Zone 15

Zone 15 is the area where a few buddies and I try and have an annual bass opener get-together. This Bass season, however, it was a bit different due to the” ‘rona disease.” We normally fish with two boats—me and my two buddies Seaner and Jimmer in one, and Ben and David (sons of the aforementioned) in the old Fish’n Canada Princecraft. But this year, we went with three boats to separate and keep safe. That put me in my rig alone; kind of weird for this outing, but I had no problem with it. We were on “Sean’s Swamp” as we call it, his tiny cottage lake with private access only.

Where to Start

On this day, we went to a big shallow bay that sets up well for post-spawn Largemouth. Unfortunately, we could only muster up a few Largemouth—with only one hitting around the three-pound mark. Sean caught the biggest on his favourite Spinnerbait while Jim beat up a bunch on a Senko. I was throwing my beaver bait again, but only caught a small number of Largemouth. I did, however, fluke a nice three-pound-plus Smallmouth—a great bonus.

Lunch Break/Supper Break

We all headed in at various times for a break. Sean and Jim had a couple of cold ones down before I could even spell break. After a quick patio-style bite on the cottage deck, I headed back out to give it another shot.

I dropped my trolling motor right at the dock, hit some nice shallow cover and was soon into a gorgeous three-and-a-half pound Largemouth. Of course, it came on the Beave. Why change now? I actually caught it as I pitched to a newly fallen tree in the water, still full of green leaves (don’t believe people when they say bass don’t like newly fallen trees that haven’t completely died yet). I can say with all honesty that there was still a bit of winter rust on my brain; when I pitched that bait into the tree, it didn’t sink as it should have, and I thought for an instant that my plastic got caught on a leaf or a branch. Nope! Luckily, I had the instinct to think, “Maybe, just maybe, this is a fish.” With a lucky hookset, that beauty was in the net.

The Rest of the Fishing

I made a stop at a rock-weed transition that I know holds all fish species in the lake. It’s a good spot. With beaver in hand, I worked the small area quickly and, lo and behold, multiple hooksets and into a small muskie. This bait-stealer didn’t get the best of me, though. I did have to re-tie, however, as it nicked my line above the sinker. Nasty critters, they are!

I figured I’d try another back bay to see if there were any shallow fish around. I stopped at the outside deep weed edge before working my way in and caught a little largie rather quickly. After that, though, it was extremely, painfully slow.

It wasn’t until I worked my way back out the mouth of the bay that I started hooking fish again. They were all okay at best—no hawgs. If I didn’t catch them on my Sweet Beaver, I’d back it up with a Senko. Often, that does the trick.

I worked some more main lake cover but didn’t get much to go (broke off on a muskie under a dock—a perfect tick! followed by a perfect swish of broken fluorocarbon).

I was running my GoPro but ran out of card space (128 gigabytes filled up quickly!) at this time, of course! A camera operator, I am not! I’ll need to learn that kind of stuff too.

End of the Day

My final destination for the day was the deep edge of a weed bed that I’ve fished before. It didn’t take long to see a fish on the Garmin LiveScope and bang! A great three-pound Smallmouth bit, but threw my hook at the side of the boat. That’s okay—as it was quick. I scoured the weed lines after that and caught another Smallie that pushed the four-pound mark.

I moved to another weedbed and popped a great 24” Walleye (yes, on the beaver again!).

I finished my day by setting hard into a solid fish. Unfortunately, I lost it. I knew it was big because it pretty much stopped my rod. I thought, “Why not throw back in?” Tick went my line, set went my rod and pop went my bait—dirty ol’ muskie gave me not one, but two chances. That one got the best of me. 

By the end of the day, I had a bunch of ripped up beavers on the deck of my boat, indicating a decent outing. (Remember not to throw your broken plastic baits into the water. Here’s why.) I looped my broken line around my reel handle and headed home.

No giants for either opener, but I finally got a chance to set the hook into some green and brown fish again.

Video From Pete’s Bass Season Opening Day

Pete fishes Rice Lake in Ontario’s Zone 17. With a little trial and error, Pete gets his bass season off to a fantastic start.

Now in Ontario’s Zone 15, Pete fishes a lake with private access only and demonstrates “the good, the bad and the ugly” of various types of bass cover, structure and techniques.

Follow these links to some of my choice baits:

• https://amzn.to/38lh78p The Original Beaver
• https://amzn.to/3eXoG7B Rodent
• https://amzn.to/31AyDnL Otter