Lower Buckhorn and Rice Lake Report - with Pics

[Dutch]

Well, it was about time to take a day off work and go out fishing. No better excuse than a good pal and his dad visiting from Sarnia and staying at the Three Castles to make Lower Buckhorn our destination. Headed out about 7:30 Friday morning to bright skies and a chilly morning. We were using a 14' tinny so making long runs was out of the question. Ten minutes through the channel and down the lake we were at our first destination.

 

Manage to boat a couple of small ones:

 

 

 

And this not so small 17"er (probably a good 2.5 pounder):

 

 

Most of the other guests were complaining about the smaller bass sizes and not catching too much in the way of numbers. For one day, I thought we did OK, boated about 12 bass in about 7 hours of fishing, not bad considering the cold front that went through. Most, unfortunately though, were of the smaller variety.

 

Next day my wife and I got a chance to stay a couple of nights at Elmhirst's Resort on the Eastern portion of Rice Lake with friends. I hadn't fishied that part of the lake so we were fishing blind. We went and picked up the boat - 9.9HP and 15'er and parked it at the dock. It was really, really cold there with intermittant rain and knowing how that lake can change around in an instant, we fished from the dock. Caught 2 LM about 12"-14" and 6-8 cold ones from the bottom of the cooler....

 

We debated about getting one of the wives to DD us and hit the water, but I saw a cloud edge that didn't look too promising moving towards our location. The wind direction had also changed from SW to a good easterly tack, not a good sign. Started to spit a bit with the sun still out so we moved 'er inside. Good thing we did and even better idea we weren't out on the water.

 

 

It started to just pour - then the hail started. Anywhere from pea size right up to large marble size. I hadn't seen hail like that since a bad storm spawned a tornado when I was at school in Niagara region.

 

Here is a picture of the hail on the ground:

 

 

And the look out over the lake (visibility about 30-40 feet):

 

 

The owner of the Resort said he hadn't seen a hail storm like that in over 20 years. They have float planes there, one visitor had a hole punched in one of his wings and was grounded. A non float plane on the runway suffered some damage too. Quite the experience seeing that whole storm transpire.

 

We did go back out fishing after dinner and managed a couple of other bass and a first for me - a brown bullhead. Fish were probably turned right off after that hail, some probably caught a few nuggets on the noggin! It was damn cold, so we came back in after about and hour or so. In about 3 total hours of fishing, we landed 4 bass, a bullhead and a perch. Nothing to write home about, but at least we got out on the water a bit.

 

Four and 5 inch Yum Dingers were the bait of choice for both outings, rigged with a very small bullet weight, Texas Style.

 

Take care all...when the wind direction changes on that lake, take cover!

Edited July 3, 2007 by Dutch

[Smokey]

That was quite the storm that moved thru and it basically hung along the shore of the lake. They didn't get much of anything 2 mins north of there. At least you caught a few fish on your trip. Thanks for the report.

[mattyk]

some nice fish, thanks for sharing.

[b2kptbo]

Good report Darren...

[pikehunter]

Take care all...when the wind direction changes on that lake, take cover!

 

That's good advise.

Good thing you listened to your senses. Sometimes we just don't pay attention to our conscious and go on ahead with our wishes and get into trouble.