Just got back from a great couple of ½ days of fishing. Mike was putting together a bit of a fishing weekend for a couple of guys and it just kept escalating. I think it was at first going to be with Ryan, one of the buyers of a past Fish’n Canada Princecraft Deck-boat but it ended up being with a whole crew. Our immediate group was Mike and I along with Ryan, Marty, Darren and Grant.

We met after the radio show here at the office and headed out to Picton. This was the wrong weekend to pick though if we wanted low fishing pressure as quintefishing.com  was holding their annual get-together (those boys fish hard) but, we really didn’t care. It was more about the trip and fish would be a bonus. We actually stayed with the Quinte boys at Merland Park and ended up having a blast.

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Although the weather was very nice while fishing, once the boat was in gear and on plane, man was it cold!
Saturdays fishing absolutely sucked. As soon as we pulled into the park our buddy Batsey called us and said he just caught one and saw a couple more being landed. Of course after dumping our gear into the cottage and launching the boat, the fishing shut down. Our quick afternoon fish ended up with nothing… oh well. At least I brought a ¾ jar of Peanut Butter, a loaf of bread minus 3 pieces and my Gerber multi tool. Believe me… that went a long way. Marty and Darren were the sandwich production kings (heavily improvising on the water).

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We get in and Marty and Darren had to make an “Arkona-911” run to the Liquor Store (we only had about 75 beers and a 40 of rum; that is defined as panic in Marty & Darren’s world) and M&M’s for some grub.

They get back and Molly-Marty dons the oven mitt and proceeds to cook us what may be the best damn grub ever!!! Way to go Mart.

I never told the boys but I knew that we may have some visitors that evening. I was at the get-together a few years ago and met a bunch of great guys. No sooner did we get back and “the fish’n boys” started to come over. Our first guest was Scotty, basically a truck with legs. The dude’s got pipes like the Deseronto Bridge pilings. A bit of an arm wrestler we heard; no doubt. Between Marty the human wall and Scotty the Bridge, I felt pretty insignificant! Well Scott had us roaring from the time he stepped in. I actually remember talking to him 3 years ago and he was hilarious back then too. His story about a famous fishing guy still has the whole park in tears. He actually asked me to get his story to the star and I said the guy wouldn’t believe me so I asked him to write it down. He said sure, put it on the internet if you want… oh yeah…

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Scotty, you’re a machine brother. By the way, did anyone there get a picture of Scotty’s booze mug? If so send it to me and I’ll post it here.

I got to talk with one of the boys from the military and man those soldiers are humble. He told me how we pro anglers are the cats ass etc and when I said to him we’re nothing compared to the Armed Forces. He of course said no way we just do our jobs etc etc. Well bud, you’ve been to Bosnia, I’ve been to Duck Lake… I think we know who the hero is!!! Keep up the great work.

We had a bunch of other great guys stop by all of whom I hope had as good a time as us. One special guest I have to mention of course is Pattycakes… a man I, nor anyone else that encounters him would forget. I remember him as well from 3 years ago. The thing about Pattywack is his story telling abilities; second to none, honestly… just ask him (but be prepared for a long one). As an example of hamburger-Patty’s stories longevity, he told me about his infamous “double header” 3 years ago and that story was still going this weekend. Patio Lanterns is one of those guys who garner (actually pretty much demand) a whole rooms attention.
Here’s an example:

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Sunday’s fishing was much better (like it could be any worse). Marty and Darren had to leave back to Arkona (quite a haul from Picton), probably had to make it back before the liquor store closed. We got on the water about 8:30 and it didn’t take long to start popping fish. Ryan got the first one which went over 12; Grant got a little 6+; yours truly pulled the lucky straw and wrestled a 14+. We were weighing the big fish on Ryan’s scales and it didn’t seem right so we took Grants fish out of the livewell (yeah Grant kills 6 pluses plus) and Mike and I guessed at 6 or 7 as a ball park. The scale said 5 something. We said no way and grabbed my scale. It went high sixes; Ryans scale was a pound and a half out. All you guys that fished with Ryan in the past and used his scales… he was ripping you off boys! Mikey was next with the catch of the day, a 2 pound $#!-I- hawk (see his blog for the story) so we let him go again and he nailed another 11-12; Ryan was back up and got another way over 10 and Grant finished off with yet another hawg. We were done and off the water after 1pm. That by the way was all done with about 20 bucks of gas in a 200 Optimax as we were trolling Picton bay basically not at all far from Merland.

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We loaded up the truck, grabbed roadie coffee’s and a load of “Drive Thru Death” from Mickey D’s.

