May Long weekend at Crotch Lake

Post by **Andy_L** » Thu May 22, 2008 4:54 pm

Friday morning I met up with Badger and Terry_F on highway 7 and we hit the road for Crotch Lake. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to get there and get squared away and onto the water ASAP. Tumblehome Lodge is a beautiful place

and Ward is a great host...made us all feel very welcome

we got everything stashed away into the cabins and boats into the water and off we went in search of Walleye and Pike.

Weather on Friday and Saturday was ok....and we had some success

Fishing was hard though....really had to look for the fish. I think this was more of a weather factor than a lake factor.

Don was more successful in his boat, he's been here quite a few times and has some 'favourite spots' that he likes

I'm sure Don will add some pitures that he took to this thread once he uploads from his camera

I managed to land enough snot-rockets to keep me happy.

On Saturday JP showed up with a rocketship carefully disguised as a fishing boat

It was hard to get him to either keep the boat under 60mph for a picture...or stop talking long enough to click the shutter hehehehehehe

in this picture he just about soaks me with the rooster tail from blasting off beside me

Sunday was a pretty cool and damp day....but we still blasted off...we went to the other end of the lake to check things out there. I left my Tinny at the dock and my son and i went with JP in the rocketship

pretty sure my eyeballs are back in place now, Thanks JP. It was a nice chance to get right up to the other end of this large lake. JP just missed a really nice large Walleye (about 5 lbs)...I will be his witness LOL it tossed the bait back to him right by the boat!!!.

by afternoon we found ourselves back at Don's favourite spot. landed a few pike and the odd OOS fish (right back in the water). One of Don's friends hooked into a bigger pike...I think it was 11+ pounds (he can add that picture...i don't have it).

Monday morning I woke up to the "wicked three" WIND RAIN COLD...2 of the three and i would have gone out...but all three together in a tinny...naaaaa. I called it a weekend at that point. I know from talking to Don since then that they went back out and had a great afternoon...landed a bunch of fish

All in all it was a fastastic weekend with a bunch of great people

Thanks to everyone that was there

Post by JP » Thu May 22, 2008 5:30 pm

Thanks to Don for organizing the event, Andy L and Terry cooking for the weekend as it was nice to have a break from work for a day.
my most memerable moment came when I was trying to cut and eat my steak with a dull butter knife (everyone laughed but me LOL).

Ward was great and made us laugh any time we saw him.

Look forward to the next weekend away.

Cheers
JP

Post by **Muskie4L** » Thu May 22, 2008 5:43 pm

looks like you had a great weekend, Man I cant wait to start getting out on the water

Great report

Post by **troutnmuskiehunter** » Thu May 22, 2008 5:56 pm

Looks like a nice weekend get-away you guys had...thanks for sharing!

Post by **Erie-Eyes** » Thu May 22, 2008 8:32 pm

Great report Andy - glad you guys had a good weekend despite some fickle weather.

Post by **Tip-up** » Thu May 22, 2008 9:15 pm

Well done guys

Post by **Andy_L** » Thu May 22, 2008 9:31 pm

JP wrote:Thanks to Don for organizing the event, Andy L and Terry cooking for the weekend as it was nice to have a break from work for a day.
my most memerable moment came when I was trying to cut and eat my steak with a dull butter knife (everyone laughed but me LOL).

Ward was great and made us laugh any time we saw him.

Look forward to the next weekend away.

Cheers
JP

funniest part was YOU JP trying to wake up 'don' by poking him in the butt with a fishing rod....expect that it wasn't Don...it was their friend CATHY hahahahahaha I'm sure she appreciated your rod tip *snicker*

Post by **Badger Shark** » Thu May 22, 2008 9:35 pm

The most action she or JP have had in a long time!

So when we got to the lodge Terry, Andy, Dave and Andys son headed out onto the lake, they didnt wait for me

, I had a bunch of re-wiring to do and set up. So after 20 minutes or so I headed out. I went straight to my favorite area of the lake and started fishing the way that is most sucessful there and on my first trolling pass I got 2 eyes then a pike, also lost 2 eyes. After that things were a bit slow. I ended up with 8 fish for the day including my PB pike for this lake. The pic is in Andys report.
My eye pic is here hopefully.

