It was a Tuesday Smallmouth Bass Adventure...

I'd had so much fun last Tuesday by myself at lock 24 in Kilmarnock that I decide to do go for a second round this week (postal strike looks like it's going forward so my store is closed and I've been TOTALLY taking advantage by fishing every free moment). This was suppose to be one of the hottest days thus far this year and it didn't disapoint...geeze...it was a down and dirty (and sweaty) kind of fishing day....with a high of 38 with humidity.

Got to my spot and followed the newly discovered path from the week-end and set up my stuff (there is obviously someone who does night fishing at the same location - the glow stick lures are a pretty good indication - and has brought a great little homemade bench...so whoever you are THANK YOU). I'm still hooked on worms and bobbers at the moment...simple, easy and relaxing...so out I cast..and after 2 panfish on my first 2 casts....I was SHOCKED when on the 3rd cast I felt something with some WEIGHT on my line...as it got it in closer with a bit of fight...I could see it was a good size bass (the ones I'd caught so far this year have been smallies...9-10") considering it's not even JUNE yet...I was a bit shocked at the size of this catch. After I got this beauty in...it measured 16" in length (only 1" short of an Ontario Angler Award). Spent the rest of the afternoon watching these larger bass following my "on the line" panfish in (actually caught one 15" guy cause he stuck around after following in a pumpkinseed I had on my line...and once I got the pumpkinseed off the line and back in the water I baited and snagged the big guy ). Ended up catching 3 GREAT size smallmouth Bass (as well as 24 other great panfish..don't want to dis on the panfish) and having a BLAST....Tuesdays are now my OFFICIAL favorite day of the week!

The Northern Pike were calling...

After a dreary week of rain hubby the kids and I decided on a Saturday morning outing to Kilmarnock Lock AGAIN (OK...most of my fave spots are still not usable till next week - as they are sanctuaries till the week-end after June 1st..so this place is heaven on earth at the moment....and I'm not good with change...LOVE going somewhere knowing I'll at least get some action:). It was slightly overcast and calling for rain, so we were hoping to get some nice catches in before we needed to leave (rain fishing is awesome alone...but with kids..not so much).

The GOOD TIMES started out quickly with a nice 18" PIKE catch in the lower part of the lock within minutes of getting there...nice spinner lure in orange caught this guy. Moved over to the inlet on the other side of the lock (kids and hubby figured out there was a little path in the bushes to get further in which was AWESOME). Happily spent the rest of the mid day catching 17 pan fish in the inlet. As it was getting time to leave I switched over to my new weedless Frog Lure and it took only a few casts with this sucker and WHOA....a gorgeous 25" Pike (finally got one big enough to use my new mouth opener with). Now I've never had to actually place my hand in the mouth of a pike before...other occasions I've been lucky that the lures have come loose when they've been in the net and I've lucked out on having to do the dirty work...but this guy insisted on me getting that hand in there...all went well..not bites to him or I. This guy was a good size and he was still 5" short of a Ontario Angler Awards Entry...I know there are bigger ones at this location so I'll be back to try again in the near future :)

All in all a WONDERFUL Saturday with the family and the fish!!

34 fish in 2.5 hours...Honey Hole absolutely!!!

Every once and awhile (OK...once every couple of years when you're running your own business, looking after a home and raising 2 young boys) you have a day so fabulous, relaxing and just plain old magical that it renews you!

After a 3 day week-end, closing my business for a bit due a possible Postal Strike and a P.A day coming up on Friday.... I decide to throw everything to the wind and just drop everything (including my worry about not accomplishing stuff) and take my rod, some worms and head out for the day completely by myself to fish (something I've dreamed of doing since I started last year but could never find the time). Tuesday it would be...a ME DAY!

Started out as any normal Tuesday...got the kids packed up and ready for school...and dropped them off...and then OFF I drove! Decided I'd go back to Kilmarnock Lock...there was this awesome little inlet on the lower side of the lock that I spotted when we'd been there on Saturday that I had a feeling was AMAZING (frankly my husband says for someone who knows so little about fishing I have some SKILLS..but i think it's ALL intuition...i just get feelings about places, lures..ect) that I wanted to try.

