Well, another fishing season is upon us. Lots of people are already out on the lakes drilling holes and doing all that hard-core fishing stuff.
I haven’t heard any reports of the pan-fishing in Zone 17 yet. It will be interesting to see the outcome. It would also be interesting to have angler’s stories on incidental Walleye catches and how they dealt with the situation. That seems to be the big issue drawing all of the negative attention to the new laws. This season will be a good learning curve. If things work out, great; if not, back to the drawing board.
As for myself, I finally had my wrist surgery November 19th and am slowly healing. I start physiotherapy soon and honestly, can’t wait. I will do anything and everything to get the ol’ hook setting arm back in shape. So far I have lost quite a bit of forearm muscle due to the lack of usage/exercise however on the plus side I feel like I already have more gripping power than pre-surgery. The human body is one bizarre unit!!!
Shortly after my surgery, my house got broken into… bunch of a-hole kids needing to support their drug habit… I know this because the cops caught the little SOB’s… good-on-them!!! Took electronics, booze, fishing stuff, instruments, golf gear, Cuban Cigars... and the list goes on.
With all that negative crap said, Christmas was awesome at the Bowman house with the kids going crazy once again. Lee and I put most of our money and effort into the boys which is the way it is supposed to be. One super bonus unbelievable fishing gift I received from Santa was a Diawa Steez baitcasting rig… this baby is slick. The reel weighs less than 6 ounces and when coupled with the rod… I’ve never felt anything so light. I’ve been sitting on the couch engaging/disengaging the spool and “pretending” to pitch a craw into my make-believe Bass Abyss. Thanks Santa!!!
As far as here at the Fish’n Canada Headquarters, we’re busy setting up this season’s shoots, new business etc… looking forward to a great season!
Later amigo’s…

Did a bit of fishing in the last bit.

Did some late Bass fishing with Largemouth mostly on my mind. Didn’t do much, caught 1 little one and was totally frustrated with seeing 4 other fish that wouldn’t bite. One even followed my jig & pig for 5 or 6 feet and then simply turned and swam off!!! Another one would have went well over 5lbs… that really hurts. Remember, if you’re fishing Largemouth Bass in water in the 40’s (f), you’ve got to expect some weird reactions from the fish. Some times if all the planets are aligned, they will readily clunk a jig, spinnerbait or crankbait but more often than not, you really have to work to put fish in the boat.

Next I headed out to Simcoe with fellow fisher/metal-man Shawn Towner for some table fare in the color of Perch. We made our way to Virginia Beach, a well known fall (and spring) perch fishing area. Upon arrival we were amazed at the group of boats on the north end of the fishing area but decided to try a different spot which has worked well in the past. It was slow but we did pick up a few keepers on that first drift with one real beauty. My problem with pan-fishing is that if it’s not constant action, it’s no good! We did another drift a little further from the first and it got slower so I said to Townhorns, lets see what all this cluster of boats is doing. On the way Townrocka’ popped a nice Pike and a fat little Billy Bass, both of which put up great tussles. Upon arrival in the village on the water, we quickly surmised that a lot of these boats were either there because the fish were there last week or they were simply attracted to the boats… much like we were. After figuring there was nothing doing there, we quickly made our way back to our first stop caught a bunch more (enough keepers for a small feed) and then decided to take a quick shot for some Smallies.

Shawn O’ Peth, jigged up something heavy off of a hump. After setting the hook he started reeling in what we both thought was a nice fish. As I grabbed the net his rod snapped. Now we really thought it was a big fish. After a few more turns of the reel though we could see there was no fight so it was just a matter of time to see just what was down there… ended up being a nice mess of old steel fishing line… Zebra Mussels and all!!!

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I had the opportunity to join Jack Summers from Radioworld www.radioworld.ca and Curtis Atwater from Lowrance www.lowrance.ca on the bay of Quinte for my first shot at some late Walleye. We grabbed some coffees for the road and picked up some Minnows at Moon’s bait shop in Deseronto (they finally got some minnows in, with the new bait laws it’s becoming tough for the dealers to keep minnows in stock) and then headed to the launch. We arrived only to have a heavy fog lying on the water. Our fishing destination was quite far so I said to the boys we can troll. We ran cranks behind boards for I don’t know how many miles only to come up blank. Once the fog started to lift, I said lets pick up and head to Thompsons Point and try to jig up a few. The conditions were perfect with calm water and mild temperatures.
 
