So I woke up this morning wanting to go fishing but not sure of where. I’ve been to my local haunts on Sturgeon so often that I needed a change of scenery so I broke out the map this morning and looked around for some water that I’ve never been to before.
I decided on an area in the Kawartha Lakes district that had plenty of rocks, weeds, pads, and timber thrown in to boot. I realise that this could be anywhere in the Kawartha’s but for the sake of the report I’d rather keep the jewel I found today to myself for a little while…there are so many possibilities for me at this location and I think that next year I’ll be spending a lot more time there.
I started at my usual spots around Bobcaygeon and landed a few smallies and walleye with the biggest of both species being in the 3lbs range. The smallies hit a Sexy Dawg Jr. and the walleye came on a 1” yellow grub fished on a black 1/16oz head under a slip float. I then left the area and set off to my target destination.
When I arrived there were a few people around but nobody wetting a line. I took a look around and threw the SD Jr. near some grass and caught a small largemouth that fought harder than its size which was cool. The next cast went to another edge which had grass and a couple of pads next to it. I was expecting the strike to come when the lure was right beside the pads but it didn’t; rather it came when the bait entered what I believe to be a trench situated between the opposite weed line and the shore which I was standing on. The largemouth absolutely clocked it and both myself and a younger lad that had joined me jumped about a foot off the ground. It was the biggest one of the day, probably just under five pounds.
After establishing where the bigger fish were sitting, I started casting tight to cover on the opposite shore and retrieving across the channel. The larger fish I caught were all hanging out in the trench, and my best five would have easily given me a weight of about 20lbs if not more. I’d catch a fish just about every 5 minutes. Water conditions were clear with a slight chop present at all times. It was partly cloudy as well through the entire day.
After spending some time eating a late afternoon snack, I started to wonder about what other predators lurked in that channel that were forcing the smaller bass to hang out so tight to the visible cover. Well, that’s when I found out that the area I was fishing was adjacent to a musky spawning ground. After my snack, I went back and immediately started a swimming retrieve with my topwater and quickly caught a couple of small muskie in the 15-24” range. After they were released the bass in the middle of the channel picked up again and I spent more time catching fish in the 2-4lbs range. When the bite stopped I’d swim my lure and catch whatever musky was in the area which would then give the bass more confidence to hunt without worry of being eaten. Biggest musky came in at about 30”, maybe 4lbs or so.
All fish were caught on a Strike King Sexy Dawg Jr. in the sexy shad pattern rigged on a Daiwa 6’6” medium action Lexa baitcast rod coupled with a Daiwa Tatula 100HSL spooled with 30lbs Power Pro Super 8 Slick brown. All of the fish were released and swam away with a lot of vigor.
Here's the big largie of the day....
The day that was…., Fun times on new water...
