Well I got back from my trip up to the cottage in the Parry Sound area late last night and let’s just say the fishing trip was a successful one. My good friend Joe left for the cottage early Friday morning and was there by noon patiently waiting the arrival of my cousin George and myself. George and I got on the road at 12:30 and we were hoping to make it to the cottage by 3pm, but that didn’t happen because the driving conditions were just horrible and we could only travel at 70km.
After what seemed like forever we finally arrived at 5pm, got the gear unloaded, said hello to Joe and made it out fishing by 6pm. Since our arrival was so late our plan was to just hit one spot close to the cottage and fish till about 8:30pm and get back to the cottage to await the arrival of our other guests Justin and Kory. Unfortunately, our other friend Paul could not make the trip.
We set up in 33 feet of water just off the channel leading into a back bay. We targeted crappies and walleye since it was now dark outside and these fish are known to be night feeders. The evening was cold and brisk but the weather had started to get better as the snow squalls had let up and the wind died right off. After about 15 minutes I mark the first fish on my eviler and it quickly approaches my bait. I feel the hit and I set the hook. FISH ON! But not long after it gets off. Ok well at least the fish are here. We start to mark more and finally we landed a couple and they turn out to be big ciscoes. We decided that we’d had enough and headed back to the cottage for some cold ones.
DAY 1 SATURDAY MORNING
Well the morning rolls around and our game plan was to hit this back lake for some crappie and big northern pike. Well what a great decision this was. We did very well on the crappie and caught a very large pike and lost three more hogs on line breaks. We worked this point that had a nice drop off from 8 feet to 30 feet and made Swiss cheese out of the ice as we drilled numerous holes. We found that most of the crappie came from 22 feet and 30 feet. The key to getting crappie is to drill lots of holes as they move around a lot. They don’t move very far but they do move. You could be fishing 10 feet from your buddy and he is slamming them and you are not. This is why it is so important to drill lots of holes. We had arrived on this lake and were fishing by 9am and by 10:30 we already had ten nice slabs on the ice. Right around 11:30, my cousin hooks in the biggest pike he has ever caught thru the ice. A beautiful 40inch beast that weighed in at 20lbs, and is a fish that I consider to be a true trophy caught through the ice. After some quick photos and measurements it was released to swim again. Check out the video here!
The pike were hanging off the break as they were not in their typical locations of 5 to 10 feet of water, but out in the deeper part, between 25 to 30 feet. I had just written an article on catching pike through the ice and had mentioned how huge pike can be caught deep through the ice, so be sure to check it out here if you have not read it already. I would like to congratulate my cousin George (cold front potter) on a spectacular catch on 6lbs test. He was fishing for crappie at this time. I would also like to give a huge thanks to Mark and Cheryl for their exceptional hospitality and allowing us to use their property to access this lake as it is private and remote. Our day would not have been the success it was without you guys. Fortunately I have great connections. Thanks Kory Kim, I owe you one buddy.
DAY 2
Got on my cottage lake around 8:30am and set up off a big mid lake shoal in the 20 foot to 40 foot range and we wanted to target some big walleye. The weather today was not the best and it was much colder and the wind was stronger. We set up the huts and fished this area hard for about two hours with only a cisco too show for it. The sonar’s were drawing blanks. We decided to try this point that my buddy Joe and I slam huge walleye on in the fall. This point has two small camel humps that come up from 40 feet of water to 15 feet, and down into 35 feet and back up to 10 feet, and slopes off to a whopping 110 feet off the east side of it. We decided that this would be our final move as we planned to leave the lake by 1pm. Same story on this point as the sonar’s were marking nothing and since the walleye were not going to cooperate with us today we decided that we would punch some holes in the deeper water and target whitefish. Guess it was just one of those days. We marked lots but could not get any hits. With fifteen minutes to go my cousin decided that he would go try the point again. Well lucky for him as he ends up catching himself a nice three pound walleye for the frying pan. That was it for our day. We packed up and went back to the cottage to chill and have something to eat before heading back to the big city. Thanks to Joe, George, Justin, and Kory Kim for a good time. Until the next time, tight lines.
Fishfnatic
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