Beauty and the Beast, Great Lakes Kayak Salmon Fishing, Sept. 5, 2011

With Labour Day weekend looming I was looking forward to getting out in my kayak. By the time the weekend arrives it will have been over two weeks since my last outing, which is just too long for a guy like me to go. How am I suppose to maintain my sanity!  Things like job interviews and back to school shopping for the kids can really get in the way of R&R :)

I was closely watching the weather forecasts for the entire week prior to the weekend. I'd already missed out on some Great Lakes Chinook salmon opportunities due to a combination of vacation, a seemingly early start to the season, and life in general.  I'm suspecting a summer of prevailing north and north easterly winds was responsible for the early start but to be honest I'm not sure. I bet this equated to a few missed opportunities for near shore Chinook over the past summer.

Although I was expecting my usual arduous salmon outing, involving lot's and lot's of exercise and very little fish, I was really looking forward to it. We really only get two or three weeks out of a year to catch Chinook near shore, the largest of the salmonoid family. This is the only time of year I can pretend I'm out on an ocean coastline catching sea monsters! I hadn't targetted salmon in nearly two years, and this was going to be my first time out in the big water with the new Outback. Over the past four years I'd made approximately ten outings of three to four hours in length in attempt to get into some big hard fighting salmon and only managed one fish, and to be honest, she was a wimp, I think she gave me one head shake then gave up, women!

As the weekend approached the weather was shaping up for a Monday morning outing. Over the week I'd also had some interest from a fellow local forum member to come out and join in the fun. I'm always happy to have some company on the big water. It's definitely safer, not only can we spot for each other, we have added visibility. If you aren't familiar with Great Lake's chop, well it certainly is something, it can get pretty nasty in a hurry and unexpectedly, and a low kayak can basically become invisible behind those choppy waves.

I checked the weather before going to bed on Sunday night, and I saw high northerly winds forecasted for the entire night and a little higher than what was previously forecasted for the entire coming day. Since we are on the north shore this isn't necessarily a bad thing, we could always stay close to shore, but you have to wonder what other weather might come along with the winds. This also tends to draw the cooler water closer to shore, and the salmon could follow it in. After many previously discouraging outings (although it's still great to be out in the yak, beats work of course) I was debating cancelling and just hitting up a local spot for the usual Kawarthas fare, ie. bass, walleye and musky, but decided I'd sleep on it and check back in the morning.

When I awoke at 5:00 AM I was pleased to find that the winds had remained light and more westerly than northerly. The temps had stayed up although the cool strong northerly winds would hit us likely before we were done. I eagerly loaded up the SUV, and headed out, making the ritual pit stop around the corner at the Tim Horton donuts for coffee and a breakfast sandwich before hitting the highway.

The entire drive I was reflecting on past outings and wondering what was to come; crowds, chaos, loads of fish or no action at all? The anticipation was driving me nuts and I had to do my best to not wander too far over the speed limit, all the time telling myself, "why get so excited, you're not going to catch anything anyways!", yes I'm the eternal pessimist.

As I pulled in there were cars everywhere, the people had come in droves to fish for the mighty Chinook. Interestingly enough, I knew we would likely be the only kayaks, which did in-fact turn out to be the case. My fishing partner, Adam, was already half rigged when I arrived. I'd never met Adam before so after a quick intro. I quickly got the kayak unloaded and rigged, and made what turned out to be a solid decision, and that was whether or not to wear my splash top, thankfully I decided I would, otherwise I'd been in just a t-shirt and PFD.

We hit the beach and I immediately headed for the calmest looking corner behind the break-wall....  sure it was nice and calm, but it was also filled with sloppy green weed, ...oh well, no time for messing around, let's just get on the water.  I was pleased at this point to discover that my first gen. Hobie Trax cart fit in the front hatch of my Outback, barely, very barely!

We were both new to this location, so without a plan we basically just headed for a stroll. We were greeted with westerly swells of 2-3 feet but otherwise calm water. There was obvious fish activity with fish surfacing and jumping every couple of minutes. In the shallow water we weren't marking anything, despite this we through out our baits and we probably trolled a good 1+ kilometers including passing across the section in front of the river mouth before deciding it was time to start heading out to deeper waters.

