Cousins Camping

I must apologize as I am the worst blogger ever!  It has been almost a month since my last post.  Has it been almost a month since my last fishing trip?  Yes.  But  have not blogged about that yet.  So, here goes...

For the Canada Day Long Weekend, we decided to have our annual Cousins Camping trip!  We typically go to Tower Manor Lodge on Rice Lake.  This year, however, we were unable to secure our regularsite, so we ended up going to a very nice campsite on - you guessed it - West Lake lol.  Yes, we ended up at West Lake, yet again.  For this year's trip, we opened it up to Musky and Pre-Cut's cousins since they are now family as well.  All in all, we had about a baker's dozen at our campsite, which was secluded and off to the side, bordered by woods on 3 sides.  This year, in addition to Mek Mek, Sk8r Boi, Sir, Pink, Musky and myself, we had 2 of my other cousins - Vanessa and Chet, and 4 of Musky's cousins - Hermione, Sk8rfan, Cheater and Kanye, as well as Knot'Yo.

After setting up our little tent city, Sir, Knot'Yo, Sk8r and myself went out for some evening bassing.  After finally getting our boat launched (the ramp at this park leaes something to be desired), we boat over to the
sand banks and begin casting.  In about 8 ft of water with sparse weeds, I am throwing a white and green swimbait.  The first fish, however, goes to Sir, on a spinnerbait.  However, that was all we would get at the first spot.  Moving on to a shallow (4') spot with heavier weed growth that tapered into deeper water, I switched to a small Daiwa GameVibe in silver and blue (lipless crank) and immediately put a pike and a bass in the boat.  These were significant fish as they were the first game fish caught on my custom finesse baitcasting rod.  I must admit that fighting the small fish with this rod was a blast.  After the action died again, we moved to our windblown cove.  The wind was blowing into this cove so weset ourselves adrift at the mouth of the cove, drifting into the cove.  Water depth ranged from 6-10' with heavy weed growth.  It was here that the fish began to turn on.  Fishing a mix of swimbaits, lipless cranks and Rage Tail Shads casted towards shore and retrieved jut above the weeds, I nailed around 10 bass.  Sir landed a number of fish on spinnerbaits and Sammy-style topwaters.  Knot'Yo landed his fish on Spinners and big, double bladed buzzbaits.  Where was Sk8r throught all of this you ask?  He was fishing hard, but had nothing to show for it except for some missed strikes.  I was really hoping that he would pop his custom rod's cherry, but its virginity remained intact.
The following morning, Sir could not get up to join me for some early morning fishing, but Knot'Yo was game.  So, we trolled out to emergent grass in 5-7' of water and began hitting the grass hard with topwater baits.  Knot'Yo landed the first on his trusty double bladed buzzbait.  Meanwhile, I landed the next 2 using the Rage Tail shad (it is a soft plastic bait with a wide tail that churns up water like a buzzbait when retrieved).  Knot'Yo landed the last fish before we moved on.  We found a calm shallow (4') bay with dense weeds (2' below the surface).  I caught another small fish on the GameVibe and then a nice chunky 2.5 lber (guesstimate) using a swimbait retrieved extremely slowly.  We did not catch any other fish before returning for breakfast. 
After eating, we picked up a rental pontoon and brought the cousins out for some hot, midday inner tubing and lounging on  the sand banks.  While the cousins lounged, Musky, Knot'Yo, Sir and I headed out to catch some dinner.  We head back over to the windy cove from the evening before and troll the shoreline leading into the cove.  I caught a couple of bass, again on the GameVibe, casting away from shore into deper water, before seeing something that was pretty awesome.  We trolled past a nuumber of garpike that looked to be spawning.  They were breaking the surface all around us and were all around the boat.  You could see these submarines cruising the shallows, not interested in the lures in the least.  It was quite an awesome sight for me.  We eventually got into the cove and caught a few more fish, on the same lres as the night before.  We ended up with enough fish for dinner and headed back in to begin cooking.
We did a fish fry and fed our baker's dozen with fresh, beer battered cajun fish and fries.  It was a fun day despite losing most of it to tubing.  We did not fish the sunday before heading out.  This was probably just as well since the night before, a thunder storm rolled in, right on top of us, and churned up the wate really good int he morning. 
As a side note; I hate racoons.  I understand that they are just doing what theydo, and we are encroaching on their habitat.  However, we had 2 racoon bastards that had no fear, and actually stole a bag of garbage that was literally 10 feet behind us while we were sitting around the fire.  I give the racoons mad props for having balls that big though.  But they would still go after garbage while I was standing staring them down.  Maybe I am not as tough as I think?

