Post by Gary on Jun 5, 2006 9:29:48 GMT -5
Hi Folks!
Hope you are all out fishing! By the way, congrats to you YFF. Sounds like you're in for a treat of an adventure.
Like you, I have been fishing alot so my apologies for not showing up on the board a little more.
Anyhow, I've been out using the new boat like crazy. I love it, it flies, and it's a pleasure to fish out of. I picked it up May 11th and have been out in it at least 4-5 days a week. Last week I was in Ottawa for the week and managed to get out on some waters - White Lake, Rideau River, and Mississipi Lake.
On White Lake the bass were hitting like crazy. I was targeting pike, and saw nary a one, except for a small one that followed up, but the bass were everywhere, and some nice ones too. I caught a couple of four pound smallies, many largmouth in the three pound class, and all kinds in between. I hear people talk alot about how White Lake is full of clone 12-13 inchers...man, maybe you folks just aren't hitting the right spots. True, there's lots of those in there, but White Lake is a truly amazing bass factory. Lots of them and lots of big ones too. They were hitting on Strike King spinnerbaits - white, and Mepps Aglia #4 and #5 dressed in white and dressed in chartreuse. Standard pike lures, but the bass were grabbing them. If you're looking for pike, White Lake seems to be slow on them so far this year. I know the lake well and haven't had this dry a spell for pike ever.
Same goes for the Rideau River. I launched out of Manotick a couple times last week and fished various spots from there to the 416 bridge, looking for pike and walleye. Again, lots of bass but not much of what I was looking for. On one trip I did catch some walleye, nothing of size - 12-15 inches, but I caught those at the next bridge west of the 416 bridge. Got them on pumpkin green 4 inch Strike King finesse worms, on a 1/8 oz. jighead rigged texas style. The highlight of my Rideau adventures was a muskie follow up under the 416 bridge on the south side. Looked to be close to 40-45 inches. He followed up a white Strike King spinnerbait, but showed no interest in biting...just coasting along checking it out.
Mississippi Lake was much of the same. I fished there one day and caught nothing but smallmouth bass, while fishing for walleye and pike. The pike seem real dry everywhere this year. I don't know Mississippi Lake at all so it was more of an exploratory thing, but the spots I did hit produced lots of smallmouth but nothing of size. I'll definitely go back there though, I hear it's a good fishery.
I am now down in PA and on my way down Friday, I stopped at Oneida Lake and fished from about 3PM 'til dusk. I've always heard alot about the smallmouth fishing at Oneida and it was everything I've dreamed of. I launched, and didn't go more than 300 yards from the ramp for the first hour and had boated a dozen fish at least. Best five would have been around 13 pounds. That was just in the first hour. For the next four hours I poked around different spots on the lake and proceeded to catch smallie after smallie. Lots in the 2-4 pound class. It was awesome! Tried spinnerbaits, crankbaits, finesse worms on jigs...all they'd bite on was weightless, wacky-rigged, senkos. Any colour would do, as long as it was green.
Highly recommend Oneida if you're looking for a weekend trip. It's only 3.5 hours from Ottawa and well worth it. Just hope the wind doesn't blow, she's a large, wide-open, shallow lake and conditions can change quickly. Oneida is well known for walleye as well, and if you're looking for a hard fighting fish, there are all kinds of drum in Oneida as well. They must have been spawning while I was there because they were quite brazen. They'd follow the boat while I was on the trolling motor, like dolphins following a ship, and I'd see groups of them frolicking on the surface...big globs of ten pound drum rolling around together like they were shad or something. It was neat.
Other than that I've been poking around the garbage lakes they have here in PA. I'm looking forward to my next trip to Ottawa, soon, so I can do some more "real" fishing.
Jeremy...we'll have to get out for some smallies on the St. Lawrence and some muskie on the Rideau. Let me know when the good times are and we'll arrange to meet and go out.
Sorry for the long post folks, had to make up for not showing up for a while.
Cheers!
Gary
PS: This Friday I'm off to Kerr Lake in VA/NC to start practice for the first Stren Northeast event, and my first tournament, of the year. It runs June 14-17 and I'm practicing starting on June 9th in the hopes that they'll have a spot for me to register as a boater. I'm currently registered as a co-angler, but we'll see what we can do.