We started marking sizeable schools of fish at about the 30 feet of water (FOW) and were still seeing some surface activity. At this point I switched up to some deep running crankbaits. I started out just fishing one line with a bait that was capable of running as deep as 30 feet (in the open water of Lake Ontario, you are allowed two lines per person when fishing from a boat). We continued out to around 45 FOW before arcing around and heading back in on a path inline with the river mouth.

I didn't have time to fully rig my kayak. The stock rod holders on the Hobies are not sufficient for trolling as is. An aftermarket rod holder put the rod more near parallel to the water. With the tip close to the water this helps get the bait down and it's easier to keep an eye on it. I was kind of happy being able to pedal along with my rod in hand, which is primarily what I did.

As we hit around 35 FOW I felt a sharp tug. My mind was racing trying to process what had just happened, I was in disbelief, could I have already hooked up, is this really happening, I felt like we'd just got here, how could this be?  ...is it still there? That's when it hit me and I yelled out 'fish-on'.

It was a decent fish, I had not felt a pull like this from a kayak in a while, only once before and I lost that fish before I even saw it (j-bay 2008). I had nearly half my 150 yards out while trolling in an attempt to get my deep diver as deep as possible, and this fish immediately started peeling more line out. I quickly got on the pedals and chased the fish down, however it was keeping it's distance and staying deep. After what seemed like a minute or two I noticed the fish starting to come closer to surface, that's when I realized that this fish was much further away than I thought and I hadn't gained anything. I continued with the pursuit, this time I got a little ahead of myelf, suddenly I find myself with slack line on a head-on collision with the fish as it turned and started swimming back at me, it passed just under the boat and nearly tangled in my fins.

She continued to fight hard and did a couple more small runs before I was able to get her in the boat. It was a great fight, I was giddy like an eight year old the entire time, and I'm sure I made lot's of sounds accordingly. My rod arm was burning, it felt great, I had almost a deep sense of relief, it was great to finally boat another Chinook, and a fighter at that. She was not a pretty fish except in a beastly kind of way. This fish was ready to spawn, a full three year old adult, she was very dark and she had eggs in her belly. I grabbed some quick measurements, and released her. To my surprise she revived in under 30 seconds and swam off steadily. With any luck she'll spawn soon, and bring many more mighty Chinook to the lake.

This fish was my new personal best from the kayak at 38.5" and over 20 lbs.

The battle, landing and measuring the fish, combined with the growing norrherly winds had pushed us out to over 50 FOW. We got set up for another run back in towards the river mouth and started the troll, as we approached 30 FOW I heard some commotion and turned to see Adam in a state of panic grabbing for his rod as it doubled over, meanwhile trying to get his second line in. Adam had hooked up! First time on Lake Ontario salmon fishing and he was on the fish!

 This was turning out to be an awesome outing. His fish immediately came to the surface and spazzed right out thrashing around. It was a smaller silver beauty. For such a pristine fish the fight didn't last long, but I'm sure it was long enough to give Adam a taste as I could tell by the words coming from his mouth from that point forward that he was hooked. The reason the fight didn't last was during the process of the fish having a fit, it had managed to wrap it's mouth and gills shut with line. After a good ten minutes we weren't able to revive the fish, so this fish was going home, and I'm sure it would make a fine meal.

What a beaut, 29 inches and 11.5 pounds.

We headed in for nature break and a little rest. On the way back in I did manage another solid hit, except no hook-up this time. After a short break of 15 minutes or so we decided to head back out and try for another. It was at this point that we realized the wind had really picked up from the north. Most of the crowds had left the piers and only the die-hards remained. As we headed out for deeper water, we initially thought that it had calmed down. On the way out we could sense that the chop was getting bigger, but with the wind behind us the outbound troll was almost effortless, it wasn't in-fact until we turned back in that we realized we had to contend with 1.5 foot chop. The Outbacks handled this chop with ease, they did not get tossed or upset at all, and at trolling speeds the hull generated little splash. I didn't feel remotely concerned about tipping or any other dire consequences, it was hardly any different than calm water, just a little more effort required to make headway and a little splash. In my old Quest I'm sure I would have had to have been on my toes, watching carefully and working the waves in an effort to keep the boat steady. Adam was not phased at all and went ahead and accessed his front hatch in order to pull out his splash jacket. (no he isn't taking a dump through the Mirage hole :) ).

