Our good friend Martin wrote in yesterday to let us know how his York Bassmasters tournament on Sturgeon Lake went, and much to our surprise given the crazy weather we continue to have here.. Martin pulled out a huge win, and some huge bass!
I was privileged enough to draw 2 time angler of the year Don Mahar of York Bassmasters. We started the day heading out to a well known rocky shoal on Sturgeon, while most of the rest stuck to the river leading out to Sturgeon from Lindsay. We landed our limit within the first 20 minutes, a nice hand full of smallies, but nothing large. We kept fishing those rock piles, landing and culling our catches still in search of a few big boys. Eventually, Don had a nice 2.5 lbs largemouth which meant we were in business. Soon after we headed across to the other side of the bay and Don comes up big with a 4 lbs smallie. We had a few more culls along that end and we had ourselves a pretty good bag for the day. There was heavy heavy rain all morning , we were absolutely soaked from the rain. On our way back to the weigh in , we made one last stop along the river, 2 casts in Don lands yet another big largemouth around 3.5 and we headed in for weigh in. We turned out to have 14 lbs and big fish at around 4lbs which gave us 1st place and big fish award.
Second place was 11.5 , with a 3.25 lbs largemouth.
Congratulations on the win Martin, those are beautiful bass..
Last week I did an interview with Bryn Weese (left) of the Toronto Sun about TTC accessible fishing spots around Toronto. Turns out that Bryn is an avid fisherman himself and we ended up talking about much more than could fit in the article.
Jonathan Marshall [sic] and Clive Mathias, creators of the website fishingfury.com, are both experienced anglers who make it their business to fish in the city and tell people where — and how — to do it.
If their website is any indication, not only are there huge fish, particularly pike, to be caught around Toronto, but there is also a thriving angling community here.
Like many Torontonians, Marshall doesn’t own a car and uses the TTC to get to his fishing spots.
“I’m pretty much stuck in the area, but that’s okay,” he said, noting he heads over to Toronto Islands for pike fishing after work.
“The pike opportunities on Toronto Islands during the last week of May is probably the best fishing in Toronto I’ve ever had,” he said, noting the evening hours from 5 to 9 are probably the best times.
His secret? Large inline spinners, like a Mepps Black Fury 5, casted in and around weedbeds with a medium or medium-heavy spinning rod.
“Pretty much anywhere you see a weed bed is the perfect place to go,” he said, noting the centre channel on Centre Island is probably the best spot of all.
Also try the water near the amphitheatre on Centre Island if the boat traffic isn’t too busy.
In addition to pike and bass, anglers can also catch panfish, carp, trout and salmon (seasonally) from the shores of the islands. Marshall said he even once caught a walleye there.
It’s a great article and I’m very happy that I was interviewed! Don’t forget that next weekend is the National Fishing Week, which means you do not need a license to fish that weekend but you must follow the conservation license rules. There are also family fishing activities all over the GTA and across Canada.
Bryn if you’re ever in need of a fishing partner let me know, I’m more than willing to meet you some where on the TTC or even split those extremely high gas prices!
Last week Martin, who you may remember from a previous trip to Scugog or his Picton fishing log, and I planned a trip to fish for musky on Lake Scugog. We arrived at the boat launch around 11:30pm on Friday and chatted with a few of the locals that were hanging around and fishing off the dock for walleye.
Since I was so caught up with work in May, I missed all opportunities to go fishing on Toronto Islands for some of the hottest pike fishing in the GTA: this would be my first fishing trip of the year.
We started the morning bright and early, got the boat launched and headed out. It wasn’t long before Martin had a hit and nice 25″ or so Scugog musky. I thought for sure the day was going to be awesome, and not soon after I had a massive strike from a musky of my own, definitely larger than the first. A huge jump, splash, and suddenly my lure was catapulted back to the boat and my musky was gone.
For the rest of the day, we fished with little success, even with my Lakemaid Miss Musky t-shirt for good luck, it couldn’t stop the weather from turning on us. Another storm front was on its way and we decided to head back up the lake closer to the boat launch in case the storm crossed paths with us. Not soon after we had a failure of our trolling motor and decided to head in to try and fix it. We spent a few hours going around Port Perry trying to find some spare parts or figure out what the problem was, but once 7pm started to roll around we knew the day was pretty much shot. We packed it all in and headed home.
