French River Brother's trip report

[DonC]

Four of the brothers have returned from the French River. We fished the Lower French on July 14 for 5 hours in the rain. We caught 22 smallmouth with about 4 pike that day. The largest smallmouth was 18 inches We then went to Casa Blanca Lodge and fished there the next 4 days. The food was better than the 4 star resorts I have stayed at. Unbelievable quality. There is a certifed chef cooking there.

 

We did not catch a huge quanity of fish. We did a total boat count daily and were able to increase each day the total amount of fish caught. We ended up with 131 bass, mostly smallmouth, 24 pike, 12 rock bass, 3 drum (sheephead), 1 perch and 1 small musky. A total of 172 fish. We were pleased with the effort and results. I had a musky on in the Chaudiere rapids that was about 45 inches long, on 8 pound test with a tube, but could not hold it since I was on shore and could not walk it down the rapids due to high water release from the dam. We caught many smallmouth in the 15-18 inch range. The largest largemouth was full of eggs and 18 1/4 inches long. Caught a decent amount of largemouth in the large bay (m a r s h bay) on left across from the canoe channel. We fished about 4 hours for walleye in the evening, but caught none.

 

We caught most of the bass on tender tubes with 1/4 ounce internally weighted jig heads on 8 pound test stren gold mono. We decided to just go down the back channel shore of the Upper French from Hunter's Bay heading to the dam on the last day. We caught 29 bass doing that. That evening we went out and fished the current on the islands across from the lodge and caught another 13 smallmouth, 6 rock bass and the small musky, around 20 inches. Musky was released without touching it, in the water. We fish with the barbs crushed down to cause less damage to the fish and make releasing the fish easy.

 

Another great brothers trip.

 

Hope all have great fishing and trips,

Don

Edited July 20, 2007 by DonC

[addy79]

any pics??

[DonC]

My youngest brother will have some. I will then have to figure out how to paste them.

Don

[Daplumma]

Very nice report.Thats not such a bad few days of fishing .Only 24 pike???Could hardly catch a bass for the pike there last time I fished there.Sounds like a great week!

Joe

[Carp]

Sounds like a good time.

We'll be looking for the pics.

Thanks for the report Don C.