Johnny Bass's camping trip

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Pics posted under thread, Simcoe Smallie report some hogs!

 

Pics coming soon of some Simcoe lunkers!!!!

 

Went camping for 6 nights at sibbald point provincal park. I was hoping to get into some Simcoe football smallies. I was told that they are hard to come by and dont expect to catch alot. Fine.

 

Get to Sibbald on Saturday around 11am. Set up the tent and the mattresses and everything and its around 1:00 pm. Decided to go for a swim, came back played cards, Cooked a feast on the Barbeque, went swimming an hour later came back, played cards and then sat around the fire drinking beer and roasting marshmellows. No fishing.

 

Sunday I wake up at 6:00 am and ready to go fishing. I prepare and I'm on the lake by 7:00 Fished around the dock with no luck. Fished a few shoals with no luck. Fished Duclous(sp?) point and picked up a small smallie and spit it out. After that I was getting perch on crank baits, perch on tubes...nothing but perch,

 

Decided to shoot over to Thorah island. On my way I had printed out a little map of Thorah island. Well it flew away... Anyways I get to Thorah and all I was seeing was carp!!! Then I started seeing the odd smallie but they would not bite! They would hang around at the bottom of the boat! I threw EVERYTHING at them. Nothing... Around 12 or 1pm I finally gave up and called it a day all disappointed.

 

Monday I needed some quick fish so I headed to the Kawarthas! The smallie action was hot and furious. Caught about 40 smallies in the morning. about 20 were a 1 lb to 1 lb and a 1/2. About 7-8 were 1/2 pound. Caught some 2 pounders and three 4 pounders(all 19 inches). I also lost a 5+ lb smallie!!! Me and Alex were talking about people getting snapped off by bass. I said it has never happened to me and after I said that, I said oh oh!! I just jinxed myself. And sure enough, I lost a big bass!!! And right at the knot it came undone!!! DAMN! Never say Never!!! It could have been frayed by the constant snags I was getting...

 

Now my second spot I was fishing, there was this guy fishing for bass and looking for a meal. When I hit my first school I was yelling at him. I found a school, I found a school!!!lol But he didn't listen. Later he came by and I asked him how he did. He said a little smallie. I showed him the spot and the clolour and he picks up a few smallies right away!

 

Then I want something different than smallies.I am drifting and asked him if he seen a weed bed around here. Its my pickeral spot. He said no. As I am drifting I say FOUND them. 1 minute later? WHAM!!!

 

At the boat a 5lb Pickeral 25 inchs!At this point I am like DAMN!! I wanted to take this pickeral home and eat it but I had nowhere to keep it. So in it goes after a few pics.

 

I said screw the pickeral. I cant even keep em! Switched to a Musky spot. Fish of a thousand casts? After about 40 casts? WHAM!I hook a Musky with my BPS musky rod. TOO THICK. Pulled the bait right out of his mouth! I think that rod will shine when I switvch to giant jerk baits, but I wont go to giant Jerk baits until I can buy a knipex(hook cutters?). Its a pain in the behind getting those hooks out!

 

Anyways about 15 casts later WHAM! Another Musky down the drift. 29 inches but really healthy looking. Tried to take a self picture again.

 

Decided to go for LM bass. I wasted alot of time trying to get to a spot that was unreachable and then gave up. But I did pick up 3, 1 lbers and a 2 1/2 pounder(LM). Took out the camera to take the picture and the camera wouldn't come on. It must have cooked in the sun and over heated!Left it on the dash...

 

Now this is the problem..... I brought my camera. Caught the first 4 lber and couldn't take a picture. Could my second 4 lber. tried to take a picture with me holding the fish and the camera held out. Caught my 3rd 4 lber. These people came by to watch and I asked if they could take a picture they did! Then I asked the man to take a picture of my 5lb pickeral. he did. Then I took a picture of the Musky and then the camera went on the blix so sorry no pictures....

 

Oh I told I guy I hooked a few muskies and he said he thought they fished them all out!!! I guess they are either eating or killing the musky....

