Back from Long Point Bay

[Gord]

To bad about the weather, but it looks like some quality fish were caught! And I'm sure the FH gang had a great time regardless of the howling winds!!

[Markus]

Here's one of my favorite stories from the LPB trip.

MT, Tony and I swung by my place Sunday morning to drop PL and the girls back. JoeOD, WIG and BTS headed out early to Burwell and we were gonna meet them on the water. We decided to check the weather before leaving my place.

Port Burwell is also equiped with a harbour cam and a marina cam. I showed the guys the harbour cam to give them an idea of what the lake would look like. Then I decided to click on the marina cam to see if Hoovers truck was there and if he was out too.

When I clicked on, I got this!



I knew they left a while before us and when I saw the angle of the boat....I knew this wasn't a routine launch.

I'll let the captain and crew comment further on this.

[Steve G]

With pictures like that, I'm sure that crew has a few stories for us.

I on the other hand spent a ton of time at the beach, in the waves, and at the arcade...

The boys still had a great time. And are asking about the next FH event.

Thanks Markus for organizing this Southern Ontario trip, was a nice 45min drive home.

[Hoover]

we have all been there........ ramps can be fun to monitor and watch sometimes thats for sure.

thanks to the guys that came out with me saturday and sorry for the bad weather friday we had to cancel that day.

the boys did 9 for 15 in the mornin and 2 for 3 in the evening when we were hunting. the fish seemed to be east, i will find them this week again when it calms down.

[squig69]

would like to start off by thanking Markus, Fishhawk and Bobber for organizing a FH weekend in this neck of the woods and cant wait for the next adventure weekend. we (my daughter and i) didnt get any fish in the boat (she wants me to change my name to MT Livewell the 2nd)on the trip but did mange to get a hook-up while trolling out of the turkey point marina in about 28fow but as soon as i got to the rod the fish was gone didnt have the drag set right. next time it'll be set properly, live and learn. would also like to thank ET for all the help and info on setting up the finder and the use of dipseys and boards and also Bobber for his mini-flipp'n seminar. cant wait to try out all the techniques that ive learn from this weekend. great company will out way any bad weather that can be thrown at you any day and this weekend was no exception. looking forward to the next outing.
would also like to thank Crash for helping with the tent and Steve-Hamilton for the sunday pickeral beakfast. MMMM...good. my daughter even likes fish now.

chris

[Joe]

Thanks to Fish-hawk.net and especially Markus for a well organized event and a great time. As in Westmeath I met some gret people and learned a lot to boot. Hope I can put the fillet knife to use some day, lol.

[crash]

TY to the F-H ppl who did a bang up job for a great weekend.
Met alot of great people and an awsome time. Too many to name but thanks for a fun time.

Chris putting them up is easy getting them back into the bags not my cup tea
Also found my camera and two sets of batteries sitting on the kitchen table where I left them. So I hope some pics are posted for me to save.

[Markus]

Another highlight for me was watching WIG and Kyle whip up 2 awesome fish fries in my kitchen. One late Thursday night and a second Sunday evening.

We burnt the the deep fryer right out!

WIG knows how to prepare a mess of fish!

[Hoss]

Thanks to all those involved in the organizing of this trip. Lots of fun regardless of my late arrival due to sleeping in, not looking at the map soon enough , not reeling in a fish and foul weather. When you get a good bunch of people together it still makes for a worthwhile trip. Can't wait for Quinte(no map needed)

P.S. I really appreciate the fillet knife for a draw prize.(not sure who the sponsor was but again much appreciated).

[crash]

Hoss you got into it Saturday glad it was just the start of it fun ride and we stayed dry well we got one "eye for our troubles.

[steve-hamilton]

We had blast!!!!

What an amazing weekend...All the people camping around me ... amazing....Eric (Crash), what a gracious host.

We fished Port Burwell Saturday MOrning with mixed results. We hit one real nice fish, as well as some smaller ones for the table.

SPeaking of fish, what about that fry Friday night??!?!! I think we cooked for 15 hungry anglers....Fresh pickerel, can't be beat.

Here's a pic of our only fish worth bragging about, caught Saturday Morning. WHat a morning that was....we were about 10.1 mph from the Burwell Launch, and it started to thunder and LIGHTNING! We bring up the lines, start the full out trip, beating the hell outta my boat, only to arrive at shore with sunny conditions.



I'd REALLY REALLY REALLY like to thank bobber, fishhawk, and markus, for putting on such an excellent adventure....But of course, no adventure like this would be possible without the people who make it.

