More Bass tooning.

.....video still of a good bass.

So, I headed out to Horne again. Was hoping for some perch for a fry and to play with whatever else came along. It was rather windy today, and I wasn't really relishing kicking the 'toon around in it. I'm glad I did.

Things started of quick. After several minutes, as I was heading to my favoured hunting ground and trolling a Clouser Minnow, I hooked into a very decent smallie of 3lbs. I was a little surprised. So far this year I hadn't caught any bass doing the shore trolling thing. And especially not in the area where I was. It turned out to be a good sign.

......another Luna Moth.

I was out for about 4 hours. The where was a lull of maybe half an hour where I couldn't find fish, but other than that, things were pretty steady. I got a good number of fish. Biggest was three pounds and a good number of 2 - 2 1/2lber's. A fair number of good size perch too. So, tomorrow those perch will fry.

The biggest bass was taken on a yellow and red Clouser Minnow. The fish were split between the Clouser, and the good old soft plastic worms. Very enjoyable night on the water.

Yeah , yeah.............video angle sucks, my tune sucks, etc, etc. First video since moving, so whatever. The fish make it worth it IMO. Due to the amateurish nature of the vid, watch the top right corner for jumping fish.

Day off.

I should be taking off more. My body is becoming progressively more sore from my activities pursuing fish. So, no water time.

I did partake in some fishing related activities though. Took a drive to have a look at the White River again. A lot of the accesses had folks camping on them. As I mentioned yesterday, there are much more folks in these parts with cottagers, tourists, campers, and the like. There is also the 'Uranium Heritage Days' festival this weekend, with a concert tonight headlined by Finger 11.

.............Yellow and Red popper raring to go.

Anyways, access is not so easy as I thought. With the underbrush grown in, I found scant few places I'd want to enter thee water at. Given it was mid afternoon, I really didn't want to prospect long. I did make a few casts and brought what I took to be a rainbow of about 12" to the surface. Not sure how much I will want to be fishing the river. I'll go back when the folks aren't camping and see whats up, but I'm thinking its just going to be to much effort, and effort always turns to pain for me.

I was hoping to get out tonight. Even loaded up the 'toon and drove down to the lake. As soon as I saw the chop, I turned around. See above for 'effort'. I had really wanted to get out and see if I could nail something with the newest popper to come out of my shop. The finish was dry, I added the hardware, and even tied it on the rod in anticipation of the event.

...........bleeding throat.

I was recently asked if I work from patterns for my lures. The short answer is no. But I mean, come on, there are some colour combinations many of us know to be killer. Yellow and Red & Red and White are always the two that come immediately to mind for me, and to I incorporate into many of my lures and flies. Green and white is another favourite of mine. But we have all seen so many lures, incorporating the same basic shapes and colours, that coming up with something that will trigger fish should be second nature. One thing I like to add to the white underbellies of my poppers, is a slight bleeding throat as a trigger.

A first.

......a floater with a nice walk.

Hey, I'm more than happy to share my failures, as well as my successes. Tonight was a failure. Not that I put in much of an effort.

I spent the day running around a doing some chores. Pretty much chewed up most of my day. I did get some fishing related jobs out of the way.........had to re-line my spinning reel, worked on some lures, tied some flies. I figured I would try some shore fishing on Horne for the last of the light. As it happened, all I could manage was a single rock bass.

.......B&W from Depot.

It is amazing how many people are up here on holidays. Stores packed, loads of cars on the roads. Not sure I like it. Oh well.

More posts.

So far this year I have made more blog posts than I have all year in seasons past.

I briefly went out tonight. I am kind of beat up after 2 days of pontooning. I limited myself to an hour on Depot Lake as my mother went for a bit of a paddle in her kayak.

Can't really report to much. I mentioned before that shore fishing is not the way to be fishing at the moment, but thats what I was relegated to. An assortment of topwater lures received no interest. It was a soft plastic worm that saved the outing, with a smaller but decent enough bass.

More on Horne.

Well, it is interesting how things go. Last night it was the fly gears night to shine, tonight, not so much. Now, keep in mind, after last nights success, I was thinking repeat. Didn't happen. I did find the fish in pretty much the same type of water, but my bass all came on spin gear.

.......love this addition.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I had one day were I missed a number of good fish on soft plastic worms. The hook set was something much different to what I am used to from fly fishing. Tonight I seem to to have figured it out. Still lost a number of decent fish, but I also hooked a few as well.

