Fish-Hawk.Net

I went camping for a night on Monday in Calabogie looking for bows, this was the first time i targeted them in the summer but with the cold weather we had my hopes were high. After we got unpacked and had a few drinks i started casting a bobber off shore without any luck, that's when we decided to launch the boat and troll, an hour or 2 passed without a bite or rise so i started to change my rig and that's when my brother caught the first one on a woolly bugger, it was a healthy 13 inch holdover so we started getting excited. I decided to switch to one on my spinning gear but after a while without another bite we decided to head back to our camp.

The bugs weren't bad at all and the weather was perfect, when we got back i set up my other rod with a bottom rig and casted in 45 feet of water from shore, I've never tried fishing that deep for bows but it didn't take long before i had my first one of the day on, it was the same size as my bro's. The bites kept coming after that and we didn't even need to use the boat anymore, caught a few more holdovers by night and had a great dinner on the campfire. The next day i woke up at 8:00 hungover and casted my bottom rig out while making breakfast, once i was done eating i still haven't got a bite so i got on the boat and tried something I've never tried before, jigging with a vexilar on a boat . The lake was dead calm and this made it easy to see my jig, i was fishing deep when i saw a big red mark in around 20 feet over 45, i reeled up and got slammed right away but the hook came flying out once it jumped. I kept on jigging right around the depth i got my hit at and got a few more holdovers to bring home all 13-14 inches, great fighters.

It was one of the best days I've had fishing for bows, not something i would expect in the middle of August. I'll be back at em in September when the water cools.

I have to say I don't target trout much in the summer months but wow are the colours on those beautiful...nice work Lip. Just as a side note try sprinkling steak spice on the potatoes next time. Adds an incredible flavour to them.

Great report and pics - nice work!!

Sounds fun man! Nice job. Dinner looks delicious.

E

Thanks guys, steak spice on potatoes sounds good i usually load mine with cajun.

Nice catch! Which lake were you on?

Thanks

Awesome summer rainbow fishing! Great report too.

Nice! I may just have to head up that way and target some of them.

Nice fish. Depending on the strain of trout that were stocked, they could potentially be 3 y/o fish, given that they're only stocking fingerlings.

The Pembroke MNR stocking list also includes a catch report that they ask anglers to complete and submit so that they get a better idea as to how well the stocking program is going. Nice size fish like the ones you caught are hard to come by nowadays, so I'm sure they'd be interested in the details.

Awesome!!!

You're not the dood that works at SAIL are ya? Fella there telling me yesterday he did well on Bogie bows. Great fishing to be had if you time it right. Looks like you did!!!

Thanks, i believe those were stocked last year but i can't be too sure I filled out that report a day after i got back. That was my brother you talked to Bunk

Great report, thanks for sharing.

Nice report! Just a question. What's a "holdover"?

a fish that was stocked by the MNR and actually lived for more than a year... ie. it's a holdover from last year. *bigger*

It's a bone of contention because the MNR is kinda marching to the beat of its own drummer wrt trout.... which is massively annoying because many other areas have things figured out. But ON MNR just has to keep doing what it feels right... (but isn't working).

PS- maybe now that they are really outta $bucks they might start listening?

According to the Pembroke stocking report they have switched from a wild Ganaraska strain to a domestic strain. They are also stocked as yearlings and not fingerlings. A yearling domestic can be as large as 10" when stocked although 7"- 8" is more likely a 13-14 incher under good conditions is a 2 year old trout. If you look at those trout they are in very good condition, small head and full bodied.

If you read the little blurb from the stocking report the switch to a domestic strain makes a lot of sense as they won't be reproducing anyway. The domestic grows faster in the hatchery and would be bigger when it is put. They may even be better suited to those ponds. They couldn't have done any worse than they were. Good they are trying something different.