Joe'Od and the 26 footer pulling into the forst....
The Singalong around the campfire...
THE FLIPPIN scemenar put on by bobber!!!! (amazing)
Theresa really thanks the board for the sweet tackle box....she's already raided my box for some goodies.

I really could go on about this forever....and i'll probably add to it tomorrow...but i have some things to do...

[Fishhawk]

Thanks goes to Markus for organizing the week-end. It was a success for sure even though the weather was... well the way it always is on these week-ends. Which just goes to prove that so long as you can get a group of Hawk Talkers together in one spot they will enjoy themselves.

It was great to get down into Southern Ontario and to meet some of the people who post on Hawk Talk. Crash - thanks again for charging our deep-cycle battery after the wind sucked the life out of it on Friday.

Now that was a tough fish! Whew! Here's a few pictures describing my experience this past week-end.

Being the die-hard bass fanatics that me and Bobber are, we decided to try and get some largemouth.

After driving around in the boat for a couple of hours on Friday we decided to troll crank baits by drfiting at 30 knots with the wind...



It doesn't look so bad there because we were on the leeward side of a sand dune that we found in the middle of LPB. THe waves were a couple of feet a few hundred yards from the sand dune though and I wouldn't dear take out the camera for fear of drenching it with spray. This trolling with the drift was unproductive but at least it gave us a chance to re-group and figure out what the heck we were gonna do next.

Later in the afternoon we finally caught a few bass. They were in a couple of feet of water, depending on the timing of the wave. I was tossing a 7 inch BPS salty stick in front of the direction of our drift and cranking in the slack as fast as I could to stay in touch with the bait. This resulted in several fish - the following being one of them...



We finally found some water that we really liked. Tall grass like this was made for Bobber and I to toss jigs into. Bobber has actually gotten very good at firing the jigs five or six feet between the blades of grass and into the spots where the big bass live - on other days. But we did see signs of life in there anyway and it was a real neat trick to toss jigs as the boat drifted past the grass in a blur. Darn the wind! Here's one of Bobber's on Friday afternoon - caught in the grass.



And here's one I pulled out of the grass on the jig on Friday afternoon...



I am smiling because it truly was a feat to catch anything at all considering so many well-placed shots with the jig were knocked out of the air by the grass bending underneath the gail force breeze. A 2 lb bass felt good!

The next morning held much more promise...



And Bobber and I drove around for two hours before we found a spot that we felt like trying a cast in. It was a channel that let boats in and out of the lake. It had the grass we like and several feet of water too. Bobber went to work with the jig and hit a couple of fish like this one...



I struggled all day on Saturday and had a nap in the bottom of the boat. A few minutes after waking up I saw some pencil reeds and made a cast that had to be 50 yards with the 7 inch plastic stick bait. I cranked this one in from there and nearly had to have another nap after the exertion.



And here is a pic of all of us less a few people that took off earlier for a fish.



Thanks again everyone for coming out and joining us in what I chalk up as another Adventure. No matter how the fishing was there is always something to talk about after these week-ends. I was particularly happy to see the kids coming out to spend the week-end with the Hawk Talkers. It was a shame that conditions made it difficult for most of them to get out for a fish.

Thanks again Markus for setting things up.

[Markus]

Where the hell am I and how am I going to fish this!?


The wind is blowing my face off!


I knew if anyone would find the fish, you and bobber would.

[M.T. Livewell]

Home safe and sound. But it wouldn't be a long distance adventure for me if it didn't include intrigue and a few technical gotchas.

True to Hoss's prediction, bring a ratchet set and an umbrella.

Picked up Tony and BTS on Thursday. Finished the groceries and were cruising down the highway around 11am.
Called WIG to see where we would meet up on the 401, he says keep driving, I'll catch up.
About 20 minutes out of Kingtson, kablamo, down goes on the of the trailer tires. Actually, to my surprise it didn't pop, but rather the entire layer of tread came smoking off at 105kph.
We pulled to the side and changed it for the rather soft spare. Cruised into the CT in Kingston and changed out the other tire (suspecting it would not make the trip). The boys got us in and out quick. WIG called and he had passed us and was waiting up the road. Caught up and raced along.
Took the 407 to beat the rush hour traffic in the Big Smoke. Best 15 bones I have ever spent. Passed by a nice deer standing right on the gravel shoulder looking of a victim.

Went straight to Markus's place that night, as the camp was not expecting us till Fri. Mark and MuskieMagnet were out fighting the rough waters looking for the fish to make sure everyone had some luck this weekend. WIG put on an all you can eat buffet, so much so, we burnt out Markus' deep fryer. A couple of pops and early to bed for the big water fishing day to come.