When I got to the Lock..I thought I'd go back to the upper part that I'd had so much luck with on the week-end...but I was there for only a few minutes and wasn't feeling it..so i decide to venture down the to the lower part and try out the spot I'd eyed on the week-end and boy am I glad I did! I stood there...casting my line with worm and bobber and caught 34 fish in 2.5 hours (Literally every cast there was something on my line....it was the time taking them off that kept me at 34..cause it could have literally been a ton more..lol). That little inlet was full of Pan Fish..I managed to get both a Punpkinseed and Bluegill that will add to my OAA goal ..(yes..3 of 5 species down....the requirements for Bass and other fish are on the higher end of length for shore fishing...but I have 4 months left...I'm hopeful :). Heck...even the keepers of the Lock house who were working (and may I saw were AWESOME and brought down a picnic table in their truck for me) were amazed at how many fish I caught....they were up in their house apparently watching me...and finally came down to see what my total was!

Now I was more then happy to catch all those panfish...but boy was a delighted to catch my first Small Mouth Bass of the season..(he was just a baby at 10"..but I was just so happy to have something other then a panfish after 52 in total recently). Found it so amusing how the Bass put up way less fight then even the smallest pumpkinseed I caught :)

Now the fish and sun would have been enough to make it a fantastic day....but the Muskrat that showed up and wondered around right beside me, along with the 2 herons that parked themselves about 5 feet away and the turtles all around on every log basking in the sun...just made me smile up a storm...perhaps they were amused with all the talking to myself I was doing :) I did learn that taking photos of ones self is difficult with a fish in hand...leans to having not the most glamorous photos of ones self...but oh well...fishing is not about vanity...RIGHT??

As Bill and Ted would say "All in all a MOST EXCELLENT DAY".

Worm and Bobber is still an AWESOME time!

I can't even put into words what an amazing 3 days of fishing I had this Victoria Day Long Week-End ...Totally made up for the fishing that never occurred on my Birthday. I spent most of last year using lures trying to catch BIG FISH and I totally forgot how fun and exciting it can be to use worms and a bobber and catch some feisty panfish. In my attempt to get my OFAH (Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters) Avid Angler Award this year from their Ontario Angler Awards Program (you need to land a minimum 5 different species of fish from their list that are a minimum length of their requirements - thus why you'll see a measuring tape above the fish in many of my photos) I decided to start SMALL and get the "easy ones" out of the way and help build my numbers....so out came the bobber and worms this week-end and the FUN! So PANFISH is what I wanted and panfish is what I received ....much to my delight !

On Saturday my husband suggested a location just outside of Smiths Falls in Jasper at the Kilmarnock Lock and after my line hit the water I realized this would absolutely start to be one of my new HONEY HOLES (OK...this term makes me giggle..but it is what it is...and this is a Honey Hole :). We ended up heading out later then anticipated due to getting some home stuff done...and I was a bit worried that we'd missed the prime of the day...1pm is a bit late....OR is it? We started on the upside of the lock and we could see panfish everywhere right at the doors to the lock so quickly the worms went on and in went the line...it took approximately 1 minute for the first fish to attach itself to my line and thus began an afternoon of excitement. That first fish was a fantastic Black Crappie that measured almost 11"and was absolutely big enough to become a notch for my avid angler awards, which set the day off to a wonderful start. I spent the next 3 hours of the afternoon LOVING the beautiful sun after so many days of rain and catching 18 additional panfish including Pumpkinseed and Bluegill.

On our way home we decided to check out another location that had been touted to my husband, by a connection, as a very sweet spot for fishing..so we stopped at Edmonds Lock. It was a beautiful spot and FULL of potential. After checking out the top of the Lock I went over to the drop looking down to the bottom and literally squealed out (hey..there are some girly traits I just can't help ) as I could see TONS of HUGE fish swimming at the bottom of the lock...(bigger then any fish I'd ever seen close up)....these guys were 30-50lbs EASY! After some speculation and research with my trusty Ontario fishing print out..it appeared we had come upon a large group of CARP. We left inspired to see such HUGE fish close up and determined to do some research on Carp fishing and return on Monday (as it was a long week-end :).

Monday came quickly (after a belated birthday get together on Sunday for myself) and we were ready to go back to Edmonds Lock (with Corn for the Carp in hand) and see what we could land. We started at the top of the Lock which looked perfect for some larger catches, so out came the lures....it took only a few minutes for my husband to start getting some Pike bites and one that was on the line and jumped off before he got it out of the water. I wasn't as lucky and there weren't many bites on my line...I did get a great size yellow perch on my line (I was using my newly purchased Rapala Clackin' Rap...which I aquired with some other new lures at the SAIL store in Ottawa the day before)...but it just didn't stick and got away ..It was a bit of a let down because it was big enough to absolutely be another OAA entry. We decided to finally go down and chum the water at the bottom of the lock with the corn we brought and see if we could get the massive Carp to take in a hook (as they're suckers...the don't really bite...it's a crap shoot trying to get them to inhale the bait and then get them on the line). Geeze it was PAINFUL to see these MASSIVE fish just swim by (close enough to touch) and not be able to get them on the line...we spent an hour or more...but alas gave up with the intention of doing more research and honing our skills on Carp Fishing for another day!

