Sept. 29
Headed out to a stretch of the Rideau River yesterday for a fish with Dad. With the weather cool and my slop mats disappearing quickly, I oftentimes scratch my head on how to get fish this time of year. No issues on lakes - but this river can throw me for a loop at times.
Arrived at our first spot at 2:30pm. Decided to fish some isolated slop mats that were holding over 4 to 5 feet of water. Twenty minutes in, Dad hooks into this:
His best pike ever. Fell for a flipping jig and craw combo. Apparently this would be a good omen for Dad, as the best was yet to come....
I decide to work out from some pads in the first drop off - roughly 6 feet of water with sporadic weed clumps. Put this guy in the boat on a Bomber Model "B" shallow crank:
We were getting plenty of pike, but all on the smaller side, on a variety of lures, including swim baits, Spooks, spinnerbaits, and cranks. A few smaller largies here and there, but nothing of any real size.
With a couple of hours left to fish, I decide to work over the deeper weedlines just off the main navigational channel. Figured the fish may be pushed out to this depth, and relating more to the green clumps that abound. A couple more pike and a decent largie on a Double Wide Beaver - he came from 12 feet of water.
Dad continues to work the YUM Money Minnow while I stick with a Texas-rigged craw. We continue to work just off the channel, in water between 6 and 9 feet deep.
I'm watching Dad reel in the swim bait when, not more than 8 feet from the boat - I watched a cavernous mouth engulf his bait. I let out a shriek and Dad sets the hook. I know straight away it's a big fish, and of course, the net is nowhere to be found in the boat. After a few tense moments, I finally lip the big girl and haul her in. Dad's biggest largie!!! I was certain she would go five......but, the scale never lies, and it settled at 4.71lbs! An awesome fish - and a really good one for this stretch of the river.
Here's the happy man:
It was a beautiful fish with great markings and colours. The night was complete right there.....and of course, yours truly got a bit of friendly ribbing for the next hour or so....
We ended off the night with a gorgeous sunset and a few more bass and pike....
And of course, some celebratory beers were shared at the end to toast such a great catch....
Sept. 30
Woke to a whole lot of rain this morning, but not bad temperatures and very calm winds. I was on the fence for heading out again, but figured why not, plus I wanted to head back to the stretch that produced the big fish the previous day.
Launched the boat at 10:15am. The rain gear certainly got a work out! Stuck pretty much with swim baits all day and experimented with some different water. Put some fish in the boat shallow and others deep, but 4 to 6 feet seemed to produce the most. Yet again, the pike were on fire.....never seen so many in my life.
Found a great spot that had a large (100 foot) patch of isolated cabbage. Put four largies in the boat in about a dozen casts from this one prime bit of real estate...
Due to the wet conditions (and as I was fishing solo), I didn't risk pulling the camera much. I did snap this one shot of a typical fish that was caught today:
While working the channel area again today, I came across a very neat sight. Off in the distance (some 200 yards away) I see something with a bit of size swimming. I was fairly certain it wasn't a loon, so I start up the motor to investigate. Much to my surprise, it was a fawn - and a small one at that. It had made it half way across the river, and, worried that it might get disorientated (and turn around) or tire out, I decided to escort it by steering it to shore. The river at this stretch is a good 700 yards wide, so it was a courageous deer for sure.
I snapped these two shots as it reached the safety of dry land - sadly, I didn't have the telephoto lens with me:
Lots of wildlife on this trip to the river, including an osprey, two blue herons, loons and plenty of waterfowl, and a couple of inquisitive otters that hung around me for a bit.
Ended off the day at 3pm with "raisin" hands......and fairly wet. Put 9 largies and a half dozen pike in the boat - not bad for the conditions.
Did have the opportunity to field test a brand new product that Normark (Rapala) was kind enough to send me. It is the first ever touch-screen digital scale. Very cool piece of machinery, and the neat thing is, for those that fish tourney's, it keeps tracks of up to 8 fish and has a running cumulative total. It even displays the temperature.
Is a cool deal to only have to touch the screen for the different features, instead of scrolling through buttons, etc.
Here is a shot at the end of the day. As you can see, I weighed 6 of my fish today.....for a total weight of 15.41lbs. Cool way to keep track of the day...
Back home in Ottawa and drying out gear in preparation for a writer's retreat at Rice Lake for Ontario Out of Doors magazine. Heading off tomorrow morning for the weekend....should be a blast!
Until next time...
Good Fishing,
Justin