......note the FloatTubeFanatic mount
for the finder.

......not easy taking pics solo in a pontoon

Lots of little bass and panfish were caught. The number of large fish landed were three. 2 of the fish were the 2 - 3lb average fish. I managed to hook into another big fish that probably was slightly larger than last nights 4lb'er. It hit one of my poppers as soon as it touched the water. Since it was pretty much as long a cast as I could make, it made for one helluva fight. I have not hooked a bass up here that does not go airborne. And bass this big? Man-o-man, what a show. I actually thought I had it licked when a final aerial attempt dislodged my lure.

...........obviously I struggle trying to come up with pic ideas.

As an interesting note, I seem to lose far less fish with barbless flies, than I do with barbed trebles. Or the barbed hooks I use for plastics. I wonder if the thinner gauge of the flies gives for more penetration, and this maybe why. Meh, something to ponder while I'm fishing I suppose.

One thing I should mention. Look at a map and see where Horne Lake is located. Its right in the middle of town! Its a small lake at that, and it produces great fish. Gotta love it. :)

By the way, yes, I do realize a swivel is not the best idea on plastic rigs. What can I say? I am lazy. There were a number of lures I planned on using, and I am so damned lazy I preferred not to knot.

Great night.

Best night I have ever had for bass fishing.

I decided to head to Horne Lake with my pontoon boat after dinner. The bass haven't been as easy to pick of from the shore as I like, so I thought to do a little work. Also, I was very curious to have a look at the lakes topography with the fish finder.

Horne is very much different than the only other lake I graphed, Porridge. That had a maximum depth of 15' Parts of Horne I measured at 40'+. As opposed to Porridges slight slope, Horne goes more like 6' not far from the shore, to 10 -15' about 20 yards out, then a deep drop.

I discovered what I wanted to know. The bass, and perch, were in 9 -12' of water. Lots of them, and big ones. I haven't used a finder much. 2 outing with it I think. I was shocked as shit when I managed to turn those big blobs on the screen into big fish in my hand.

I took one fish on my handmade popper that was successful the other night. It was a decent enough fish, but nowhere near the 2 - 3 lbers I was averaging on the fly. A yellow Clouser in size 8 to be exact. I got into a good half dozen of these. It was a lot of fun. There were also smaller fish whose sole purpose it seemed was to intercept the fly before I could get it to the hawgs. The largest fish weighed in at 4lb.

Two camera related boo-boos. One, I forgot the memory card, so not a lot of photos got taken. Compounding that, the largest fish swamped my camera but good. I am hoping for a miracle 'cuz it ain't healthy.

.........my largest smallmouth to date at 4lbs.

I know some folks are going to hate this shot. For a number of reasons. Can't say I blame you. One reason........the forced perspective bullshit. It is bullshit. I wanted to get a regular shot, and a forced perspective, to show the difference side by side. Unfortunately, the camera operator is not familiar with my DSLR this was the only shot that came out. It is a kill shot. Now, I know I have stated on this blog, that having moved to a locale that can afford my harvest, harvest I will. Much different approach for me than the last 3 decades of unerring catch and release. Out of all the fish caught, only this one came home. Usually, I will avoid such photo's. Even if a fish is going to get culled, I will generally take the pic in a manner that wouldn't advertise the fact. It is what it is however. Besides...........this fish killed my camera...........so f#*k him.

If I can salvage any pics from my point and shoot, I will add them. It is currently in a bag of rice, hopefully removing the moisture.

Off of the Lake.

.....my mother hiking the bush.

I should know better by now. Do not rely on the local weather reports. They are a crap shoot. Today was much better, due to being less wetter, than had been forecast. Had I known what the weather was going to be, my plans would have been much different.

Small bass. No longer elusive.

I ended up heading out to Dunlop Lake for a bit of a paddle. Apparently, the opening of Bass season is also the impetus for vacationers to head up this way. They are certainly here in noticeable numbers. Especially on Dunlop. The road traffic was much heavier..........meaning we passed 10 cars in a 20 minute drive, instead of 2. We have yet to have our land cleared, which is being worked on, but we do have our canoe on it. Requires a bit of a hike though.