All in all it was a WONDERFUL long week-end! I was delighted to get out and get some fishing in and get some (OK A LOT ) of sun and fish! Was happy to have an entry for my OAA (which has now been accepted and my certificate and decal is in the mail). I'll post about my amazing Tuesday later....maybe one of the best days I've had in years :)

About time.....lets get this fishing started!!

I apologize for the lack of ACTION on this page for the past 2 and half weeks. It's been such a cold rainy spell. Mix that in with the fact that many spots for shore fishing are designated as fish sanctuaries till TODAY and that I was busy getting as much work in as I could (as a possible postal strike is looming for the 25th of May here in Canada which has required me to shut down my store till we know what's going on). I've been reading my Ontario Out of Doors Magazine Fishing Annual like crazy catching up on all the newest lures and techniques...so I'm READY! Between my Birthday and Mothers Day in the past couple weeks I've scored a ton of new lures...so I'm dying to get out and try them!

I have great hope for today! Woke up and it's gloriously beautiful...the first time in over a week for sure! Hoping to make up for the fishing trip on my birthday this past Wednesday that didn't come to fruition. Trying to decide if we head up to Murphy's Point and purchase our yearly Provincial Park pass today or make a trip somewhere else (since we can now go anywhere we want).....AHHH...such hard choices. Eager to see if the extra time at the gym lately will help with my cast :)

Anyway....I'll be back to posting regularly (with stories of catches or those that got away) now that it's FULL FORCE fishing time! Hope to have some great stories from this LONG WEEK-END! According to an old wives tale..."Pan Fishing is great once the leaves of the lilac bushes are bigger then a Squirrels ear"....my lilac bushes have way larger leaves then that so bring on the pan fish !

It was a sunny ROCK BASS kind of Saturday....

I've been frustrated this week. I live in zone 18 of the Ontario Fishing areas and most of the places I love to fish nearby are "Fish Sanctuary's" until the Friday before the 2nd Saturday in May (so basically the 13th of May ....why they don't just put a DATE down instead of making people pulling out the calendars and calculating it all is beyond me). At least my faves will be open for my Birthday on the 18th...that will be a mid week fishing party let me tell ya :)

With 1 sick son and 1 sick husband at home (battling some kind of virus/flu for what seems like forever now) I packed up my youngest and headed out to the same location as last week-end (knew it wasn't a sanctuary...and heck a chance at another Pike is always welcome) in Smiths Falls at Slys Lock. It was GORGEOUS out..20 degrees, sunny and just a welcome change to all the rain we've had lately. I would have been happy to land anything...the beauty of the day made a small fishing outing a welcome change to being in my basement working away :)

I decided to start with the lure that landed my pike last week-end...what the heck...sometimes luck strikes twice! It soon was obvious the water was too murky for my green slide Shad Rap...and I moved onto some coloured and silver vintage spoons that I'd taken from Hubbies tackle box before I left (with permission of course :) The medium White and Red spoon I put on the end of my line brought something large to the surface and I yelped in letdown as I saw this fish turn at the last minute and go back down (it was least a 15" something..only caught a glimps of the whiten silver underbelly as it turned at the last moment).

About 40 minutes in...2 young boys (12 or so) showed up to fish as well. I started chatting with the more outgoing of the 2 (think he was shocked to see a lady out fishing while her child played in the park catching bugs) . He recounted his 2 big catches of 7lb pikes at this location in the fall and how it recharged him to start avidly fishing again! After watching the boys and their LARGE silver spoons..I decided to changed to a smaller vintage silver spoon and all of a sudden the bites started coming, but I wasn't landing anything.

Finally after 70 minutes of almost bites and tugs with no landings..I felt that harder tug of something that actually was attached to my line...I knew it was small..but I was happy to have SOMETHING. When I finally pulled this guy out of the water it was a good size ROCK BASS..I say good size..he (and I use the term HE liberally...I just refer to all my catches as he/him..hmm..what does that say...lol) he was 10.8 inches..good for a rock bass! Took him in..got my pictures and release the poor guy right away! Alright for a nice sunny Saturday...got some sun (someone asked me today if I was tanning on the week-end...gotta love that outdoor fishing GLOW), spent sometime with my awesome little man.. got a fish (that I can apply for the ontarioanglerawards.com with....see my next post about this awesome site)..all and all a FANTASTIC Saturday!