We dropped jigging spoons tipped with minnows in 30 – 40 feet of water and it didn’t take long to contact fish. We caught a couple of nice eater sized Walleye, some really nice Perch, loads of “too small” Walleye and one fat Pike… all of which were pretty fun considering the deep water/long fight. During all of this I looked over to see Curtis then set the hook on what looked to be a decent fish. I asked “how’s it feel Curtis” and he said “not too bad but I really can’t tell”. Then all of a sudden the rod buckled down and all 3 of us looked at each other and KNEW this was no cigar sized Walleye. (I’ve caught a few over 10 in this area but it’s normally known as a small fish area with the odd nice one; totally opposite to the trolling fish in the Adolphus Reach). I could finally see Curtis’s fish (I had the net in hand way before this) and said something like holy $#!%... I scooped her up; a big fat female sow that I would guess at close to 11 pounds. It’s actually the biggest fish I’ve seen from that spot while jigging. We were going to weigh her but after a bunch of pictures we figured the fish was out of the water long enough so Curtis quickly dropped her back in. I love seeing big Walleye caught while jigging… it’s a whole different ballgame than trolling.

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We tried trolling the Reach past the ferry but since it was getting late we decided to call it a day.
 
To all the people that took the time to stop and say hi (in Moons and at the launch) it was great talking to you and thanks for watching the Fish’n Canada Show, we really do appreciate it.

Thanks for asking me along Jack, it was a blast!

Fall is a great time for fishing. The weather is more tolerable, the fish seem to be rejuvenated and since we as anglers know that the up coming winter is just around the corner, our minds are saying “there’s not too many days left…!

September is one of my favourites, especially for Bass… Largemouth in particular. It’s a time when although most baits in the box will work, I’ve got my favourites. 3 high on my list are Poppers, Spinnerbaits and Jig & Pigs.

As for Poppers, the old stand-by Pop R is still fantastic. Others that work well for me are the Yellow Magic and the Splash It.

On the September long weekend my son Cole and I snuck away from the family to do a bit of fishing. Throwing a Pop R in the morning worked out well for both species of Bass (especially Smallies). It’s great to have a kid watching a topwater bait in anticipation of a strike.

I didn’t use a Spinnerbait much that day simply because the calm sunny conditions weren’t telling me to grab the blade rod. That said I will always have either a single or tandem Colorado Bladed Spinnerbait ready and available for Fall Largemouth and a Double Willow (the standard) for Smallmouth.

The other bait that worked well was a Flipping Jig with a Beaver chunk on the back (regular chunk would work just as well). The beauty of a jig is it’s not only a drop to the bottom lure but it’s a great swimming lure as well. Just because a lure doesn’t have any built in action upon a steady retrieve doesn’t mean you can’t try. I caught fish on both methods however as per usual, the biggest fish (around a 5 lb Largemouth) came as I pitched the jig to a piece of cover. It was great because I said to Cole “ok bud, watch this cast, if there’s a fish anywhere in this lake, it will be here” and within seconds of the bait hitting the water, fat-mouth had it.

Now although it sounds like Cole and I pounded the fish, the truth of the story is that we would have absolutely killed-em’ if I hadn’t been missing fish all day. They’d hit and I’d miss!!! Sometimes that happens early in the fall and I’m not sure as yet why!

October is a month where although all of the above baits will work, I prefer the Jig. It’s sort of a go-to Largemouth bait. Again Cole and I had a chance to slip out for a couple of hours during the Thanksgiving long weekend. Dumb daddy forgot Cole’s Diego fishing rod so of course the little 4-year-old fishing freak grabbed one of my rods… “ ah no dude, not the baitcaster on the flippin’ stick, that one’s almost too big for daddy, here take one of the spinning rigs” and away we went.

Long story short, we caught 4 Largemouth. 1 on a soft stick bait and 3 on the Jig. The odd part of these fish was everywhere I thought I was going to catch a hawg… didn’t happen. I caught my fish by swimming my Jig up, around, over and through as much good looking cover as possible.

Preceding the long weekend, Ang, Mike and I headed up to the Rock Pine Resort near Pointe Au Baril to meet up with Fish’n Canada friend Tony Dibatista and his group away for a fishing trip. As soon as we got there Tony and the boys were raring to go. We jumped in the boats and headed out not really knowing what to look for in this vast area. About an hour later (with a Smallie and a couple of Pike) I got a call from Captain Mike Richardson (local guide extraordinaire) and he soon met up with us and took us to a local Walleye hole where we proceeded to catch a midnight snack. Anglers are funny, Tony and brother John talked with Captain Mike earlier in the week and Mike gave them a little color tip for jigging Walleye. Of course they started to kick our butts until we figured out the color deal… god forbid they would have told us to start with… oh well, less Walleye fillets for them!

Our evening was filled with eating like pigs… actually we ate a little pig, drinking a few beverages… actually more than a few, playing a bit of poker… actually 3 excruciatingly long games and of course, topping it all off with a Walleye Midnight snack… Dee-liciious!

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