Can I say that again?
WOW!
What a weekend! What a freakin' weekend!
We fished til we dropped that's for sure.
Sleded and I headed up to Peterborough on Thursday night to stay at Beavermead Campground for a fishing fiesta. We've been planning this trip for months, and we were psyched, and I had a lot of trouble sleeping in the recent weeks!
As soon as we got to the park, we unloaded, put up the tent, and went down to the shoreline to toss topwaters around in Little Lake. Nothing happening there, missed what looked like a very small musky on a buzzbait, but hard to be sure in the dark like that. Finally, we hit the hay.. but I think I got 2 hrs sleep at the most.. I was too excited. Sleded slept like a baby as usual. ;D
ONIONS!
We got up bright and early and hit Little Lake in the Filth Hound. The first target was musky, but after 2 hours our arms were tired and we hadn't raised or hooked a fish, so we relaxed and looked around for some local walleye populations. I've never fished walleye there, and quite frankly wasn't sure if there were any worth targetting. Persistence paid off.. with a walleye that was smaller than the perch we were frequently catching
Around 10am, we had planned to meet up with Wolfville for some carpin'. Unfortunately I remembered I had forgotten the box with all my carp tackle at home. Wolfville was nice enough to set us up with the equipment we needed to tackle Little Lake carp. Unfortunately, it was a little too much for my equipment to handle.. bye bye rod! :'(
Wolfville, again, being the awesome guy he is was kind enough to lend me his spare rod for the day. Thanks again man! Very kind gesture!!
A little wait.. and Sleded's reel started screaming! He had a big one on! The fight lasted quite a while on his 7' Ugly Stik, but finally he subdued a whopping 22lb carp. Amazing fight! Good work buddy!
Same fish, different hold:
The release:
Well that was all the carp we caught while we fished with Wolfville. We stayed for a few hours, had some good conversation and enjoyed relaxing, but Sleded and just had to get back out in the boat. Wolfville once again being the stand up guy he is let us keep the hair rigs and feeder weights he set us up with, and even gave us some maize in case we felt like carping later on. Thanks so much Wolfville!! We'll have to get ya down here next spring for the giant channel cats and Lake Erie carp.
We gave the muskies another shot, trolling this time, but we just couldn't raise any. Maybe it was just a bad day, or we don't have the experience on the pressured waters of Little Lake. We went back to walleye.
I found a weedline which turned into a steep rock drop off right on the edge of the river channel. I knew this spot would hold some fish, it was just too perfect. Soon enough.. it bit! My biggest walleye of '06!
After a bit more jigging in that area and only catching WGSF, we subdued to hunger and went back to for some....
ONIONS!
After lunch, we went back to the walleye spot. I managed to catch 4 more walleye off the spot all on bumblebee 3" yum grubs.. but they were all this size:
I guess I should mention, this is the first trip in a long time for the Filthwich Boys that we haven't kept a single fish! Not even perch, or WGSF!
Speaking of perch and WGSF.. we took a few pics (of course!)
Sleded's jumbo perch:
The infamous double header!
Later on that night we were back to the campsite to enjoy a fire. Our firewood was kind of wet, so we put a little extra paper in to get her going.
Of course, nothing beats standing around the fire with a few Timmies coffees - Steve (from hamilton) style!
Now on to...
Day 2
We met up with Bk2ptbo, Dutch, Muskyjohn, Highdrifter, MuskyBill and MuskyMike on the lower Ottonabee. Today's target was musky, no exceptions!
First off I have to thank Lew, for showing the pictures of the bow of his boat full of black/orange musky spinnerbaits. After I saw that, I went out and bought one that a local guy made custom. It worked very well for me!
We fished for quite a while in a few areas and didn't get much.. then finally the first fish of the day hit. And it was a beaut! 40 freakin' inches - my new PB!
This one got some video footage to be posted later on (just got home, it's 2am for god's sakes, lol)
The best part was watching her push off after a long revival.