Ontario Angler Awards

On one of the fishing forums I am active in, one of the administrators runs the Ontario Angler Awards Program for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH).  Here is an exerpt from Calfish from Ontario Out of Doors:

The OFAH Ontario Angler Awards program was introduced January 1, 2004. It is somewhat based on the Manitoba Master Angler Awards. The program is free to enter and is quite simple.
1. Catch a fish in Ontario waters this season as per the Ontario Fishing Regulations Summary
2. Measure the fish and if the length is equal to or greater than the minimum length for that species in the program than you can enter it.

Each fish you enter you are eligible for a personalized certificate and decal. There are 19 species of fish in 10 categories that the program recognizes: Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Muskie, Walleye, Trout(Brook/Speckled Trout, Lake Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Splake), Salmon (Coho Salmon, Chinook Salmon), Panfish(Rock Bass, Yellow Perch, Pumpkinseed, Bluegill, Black Crappie), Carp and Whitefish.

Each angler creates an online account and then they submit their catches through their account. The website is slightly outdated and I am hoping to have time in early 2012 to re-design it but in the meantime it is what it is and the program is still running (almost 35,000 entries sionce 2004).

http://www.ontarioanglerawards.com/

Note: This is not a contest. It is a free program that helps recognize anglers on their success via a personalized certificate and decal.

If it is free to register, go ahead and register.  Maybe you can win an award for panfishing?  That would be cool!

Lake Scugog

This weekend is the last weekend in June, which means that it is bass opener!  Yay!  This is like Easter and Christmas combined!  It is like Baby Jesus is climbing down chimneys all around the world and leaving chocolate eggs for all of the goo d little boys, except more awesome because it is fishing.

So, with the enormity of the approaching weekend, I was stuck with deciding where to go to hunt little green fish legally for the first time this year.  There were the obvious spots that we go to frequently like Rice Lake and West Lake, but I wanted to explore Lakes unfamiliar to my friends and I, yet close enough for a day trip.

To the internet I went, and then it hit me like the tail of a freshly caught fish - Lake Scugog!  This lake is close, but is renowned for its bass, walleye and musky fishing, all of which happen to be part of the Grand Slam challenge.  Not only are all of these fish present in this lake, they are all present in the sizes that would make them qualifiers.

Here is a pic from http://www.kawarthaanglers.com/:

Here is some info from Wikipedia:

Lake Scugog is a lake in Scugog Township near the town of Port Perry, Ontario. The lake has an area of 514 km² with an average depth of 1.3 m. The lake is fed by the Nonquon and Layton Rivers and drained by the Scugog River. The depth of the lake has become more shallow over the past century as development around the lake has removed most of its forest cover, allowing it to fill with silt.
The lake was formed when William Purdy dammed the Scugog River at Lindsay, Ontario in 1834 to power his grist mill. The new lake was originally very unpopular with the local residents; its formation also destroyed the wild rice stands and cranberries harvested by the native Mississaugas. Today, the lake is used for fishing and recreational boating. The lake is surrounded by swamps and marshes which provide habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.
Lake Scogog also has an array of fish, such as muskellunge, sucker, bullhead, carp, rock bass, pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, yellow perch and walleye. link title
The name "Scugog" may be an Ojibwe word meaning "marshy waters". However, according to Place Names of Ontario by Alan Rayburn, Scugog is a Mississauga word meaning 'waves leap over a canoe' in reference to the flooding of the river valley.
source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Scugog

The lake is shallow and weedy, which sounds perfect for largemouth bass.  The challenge will be identifying which weeds are productive, and which aren't.

Wish me luck, and I will let you know how it goes...

West Lake May 27-29, 2011

So, last year, we discovered the glory that is West Lake, and have since returned numerous times to feed at her table.  For this weekend, we once again enjoyed the hospitality of Scott over at West Lake Willows.  We stayed in their newest, largest cottages, which were handsomely equipped with 3 bedrooms, (1 queen, 1 twin over double bunk, and 1 single bunk).  Our group consisted of 10 people in 2 identical cottages. 