Hope you are all out fishing! By the way, congrats to you YFF. Sounds like you're in for a treat of an adventure.
Like you, I have been fishing alot so my apologies for not showing up on the board a little more.Anyhow, I've been out using the new boat like crazy. I love it, it flies, and it's a pleasure to fish out of. I picked it up May 11th and have been out in it at least 4-5 days a week. Last week I was in Ottawa for the week and managed to get out on some waters - White Lake, Rideau River, and Mississipi Lake.
On White Lake the bass were hitting like crazy. I was targeting pike, and saw nary a one, except for a small one that followed up, but the bass were everywhere, and some nice ones too. I caught a couple of four pound smallies, many largmouth in the three pound class, and all kinds in between. I hear people talk alot about how White Lake is full of clone 12-13 inchers...man, maybe you folks just aren't hitting the right spots.
True, there's lots of those in there, but White Lake is a truly amazing bass factory. Lots of them and lots of big ones too. They were hitting on Strike King spinnerbaits - white, and Mepps Aglia #4 and #5 dressed in white and dressed in chartreuse. Standard pike lures, but the bass were grabbing them. If you're looking for pike, White Lake seems to be slow on them so far this year. I know the lake well and haven't had this dry a spell for pike ever.Same goes for the Rideau River. I launched out of Manotick a couple times last week and fished various spots from there to the 416 bridge, looking for pike and walleye. Again, lots of bass but not much of what I was looking for. On one trip I did catch some walleye, nothing of size - 12-15 inches, but I caught those at the next bridge west of the 416 bridge. Got them on pumpkin green 4 inch Strike King finesse worms, on a 1/8 oz. jighead rigged texas style. The highlight of my Rideau adventures was a muskie follow up under the 416 bridge on the south side. Looked to be close to 40-45 inches. He followed up a white Strike King spinnerbait, but showed no interest in biting...just coasting along checking it out.
Mississippi Lake was much of the same. I fished there one day and caught nothing but smallmouth bass, while fishing for walleye and pike. The pike seem real dry everywhere this year. I don't know Mississippi Lake at all so it was more of an exploratory thing, but the spots I did hit produced lots of smallmouth but nothing of size. I'll definitely go back there though, I hear it's a good fishery.
I am now down in PA and on my way down Friday, I stopped at Oneida Lake and fished from about 3PM 'til dusk. I've always heard alot about the smallmouth fishing at Oneida and it was everything I've dreamed of. I launched, and didn't go more than 300 yards from the ramp for the first hour and had boated a dozen fish at least. Best five would have been around 13 pounds. That was just in the first hour. For the next four hours I poked around different spots on the lake and proceeded to catch smallie after smallie. Lots in the 2-4 pound class. It was awesome! Tried spinnerbaits, crankbaits, finesse worms on jigs...all they'd bite on was weightless, wacky-rigged, senkos. Any colour would do, as long as it was green.
Highly recommend Oneida if you're looking for a weekend trip. It's only 3.5 hours from Ottawa and well worth it. Just hope the wind doesn't blow, she's a large, wide-open, shallow lake and conditions can change quickly. Oneida is well known for walleye as well, and if you're looking for a hard fighting fish, there are all kinds of drum in Oneida as well. They must have been spawning while I was there because they were quite brazen. They'd follow the boat while I was on the trolling motor, like dolphins following a ship, and I'd see groups of them frolicking on the surface...big globs of ten pound drum rolling around together like they were shad or something. It was neat.Other than that I've been poking around the garbage lakes they have here in PA. I'm looking forward to my next trip to Ottawa, soon, so I can do some more "real" fishing.
Jeremy...we'll have to get out for some smallies on the St. Lawrence and some muskie on the Rideau. Let me know when the good times are and we'll arrange to meet and go out.
Sorry for the long post folks, had to make up for not showing up for a while.
Cheers!
Gary
PS: This Friday I'm off to Kerr Lake in VA/NC to start practice for the first Stren Northeast event, and my first tournament, of the year. It runs June 14-17 and I'm practicing starting on June 9th in the hopes that they'll have a spot for me to register as a boater. I'm currently registered as a co-angler, but we'll see what we can do.