I landed 5 muskies in total. The two following the 40" were 18" (tiny) and 31". I then landed one that didn't get measured when the boys showed up (I think Bill got a pic posted here), I assume it was probably high 30 inch range. We got a nice boatside jump on video for that one.
Later on.. bam, I beat my PB one more time. I land a whopping 42 incher!
It was a boatside measurement so it could be off by an inch, but it was definitely a little bigger than the 40 incher earlier. Just awesome!
I have a new love, I could go sell all my bass gear today and never look back! I gotta move back up to the kawarthas.. so much good musky water up there to fish. Just pick a lake and get at 'er!
Sleded had trouble on the Lower O. He raised 3 on a bucktail but could not keep them hooked. One was pushing pretty close to 40" by the looks of it.
Of course, the day could not be complete without the obligatory trophy WGSF pic.
And that leads us to...
Day 3
First we hit a small section of kawartha water in hopes of discovering some new bass water. Unfortunately the wind was blowing and we had a lot of trouble running out 30lb thrust electric in all the slop there. And so many stumps and obstructions that we were afraid to run the outboard. We met Jigatollah there but didnt get much of a chance to fish that water. We had to leave it early and get over to another body of water.
We hit my favourite lake where I have cottaged for years. Can't tell ya where though
The wind really made it difficult to fish areas where I've caught and seen musky in the past, but we gave it a shot as best we could. We also did some bass fishing, which was just as tough in the wind. I landed this major trophy, I know it's no 7.7 pounder but I held it close enough to the camera to pass for about 3lbs... rightt??? ;D ;D ;D ;D
lol, jk.. 12 incher. But hey, it wasn't a skunk!
As the afternoon wore on I started realizing that the best way to catch small bass in this lake is to throw musky lures. Every bait I threw caught bass. This one took a 10 inch Awaker.
It was Sleded's turn! I grabbed him a nice looking bucktail spinnerbait at a tackle store in Lindsay earlier and he was tossing it around, and had a couple of follows. I told him that I read on OFN if a fish is following but not hitting, reel faster. Well whaddaya know? 2 casts later, he lands the fish that followed! His first ever landed musky, a scrappy 32 incher!
Congrats man! Now you'll be looking for a 40! She'll haunt your dreams! ;D
Finally I had a huge blow up on my spinnerbait. Hmmm... weird. Not putting up much of a fight. Oh, it's another F#*%in' bass!! The blow up on the bait was unreal, probably 4 feet wide. What I think happened is I was reeling slow, and a musky blew up on the bait, then the bass out of it's competitive spirit came up and grabbed it. Or maybe this 1lb bass somehow made a 4ft swell around my spinnerbait, lol.. who knows! It sure is frustrating though to see a hit like that and pull up a stinkin' largemouth.
We took in a great kawartha sunset as it got darker..
Was that the end of the day?
No way!
As it got dark, I headed over to a weedline that I knew about in a bay that was semi-sheltered. Actually, we had a perfect drift going. First drift I hooked into about a 1lb walleye on the grub, but it shook the hook at boatside. Must have smelled the...
ONIONS!
We ran back out and made another pass.. and suddenly, Sleded hooked into something! Hmm... that's a funny lookin' walleye..
We actually hooked into some really decent crappies out there. I have never caught a crappie on that lake so it was definitely interesting, especially after dark. We never did get another walleye once those crappies moved in. Had a couple double headers though.
Well.. once again, WOW! What a trip. We set some goals, and far surpassed them! It was just an awesome time in an awesome place. Can't wait to go back!
Also, great meeting Wolfville, Bk2ptbo, Dutch, MuskyJohn, HighDrifter, MuskyBill and MuskyMike. All a great bunch of guys who I would gladly share the water with again.
Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. Back to real life tomorrow.. but in my mind, I'm still up there, roaming the lakes, looking for that true trophy musky!
Hey Sleded, you're a great fishin' partner, thanks a bunch for sharing the experience with me. The trip of a lifetime for sure!
