dano

We did our annual Canada trip during the last week of June. Back to our routine location on the Ottawa River in Ontario. Same crew as usual. It was great to be back "home" after taking a different trip last year (the unsuccessful trophy musky hunt). Long story short, the fishing was great, but not as "world class" as it often is for us up there. Our biggest enemy was wind, plus low river conditions. While we had a couple days of calm weather, it mostly blew all week, 4 days of sustained 20 mph, and also made for a choppy river. The Ottawa River is a massive river. Regardless, we fished through it, and tried to get out of the wind as much as possible, although there was really no escaping it completely. We made some lake trips too, which got us out of the wind a little bit. We did a canoe trip on a lake in Algonquin Park, and while the wind was forecast to die down that day, it didnt. We did alot of paddling and a little bit of fishing that day! It was interesting, still caught some nice bass though. I'd say Blaise was high hook for the week. He boated two 26" walleyes on xraps, plus some other quality eyes. And he caught his first musky. We had a great year on quality walleyes, and we caught them all they way we like to catch them... on plugs in shallow water. Civ caught a nice sturgeon of 40" give or take. Ryan showed some much improved skill working plugs in shallow water. a few evenings, he outfished everyone else 5:1 on bass, walleyes and pike. it was awesome, he was in his groove! although we didnt catch the rediculous numbers of massive smallmouth that we've been spoiled with in the past, we did our share of damage on quality smallies in the 4+ pound class. several evening melt-in-your-mouth walleye FEASTS at the campfire overlooking the river. overall, another great time. safe travel, and the mako ran great! cant ask for too much more than that! here's a few shots to give you a taste of the action.

Blaise with a 26 incher on a plug


Blaise with another 26" walleye caught on a plug


Blaise with his first musky


Ryan with a lake walleye caught on a spinner bait (he missed the fish the cast before, and went back and got it on the next cast!)


Ryan with a typical pike on a plug


Ryan with a typical Algonquin canoe trip bass during lunch break (he was crushing them during lunch!)

my dad and i took the boat down to wildwood yesterday morning. obviously, we werent going to go home without doing any fishing. we decided to do some preseason (C&R) fluke scouting. didnt know what to expect with the cold snap. water temp was 49.8 when we started out, not your typical fluking temps. we tried anyway, with bucktails and berkely. bumped around a few times and then found an active group of fish. we caught a dozen or so up to 24". when we went in for lunch, water temp was 54.5 back at the dock. the incoming tide brought in the warmer ocean water. hopefully it will be a good fluke season. opening day tournament next saturday!

The yellow perch bite is picking up on the Upper Chesapeake Bay / Lower Susky River. Fished em this past weekend and had a few hundred perch on the Mako between Saturday and Sunday. The large yumbo's are not there in force yet, but any day now... The action on the male fish has picked up with a few large females in the mix. We need some colder water temps. I was marking 38 to 39 degrees this weekend. A couple more degrees drop, and it'll be drop and reel double header yumbos all day long.

Upper Bay perchin is a great winter escape for both the shore angler and the boat angler. Just gotta brave the cold sometimes... Check it out!