Rideau Lakes Report

[Rich Clemens]

Well. my wife and I just returned last night from our annual trek to Rideau Ferry to fish the Upper Rideau and the Big Rideau Lakes. I believe this makes our 8'th or 9th year. We stay at Maple Crest Motel and Cabins in Rideau Ferry.

 

Thursday July 12. Prepare the boat for the trip. Connect the hose and fire the engine. Starts right up and runs like a charm. Check the electronics, lights, bilge pump, straps, etc. Finish packing up and batten her down for the trip.

 

Wake up Saturday am at Lew O'clock and hit the road. Arrived at camp early afternoon and my wife and I unpack the truck. She works on putting stuff away in the cabin, while I prepare the boat. Driver over to the launch, remove the straps, secure the trolling motor, PUT THE PLUG IN, disconnect the lights, etc. Finally, I move to trim the engine to remove the brace ... NO FREAKIN' POWER. DEAD Try the ignition - DEAD. Thought we must have left a switch on while I was prepping the boat, but I didn't find any left on. Tell my better half we ain't going anywhere but back to camp. Back we go and put the batter on charge for several hours, hook it up .... NOTHING. Back on charge and I unhook the trolling motor and hook it up ... BINGO ... LIFE IS GOOD. Getting into the evening and again try the main battery ... nothin'. Figure the battery is shot and no local stores open. Wait until Canadian Tire opens Sunday am and pick a Nautilus battery. Back to camp, hook everything back up ..... GOOD TO GO. Finally, Sunday afternoon we get out on the wanter. Not sure what happened, the battery was only three years old. I'm wondering if, during our trailering, the bouncing up an down, damaged the battery over the past few years.

 

Oh yeah, we did do some fishing. I have to say the fishing was way down from our previous trips on hose bodies of water. The total number of fish we caught the entire week, is what we normally catch in a single day. There were a couple other groups in camp as well, and they were having the same luck we had. It seems the weed beds that we normally fish, either were not developed or damaged by the heat. Some of the beds looked like they were dying off and trying to come back. I understand from the camp owner that June was a very hot month and may have had an impact. The usual spots were just not producing like they have in the past, although we were marking a lot of fish, just not biting.

 

We normally fish exclusively for bass, but we switched over and did a little pike fishing. Caught quite a few of those, with the largest around 24". Not bass, but we were having some fun anyway. After a few days searching around, we went into deeper water, with some minimal weed growth ... around 12-20 feet. Early in the week, it was pretty warm, sunlight was intense, and just must action. Just gotta keep moving around trying to find those active fish.

 

Thursday was rain off and on all day. No action in the morning, but I went out by myself in the afternoon, just in advance of a heavy rain moving in. Then I hit two very nice fish. Fishing in about 16 feet of water I started to catch a few smaller bass. Then a very nice smallie at 16 1/2. Within 15 minutes, I was able to land the biggest fish of the week .. 18 3/4 large mouth. Shortly after, those heavy rains came in and the weather forced me off the lake. The rest of the day was a wash-out with heavy rains and Thunderstorms overnight. Friday am the weather continued .... rain and some pretty high winds. After figuring we'd be sitting in the cabin all day, before pulling the boat to prepare for the trip home, we decided to go ahead and head for home

 

Overall, the fishing was dramatically down, but we had a great time none the less. We're really good friends with the owners and always enjoy being there with them. Thursday afternoon, during the bite, happened to be 'girls day out', so my wife and the camp owner's wife went around to the small towns for a bit of shopping. To my amazement, I still had some money left after they returned.

 

Next trip: French River for the last two weeks in September. I'd really like to bring back a couple pics to share with you all of some FR muskies. Better yet, maybe my better half will land her first.

 

OK ...OK .... here's some of the pics. Sorry there's only a few, but with the bite being so slow, we really didn't take all that many.

 

 

The two largest. 18 3/4 large mough and 16 1/2 small mouth.

 

One of the few bass we caught this week.

 

Patsy likes a fish fry ... guess who gets to clean the fish. She does a great job.

 

 

My wife and one of her pike. (she'll be coming to Lakair next year

 

My fishing buddy:

Edited July 22, 2007 by Rich Clemens

[Roy]

Great report, Rich. Too bad the catching wasn't as good as in years past but you had a good time all the same.

I took the liberty of enlarging your pics.

[Greencoachdog]

Great report and pics Rich!

[Tinman]

Great report rich! Did you get to try that area I suggested?

[Rich Clemens]

Actually Tinman, I didn't run down to the narrows this trip. BUT - I still have the E-mail and hope to give it a try. My father and step mom have quite a bit of success fishing the rocky shoals. I may just have to pass that along.