Apparently there are small bass here. I just hadn't been catching them. That ended today. Saw very little of the rock bass that had been so prevalent the last time out on this lake. Instead, there were multitudes of 8 - 10" bass. Largest of the afternoon was 12". A lot of fish caught on a size 4 Deceiver, and one caught on a plastic twitch bait.

.........this is this first lure I ever turned!

The outing was cut short however. The OPP were cruising the water, checking out boaters. Seeing as it never occurred to me that a canoe needs anymore safety equipment than a life jacket, we can safely assume that we failed the inspection miserably. Thankfully, the kind officers were happy to send our sorry asses to the shore without levying heavy fines. I like those guys.

In the evening it was back to Depot for the last bit of light. Given the sunsets there, it is a very easy choice for some evening casting. Once again, the flyrod produced well for me. More fish up to 12". Nothing great, but it was better than sitting at home. The highlight of the night was the one fish caught on spinning gear. Not due to size, it was not big, but  because I caught it first cast with the first lure I have ever made. That gave me a huge smile. The flyrod was the much better performer for me today. Deceivers in the afternoon, and GFC's in the evening. I quite enjoy having both methods of angling at my disposal on my outings.

Depot Lake Sunsets.

This lake seems to be made for beautiful sunsets. Part of my enjoyment out of fishing there in the evenings is solely for those alone. That I can catch some fish with that vista, even better. If the fish aren't around........well, I just sit and enjoy.

Every night I visit Depot, the sunsets have been stunning, but always different, each with their own personality. It's one of the reasons I feel so lucky to
be living here.

Sun in the water.

Sun is out.........

So I went out for a bit. Took a drive to a couple of lakes for some quick casts and to see if they were any active fish. I love that within 10 minutes I can get to dozens of different lakes. I'm trying to acquaint myself well with a handful this year. Not sure how much I would learn if I just hit a different lake each day.


Lots of anglers out this weekend. The local police are also out in force to equal them, for some reason. Odd the number off OPP I saw this weekend. Still, even in popular shore fishing locations finding spots were easy. And yes, this was another shore fishing excursion.


Considering the lack of surface activity, I was surprised at how well received my surface fly was. If a fish so much as moved the surface, I could talk it into sucking up a GFC. Usually on the first cast. That fly works real well when bass are taking bugs of the surface. Not that many were..........but those that did were quickly sorry.

It was such a beautiful night out there. Finished off on Depot Lake, to enjoy the sunset there. They always prove to be spectacular.

Dog walk.

Looks like we are in for a prolonged period of rain here. Sucks. I'm not overly eager to head out into inclement weather.

I did go out for 45 minutes this afternoon, to exercise the dog for the most part. However, my rods never leave the car so I decided at a few casts into Depot Lake.

The white Twitch bait has worked well for me early this season

My first stop along the path had me on a nice large. exposed part of the sheild. I threw a half dozen casts or so and caught an enthusiastic, but small, bronzeback. He wasn't much longer than the twitch bait itself. Better than nothing I thought, and sure not hard work.

this fish weighed 2lb 8oz.

A little further along and I headed over to a spot I have previously seen bass cruising. I approached the water so as to obscure my presence with a large boulder shore side. I made a short cast of maybe 20' with my twitch bait, where I knew a large tree was submerged in about 8' of water. A good bass took it on the second twitch. This guy weighed in at 2 1/2lbs, and is pretty indicative of the average smallmouth here.


Figured that was a pretty decent outing for the short time I was there, and took the doggy home.

Obviously, these were not caught on flies. Both fish fell to a twitch bait. I had mentioned I was picking up spinfishing this season. I have an internal debate whether  to post about those endeavors here. Still debating. For now, some posts on spinfishing will appear.

Bass!

When I got up this morning at 5am. it was raining and overcast. I felt like shit, so I went back to bed.

Depot Lake in Clouds.

The weather hasn't really improved, but I did manage to haul my ass out for a couple of hours. I went to Depot Lake, just south of town. Upon pulling into the parking lot I was greeted to an odd site. A dozen or so vehicles replete with boat trailers. I say odd, because usually there is no more than a car or so, and often I  am the only one there. SO, some folks obviously feel its a good lake for smallies.

I managed 4 bass in  a couple of hours. Smallest was 12". The others were notably larger. However, with no tape or camera present, there is no point at guestimation. Only one came on the fly I'm afraid to report. As previously mentioned, I am picking up spinfishing again this season. and was eager to test some of my plastics and tackle. 2 fish came on shaky head jigs, with 5" punkinseed worms, and the other came on a white twitch bait. The fly that took a fish was a yellow rabbit strip streamer, sized 8.

