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...