Once we got back into shallower waters this is where we stayed for a couple of shorter laps before calling it a day.

What a great outing, it's amazing how much fishing fun can be had just landing one of these fantastic fish, heck if I could get one on each salmon outing I'd be one extremely happy camper. We had a great time out there, what a success, I'm sure we'll be out again in the not too distant future, and maybe after seeing these pictures some of our other fishing colleagues will come out in the big lake and try for a King.

YakDreams

How-to Install Hobie Sidekick AMA Outriggers Without the Well Nuts

Like many others, I wanted to add some stability to my kayak. Sure the Outback is a very stable and very buoyant kayak but the hull design isn't the best for standing in, ..it's not that you can't do it, you can, and I do, but it's a little shaky. I want super stable for the 'deck' that's coming. I also have a sail, and again the Outback will sail just fine without them, but I plan on hitting the Great Lakes, and it can get hairy out there fast, safety first as they say. They are also portable, they fit in the hull, so if I do decide to hit the big lake for salmon, I can bring them along, if things start to look iffy, pull 'em out and put 'em on.

Here's a shot of the kit. Not a whole lot to it, three bars, a couple inflatable outriggers, couple round mounts with bolts and .....ugh, WELLNUTS!!!  eeek (more on that in a bit), and a couple puncture repair kits.  Hopefully I won't be needing the latter anytime soon, these inflatable outriggers are made of some really tough looking stuff.  If you want the standard install instructions 'at high level' check out the Hobie video on YouTube where they stick a set on an Outback. If you want to rid yourself of those nasty well nuts, and get some nitty gritty detail, read-on. 

I'm not going to get into all the details of why I dislike well nuts however here's a few; 1) sooner or later the rubber is going to deteriorate and fail and out she comes... and chances are it won't be at a good time since it'll likely need a little help, ie. force on the mount due to prevailing conditions, 2) why the heck would I want to drill a giant hole for a small bolt!, 3) hot day = hot plastic and soft rubber, sounds like a recipe for an even bigger hole, especially avoid well nuts if you have a dark coloured hull that likes to get nice and hot on a sunny day (I never could figure out the draw of the dark green and camouflage coloured kayaks except for maybe hunting in the fall, you must feel like eggs frying in the summer).

If you want to follow along with your own install, you are going to need marine Goop, a cutting board or similar for plastic stock, and four stainless nuts and four stainless washers to fit 10-32 thread bolts ...and if you want to be really certain you aren't having to make a parts run half-way through the install (like me!) you may want to get four stainless bolts that are a quarter inch longer than the ones provided, these aren't absolutely necessary, but it's such a tight fit and awkward process those few extra threads will make your life mondo easier.

At one point you may be pleased to have some hard liquor around too ...oh, and Advil, but in the end it will all be worth it, we need to rid well nuts from the world of kayaking, and give ourselves some added piece of mind.

Let's get to it. 

Roughly position the bar where you think you'll want it, I say as far forward but behind the seat as possible on an Outback, Revolution or Adventure. Push on the seatback as much as possible while holding the bar to make sure their is no contact with the seat. Position the curved top piece of the mount on the bar and mark the holes.

Temporarily stick in place with tape or putty then have a seat, guaranteed you'll probably need to move it back another inch like I did.

When you are finally ready to drill, make sure you put the whole thing in place before drilling, the cross bar with upper and lower mounts. This is critical, if necessary get a helper. Why?  ..well the rails aren't perfectly parallel, meaning they aren't straight, and aren't perpendicular to the bar. If you hold the mounting bracket so that it fits down the center of the rail it will be crooked when the bar is inserted, the mount needs to be on a slight angle. It may not look like it's out much but believe me it is very noticeable when you put the bar in place.