Almost all the action happened as soon as I arrived. I would have been much better off being out earlier, but it is what it is. I was shore fishing from one spot. So, all in all, it was as decent an outing as I could expect.

I was planning to make another go in the evening, hoping the weather might improve so I could take out the 'toon, but upon arriving home my back has started spasming to such a degree that is unlikely.

Waiting.

It`s currently raining here in Elliot Lake. Tomorrows forecast does not look much better. I`m not sure it will keep me home all day, but we will see.

Dunlop Lake sunset.

I am very eager for bass season. I have been pondering why for a while now. I haven`t bothered with trout as of yet, except to check out some rivers. Then I never made it back when the fishing should have been good. I only targeted the pike for a little bit. For some reason I am fixated on bass.

There are a few readers of this blog who will have seen my various websites over the years. The vast majority of my ramblings concerned the trout local to where I lived. So much so that some folks gained a perception that this was all I fished for. Can`t blame them for that, as I said, mostly I talked trout, and unless one was a constant reader, missing the other species would be easy.

Luna Moth

I started fishing when I was three years old, and have had the qualifier àrdent`attached to my pursuit since then. I have always loved to fish. Bass is the first fish to capture my imagination. It is the fish I would daydream about in between our trips up north. All to infrequent for an enthusiastic child I can tell you. It is the fish I would read about.  I leafed through mail order tackle catalogs until the pages fell out, like at bass tackle and lures, making sure the few pieces I would acquire would provide the magic I envisioned.  I was devouring books on bass from the adult section of our library well before I was ten.

It was in those books I was first introduced to flyfishing, for bass of course. Serendipitously ( *not a word, but should be. ), my grandfather bought me a fly rod around the same time. It was at christmas when I was 9 that I received that gift. I am sure he envisioned me pursuing trout with that wonderful little setup. I however, was adept at catching fish by this time, and had serious misgivings as to how effective a fly rod could be. I know what it said in the books, but I really like catching fish, and didn`t want to risk the chance of even missing out on a single one.

As a result, the flyrod remained more of a novelty item, brought along to more play with than anything else. I had a membership at a trout club before my teens, and the flyrod and I got more familiar. As I got into my teens, I was using the fly gear more and more, until it simply edged out the other hardware altogether. It was also at the time trout were beginning to occupy the majority of my time. The trout fishing was much better in my immediate vicinity than the bass..............so easy decision. But it was bass that taught me I could as effectively target fish with a flyrod as I could with my spinning gear. They have always remained a favoured quarry. I doubt a season has passed by when I haven`t pursued them. The same cannot be said for trout.

Now, these many years later, I find myself kind of coming home in away. Over the past number of years, I was fishing bass more and more frequently, for a number of reasons. In the more recent past seasons I may have been doing more bass fishing than anything else............my back had a lot to do with that to be honest. This year, its been all I have been thinking of. During the winter, I was once again going through catalogs, albeit online ones this time, researching tackle and lures, making sure my purchases will count. I have been counting days, waiting for the 4th Saturday. I am likely looking forward to a restless night sleep. Hope you get out and have some fun tomorrow. I know I am hoping to, if this rain ever stops.

Water Watching................again.

I have been watching two bodies of water lately. Horne Lake right in town, and Dunlop Lake, which is about 20 minutes north of Elliot Lake. Horne is small and easy to get to, with ample shore fishing opportunities. In fact, it has docks for fisherman only ( no boats ). Its also very easy access. I get out there a lot. Dunlop is larger, and pretty much demands some sort of watercraft. Lately it's been the canoe, though I plan on getting my pontoon in there soon enough.

It has been interesting to see how the waters progress. Seeing changes take place in Horne, to be repeated on Dunlop three days later. Whether it be ice, the appearance of weeds, location of fish, etc. I can tell you know, that in two days, the plethora of Rock Bass in the shallows of Dunlop currently will have thinned out, as the predacious smallmouth move in.

Canoeing on Dunlop Lake.

Fishing Dunlop today was like it was on Horne the past few. Lots of Rockies, with the occassional smaller out of season bass. Incidental enough that I need not worry about pulling in my line. I had watched the Rock Bass in Horne go from almost none, to a few, to herds, along the shore. Very few Bass to speak of. Over the past week, incidental catches on Horne became progressively more frequent. Last night was the last night I will fish Horne till the opener. Couldn't catch panfish and bass were more than incidental. I can't fish under those conditions. Look at my last blog entry. Same lake, same time, two wildly different results.

