shirley's bay

[CCLad]

As previously posted~there is 8-10"of ice where the huts are north east of the launch (personally wouldn't bring my vehicle out there!) Rough go getting the hut up, rain, ice covered everything etc, S.O.B. pulling it out with the sled, got hung up 2xs in drifts finally got the hut out still need to set it up and busted a stove pipe - so no fishing - or at the least, drying out......

Any how, the season is a go!
CClad!

[scarkner]

Amazed you didn't blow the sled too, that was some high-revving!!! Everytime I put down my gear to come over and help, the hut would miraculously start moving again!

[canam04]

The drifts make it difficult for sure. I went out last night and plowed a road out a little ways to atleast make it a little easier.

[CCLad]

The sled was bought for moving the hut around so were not too worried about it. Just glad there was 3 of us so we could take turns shoveling. And thx for clearing the launch! It gets bad there every year. Well ever since the NCC in their brilliance thought it would be better to have only a single access point and the lined up all those boulders.....

any, see you guys on the ice. good fishing!

[RyanW]

...

[CyrusG]

I was there Monday and it was a cold one, even with the heater running the line was freezing but the fish were a lot more active than i expected. I'm mostly finding 11-14 inch eyes/sauger but man are they fun, i got some to chase my bait near the middle of the water column before they slammed it. I was in 11 ft of water.

[Fishking]

I was there Monday and it was a cold one, even with the heater running the line was freezing but the fish were a lot more active than i expected. I'm mostly finding 11-14 inch eyes/sauger but man are they fun, i got some to chase my bait near the middle of the water column before they slammed it. I was in 11 ft of water.

Is this a picture of the minnows you were using. From what I can tell those are the same size as the large minnows I get from bits and baits bait shop in stittsville. Lol

[chappee77]

[CCLad]

After more BS dealing with our hut I finally put a couple lines down Tues eve. Got 6 eye/sauger, 2 decent around 14 the rest were small. Bite was good with lots of action. On a side note I saw a Jimmy drive out onto the ice were the huts are. I am sitting on 11"of ice and that was before the ridiculous cold temps of Wed night.

[CyrusG]

From what I can tell those are the same size as the large minnows I get from bits and baits bait shop in stittsville. Lol

That's what caught em that night

Usually i get live minnows from Gord but i didn't have time so i used a few frozen large minnows from a few months ago, cut them into 4 pieces and put it on a small uv buckshot. They were so aggressive it worked as good as live bait

[Gord]

[RJ]

Sink full of Cigars...

Whats the day time bite like out there fellas? Perchie?

RJ

[smitty55]

Whats the day time bite like out there fellas? Perchie? RJ

Mostly Perch and Pike all day Rob, with a real early morning Walleye bite and a well defined late evening run at sundown that might only last 30 minutes but sometimes spread out more. Then the Ling move in. I always give it a good hour after dark at least. Not unusual for the bite to start at almost the same time every evening, specially with stable weather. Lot's of times we didn't go out until after 3:30 as we were strictly targeting Walleye and I lived in BC so it was great. Now I will say that 80% of my fishing at Shirleys was a mile and a half out from shore fishing structure with current, so it can be somewhat different in the middle of the bay so far as times go as the schools move around.I had buds with shacks for daytime socializing with lines in. Then I would leave to my spot for the evening fish. Extremely light bite. It always amazed me how many vehicles you would see leaving the ice after 4:00 when that's the time you should be fishing for sure, at least for Walleye. By prime time there would be maybe 10-20 trucks left on the ice. Go figure??
I'm sure other guys here that have shacks like CCLad can chime in on what it's like nowadays as far as quality fish, as I haven't fished it much in the last ten plus years. My best year out there I caught 3 over 5 pounds but that was a long time ago lol. Seems like there are more Sauger being caught now than what I recall. Big pike are a good real late season daytime target in certain areas that would be perfect for those big bait rigs with the spoon that you use.

Btw RJ. Garrett says gidday. Cheers

[CCLad]

Hey RJ, hope you and the family are all doing well. Smitty's report is pretty bang on. The walleye at Shirley's kick into gear maybe an hour before sundown to an hour or so past. I have stayed out past this point lots of times and have had success as well, but its a little hit and miss.

As for the day time / Pike, in my opinion the best fishing to be had is past the north end of the cause way. I don't know of anyone who has ventured out there yet to provided any type of ice report. From past experience - the ice 300 yards out in front of the launch - straight out to the end of the causeway is uniform thickness...... But I digress man, use caution if you are going to venture out there!!!! That said, the ice in the middle of the bay that leads to the west side of the causeway has had thin ice down the middle of it (Where the shallow channel is coming from the west side of the causeway/no admittance area.)

As for quality eye's, out where the structure is towards the main channel is the place for bigger/better fish. That said use extreme caution out there buddy. There are spots where it goes from 30' to 3' and the ice at never becomes thick enough to support any type of heavy weight. car went through several years back heading over to Aylmer 1 made it 1 didn't. Shoot me a PM and I'll get you me cell # maybe we can hook up for a fish,

Cheers Tim.

[scarkner]

Are there any public depth charts for Shirley's Bay? Might help in understanding better (I have tried to map it out a bit in the summer with my Kayak, but without much luck).