After feeling inside the hull at roughly the point where I want to put the crossbar mounts I discover my first challenge, the point where the nuts and washers will need to go is concave, almost perfectly half-round. I needed to come up with some sort of backing.

What I did was cut four thin pieces of cutting board about two to three times the length of the cross bar mount, and the same width as the inside of the rail, a little smaller is OK (~3/4 of an inch). I'm going to use two for each side.

I took two of these pieces and rounded them length wise, I then glued a rounded piece together with a flat piece using marine Goop.

At this point I flipped the kayak and opened up the centre hatch.

I took each of my home made plastic backing pieces and smothered the curved side with marine Goop (sorry this pic is a little out of focus ...ok, maybe a lot). I then reached in from underneath and placed them approximately centered over the drilled holes. This is why you need the extra length when making the backing plates; it's hard to be accurate, especially when you are stretched to your limit. At just over 5' 10" I was at my absolute limit of my reach with this mounting spot. Push them down in the rail so that they are nicely seated.

If you got it right you should see shiny Goop trying to drip out of the holes. I let the Goop covered backing plates set overnight.

Next day I flipped the kayak over and re-drilled through my original holes to continue the hole through the backing plates.

I then put a bead of Goop over the length of where the mount is going to sit, being sure to cover the holes, and put the bar, mounts and bolts all in place.  Then let it setup for a good 30 minutes. After it's nice and tacky it's time to flip it over again, and crawl underneath with your nuts and bolts. This is where you find out just how good of a fit you got with backing plates and Goop job. If it's not super precise you may find yourself taking a trip to the store like I did to get the longer bolts I mentioned at the top. If so you'll also need to repeat the previous step and wait for it to setup again. The reason you need it to setup up a bit is it's a long reach; you will have a hard time holding one side while tightening a nut on the other. That little bit of Goop is a big help.

If you are tall with stretch arms then don't worry about reading this next paragraph, otherwise read on.

If you've made it this far, make sure you have your liquor close by. This was so much fun for me I needed a few drinks to help get those nuts on, and then when I was done I needed some Advil to further reduce the pain from my battered arm pits and biceps.  It was worth it though, and so glad I didn't have to succumb to the evil lazy boy well nuts. You should have seen the bruises I had the next day in the arm pit/bicep area.

Finally, here it is mounted. (Notice the brass bolts, my only option at the last minute, they are 2").

Hopefully get around to my spin on making a sail furl soon.

Paddle vs. Pedal: Part 2, My Paddling Peeves.

An important fact that I should point out is the perspective from which this article is written. I am primarily a fisher person who dabbles in kayaking, as opposed to someone whom is primarily a kayaker who dabbles in fishing. Get it?

Here it is, what bugs me about paddling ...none of this bugs me enough that I don't have fun though, the positives far out weigh the negatives! I'd rather fish from my paddle kayak than a motorized boat any day of the week.

The shear amount of time I spend with a paddle in my hand when I'd rather be holding a rod. Their aren't many opportunities to just put the paddle away in the holder and just fish. Even with a light breeze a paddle boat with an efficient hull will drift fast, and drift fishing is usually the only time I actually get to put the paddle away. A drift sock or anchor scenario would allow this with the added complexity of the additional rigging, and more lines and _things_ to be aware of.

I can't effectively slow troll, although I have improved my hook-ups drastically due to changes in technique, I still miss more fish than I'd like to admit. I'd rather have the rod in my hand and feel every little tap as opposed to having the rod way out in front of me, beyond my paddle stroke. More often than not by the time I reach the rod after seeing a hit, the fish has came unhooked and is long gone.