Now, if my assumptions prove correct, Dunlop maybe primed and ready to go come Saturday. That's my hope at least. As mentioned before, the structure in that lake is of the stuff of which dreams are made. The potential there is amazing. One thing I did note, that was when I visited Dunlop last summer, I stayed on the north shore. The shore line saw there was not nearly as enticing as what I have found along the south west shore.

I think I am more excited about this opener than any in recent memory.

Anticipation.

So looking forward to bass season.

............boom.

I know you haven't heard much in the way of bass up here so far. Last year my outings were few and far between. My posts on this blog are always somewhat less than my outings. However, I can tell you some things without doubt.

One thing for sure is the Smallmouth up here are big. Real big. The average fish is a few pounds. You'll quickly get the idea once they are legal for picture taking. They seem to be prolific in numbers too.

Tonight was a 'bad' night for bass. In that they have once again seemed to take to the shallows for feeding ( in Horne Lake ). They had not been in there for awhile, leaving me and my panfish in peace. Tonight they were busting up fish along the shore at a steady pace. I pretty much had to cast to rising panfish. If there was no sign of panfish, it usually meant I would be able to spot a cruising smallmouth in the area. I would have to move, or wait for the panfish to start on the surface again. Mind you, its only days until the season opens and my perspective on this matter will have changed a lot.

..............the Green Fish Critter.

As I mentioned, the panfish were rising steadily from 6 - 8:30pm. Had a lot of fun picking of fish after fish. When I first got there, I started throwing a small deceiver. I was a little surprised by the lack of interest. When I finally got around to putting on a floater, it was night and day. One of those fish after fish, cast after cast deals. Made for a very enjoyable few hours. Only floater I had on hand were my Green Fish Critters, and the fish were more than happy to pounce all over it. I love surface fishing. :)

http://elliotlakeflyfishing.com/

Do I still fish?

Why yes, yes I do. Occasionally.

I really can't mount much of an effort to fish anymore. If I am going to go, its gotta be easy. Easy fish, thats good. Or easy fishing, i.e. nice clear shore with footpaths, also good. Trekking through bush, or stumbling along wild river banks, mmmmm, not so good. Really not liking this fucked up back bullshit. Constant, chronic pain just sucks the fun out of a lot of things.

I am happy to admit doing more spin fishing this year than in the past several decades. That was accomplished the first time I made a cast. At this point, I may be 50/50 in regards to gear and usage. I figure when I moved up here, that there would be times and situations where I might be better served with a wider arsenal of tools. So far it has worked out rather well.

While I had to invest in some newer tackle, I was happy to find that some of my old gear was still very useful. There was a certain nostalgia of opening my Old Pal fishing box, finding lures I had not used in decades, then catching fish with them. Apparently the Williams Warbler is effective today, as it was thirty years ago.

I think most surprising, was how fast I shook off the rust in regards to casting hardware. I was expecting a much steeper curve. Muscle memory is a wonderful thing. It took less than one outing to get myself to a point where my casting was functional enough that I felt comfortable with it, and not so worried at putting myself at some deficit by using it. Indeed, I was catching fish with it in short order.

I spent some time the other day canoeing about Dunlop Lake, where we bought some property. I have never, ever, seen structure like that before. In a different year, I imagine it would already be packed with smallies. With the stupidly long winter, things have been far from normal.....this according to the long time residents of the area. Especially the bugs. It was a perfect storm for their presence this year. Did not make for easy fishing.............so I wasn't fishing much during the worst of it.

So yeah, back to Dunlop. I have high hopes for the smallies fishing there. As I said, there is just some AMAZING structure that screams FISH. I was rather shocked at what I was seeing to be honest. It was if the lake had been designed by some fisherman. The kind of loving attention a golfer might put into designing his 'dream' course.

At this point in the year, I did not spot more than a couple of larger fish whilst paddling about. I did see several though. Lots of panfish. Probably should have attempted to cull some to make a fish stock. Oh well, no great loss, and there are other days. I expect in short order it should be easy fishing.

Recently.

Sorry about the lack of updates. Sick, bad weather, clouds of BlackFly's etc.