With us this weekend were Sir, Pink, Duk, the Hobo, Kakka, Knot'Yo, Dalton, Musky, myself, and a newcomer to fishing - Gas Log, so named for his meticulous diary of gas he keeps.  I considered calling him FWG for the following picture:

Yes, he is shirtless in his foul weather gear.  However, it should be noted that he has never fished.  But do not be fooled, he is at home on the water as a sthailor!  Yes, I said it with a listhp...

As late additions to the party, another friend of ours - Red Light Special, his wife Rinda, her sisters and their boyfriens.  They stayed at a couple of cottages a little down the road. 

With the numbers we had, we rented 4 additional boats to accomodate all of the sthailors.  Gas Log borrowed a rod from me for the weekend, but not for fishing.  He strung upthe rod with a bedsheet and made a sthail with hich to cruise around West Lake!  Fashionable and Ingenious!

Fishing started out for Sir, Kakka and myself friday afternoon as we got there around 4pm.  The conditions were overcast, rainy, windy and around 15 degrees C.  However, this did not stop the fish from biting. 

I started with a white soft plastic swimbait, retrieved just above the tops of the weeds, with moderate success.  I switched shortly thereafter to a lipless crankbait also retrieved just above hte tops of weeds, and ripped free, when I felt the hooks catch.  This proved to be an extremely effective approaach and accounted for the majority of my fish on that first day.

The next morning, the conditions were much different, with calm waters.  It was still overcast and somewhat cool, aroud15 degrees C.  However, fog had rolled in off of Lake Ontario, obscuring our view.  This did not affect the fishing greatly as the fish continued to feed.  This next day, the fish did not want to hit the lipless crankbait.  However, they were not shy about attacking the white soft plastic swimbait.

Later that day, the sun came out, and the temperatures rose to the mid 20's.  We moved to some shallow weedbeds as we were catching too many OOS largemouth bass deeper.  Targetting pike, Musky and SIr switched to topwaters.  Sir was using a pencil type walking bait while Musky switched to a lure I had just picked up, the Team Daiwa Mouthwasher - a combination propbait popper.  Whatever it was, Musky nailed a good number of fish on this lure.  Her hokset timing was perfect, and she christened her ligthsaber rod - numerous times, in fact!

Shortly afterwards, I began to get chills, and came down with some serious chills once we got back to the cottage.  I then broke into a fever.  Not a good way to end the fishing weekend - which is whatthis was for me.  Over the next couple days, I would alternate between chills and fever. 

Over the first 2 days of the weekend, our boat totalled around 90 fish landed!  It was another great fishing weekend, and West Lake provided again!  Despite falling ill, the weekend was fantastic for all.

Canal Toe

When we were younger, Sir and I spent many summer nights camping at Centennial Park located on Canal Lake.  Since that time, Centennial Park had been converted to a camped park, and we were forced to camp elsewhere.  Years later, I found a location where we might launch our boat, and the opportunity to relive a little bit of our youth.  So we set out at 7am Saturday, May 21 for some Canal Lake Pike. 

The days leading up to thew weekend were somewhat unstable weatherwise with rain and fluctuating temperatures.  The day of was sunny and hot (for me) at 20 degrees Celsius.  We got to the public boat launch and hit the water.

For this outting, Sir and I were joined by our wives, Pink and Musky.  Fishing started off slow, and would remain slow for the entire day.  That does not mean that we did not catch fish - we did.  And it started with Pink.

I followed up with a couple of out of season bass on lipless crankbaits burned over the weedbeds and ripped free when they got caught up.  I had started with soft plastic jerkbaits and swimbaits, but niether of these elicited any strikes for me on this day.  I foul hooked on pike, approximately 25" long, which fought like a 10 lber!  The thing took so much drag and didn't stop pullin that i thought it may have been a big carp.  Wen I got it close to the boat, we saw it was a pike that was hooked in its side.  As Sir went to net it, the pike dove downwards and both hooks bent out.  I always seem to lose fish when Sir goes to net them lol.

Sir caught a nice little pike as well.

Musky caught some panfish when her new rod didn't pan out.  She did use it, but as I had said, fishing was slow, so she switched,  But here are some pics of her rod in action.

The pictures don't do the sparkle finish justice.  The blank was painted to shimmer like a lightsaber.

Pink was also learning to use a baitcaster.