It's hard work, especially into a head wind. I don't mean to sound like a wimp, I often fish spots which require a considerable paddle before I even get started fishing. Throw in a stiff wind, some current or tide action and this can require two, three or even four or more times the time and effort. In-fact throw in the effects of wind, tide and currents and I've probably done the equivalent to a number of 30 km plus outings. After a number of injuries over the years I find this a challenge and often find, upon arrival; I'm needing quite a bit of relax time before I get into any serious fishing ...and that's only if I can find shelter since I could be being driven back by wind or current. I realize if I wanted to take some paddle lessons I could minimize my wind profile with an offset paddle and better technique, but why when their are other options? My core gets pounded, even with months of pre-season core strengthening. My core starts to feel like lumpy jelly after four or five hours of hard paddling, and sometimes I get some really sore joints, particularly my elbows and also my wrists to a lesser degree.

I can't casually drink my coffee while paddling (or other things, ie. pick my nose, swat a fly, smoke a stogie or snap a picture). Well I guess I can however I hate putting that paddle down and loosing my momentum or even distance if the conditions aren't favourable, just for a sip. When I'm actively paddling and I'm enroute I just can't wait to get to my fishing spot.  Sure there are those stellar mornings where this isn't much of an issue, but I'm a big fan of fishing whenever I get the chance no matter what the conditions and I find those stellar weather outings are few and far between.

Stability, don't get me wrong, pretty much ALL fishing kayaks are stable, but the sleeker quicker models which are much more pleasant to paddle for my typical outings, certainly aren't as stable as others. It's not that I've ever tipped, I have come very close on a couple occasions, and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm really on my toes when things get hairy I'm sure I could have gone over many more times.  It doesn't hurt to watch for boat wakes either, had a monster wake get thrown at me from a coast guard ship that decided to gun the throttle out front of me (Pickering, Ontario). If I hadn't quickly and desperately got the kayak pointed head on into that wake I would have been over for sure. Something else I'm finding the need to do is stand on occasion, especially now that I more often fish smaller bodies of water than before. It's not that I can't stand in the Quest, I can, but it's not easy at all and I only recommend doing it when the water is a nice temperature and you have minimal gear.

It could be a drier experience. Quick and efficient paddle kayaks ride low  and aren't as stable or able to carry as much weight as others. I constantly have to be on my toes and work the side angle of the boat to minimize side soakers. I find even with waders on it's uncomfortable to get a soaker, yup, a cold clammy butt sucks. It doesn't bother me so much in the summer but during spring and fall it kind of bites.

Leashes, I use leashes, lots of them, I don't like having to constantly think about things going overboard. Even still I've lost a few items, a net and a few lures; thankfully I have not lost any nice tackle or electronics like a couple of friends have. Since I rarely take that paddle off my lap I have one more leash to contend with and this is the one that annoys me the most. I most often fish with a rod that is kept leashed in a holder on either side of me, I'm constantly getting these rods criss-crossed with the paddle leash. Now I think about it I probably should just dump the paddle leash altogether in favour of a small pack-able spare paddle to be kept in the hull, and possibly add some bright tape to my paddle shaft so I can easily find it floating if it goes overboard. I think this last idea will have considerable impact, I think I'll definitely give this a shot next time I go out in the Quest.

In a weird way, all of the above peeves contribute to the experience positively, they make it more challenging, the experience more consuming, and probably help take my mind off day-to-day stress, ie. work.  I find myself constantly thinking about ways to improve the experience. When I'm out in my Quest I am truly focused on 1) safety, and 2) catching fish, other than that I'm just taking it all in and having a great time.

YakDreams

Custom Scotty Flush Mount for Electronics on a Hobie Outback

Here is a spin I did for a Scotty mount, similar to how I did the RAM mount in my other article here.

After much reading it seemed that Scotty fluch mounts were a fairly popular choice, almost a standard approach to mounting rods in a much more useable way on an Outback. Despite this I really didn't want to cut big holes in my kayak, however after a couple weeks without my electronics or a rod holder I was able to build the courage.

I think one of the deciding factors was that my old 'dashboard' from my Quest seemed to fit the same spot pretty nicely. So I effectively killed two birds with one stone, while I figure out how I'm going to mount my electronics I'll use this rod holder to hold my old electronics setup from the Quest. The only time I tend to troll on this side of the boat is when I'm running more than one rod, and that doesn't happen very often so for now this will tie me over.