Martin will be fishing in the B.A.S.S. opener tournament on Scugog Sturgeon, so wish him luck! If I had known sooner I would have loved to get “Fishing Fury” on his shirt or something as a sponsor but maybe we can pull that together for the next one.
Recently I received this great email from Adam Guy, who also runs a great Japanese blog- The Compleat Tsuribito, it makes a great appetizer for Japanese fishing and cooking in a nice bite sized package.
Adam Guy writes:
One of my fishing buddies volunteered to drive, so we decided to go fishing for a flatfish known locally as ‘ishigarei’ (Stone flounder; Kareius bicoloratus) from the port of Kashima, which is on the Pacific coast of Japan, in Ibaragi Prefecture. My mate and I took three each, including one good-sized fish each; since this was the first attempt at this kind of fishing for both of us, we did quite well.
Unusually the ishigarei does not have scales, but instead a few bony protrusions (the Japanese refer to them as ’stones’ hence the name) on the skin on its dorsal surface, that produce copious amounts of a rather foul-smelling fish slime. However, if one removes these the fillet of the fish possesses a firm, white yet oily flesh that is quite delicious. Also, unlike most flatfish, they grow quite large and can prove quite amusing to catch; the largest one I took was 47cm long and put up a tremendous fight. To ensure their anglers enjoy the eating of their catch as much as the fishing, most boathouses will kill, bleed and de-stone the fish that you catch for you when you get back to port, and give you salt to rub into their skin to reduce the slime, before packing the fish in ice and going home.
At Fishing Fury, we love shiny things as much as fish do - especially shiny reels. As odd as it may sound, it’s not only important that our reels function well, but that they look great too. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder when it comes to reels though. Personally I prefer the appearance of a round baitcast reel, where as Jon prefers low profile. One thing with both agree on though, is that if we had the money, we would have a serious collection of pimped out reels. Here’s a list of the reels we wish we had, but probably never will.
Click the image below to read our latest feature article, Dream Reels!
Most people think fishing isn’t dangerous, but they are wrong. Very wrong. Hundreds of people die each year in fishing related accidents. Don’t believe me? Then check out these seven videos that illustrate how dangerous fishing really is.
There is a very small selection of fishing equipment made especially for kids. Barbie and Spider-man mini rods seem to be the most popular over the years. Not long ago a cool looking device called the Rocket Fishing Rod came onto the scene and even won an award at iCast. While my little one isn’t old enough to fish, my good friend Jonny Mackay has two boys who were happy and willing to test out the Rocket Rod. Click the image below for Jonny’s review on Rocket Fishing Rod.
Abdullah our recent interview in the Toronto Sun is all about fishing spots in the GTA.
http://www.fishingfury.com/ 20080629/the-fishins-fine-furious-i n-toronto/
If you're willing to travel there are more options as well..
Lake Scugog
http://www.fishingfury.com/ categories/places/lake-scugog/
J ack Lake
http://www.fishingfury.com/ca tegories/places/jack-lake/
grt bass.Does any1 know good spot for bass around GTA.I am willing to travel up to 3 hour from Toronto.Let me know.thank you
send me email at ontariofishing@gmail.com
oh, cool posts!!! how many of "your kind" of men still exist on earth? did you happen to have a relative of my age?,,,no, i'm just joking around. but seriously speaking, seldom can you find a man who has the attitude like yours so i wish you and your girlfriend all the best!!!
[...] Check out more monster pike at Meter Snoeken, including out highly debated friend, Mr 3 fingers. [...]
Fishing Fury - A fishing blog about two guys with a serious passion for fishing, the great outdoors, crazy adventures, and heart-pounding entertainment.(1 month, 1 week ago)
Hey Peter,
Spoons will catch you several varieties of fish including two of my favorite, barracuda and jacks. If you plan to fish for tarpon the best bet is using live bait and fishing at night. Tarpon can be found though out the Virgin Islands by day and night and you should be able to find them as long as you have good eyesight! (look for schools of baitfish and pelicans)
Anegada probably holds some the best fishing in the BVI with a wide variety of species, including world class bone fishing.
If you plan to fish from a boat you are [...]