Ryan, thanks for bringing the boat we all appreciated it & good job on the set-up of the rod holders, they worked great! Marty & Darren, thanks for making the long haul it was a hoot. Mikey, thanks brother, you showed me how to fly a live kite and held it back from picking my eyes out. Grant, thanks for killing yet another prime breeding Quinte Walleye and for not bringing your fly rod. Kev, thanks for the Cohiba… gave everybody in the room lung cancer but at least I enjoyed it! Quinte boys, thanks for the good times… yeah that’s you too Patio!

Bowrod out…

I’m hating the feeling of writing this piece since this is the end of Bass season in parts of Ontario. There is snow on the ground, small northern lakes are freezing up and the boat is hard to maintain in the driveway. Makes me angry… but we still have the big Walleye!!! Mike and I are going out next weekend with a bunch of buddies… oh yeah and a fly fisherman too. Hopefully we’ll have some kind of report for you.

In my last couple of fishing outings I really didn’t have a stellar fall but it was still pretty good. In September I took out the “2 Willys”, a couple of guys who really love fishing but can’t get out much, and we really slayed the fish. Probably caught at least 30… good day. In October I had 2 more outings with friends and again we pulled a bunch of Largemouth on one day and a bunch of Smallies on the other. Found a new spot on the father-in-laws lake which is very cool. It’s funny how lazy people can get (at least me). I have passed over this area at least a dozen times to get to my good area and always said “man one day I have got to fish this”. Well I finally did (a hump) and instantly started catching Smallies. Not big but still, it’s another waypoint for a tough day.

I needed one more kick at the Largemouth can for this year so I took a tour around a week ago (mid Nov.) but could only rummage up 3 fish all under 2 lbs. I’ve got to say, one of my weaknesses is not being able to fish Largemouth because of our conditions. I’d truly love to be able to have 50+ degree water from November to June and be able to legally fish for these beasts.

A typical fall colored Largemouth. This fish actually came in quite muted in markings but by the time I put
him in the well, grabbed the camera, pulled him out and shot, a lot of the nice markings came out.

Is fall about fishing or Halloween? Well here is a picture which I aptly named “Bowrod’s Night In Paris”.

 

Hell, I’ve even started my Christmas shopping… can you say loser???

Man have I got a lot to talk about. I also have to apologize for not writing for some time. It’s Friday night of the long weekend and I’m determined to get this done tonight! Now lets talk fishing.

I had a great outing on the Bay of Quinte with my dad and his buddy Ralphie. I was skeptical as to how we would do however I had a plan in mind and it worked. We went for a day of Walleye fishing out of Belleville. I guess we launched somewhere around 8 in the morning and by 1 we were limited out and going for bass. We caught a dozen excellent eating Walleye mostly by casting crankbaits to weedbeds. The key was to get the bait down to about 8 feet of water. When you’re looking for weed Walleye, make sure you also check out the fringe or sparse stuff adjacent to the thick weeds. Sparse weeds are easy to run a crankbait through. We actually caught a lot of fish in open water outside of the weedbeds. Always move around until you contact fish and then work the area hard. We also got a few fish on rip jigs and spinners as well which rounded out the techniques for the day.
After we limited out for the Walleye we headed to the shallows for a quick 200 yard Largemouth trek before heading home. I instantly got a nice one close to 4 pounds on a swimbait (something I’ll be checking into more). Next Gordie (my dad) got pounded by a dock… we all freaked out for a second but then the ever aggressive Dogfish was latched onto his spinnerbait. Ruined the lure I might add.
We went a little further and I nailed another Largemouth around 3+ pounds… all in all, a great day and a lot of fun with Gordie and Ralphie.

Next was a trip to Sibald Point Provincial Park… beautiful park; terrible experience! Lets just say that if you are a family that treasures time camping then this isn’t the place to go. One night we had 5 different cop cars blast by our site with sirens and lights blaring.
We did get to fish for a day though and I got to take Trevor, Alex and Mike (friends of the family) for a bit of a bass fish. We started off right with a nice 4 pound Largemouth and then Trevor followed that up with one in the 3 pound range. We pulled a couple more smaller fish and decided to go back to the site and see who would get fined around us!