Here's the Quest 'dashboard' with the Hummingbird fish finder and GPS;

Here's the same dash on the Outback;

I didn't have to add any holes for the wiring either as I did a similar trick as to what I did with the RAM mount on the Sport. I simply followed the standard install procedure for a Scotty flush mount and then filed a small indent into the edge of the 1-3/8" hole for the wires. I made two backing plates out of Ikea cutting board. One goes inside the hull, one outside. The one on the outside had the channel cut for the wires as per the RAM setup.

You'll notice the angle the flush mount is on. This is necessary to make sure that the bolts are as far from the rudder lines that run inside the hull as possible.

In the future I could replace the dashboard with a simple Scotty Hummingbird mount for a really low profile fish finder mount, or put the electronics somewhere completely different and just use it as rod holder mount. The more I use this setup the more I like it and I'll likely keep it the way it is and figure out a way to mount the second rod holder towards the back of the boat. Another thing I've been debating is moving the fish finder a little to the right on the dash and putting a standard Scotty mount on the dash. It would be a little busy, but it would also be cool to take care of three things with a single flush mount in the hull, ie. less holes in the hull in the end.

My next rigging article will be about the fun I had mounting the outrigger mount.

YakDreams

Paddle vs. Pedal: Part 1, Why I love to paddle fish.

An important fact that I should point out is the perspective from which this article is written. I am primarily a fisher person who dabbles in kayaking, as opposed to someone whom is primarily a kayaker who dabbles in fishing. Get it?

Fishing from a kayak is fantastic no matter what the style you own. You are out on the water fishing and exploring spots you would never have access to otherwise. It is a peaceful, tranquil and relaxing experience with plenty of thrills should you hook into an energetic fish, and can often get you into fish you would have never had a crack at by any other means. Now aside from the general pluses, after nearly four years on the water I had to seriously break down the pros and cons when I was ready to take the next step into a new kayak. Their is constant banter within the kayak fishing community about the pros and cons of pedal vs paddle (also known as Hobie bashing lol, some make a career out of it, right Luna? :) ), this series of articles will give you my point of view.

You know I thought about this a lot, I had many many fun outings in my Hobie Quest (yes Hobie make some decent traditional sit-on-top kayaks that aren't pedal driven), and I don't want to get into everything that happened on those outings but at the end of the day and after lot's of thought, I was really only able to boil it down to a few aspects, primarily shallow water, to a much lesser degree manoeuvrability, and finally a clutter free deck …at least possibly a clutter free deck.

With a sleek and reasonably quick paddle craft I really didn't have to worry about where I paddled, or where I was drifting or where I was getting pulled in the heat of the moment. I say reasonably quick because even when we are talking paddle kayaks, fishing kayaks are wider and more stable, albeit slower than traditional kayaks, even the sleeker and faster ones.

I never had to worry about plowing through thick weeds or skimming boulders. More than a few times, a fish or a combination of having a fish on and dealing with getting it unhooked, maybe taking a picture, and then releasing the fish, I have found myself ran ashore, whether it be rocks or weeds, at least with a roto-moulded polyethylene kayak their really isn't anything at all to be worried about. In-fact from day one this was my entire case for paddling over pedaling, I simply didn't want to worry about stuff like that.

(photo courtesy of Vee)

I've explored extremely shallow back bays, too shallow to hold fish  .....so what's the point other than to see what's on the other side (why did the chicken cross the road?). Unless you are into photography or hunting or turtle collecting this isn't a huge plus, I've even pushed myself through bogs and got myself tossed around a little flying over shallow rocks.

Manoeuvrability boils down to a couple of things. The boat is a good eight pounds lighter than my pedal craft and better balanced, it's easier to load and unload. It also has a very smooth bottom which is great for making quick turns, well quick for a paddle craft anyways, this of course has it's drawbacks when we are talking about tracking. One neat side effect I discovered with this, when I hook into a fish that is behind me or to either side, if it's got some weight to it, the boat spins and points towards the fish relatively quickly all on it's own, that combined with the elasticity of the line and I find I'm on top of the fish in no time and most of the fighting happens close to the boat. This feature is great for tournament fishing particularly if you have a net, but not sure I like this for pleasure fishing.

