ARCHIVES:   August 2006
ALERT!   WE FISHIN’ MANE T-Shirts Payday Special

Smallmouth Fishing With Guest John Marshe

No Comments
Filed Under Adventures Canada Fishing Freshwater Freshwater Species Largemouth Bass Perch Photography Rock Bass Smallmouth Bass

By on August 20th, 2006

John Marshe and I headed out to a small lake about 3 hours from Toronto, it’s one of John’s favorite spots to fish. The lake was comprised of several canals chained together, and the structure and vegitation could change drasticly from channel to channel. The rocky channels seemed to be the most productive and held a great deal of fish, whereas most of the weedy channels seemed to be so weedy and shallow that we couldn’t find even a single bucket mouth anywhere near the slop. Our intentions were to fish for musky, but after an hour or so of no success we decided to switch things up and target smallmouth instead. We caught quite a few in the 1-2 pound range and even spotted some 3-4 pounders cruising in the deep weeds.

John Marshe works with MeegsOnline, “Ontario’s Most Favorite Jig”, and a is frequent contributor to OFN.

Thanks again for taking me out on your boat and sharing with me some of your secret fishing spots and tactics.

I Always Love Email About Fishing

No Comments
Filed Under Adventures Canada Fishing Freshwater Freshwater Species Lake Scugog Muskellunge

By on August 14th, 2006

Here is one I got over the weekend.

“My name is Paul Williams I have been fishing on lake scugog for 15 years. At a young age I always dreamt of catching a musky. But at that time I didn’t have much skill or knowledge finally at 17 years old started to catch a couple small ones. I finally gave up on fishing for musky on the scugog and started to fish in the parry sound area. Seeing that Lindsay was a lot closer, I decided to try back at scugog with refined skills and a lure that the musky and pickerel could not resist. In the past six years my dad and I caught over 100 musky Mostly around 5 lbs to 10 lbs. the picture with me in sunglasses was taken in the first week of July. was wondering if the fishing was good in the main part of the lake because we caught nearly all of our fish from cross creeks to the graveyard.”

Scugog Musky Scugog Musky

Scugog Musky Scugog Musky

Wow Paul, I must say you’ve definitely found a nice place for musky in your area. We’ve fished Lake Scugog a few times this year, and due to bad weather nearly every trip, we didn’t catch much. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t some fine musky in that lake. Our good friend MuskyBill knows the lake very well and has pulled in countless musky. Maybe he can send us a few more photos of some of his musky from this year, like this one.

By the way Paul, I’m often in Lindsay and always looking to go fishing. If you’re interested maybe we can do some fishing together next time I’m in town.

London Fishing Report, August 6 2006

5 Comments
Filed Under Adventures Canada Fishing Freshwater Freshwater Species Reports Rock Bass Smallmouth Bass Thames River

By on August 7th, 2006

The weather has been extremely hot since Gillian and I moved to London, Ontario. In our little, un-air conditioned apartment, life was rather miserable for about 48 hours. We stayed at my sisters house to escape the heat, which was nice, but it meant fishing was out of the question, since there was nowhere within walking distance to go. Yesterday evening was the perfect day for us to head out to the river and find some fish. Thanks to some helpful tips from our readers I knew there the river holds several species of fish, and I had a basic idea where to start searching.

Within the first few minutes of fishing I had a short strike from a fair sized bass. I used a small #3 Mepps spinner bait to coerce a nice little smallmouth bass minutes later. The little guy put up a great fight as all river bass seem to do. At first glance the fish looked nice and healthy with a good sized belly. As I removed the hook I noticed that the fishes mouth was badly damaged and one of its eyes were missing, perhaps the result of a foul hook or an attack from another fish. On the next cast, I hooked another fish, this time a small rockbass, We headed up river for a few minutes before calling it a day. Hopefully our next visit will produce some larger fish.

Smallmouth bass Rockbass

Rare Endangered Turtle

6 Comments
Filed Under Adventures Canada Freshwater Non-Fishing Oddities Thames River

By on August 6th, 2006

While exploring the shores of the Thames River here in London, Gillian and I stumbled across a very unusual looking creature. A spotted turtle that was as flat as a pancake. I figured that it was probably not a native species to Ontario, and attempted to catch it. The little turtle proved to be quite the escape artist and slipped out of my hand and buried itself in the mud.

Once we got back to our apartment, I did some investigating online. It turns out that we had encountered a very rare turtle that is native to Ontario, but is a threatened species throughout the province. The turtle is known as a spiny softshell turtle and is usually found in slow-moving muddy rivers and soft-bottomed bays and ponds.

Spiny soft shell turtle