He Put The BA in Bass Opener OR When is a Leaf a Flame?

[cprince]

What an opener.

Paul (AKA BassAddict AKA BA) picked me up from the farm at 6am SHARP! This guy has been chomping at the bit for about 6 months now to go and get his bass on.

After a nice short drive to the lake it was time to launch... we got on the water early-ish; about 7am:


This lake is a Trout lake. The only other boats around were trolling for lakers. But for us, this lake is a BASS LAKE! Pig largies and very aggressive smallies are found in great numbers and great sized in this place, kind of all over. Last year the smallie bite was WAaaayy off. Hardly any to speak of.

We had a lot of places in mind about where we were going to hit: Shoals, weed banks, lilly padded shallows, beaver lodges.

BA starts us off with a bunch of smallies almost going 8 fish for 8 casts with a white friggin spinner bait:


And just keeps putting on a clinic:


Some largies were boated here and there ;




But smallies were on parade for BA:






Here is what I was dealing with:


I have come to realize that BA has NO CLUE how to take a picture.

All I was catching was pike after pike. I figured I would at least get a shot or two with two of the ones that I kept that were smaller and eater sized.. aked Paul to take a shot with my Android phone, and this is what I ended up with:


My hammer-handle gun:


On this trip, Paul had an idea about taking some pictures of a game worn Wendel Clark vintage Leaf's sweater. He wanted to have a guy in a Habs shirt hold it up in a nice bucolic natural setting so he could post the pics on his eBay listing.


But something went terribly wrong... A guy with long hair and a Dodge pickup truck drove by and flicked a cigarette butt at me and it hit the sweater. The sweater had been soaked in highly flammable preservative to lock in Mr. Clark's game sweat... and quickly caught fire.

I waved the sweater around and sprayed break cleaner in an attempt to put out the fire....


But that only made it worse... so.. I threw it at a tree:


Thankfully I was able to put the fire out in time to save the trees and forest... but the sweater might never be worn again.

Craig

[smitty55]

Lol good one Craig. Hmm... white spinner bait. I've seen that before hehe
Real bad tail on that one. You figure that was from the spawn maybe or something else?
Btw nice fish. Cheers

[Walleye'm Fishing]

Great opener guys. That's the only time I've ever seen the Leafs on fire...

[Bassassins]

Wicked opener by the looks of it boys - fun little report!!! Love the pike "photo" lol BEEN THERE DONE THAT!!! Great start to the season.

[Kerrazy]

Craig,
I had no idea my tale of shenaneggins (sp?) from baie Maclaren would insight you to show the beautiful fall blaze colours of the Maple leaf.
I better be careful what I post in the future.
Btw would have really been please if it had of been a tucker jersey!!! Well done on all accounts,'fish and fry

[bl8ant]

Did you find that butt pic on BA's camera while toggling through it or did he admit to taking it?

[RJ]

You guys are nuts.

Nice smallies, wonder why they are loaded with Black Spot. Seems most over there are for some reason.

RJ

[CNs]

Craig,
I had no idea my tale of shenaneggins (sp?) from baie Maclaren would insight you to show the beautiful fall blaze colours of the Maple leaf.
I better be careful what I post in the future.
Btw would have really been please if it had of been a tucker jersey!!! Well done on all accounts,'fish and fry

Ar a Ti-stick Domi jersey.

[Moosebunk]

Some quality smallies doods. You were on fire this opener.

[fiiish]

Hahaha! You guys are nuts as always...Nice to see they let you two out of the asylum to get some fishing in.
As usual, great job on the boatload of sweet fish pics! ...Except Craig's.
Keep it up boys!

A guy with long hair and a Dodge pickup truck drove by and flicked a cigarette butt at me

LMAO!

[DropShot’r]

Great day of fishing guys!!!

Some nice looking bass....where you fishing in Ontario?

Always enjoy the reports you two make.


Steve.

[Fishing 24/7]

always nice to try a new lake !

[cprince]

Hey guys!

Definitely spawn scrapes all over the LMs that we saw and to a lesser extent on the SMBs. If they are spawning, post or pre I have no idea. I see unoccupied nests in about 4fow but no fish around them. That would make me guess that it is post. The water temp was in the mid 60s.

@ Kerrazy.... I am impressionable!! As for a Tucker sweater, there is no way I would mess with a former Hab!!
@CN Domi nailed Stronach. Respect.

As bum pic was on MY camera! I gave it to Paul to take some shots of my pike.. and that is what the sick-o takes pics of!! I had my shirt off at one point with my gut hanging out.. and he was trying to take pics of a massive pimple on my back too! The guy has problems! There was no one else in the boat, so he had better admit it!!!

@ RJ

Good question I was wondering myself. Seems that it is a parasite that birds bring with them to the lake.

Black spots

Black spot disease is commonly observed in rock bass and other sunfish, bass, pike, perch, minnows, and other fish species. It can be identified by the presence of small black spots, usually about the size of a pin head, in the skin, the fins, the musculature, and the mouth of the fish. The black spots are caused by pigment that the fish deposits around the larval stage of a parasitic digenetic trematode, usually a Neascus spp.

The lifecycle of the "black spot" parasite is complex. The adult parasite is found in a fish eating bird, the kingfisher. The larval parasite is transferred from the infected fish to the bird during the feeding process. In the kingfisher, the larval stage develops into an adult parasite. The adult parasite in the intestine of the bird produces eggs that are eventually deposited in the water. There the eggs mature, hatch, and develop into the miracidium stage of the parasite. The miracidium infects a snail. In the snail, the miracidium develops into the cercaria life stage. The cercaria leaves the snail and actively penetrates a host fish. In the fish, the parasite becomes encysted. In about 22 days, black spots form around the cyst. This entire lifecycle takes at least 112 days to complete.

In general, the presence of the "black spot" parasite does not affect the growth or the longevity of the infected fish; however massive infections in young fish may cause fish mortality. The parasite is incapable of infecting humans and, as is the case with all fish parasites, it is destroyed by thorough cooking. When fish are heavily infected, some anglers prefer to remove the skin to improve the appearance of the cooked fish.

@ RIDEAU STEVE SHOTTER!
Quebec dude! You knew the answer to that one!!

@ Kevin
Like a lake of pee at that rock festival you went to instead of catching some bass for the first time this summer? Hostie de buffon!!! Its not like it was the Wall-Mart, Giant Tiger, e-mail, he-mail, she doesn't know its me-mail playing! Alice Cooper sucks live and Manson has not been right since 2005.

Craig

[Out4trout]

Wicked fish, good work!!
Always enjoy the shenanigans!!