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The other guys were doing there own thing and I belive they got into a few as well. This lake is tough to fish and it does help to have fished it alot. As RJ often says, try finding an area on your own and it is rewarding when it turns out to be one of the best spots on the lake. I did share this area with the guys and told them what I do here and it does work. Over the 4 days there were around 36 fish brought into my boat, we dont count pan fish. This was the first time I have caught a catfish in this lake and thought there werent any.

Here is a pic of Terry and his new ride.

Here is JPS rocket that he brought up, 21ft Lund with a 200hp Merc on it.
Not to mention it seems to have come with My wife who is fishing in the pic and my friend Kathy.

My wife got a pike as well and that is what she said she wanted to catch.

Here is a shot of the sunrise one morning we were out.

Here are some visitors that joined me.

Here is Andy standing up in his boat and Terry in the background.

Here are a couple of eyes Eric got on Monday.

A typical pike.

And a not so typical pike caught by HOS who to give you an idea of the size, is 360lbs. The pike weighed 11.8lbs and was 36.6 inches long. Look at the size of the gut!

All and all a great weekend away even with the typical Crotch lake weather and it hailed on us for the 3rd straight year.

Hope you guys, Andy, Terry, JP, Dave and Jamie ( is that your sons name Andy? I forgot) had a good time.

JP I think you may owe Kathy a dinner or something for the rod poking incident, the scary thing was it was meant for me!

Hope the pics work.

Don

Post by RJ » Fri May 23, 2008 5:09 am

Looks like a real productive weekend fellas!.....I've never fished Crotch but it looks to be a nice spot...

May Long weekends have been crappy weather for as long as I can remember...I've about givin up on going away on that weekend...I stayed local and let the weather tell me what to do....

RJ

Post by **Gord** » Fri May 23, 2008 5:18 am

Awesome report and pics lads!

Post by **Terry_F** » Fri May 23, 2008 7:44 am

It was a great weekend away and a really good start to the season.
A great bunch of guys to fish and chat with.
It was my first time at Crotch Lake, loved the lodge, and Ward was a great host. As for the lake, if it hadn't been for Don sharing the honey spots, I'd have been in big trouble.
We checked the maps located the likely spots, but when we got there it was bare rock bottom with no weed growth at all. We found a few spots of our own but no real good fish, probably due to the weather conditions. But, in my opinion any day on the water is a good day. I'll go back to Crotch Lake later in the season and see what the summer brings.

Post by **Jasonb** » Fri May 23, 2008 9:38 am

WOW.... i shouldn't have passed up that trip... oh well im sure there will be more... i also went out on the Ottawa over the weekend.... no Pike but one sturgeon and a whole lot of walleye... even the date caught a few she was pretty impressed... friday she kicked my BASS and she got her PB walleye(well her 1st walleye and many more) we didn't see a single bass but we did have a muskie smash a small eye while bringing it in... scared the crap out of her... lmao... but overall a great weekend... glad to hear everyone had a good time... let me know if u guys plan out another trip

JaY

Post by **Leechman** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:16 am

Great report guys... Congrats on your PB's you guys had.

Thanks for sharing!

Fish Finder

Post by **Badger Shark** » Fri May 23, 2008 12:51 pm

Terry the eye fishing get better in the summer, I, like to get out and camp on one of the many island campsites at least once during the summer. If your interested let me know and we can work out a weekend to go, its really cool to camp on the islands , its nice and quiet at night, except for the bears!

In the summer basically you troll around the main basin and you should get into some decent eyes plus bass is open and well you know there are bass in there. I would really like to fish the spring derby in June but I dont think I can get away for the time needed, maybe the fall one again and this time maybe instead of thrid place I can get first!

Post by **Terry_F** » Fri May 23, 2008 1:02 pm

Sounds good Don.
Either the bears or JP - Hmmm, now there's a dilema!

I would be interested in a day trip up there, early start, fish all day and back the same night. We'll have to work something out for one weekend in the summer.
Thanks again for sharing your hotspots.
T