Friday ... Tornado Alley.
Seems like all great FH adventures are plagued by some kind of weather. Now, some would blame me for that.
Spent the day setting up.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... AtCamp.jpg">

In the afternoon, BTS and I followed Markus and Tony out to the mouth of the Turkey Point Marina. About 20 yards outside of the breakwall, it was apparent the VIP was not up to snuff for the weather.
We cast a few around the boats inside the marina. Missed a couple of dinky bass, Markus and Tony had a little better luck.
Pulled the boats out and headed back to camp after only an hour or so.

Not wanting to miss out on any fishing, Markus invite me and Tony for a short run to the outflow. Would it be a rough ride ... yes. Would it be a dry ride ... No.
We did set up just inside of the break again, so we could actually get out of the 5-8 foot swells.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... utflow.jpg">
Fishing was tough, even at the outflow (oh god, the MT Livewell curse has struck again).
Tony did hook into to this little fellas. Between three heads, we couldn't come up with what kind of fish this might be.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... ryFish.jpg">

Back at camp, some of BTS's famous venison sausages, a few pops, and a little guitar.

Saturday morning the weather broke, well comparitively speaking. The good news is BTS, Eye-Tracker and I were joining Hoover aboard his boat, along with his lovely lady friend Krista.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... racker.jpg">
Here's the other fellas on their way out of the Burwell marina.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... Magnet.jpg">

It was right about now that my camera batteries died, so the rest of this trip is straight from the liars (fisherman) mouth.
But, no word of a lie, Hoover took really good care of us. Listening to the chatter on the VHF, a lot of the guys were working pretty hard to find fish. And we were not exception. The difference is invisible to the inexperience trollers eye, but whatever Hoover did different, we had the boat to beat that day.
Bows and eyes, eyes and bows. We got some great fish (burp, sorry just finished eating one of them for dinner).

We finished up around 2 and headed back to camp and were passed by Hoover's evening crew as well as Hoss.
BTS and I were toying with taking the VIP out for a while to try some of the trolling gear we worked so hard to get rig up on short notice, but the brown pops were hard to refuse to celebrate the great morning we'd enjoyed already.

Saturday evenings pig roast was delicious. Bobber joined me with the guitars and we managed about 4 songs before the skies opened up. I headed for shelter in my tent (and fell asleep) while the others partied on through the down pour.

Sunday morning broke camp, shook hands, and kissed babies. Wish I'd had more time to visit with most folks, but the fishing schedules didn't really jive for most, but most did end up at the campfire for a while. Good to see many faces again and to make some new friends.

Tony and I jumped in with Markus out of Burwell again. BTS, WIG and Kyle jumped in with Joe O'D. There was much less chatter on the vhf today except for the constant rant of the weatherman yammering on about some small craft warning this or pan pan that.
(as an aside Kyle quietly toughed out 2 long days on the water with rotten guts and no complains ... a good kid ya got there WIG).
We trolled the troughs of the waves, rolling 8 feet up one side and 8 feet down the other. Ship and captain were solid and reassuring (thank god, cause I nearly called in the pan pan for us ). Tony had a little rumble down under, the result of spending a little too much time tying a dipsey. Markus was even gracious enough to troll the white spinner bait (Great Lakes Code Name - WSB) on the leadcore. Had 2 hits on it, but no hook ups. We did manage a little shaker which was a great way to finished to rough weather day.

Off to Markus' for another WIG fish fiesta, a few pops, and some Texas hold'em. The cards left me early, but the beers were cold and plentiful.

Monday morning, long trip home seemed short with Tony and Brian. Good fellas to travel with and fish with.

So, thanks to Fish-Hawk and Bobber for another great event. And Markus, couldn't have done it without ya. Crash, thanks for the directions. Hoover, thanks for getting us into fish, get those pics up please.
To the Kehoes, thanks, thanks, THANKS!!! Appreciate you putting us
up, and putting up with us. A personal invite from me and the Misses to come visit anytime soon. And BigBassBilly and Princes Cassie are dying to see Shrimp and Loon Girl soon (thanks for the crafts ladies).

Another for the books ... bring on Quinte.

M.T. Livewell

[BBRich]

Fish Hawk and Bobber, those are beautiful bass. You guys got out for a few days and already beat all my best LPB fish this year. Great work, especially in those "less than perfect" conditions!

If I hadn't been in the hospital on Saturday morning I would have loved to come out and meet you all.