 

Anyways it was mid afternoon and the sun was pounding and I had run out of water. I had to cut the day short. I would have probably caught tons that day had I stayed. The fish were really on!

 

Tuesday decided to give Dalrymple a try, went last year same time and caught alot of small fish. That lake is tough!!! I only caught a small pike, a small LM bass and a sunfish on a crank bait!! I talked to a few guys and they caught some bass and huge crappies early in the morning on minnows! I hear the lake is good in the spring but so is every lake!Wont go to Dalrymple anytime soon!

 

Wednesday wanted to go to an lake I know well. Balsam. I couldn't handle 2 slow days in a row!

 

Last minute I say screw it. I'll do Simcoe! I want to figure the lake out! And I'll do balsam tomorrow!

Well it was a scorcher of a day. No wind and no clouds.

 

I headed straight for thorah Island where I had seen the smallies. Well... They were there but not biting. I asked a guy if he caught any. I told him I was using everything he was using and no luck. He gave me some tips and told me just keep trying. You dont get fish after fish in Simcoe. Sometimes you may get lucky and get 3 or 4. Well I tried until 1pm!!!With not even a sniff. Actually I did try putting rattles in a tube and scent and I had a fish sniff and leave!!

 

I was ready to give up. I was thinking Simcoe is a tough lake. You have to spend years on this lake or know someone that has spent years on the lake. And I also blamed the hot cloudless skies and jin clear water. I wanted to come back on a cloudy day...

 

Anyways I am ready to leave and A boat aproaches me and tells me he caught a fish. Points me in the right direction and I am off!

 

I'm fishing for a bit and nothing worked. I started to work HARD for a pattern. If you only knew what I went through and the danger.lol I finally get a nible set the hook? Nothing!! I had another nible and again?Nothing! Once I figured out what I was doing wrong it was over for the Simcoe bass.

 

I put all the pieces together and? WHAM!!! 4 lb smallie in the boat. A little while later? SMASH! Another 4lb Simcoe football!! I was on fire!!! I nailed at least 10 simcoe smallies in the 4 lb class range. All clones pretty much in the 19 inch range! I also caught a few smaller fish but nothing under 2 lbs!!!I'd say 15-20 Simcoe smallies in 2hrs and a half!! No CAMERA!!!

 

I am screaming at the top of my lungs on the boat! I have figured out Simcoe!!!!

 

Oh by the way!!! I see a 4lb smallie in the water and swimming with it was something that was MORE than twice the size!!! And it took off when I drove by. Could it have been a carp??? I had not seen one carp in this area in 2 days!!!I'm thinking if it was a smallie it was definately over 7 lbs if not over 8.....

 

I call Alex on the phone and tell him I figured out an AMAZING pattern for monster simcoe smallies!!!Tell him to come up and bring the camera!!!! I told him I wont sting anymore fish until he comes up. I would have caught WAY more lunkers!!!

 

He wasn't coming till later on. Tried my hand at jigging for Whities. Jigged for 1 and 1/2 hours with no luck. It was frustrating because my fishfinder wasn't even marking much fish in 80 FOW. Just schools of baitfish in 40 FOW. The spot weas not as far as I thought. Next spring watch out whities!!!!

 

He calls me and I rush to the launch. Picked him up and we are off. The day started off a little slow. It was a little wavy. Once the heat picked up and we had the same conditions as the day before? That was it!!!

 

Alex picked up the first 2 dinks. I'm like, thats strange.... I never hooked any small ones. So I'm doing my thing and then I get a hit and I lose it. Alex is like, are you sure its a fish? I'm 100%

 

Then a little while later, same thing, no fish. The fish were less aggressive that day.The day before I would get a hit set the hook it would come off and the fish would hit it again!!!The fish weren't as active as the day before but we still caught some monsters.

 

Anyways, I get another nible. I set the hook and he said, he doesn't see head shakes. I say you wont see them until its close to the boat. Sure enough, it starts to head shake. My first 4lb Smallie!! Then I was on fire! I was smashin them and Alex caught on to my unorthodox technique and started smashing them too!