All in all, the day was great despite the slow fishing.  Being out on the water with great weather is always nice.  Catching some fish is a bonus.  Having your wives fish with you, priceless.

lobster bake

Ingredients
1 package of mussels
2 lobsters
3 potatoes
3 ears of corn
3 chorizo sausages
dried kelp
salt

add kelp and salt to the water
cut the lobsters at the joints
quarter the potatoes
half the ears of corn
half the chorizo sausages
add seafood, corn, potatoes to the water and bring to a simmer
simmer until potatoes are fok tender

serve and enjoy

We cooked this in a slow cooker, and found that the heat was not enough to open up the mussels.  SO, we cooked them separately and readded the mussels afterwards.

It was a delicious recipe and much enjoyed.  We found that thekelp really gave the lobster bake a salty sea flavour.

Perchin on Simcoe Report (in the cold and rain)

April 16, 2011

So, we had planned on doing some perching on Simcoe with Sir, Kakka, My Best Friend's Girl and myself on Saturday, April 16, 2011.  However, the night before, My Best Friend's Girl mysteriously fell ill, and so we brought in a sub - Knot'Yo.  The weather that morning was cold and windy.  All day, the weather hovered around 5 degrees Celsius.

We left Sir's place around 4 am, and arrived at Harry's Riverside Sports and Bar in Keswick around 6 am.  The sun had not broken the horizon yet, and we launched in the dark.  We could already feel the cold wind off the lake.  I was glad I had worn my snowboarding jacket at that point.

We started fishing the eastern shore of Cook's Bay in about 10 ft of water.  I started out using a small jig and spinner tipped with a soft plastic tube.  I was fishing it slowly along bottom.  The other guys were using minnows and worms.  At this first spot, we caught nothing.  We moved to another spot with similar conditions, and remained skunked.

Sir likes the challenge of a bobber in gale force winds...

Knot'Yo braving the cold

Yellow Kakka... must have had corn the night before...

We finally got to the top of Cooks Bay, and rounded to corner to stronger winds.  We located ourselves between Snake Island and the mainland in about 8 ft of water with weedbeds surrounded by sandy bottom, and anchored.  At this point, I had switched to a modified dropshot rig where my weight was a jighead tipped with a minnow, with another hook tied about 20 inches above, also tipped with a minnow.  I dropped my rig in and bam!  Fish on!  I reel her in and bring in a nice Simcoe perch!  I got the skunk off and we were then in business. 

At this point, the rain starts, and we begin to get wet!  Because of the rain, I could not take anymore on the water pictures, so I will describe it to you.  All in all, we caught somewhere around 150 perch between the 4 of us, including some really nice jumbos, the largest of which is credited to Knot'Yo - it looked like a bass lol.  Some of these fish were really fat, and obviously pregnant.  One even oozed out what looked like thick Mountain Dew when Kakka squeezed the poor preggers fish.  It was all over our chairs.  Disrespect...  We ended up keeping 26 for the pan.

I eventually stopped using live bait due to my fingers freezing in the water, and switched to soft plast tubes on my rig.  The soft plastic proved just as effective as the live bait for me, and I used it for the rest of the afternoon.

Eventually, we headed back to Harry's to warm up and grab some food.  White caps were beginning to form on the lake, and the drive back was much slower than the drive out.  It was not a fun drive back.  When we got home, we took some pics.

 Don't be fooled by the pic, that fish was jumbo, just not as jumbo as the guy holding it...

So, according to my goals, I started using soft plastics, and used soft plastics for a large portion of the fishing day (although not 50%).  So far so good.

Food pics

So, I had posted a recipe for fish patties.  I finally got around to taking pictures of the process.  Here are the pics...

Dill mustard mayo

Ready for consumption.

Next, my lobster bake...

May we not forget...

I apologize to all as it may seem that I have forgotten about you.  However, that cannot be further from the truth.  I have pictures and new recipes.  I have 2 reports.  I have updates on fishing rods.  I had a busy May filled with the wedding of Sir and Pink Lightning, custom fishing rods, and putting our condo up for sale.

My pictures will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow, accompanied by our first softwater outing of this season.  Stay tuned,

Fish Patty Sandwiches

Here is another fish based recipe to hold you ove until I get my pictures of perch fishing last weekend uploaded.