One thing I should add, if you go with a manoeuvrable design over one that tracks well out of the box, you can always add a rudder to add tracking. The beauty with the rudder is you can always make slight corrections to the rudder angle to counter for trolled lures or wind, and keep an even paddle stroke.  I only use the rudder when going from spot to spot or trolling, the rest of the time I have an uber manoeuvrable platform. I'm not sure I could ever own another kayak without a rudder.

Finally I'll touch on the clutter free deck, which absolutely isn't always an accurate description. You need a place to brace your feet, ie. pedals (which can also be used for rudder controls) or you have one of those ribbed decks which limit your ability to stand comfortably and limit your rigging options. Chances are, if you got into this for fishing, you'll be adding some rod holders, a fish finder, and possibly other mounts for cameras, GPS phones etc. So guess what, good bye clutter free deck  ....however, I put a lot of thought into how I positioned all my stuff, so if I wanted to go out for a reasonably clutter free experience, I could leave all that stuff behind, and go out on a simple outing.  In reality I did this maybe once or twice, so it wasn't much of a factor when I started looking at new kayak options.

YakDreams

Check back for Part 2.

Making My Own Flies and Bucktails

After several years of having a tying kit on my Christmas and birthday list I finally got a kit for my birthday this June.

I tried a homemade concoction just for kicks to get my hands dirty when I first got the kit  ...well I'm pretty ashamed of how it turned out so no pics, however I will fish it just to say it wasn't a complete waste of time.

I'm still trying to get the hang of whip finishing. It's one of those things that I bet is much easier than it looks, I likely need to put the helper tool down and just use my fingers, but then again my eyesight sucks these days so it may not help.

After the first disaster I decided to warm up with some bucktails. I had some 1/8 oz jig heads kicking around so I got to work trying to mimic some successful patterns that I'd fished on my local lakes. I was pleased with how they looked however after fishing them it turns out I had too much bulk in the body and the action was all wrong, I have to trim these puppies down. I made one with synthetic fibres just to see how it compares.

I also made a couple clousers, one in a leach pattern similar to the bucktail colours that seem to work around here and another in a true baitfish pattern, again in popular local colours. I haven't had a chance to try these, I hopefully will soon.

Here they are before I trim them down;

Fishing the Kawarthas, Hot Weather, Not so Hot Fishing

The fishing was probably OK, however I was messing around trying some stuff while my poor wife just couldn't even get a bite.

It was over 30 degrees when we headed out, we immediately saw fish feeding top water so started out fishing some sheltered weedy bays with topwater lures.

My wife had a new rod, her fish finder installed and a new net, unfortunately she didn't get any results with all this new gear.

I started out with a small popper and only got a couple small boils before I decided to give my fly rod a try. If their is one thing I've learned aobut fly fishing from a yak, you want minimal gear and a clear deck to cast from. I didn't last long as I had all my regular rigging plus a couple spinning rods, a few tangles and minimal bites and I decided to give up and try another day without all my other junk. I switched to a texas rigged Senko and hooked into something decent right away on the first cast, almost as soon as the fight began it ended with a break off, it could have been a small muskie.

I then switched up to one of my home made jigs and started fishing a weed flat, after 10 minutes not even a tap, it likely didn't help that my jig had too much body for the size of the head and didn't have sufficient action. I worked it for another 20 minutes or so before switching to a large popper as I approached a weed flat that had delivered in the past. This is a big flat and I fished it for quite a while and didn't get any results. A few times I switched back to the jig, again with no results.

It was time to go but I wasn't ready to give up, I told my wife that I just wanted to try a bay on the way out with a wacky worm. A few casts later I was into a nice bass. I pulled in this nice 17" largemouth. It put up a great little fight and took some drag. It was fat too, had a nice pot belly.

After this fish I had a few more on over a short 20 minutes or so, but I'm not too efficient with the circle hook and just couldn't keep them on the end of the line. In-fact I think I found a colour and technique that may have made the night a very successful one if we'd tried it sooner, oh well, live and learn.

Next time!

YakDreams