019 trip. This year my good friend and his wife joined us on the trip which is always a lot of fun. The little guy is 16 months and did not want to get out of the boat.. it was his favorite place to be all week.. which suits me just fine.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Light winds and sunny for a full 6 days straight. Water temp was 77-79 which was great for fishing and swimming. 

The fishing itself was fantastic. Primarily a lake trout lake it also has big smallmouth, largemouth, and pike. Our focus was put towards jigging lakers in the morning mostly with maybe an hour or 2 in the afternoon. Then after dinner getting out for an hour or so of topwater bass fishing. Monday to Saturday we boated 51 lake trout averaging between 5-7lbs with the biggest just over 9lbs. We only kept 2 with the rest of them heading back to be caught again. Its very important to get these fish to burp on the way up or they will have trouble getting back down. Also a quick release makes a big difference.  Largemouth were plentiful and a tonne of fun catching them throwing a pompadour and a frog from dusk to dark. The most interesting catches were the smallmouth though. Fishing for lake trout  in anywhere between 70 - 110 ' we would catch them cruising over top of high bait balls. At one point my wife had her line hanging over the side of the boat in 70' and all of a sudden there is a fish on. What a weird pattern to try and figure out! 

A great week with great friends. Enjoy a few pictures below!

BassMan11 aka Troutman11? 

My buddy with the first of the trip

I was soon to follow

Double header!

The girls even got into them!

 

The big screen sure helps with figuring out whats what (Fish on top. bait-ball, jig, fish on bottom).

A few bass

My little buddy

 

A beautiful spot

Cheers!

Edited July 30, 2019 by BassMan11

[misfish]

Lots of fish and smiles. Nice greasers.

[chris.brock]

Congrats on the little guy last year Don.

Crazy average size on those lakers. I didn't know lakes like that still existed that close to an urban center. 

The picture of your buddy reflected in the water with the laker below is awesome.

[dave524]

Those are really nice lakers ? 

[gino]

Great report,  and some super nice lakers in that lake. Congratulations!

[NSXNeal]

Super photos, trip report, and Lake Trout!

 

Also, that's a pretty good beer holder there.  ?

[scuro2]

Enjoy it, it will be hard to top that next year!

[Pigeontroller]

Great Pics!

[BassMan11]

11 hours ago, chris.brock said:

Congrats on the little guy last year Don.

Crazy average size on those lakers. I didn't know lakes like that still existed that close to an urban center. 

The picture of your buddy reflected in the water with the laker below is awesome.

Thanks Chris,

Yes still a few lakes like this kicking around. No public access really helps with the pressure on these fish. Ottawa is really just a big city town. 30 minutes from the DT core and you can be fishing an abundance of different lakes. Unlike the hockey team... this is one of the things I love about this city. 

 

10 hours ago, scuro2 said:

Enjoy it, it will be hard to top that next year!

Thats what we are thinking... set a high bar. The cottage owner said he's never heard of anyone catching fish like that on the lake. But that's probably because 95% of people fishing there are trolling around with gang trolls. 

[zenon11]

Looks like an awesome trip!