 

We hooked quite a few 4 lbers again in about 2 hours. Then it got windy and the fishing died down. It was hard to work the pattern with the wind blowing us around.. We still persisted.

 

Alex catches another one and then I smash a 5lber!!! 21 Inch beauty. I was agressively twitching the lure out of aggression because of the lack of bites and he hit right at the boat! I set the hook so hard he come up, upside down. I must have shocked him.lol Then the battle was on and after a few jumps he was in the boat.What a rush!!!

 

I think we caught about 8-10 lunkers and I lost 4 good ones!!! They were biting very lightly on day 2.

 

Then there was a storm approaching and the waves started to pick up. We could see a cloud of rain coming towards us and lightning. We make a run for shore. We get to the launch and see white caps starting to form on the lake!!I quickly load the truck and boat, thank Alex and I'm off. Get to the camp site and the rain stops, the water is dead calm and the sun is shining. DAMN!!!

 

Then it was time to go home. There is probbaly more stuff that happened in this adventure but this is all I can remember.

 

I'd like to thank Alex for coming up.Fishing alone is pretty boring. I'd stop by every once in awhile to chat with boats.lol We will go up in 2 weeks and slay them again. Maybe they will be bigger!!!

Edited August 5, 2007 by Johnny Bass

[JEREMY]

Wow now thats a good report and sounds like an even better trip wtg.

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Thanks. Oh ya! I forgot to mention I met iceguyd up there! He has a sweet ride!

[Rizzo]

Wow, what a report! And how the heck do you remember all that stuff anyways! If I catch more than 3 fish in a day i couldn't tell you how many i caught

[OhioFisherman]

Great to hear you figured out something that worked at Simcoe John, Dalrymple? Look at it as a challenge, never seen a fished out lake, some are just more challenging.

 

LOL watched BassMasters this morning, dude came in second or third fishing swimbaits(california style for smallies in New York. Sometimes the normal doesn`t work. I have caught them in deep water using blade baits when dropshotting or tubes didn`t work.

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Wow, what a report! And how the heck do you remember all that stuff anyways! If I catch more than 3 fish in a day i couldn't tell you how many i caught

 

When I was writing out the report, everytime I thought I was finished, I remembered something else. I still did not write down every detail. I'm sure I could remember more if I dwelt on it. Believe me, I had a great time.

 

Did you get my PM Rizzo?

 

Well Ohio. I did see a 2 lb smallie wading in 3 feet of weeds. And I seen a large fish. Could have been either a small carp or a 6lb bass. Come out of very thick weeds and then go back in a hole like lighting.

 

I went to dalrymple because it is known to have big largies. I tried to work on my jig and pig(maybe 1/2 hour tops) with no luck....

 

There are just too many better lakes in Ontario to waste my time there.....

 

When you fish this high pressure lakes, sometimes something different is all they need! Next time I will try my musky spinner baits!!!!

[OhioFisherman]

LOL John, much more choice of water to fish there and it`s all prettier than here. All the water here is highly pressured, it can pay to think outside the box at times. Great report, I like seeing people making an effort, learning. Don`t ever quit!

[Guest Johnny Bass]

LOL John, much more choice of water to fish there and it`s all prettier than here. All the water here is highly pressured, it can pay to think outside the box at times. Great report, I like seeing people making an effort, learning. Don`t ever quit!

 

Thanks Ohio. I am a pretty hardcore fisherman and although I am spoiled with many good fishing lakes? When the bite is tough, I never give up.

 

I just hope Alex posts the smallie picks soon. I caught at least 15, 4+ pounders not to mention also some smaller fish in 5+ hrs of fishing. Simply amazing...

[lunkerbasshunter]

awesome read!

 

Cheers!

[Greencoachdog]

Somebody ban this imposter!!!... There's no pics, and I'll bet he was even wearing a shirt!

[Golfisher]

What a great read!

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Pics added under another thread. Simcoe smallie report with some hogs!