Did a bit of fishing in the last bit.

Did some late Bass fishing with Largemouth mostly on my mind. Didn’t do much, caught 1 little one and was totally frustrated with seeing 4 other fish that wouldn’t bite. One even followed my jig & pig for 5 or 6 feet and then simply turned and swam off!!! Another one would have went well over 5lbs… that really hurts. Remember, if you’re fishing Largemouth Bass in water in the 40’s (f), you’ve got to expect some weird reactions from the fish. Some times if all the planets are aligned, they will readily clunk a jig, spinnerbait or crankbait but more often than not, you really have to work to put fish in the boat.

Next I headed out to Simcoe with fellow fisher/metal-man Shawn Towner for some table fare in the color of Perch. We made our way to Virginia Beach, a well known fall (and spring) perch fishing area. Upon arrival we were amazed at the group of boats on the north end of the fishing area but decided to try a different spot which has worked well in the past. It was slow but we did pick up a few keepers on that first drift with one real beauty. My problem with pan-fishing is that if it’s not constant action, it’s no good! We did another drift a little further from the first and it got slower so I said to Townhorns, lets see what all this cluster of boats is doing. On the way Townrocka’ popped a nice Pike and a fat little Billy Bass, both of which put up great tussles. Upon arrival in the village on the water, we quickly surmised that a lot of these boats were either there because the fish were there last week or they were simply attracted to the boats… much like we were. After figuring there was nothing doing there, we quickly made our way back to our first stop caught a bunch more (enough keepers for a small feed) and then decided to take a quick shot for some Smallies.

Shawn O’ Peth, jigged up something heavy off of a hump. After setting the hook he started reeling in what we both thought was a nice fish. As I grabbed the net his rod snapped. Now we really thought it was a big fish. After a few more turns of the reel though we could see there was no fight so it was just a matter of time to see just what was down there… ended up being a nice mess of old steel fishing line… Zebra Mussels and all!!!

I had the opportunity to join Jack Summers from Radioworld www.radioworld.ca and Curtis Atwater from Lowrance www.lowrance.ca on the bay of Quinte for my first shot at some late Walleye. We grabbed some coffees for the road and picked up some Minnows at Moon’s bait shop in Deseronto (they finally got some minnows in, with the new bait laws it’s becoming tough for the dealers to keep minnows in stock) and then headed to the launch. We arrived only to have a heavy fog lying on the water. Our fishing destination was quite far so I said to the boys we can troll. We ran cranks behind boards for I don’t know how many miles only to come up blank. Once the fog started to lift, I said lets pick up and head to Thompsons Point and try to jig up a few. The conditions were perfect with calm water and mild temperatures.

We dropped jigging spoons tipped with minnows in 30 – 40 feet of water and it didn’t take long to contact fish. We caught a couple of nice eater sized Walleye, some really nice Perch, loads of “too small” Walleye and one fat Pike… all of which were pretty fun considering the deep water/long fight. During all of this I looked over to see Curtis then set the hook on what looked to be a decent fish. I asked “how’s it feel Curtis” and he said “not too bad but I really can’t tell”. Then all of a sudden the rod buckled down and all 3 of us looked at each other and KNEW this was no cigar sized Walleye. (I’ve caught a few over 10 in this area but it’s normally known as a small fish area with the odd nice one; totally opposite to the trolling fish in the Adolphus Reach). I could finally see Curtis’s fish (I had the net in hand way before this) and said something like holy $#!%… I scooped her up; a big fat female sow that I would guess at close to 11 pounds. It’s actually the biggest fish I’ve seen from that spot while jigging. We were going to weigh her but after a bunch of pictures we figured the fish was out of the water long enough so Curtis quickly dropped her back in. I love seeing big Walleye caught while jigging… it’s a whole different ballgame than trolling.

We tried trolling the Reach past the ferry but since it was getting late we decided to call it a day.

To all the people that took the time to stop and say hi (in Moons and at the launch) it was great talking to you and thanks for watching the Fish’n Canada Show, we really do appreciate it.

Thanks for asking me along Jack, it was a blast!