Fish Catching Travel
Well all I have to say is there is a reason we drive 27 hours to get here. This is one great fishery and when it is slow it is good, when it is good it is awesome. Today we did not catch a ton of fish. In fact, we caught 12. But it was the kind of fish we come here for. And we have just got started.
The Shoedog gets it done.
I am going to tell the story a little out of turn, but this muskie, besides being his biggest, it was one of those things that was meant to be. We were smallmouth fishing when Shoedog said look at that lake trout. He had his jerk bait about half way in as the fish swam towards his bait and just ate it right in front of us. He played it cool and it was in the boat. You talk about cool – that was cool!
Paul the owner of Muskie Bay Resort told us when we got here that the smallmouth fishing had been good so we started with that. Our buddy Clyde who is here and has been fishing this part of the world for over 20 years turned us on to using the regular jerk baits we use for bass for just about everything that swims. And today it was the bait of choice. Of the 8 smallmouth we caught, 4 came on jerk bait and 4 on the Strike King Swimming Jig.
Not the biggest of the 8, but this is a good representative.
Though the smallmouth were a little slow, we are in the midst of a cold front so that will change shortly. It is so cool to see them in this crystal clear water. When we would catch one and you could see the other ones following him in. While we were bass fishing I had 3 lake trout follow my swim jig in. That is a good thing as it means they are still up thanks to the late ice out, so we decided to troll some.
Love those lake trout, they really put a bend in the old rod.
After this guy we headed in for lunch. We invited this guy to supper tomorrow night, to bad for him. About 2 we headed back out and we just could not find the bass. The wind was blowing cold, and it just seemed it was not happening. Now I threw the box at them, Shoedog stayed with the jerkbait. I wanted to be sure there was not something they wanted better, but it was clearly a jerkbait day.
This one tried to jerk the rod out of his hands.
So though it was a lot slower in the afternoon, Shoedog put the muskie above, this lake trout and one more smallmouth in the boat, all on jerkbait. After fishing spinnerbaits, inline spinners, and rattle trap, it was clear, the jerk bait was the ticket. with most of the water in the mid 50’s the fish are just not interested in chasing. So I pulled out the KVD and I think it was about 10 casts when……..
This is what I am talking about.
If you are a fisherman and have never been to Ontario you need to put it on your bucket list. And if you think about doing it some time give Muskie Bay a call. Besides a nice resort with clean rooms, Paul is a fisherman and helps everyone all he can.
So not a bad day. This little cool front is going to blow through and warmer temps are on the way, and the fishing should really pick up. Funny after a day like we had to say the fishing will pick up, but it will. While we did not catch numbers today, I would settle for results like this any day. Every cast could be the one.
We have not seen Clyde and John yet, they got in this morning and are still fishing so will add their results tomorrow. We will stay on Crow Lake another day or two, then it will be Lake of the Woods, which is just right down the road, and some other lakes we have not even decided on. But no matter what we will be having a great time. Good food, good friends, and good fishing, what more could a guy want. So keep stopping in, there will be 13 more days of it and I will get something up every day. Thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
Update: Well we had a great day – John and Clyde had a little different day. They got here while we were fishing so they decided to head over to Lake of the Woods. The first point they stopped at the trolling motor decided to bite the dust. So off to a marine service, but when they got there it was closed. They banged on the door and the owner was in the back and answered the door. Unfortunately they did not have the needed part as the motor was an older model and it would take at least a week.
There was no other place close to get one so there was no waiting. The end result was a new trolling motor. So $800 later it was off to the lake. They got a little ways down the road when they had a blow out, a total trash job. So now it was a $150 tire. The only good thing was that hopefully they got all of that out of the way. So a grand later they actually fished for a little bit before coming to the cabin. Oh well – as they say – “Shit happens.”
Keep stopping in – it might get ugly!