From bad to good… my next trip was to Lake St. Peter Provincial Park (ya’ gotta’ like that name) a gorgeous park with fantastic people throughout. I got to fish for an hour or so the first day and only got a little Largemouth maybe not even a pound. I’ve heard this lake is better for Smallies but I love LM fishing.
The next day my son Hunter and I got up for a late morning fish in a brutal north wind… coldfront city! After about half an hour I got my first bite on a jig and pig… the perfect “tap” and I set on nothing… I hate that! I worked another 20 or so minutes and came up to a perfect tree in the water and even said to Hunter “OK bud, get ready here”. I pitched my jig over the end of the tree and SWOOSH… a fish boiled on it. I set and felt about half a second of resistance and then nothing… I hate that!
Now I’m pretty well pissed off and thinking that maybe my jig trailer is too big & bulky but I proceed like the lazy belligerent lad that I am. I come to some pads outside of a patch of arrowheads with 2 sticks out front; my jig starts to move on the bottom and I instantly set the hook. Up comes a pig. The thing about bass fishing though is that things happen so fast that you don’t realize the size of a good fish. I knew this was a big one but I decided to sling in over the gunwale. All of a sudden I see this giant flying through the air and my last V-Rod Flipping Stick goes SNAP!!! The rod broke with all the weight but the fish ended up in the boat. 22 inches by 16 inches which calculates to somewhere close to 6 ½ pounds… yeah baby, my best fish of the season! I go back to the campsite, show the rest of the family and friends the mule, we take some pictures and she’s back in the water. Now I have to find a new stick that was as good as that one!
The next day Trevor (from the long weekend story) and I decided to try a small lake nearby called Little Papineau Lake. We actually caught lots of fish but couldn’t find anything of size. We had a couple of blow-ups in the thick stuff that could have been big ones but we never did see them. The biggest fish we saw was a dead Largemouth which was hooked by someone and broke off. The line was still in the fish’s mouth with a snap swivel still intact. Probably would have went 3 or more pounds… too bad.

Next stop is the father in law’s cottage. I arranged to meet up with a buddy Sean who also has a cottage up there but I wanted to fish new water. We meet on a body of water that he knows and proceeded to have the day of both of our lives (Ontario Bassin’). We played around in some shallows but soon figured the fish had moved out. The adjacent weeds looked good but they were too vast and we only had a part day to fish. I suggested docks and Sean agreed. We hit the first one and I saw a nice fish come out and hit my jig but didn’t take!!! Arrggg. We went to what I expected and explained to Sean should be one of the best docks on the lake. We fish the dock and nothing happens… I scratch my head. All of a sudden about 10 feet from the dock Sean sees a big fish; must have followed us out or something. He nails it on a 4 inch Senko directly under the boat… and we see another one with it… even bigger. The impressive part is his fish is over 5 pounds. He throws her in the well for pictures and we then both proceed to work on this pig for probably half an hour. I swear I was just about to give up and I decided to fire a Sweet Beaver at her and she turned on it… and ate it! Set… got her… 6 pounder!!! We go nuts; a double header of Largemouth at over 11lbs.
We go down further an pop another one over 4… seems so insignificant now.
We hit another dock and Sean gets a high 3 pounder (we had an audience for this one, people in a canoe) and yet another giant follows her out. I fire into the weeds that she dropped into and POP… the biggest fish of the day is now beaten. We calculated this one at 6.88lbs… I’m really freaked out now.
As we work our way back to our base we nail a 4+ Smallie under a stick. We had to have somewhere around 25 pounds for 5 fish… HEAVEN my fishing friends. In less than a week I’ve got 3 Largemouth over 6lbs! I have never done that before.

If all that isn’t enough, Mike & I make our way out to NB for the ultimate in exotic… shark fishing! I visited Nova Scotia a long time ago for Blue Shark fishing and it was a phenomenal experience but this trip I knew had the potential to be even better. We were going after the elusive Porbeagle Shark (I know, I had to look it up on Google too) which is bigger, badder and uglier than its skinny Blue cousin.
Let me just say this was one of the most incredible fishing trips of my life! The only one that comes close is the Amazon River. The Amazon wins in location but Alma NB wins in species.
We boated and did battle with sharks anywhere from around 180 to well over 400 pounds! Our host was Emmerson Simpson from www.sharksunlimited.ca and let me tell you, these guys have got the big sharks dialed in. The best part about this fishing is that Emmerson and Eric (Emmersons business partner) are working in conjunction with a group of biologists looking to better understand the Porbeagle Shark in the Bay of Fundy. The angler catches the fish, Sharks Unlimited lands the fish and brings it on board, the biologists take measurements, tag etc and then the fish is released back into the ocean. Sounds simple right? Maybe for the rest of the team but the angler is in for a bit of work. As an example Mike fought a fish to the side of the boat for an hour and a half only to have it pop off and I caught my biggest fish of my life, a 440 pound Porbeagle and went for a minute short of 2 hours! You really have no idea of how powerful these beasts are until you go head to head. In hindsight Mike & I should have changed back and forth on the fish but we’re both too bullheaded and proud. Maybe next time.
I should be the best show of our season and if our technical department is “on” it may be our best show ever. It should be airing somewhere around October/November.

Whew… that was a mouthful; speaking of which it’s now beverage time. Off to the cottage tomorrow after the radio show, hopefully I’ll have more good writing material.

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