007 Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 (edited) Hi all. I must say I am a bit annoyed - I just spent 2 hours preparing a long report about my fishing trip to the islands but when I tried to preview the post I lost the lot and no way of recovering it!!! So unfortunately as I am really tired and in pain from having all my wisdom teeth out last week you're going to have to have the condensed version instead... sorry. Fished the Islands - good to be out. Caught 6 different species (bowfin, perch, rockbass, largemouth bass, pumpkinseed and bluegill and saw 4 more (carp, pike, alewife and bullhead). Lucky to have so many species too fish for in the city! Lots of wildlife - Had a mink swim through the area I was fishing and scared the **** out of me! Saw a Great Egret (looks like a big white heron) - quite rare in these parts I believe. Highlight of the day was casting to a large bowfin in the shallows in an attempt to notch up another species for the year and a new species for me. No interest from the big guy/girl but caught one of its babies - turns out that the large dark area around the fish wasn't weeds but a shoal of baby Bowfin - hope you can make out them out in the picture. Really cool to see but can I really claim to have battled the mighty Bowfin!? The quest will continue as I want to catch that baby's father!! Also bumped into Tbayboy and PatrickGG - nice to meet you guys - did you have much luck after I left you?? Once again sorry for the short report rather than the beautifully crafted one I had actually prepared! Here's the pics - enjoy. I need to go and lie down - my computer and I are having a major meltdown! 007 Edited July 17, 2007 by OO7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben_Daniels Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Those are some awesome pics. I saw the same thing about a month ago... a bowfin swimming with a huge ball of small bowfins, pretty cool, I also couldnt catch it. lol. I guess there really cautious while guarding the little ones. Id count it as another species...but Id still go after a big guy! I caught my first one earlier this year and I couldnt beleive the fight it put up. -Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danw Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Great post and, Nice pictures. That happened to me once, where I lost everything. I was lucky that I was able to right-click and hit the "undo" button and I was saved. I haven't fished the Toronto island before, and was considering of checking it out this summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJL Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Great report 007 That baby bowfin is neat...I've never seen one that small...I may have to make my way down to the islands in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccmtcanada Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Sorry to hear about losing the original report 007!! Nice job out there...lots of great pics there. So you haven't decided if you are counting that bowfin yet...hmmm...that's a tough call. Looked like a great day to be out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Pike Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 I'd say you count the Bowfin, for what it's worth. A catch is a catch, right, no matter the size? And thanks for posting your outings 007! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golfisher Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Good stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbayboy Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Was great meeting you out there 007. I saw that same bowfin swarm (after we passed you - love the pic of the little one) and your egret being chased away by smaller birds, very good nature day (the alewife were nuts at the one spot - we'd have up to 8 or 9 follow our spinners in ever cast).. We managed a spinner bait catfish (go figure) to go with the largie Patrick got before but nothing great. Congrats on the good collection and hope to see you out there again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyk Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 nice report thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted July 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Thanks for the comments guys. I guess the little Bowfin counts towards the quest but I certainly will try to catch a bigger one - though they are pretty scary prehistoric looking things. I don't know too much about the Bowfin - I was wondering does anyone know whether the fish has that large 'eye' or spot on its tail as a defence against attack, so a predator goes for the tail rather than the head? I know there are other creatures in the world that have evolved that way - like lizards. 007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeymikey Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Nice Catch! Btw... what type of lure?bait? were you using that you caught from large bass to small panfish? ... YOu should have kept that cool looking baby bowfin home and dunk it in your fish tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsn Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 I was thinking that too. Would be awesome to have a bay bowfin in a tank. But what would you feed it? Great report OO7. I'll be hitting the islands this week also. dsn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted July 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Mikeymikey... now if I told you I would have to kill you in true 007 style. No seriously, my 'secret' bait is....... worms! It's probably the only bait that you can catch almost every species and size of fish with. I guess its a bit of a cultural thing for me. Coming from the UK - float fishing with live bait like worms or maggots is very popular and not too many people fish with lures. I used lures for the first time when I started fishing in Canada and am still experimenting/learning, so often it is the humble worm that I turn to for reliable action. I usually take two rods with me to the islands - my medium heavy for carp or pike fishing and a medium rod for float fishing worms or casting smaller lures ot bass and panfish. I'll alternate between the two depending on what I'm targetting. I have found that the only truly reliable bait for bites on a hard day is float fished worms. It doesn't often result in big fish (though I have caught LM bass to about 4/5lbs at the islands this way) but it gets you bites and the potential for a surprise! To help my quest of catching lots of different species it is proving to be the best bait to use. That said I will need to master lure fishing to catch the likes of pike and musky. The other tip I can give when it comes to fishing live worms is to use an appropriate size of worm for the fish you want to catch. If you want to catch big bass - use a whole worm on a bigger hook. If you want to catch panfish - cut the worm into smaller pieces and thread it onto a small hook, if you don't you will get lots bites but very few fish as the sunfish will just swim off with one end of the worm and not with the hook in their mouth. When I am getting lots of bites from panfish I do experiment with other baits - like microtube jigs or berkley grubs - but I have to say a piece of worm tends to catch more. dsn - would be kind of cool having a bowfin in a tank but I'm guessing all the other fish may just disappear - have you seen the mouths on those things?! 007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motv8tr Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Amazing pics 007!!! Thanks for sharing, and for sure count the little guy Maureen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsn Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 dsn - would be kind of cool having a bowfin in a tank but I'm guessing all the other fish may just disappear - have you seen the mouths on those things?! 007 Yeah I have, not to mention the teeth. Safe to handle when they are small just like any other wild beast of nature. dsn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greencoachdog Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Ya gotta love a Mommy protecting her babies!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highdrifter Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Wicked! Those baby bowfins would look awesome in my new fish tank! j/k The way a bowfin mates is also pretty kewl... Great report mang, good to hear from ya! tight loops HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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