If you ask Musky, I had been talking about a fish sandwich idea for a couple of months. Well, I finally made these sandwiches, and let me tell you, they were what I had been imagining.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
6 small cod fillets (frozen)
15-20 crackers
green onions
1 tablespoon of whip dressing (Miracle Whip) o mayonnaise
1 egg
salt & pepper
chili seasoning
bread crumbs
bread of your choice
lettuce
tomatoes
sliced red onions
2 tablspoons of whip dressing (Miracle Whip) or mayonnaise
some fresh dill to taste
mustard to taste

Now, this recipe is a take on a crab cake recipe, but worked out great with the fish.

First, poach the cod in a shallow pan.
Bring a shallow pan of water to a simmer, add cod, and cook until no longer opaque.
Drain cod and set aside to cool..
Once cool, place cod in a bowl and crumble crackers into the fish.
I use Ritz for added flavour.  Substitute with your cracker of choice.
Mix in 1 tablepoon of Whip Dressing.
Mix egg into mixture.
Add chili seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.
Form into 4 patties.
Sprinkle bread crumbs onto the patties for texture.
Pan fry the patties over medium high heat until golden brown.

For the dill sauce;
Chop the dill and mix into 2 tablespoons of Whip Dressing.
Add mustard to taste.

Toast bread, and dill sauce, lettuce, tomato slices, and red onions to fish patties and enjoy. 

Musky really enjoyed this dish, as did I.  I could ot be happier with how it turned out, and is a dish that I will make again.
I really need to remember to take pictures of these dishes.  But trust me, they are tasty.

Til next time....

Update

Here is a brief update of where I am with respect to fishing.  I have been pretty busy finishing off the rods for my groomsmen.  I am quite happy with my progress as  rod builder. My wraps have improved as has my epoxy work.  I want to progress to the point where my epoxy work is smooth and clean.  Still a ways to go. 
I have recievd nearly all of the parts for custom rod orders for Kakka and My Best Friend's Girl, and am really excited to get going on those rods.  I have glued the butts to their rods, but am waiting for some parts to bling up their rods.
I am really excited abou Musky's rod.  I have to paint her blank,and I have to order her bilng.  I am ordering a few Matagi parts for her,which are pretty expensive premium Japanese components.  However, they shoud make her rod really nice.
We have had warm weather here and the ice s mostly off the lakes.  I am looking forward to getting out on the water and scratching that fishing itch.

Sorry this post wasnt't funny or entertaining.  Just infomative.  I may as well Twitter this.  Too bad I hate the idea of Twitter.

Rod Building Equipment

So, I have put together my rod building equipment.  Since our marriage, Musky and I havebeen living in her 1 bedroom condo.  Needless to say, it is very tight and space is at a premium.  As such, I could not take my buildng jig from my parents' home, and needed to make one for this space. 

My rod building jig consists of a wrapper, an epoxy mixer, and a rod dryer.  All of this was built from 2 6' pieces of lumber, wood screws, 1/4" wooden dowel, coat hangers, epoxy, some electrical cord, switches and plugs, a couple pipe end caps, and some leftover foam from my custom poker table build.

Here are some pictures of the wrapper

And the epoxy mixer

And finally, my rod dryer - which is designed to hang below a shelf via coat hanger clamps.

Here are a couple pics of Sk8r Boi's custom

I apologize for the blurriness.  I need a tripod.  But I would have to convince Musky of that... Good luck there...

Lake Toho Trophy

So, I have given my report for Lake Toho.  I could only describe my experience on the lake, and how we fished.  When we got back to the dock, my brother - Sir, Duk and my brother's old workmate, whom we shall call Dalton - the pacifist philosopher who will kick ass if needed, were waiting for us...


Dalton - Leave the pigeons ALONE!!!

When Spam and I got back to shore, we heard stories of their trolling of live bait to mimic a school of shiners in order to stimulate bass activity.  We also found that they had used the same live bait tactics that we did. 

While it worked for Sir, Duk's white bucket was almost completely empty, landing 1 little dink that was not worth taking the camera out for!  However, Dalton used these tactics to great effect, as we were told about Dalton's bonafide Florida giant!

Approximately 9.5lbs!

Relying on his pacifist approach to fishing, and unwillingnesss to hurt the fish by actually setting a hook with enough force to puncture the fish' mouth (perhaps he is from San Francisco as well), Dalton coaxed this monster into the boat.  Despite taunts from Captain Dean proclaiming that his daughter sets the hook harder than he, Dalton persevered, and has caught something none of the other BASStards have.

This alone, made the trip worth it!  I will post a video that Sir captured of the giant once I get my hands on it!  Stay tuned, and be forewarned, there are a lot of expletives in it...