It’s been over 5 years since we last visited Mystery Lake and just as long since we’ve fished with our good friend Mike Westlake. Mike would definitely be considered a founding member of Fishing Fury, in our first year he joined us on many of our trips and witnessed us catch trophy fish in every body of water we fished. After some catching up via email a few weeks ago we planned a last minute trip to Mystery Lake last weekend, we knew the trip could only end in a epic tale of man vs beast. And that’s exactly what it happened.
Updated: I’ve uploaded photos from the trip to the Mystery Lake 2009 photo gallery. I realize the 2004 gallery isn’t even complete and I hope to fix this over the winter.
So I’ve been taking my son Ash fishing with me regularly since April. He’s got a solid grasp on reeling even though he isn’t even two years old yet. He has never caught a fish by himself so we went fishing for a few hours yesterday to try and get his first fish. Its was pretty hot out, so we stuck to deep drop offs and he finally hooked into a fish by himself! He hooked into a nice little bass and I could tell he wasn’t quite sure what to make of the whole event. I’m sure it didn’t help that I was running around madly to get the camera. The moment I started recording the event he decided he was done and simply put the rod down on the ground and stepped back. Luckily, the bass wasn’t big enough to take the rod into the drink. I picked up the rod and the fish shook lose – so close!
Its finally here folks, bass season! Makes me wish I still lived in Ontario so Jon and I could be fishing together again. Jon should be fishing at this very moment and hopefully he’ll be getting into some nice size bass. I’m sure he’ll have a report as soon as he gets back into the city. In the meantime, here are a few Ontario bass from previous seasons, submitted by Paul Williams.
7lb 3oz largemouth bass
With this fish, I wasn’t targeting bass at all. I was fishing for perch when I had a follow up from a big dark shadow after reeling in a small one. So I put on my big bobber and casted back out. To my amazement it took the giant balsa wood float straight under. Thinking it was probably a pike, I set the hook and loosened the drag to be ready for what usually takes place when you hook a nice northern. But much to my surprise, I watched my line start to rise quickly to the surface and then the biggest largemouth bass I have ever seen broke water with a giant leap.
This is the first I’ve heard of this strange condition that can affect both smallmouth and largemouth bass. Little is known about the cause of these markings even though this condition was first observed in the 1980s. It is believed that this hyperpigmentedmelanosis may be a result of catch and release or is a natural defense mechanism against environmental contaminants. There isn’t a lot of conclusive evidence to support either theory 100 percent, but considering both pollutants and catch and release have increased over the years, you expect that these blotches would be extremely common by now.
“The marks seem to eventually disappear, suggesting they may be part of a skin or slime repairing process. I’ve also noted that they seem to disappear faster from smaller adult bass. The largest fish seem to hold them for at least two years.”
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 [...]
