May 28 to June 2, 2016 – The Annual Pilgrimage to Ontario with Joe and Kenny – Rideau Lakes Region Ontario

Hardly roughing it (I even brought my French press),

Even though I haven’t posted in a while, rest assured that I have been fishing.  In fact, on the day I took off to pack for my five days in Canada, I nearly caught a skunk on the Bushkill Creek, one out of place stocked brookie on an unstocked stretch to save the morning.  It is too hot to trout fish, at least the way I like, walking and casting, walking and casting.  I was glad for the leisurely break last week to chase “green trout” and “bronze trout” in Ontario with the boys.  I have been icing an elbow for a couple weeks, the fly fisherman’s version of tennis elbow, no doubt, a repetitive motion injury.  It’s hard to get sympathy from anyone, including other fishermen, for some reason!  Poor thing, you fished too much and strained a tendon in your elbow…

Our point for the week.

We left about 5 AM on Saturday, me in the ‘Ru by myself because I was only staying 5 days, Joe and Kenny in my dad’s Jeep, trailering the bass boat.  They only ended up staying 6 days not 7, but the plan was for them to stay the entire week.  Honestly, even fishing two or three lakes, five days is enough for this guy.  I start seeing the same boulders and logs and shoals in my dreams.  

Saturday was a hot one, well into the 80s and humid with no wind.  We launched the boat in the late afternoon and juggled dock lines and trailer parking and unpacking, all the essentials out of the way so we could fish the evening bite.  The cabin was the cleanest and nicest (and cheapest) we had ever rented, so we will be back, no doubt.  We decided to enjoy the cottage life for a while and relax after a long drive.  Like a kid at a candy store, however, Kenny started casting right off the waterfront and dock of our cabin.  He tore them up and inspired all of us to take the rod socks off and try our hands.  We must have caught a dozen nice fish, three of them very nice.  I managed my first “green trout” of the week on the fly rod with a wooly bugger, and I lost a very good fish in the weeds too.  Kenny caught at least two picture worthy LMBs off the dock, and we hadn’t even started fishing for real.

One of Joey's nice largemouths.

That evening on the boat proved just as productive with Joe landing two big largemouths, and I caught a picture worthy smallie.  The square bill crankbait and the Senko did the trick.  Kenny continued to score on a variety of soft plastics and swimbaits.  Even though we ended up ruining the bass fishery from the dock for the rest of the week (we caught them, including a carp and some crappie, but not like the first day), we knew it was going to be a good time based on day one’s successes.  

Same night

Sunday was just as hot as Saturday.  The weather is usually so unpredictable that I end up packing for three seasons, but this year, even the rain gear stayed in the cabin.  Kenny ended up washing out shorts in the sink to wear again.  We caught nice bass in our home lake all morning.  Kenny was drop shotting Uncle Josh leeches, and they were amazing.  They stayed on the hook until you cut them off, unlike most soft plastics.  Smallmouth, especially, like to shake soft plastics off as soon as they can and, if not, make sure they toss them just before you lip and land them.  I went through 3 bags of senkos while Kenny used one pork leech.  I am thinking that these smaller, thinner pork strips will be fantastic for fluke fishing too.  Fluke eat the tails off Gulp shads and grubs like they are a delicacy, so I could see these as a good solution.  Surf guys have used pork on bucktails for years for striped bass.

Kenny with a good one.

We quit around 1 PM and took a trip into town for some things, enjoying the sights and sounds of Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart, Ontario style.  Honestly, Kingston has come a long way in terms of civilization.  When I started coming to this region around 18 years old, the folks were country, but now women are cute and cosmopolitan-looking, roads are good, WiFi is plentiful, food easily accessible—hardly roughing it.  My wife had the forethought to sign up for a Canada plan on our wireless, which ended up costing 2 dollars per day for unlimited voice, data, and text, so I was not even off the grid most of the time.  

No swimming for a content Joe.

Did I mention we were roughing it?

Ken and I ended the afternoon by taking a dive off the rocks in front of the cabin, and filming it for our sons at home.  Joe was entertained but wisely stayed on land.  The water was in the 70s, which it rarely reaches this early in the year.  A plunge in the water to end a day on the water = quite refreshing.

Nice smallie.

Monday was the toughest day by far.  We caught fish, but we had to work for them in a high south wind and oppressive heat.  We quit by noon and took nice long naps.  Afterwards, we put the boat on the trailer so we could fish the “Big Water,” as we call it, of a nearby lake, one we have fished for 30+ years.  When the timing is right, the main basin of this lake makes my week with 50+ smallmouth days.  When I think of going to Canada, it is the good days on the Big Water that keep me coming back.  

We also enjoyed the amenities at the cottage, building a fire in the fire pit and having a cocktail on the front porch after enjoying a meal at the local watering hole, The Creek, in Battersea, ON.  While I envied Kenny's poutine, which reminded me of the late night cheese fries and gravy from good old Beseckers in the 'Burg, I was happy with my Greek salad and fish tacos and an ice cold Sleeman's Railside Ale.  I bought no beer at the border, opting instead for a small bottle of whiskey, but I was craving a beer a couple times during the hot week, so I actually had two pints.

After seeing huge carp cruising our point for a couple days, I decided to buy a can of sweet corn when we went to put gas in the Jeep earlier in the day.  Kenny and I both remembered to chum the deep hole in front of the cabin a couple times that day, and when we came back from our evening on the town, we could see some big fish swimming around and tailing on our corn.  As a result, we ended the evening tangling with a carp, just for the hell of it.  

Why not a carp too?

Even though I have caught them while fishing for other species, I have never targeted carp, so this was a first, even if it wasn't as big as some of the other fish cruising our point (no doubt smarter, as we had many big fish refuse the baited hook).  I missed another opportunity later in the week, having thrown the rest of the chum in the water and not having any to re-bait with after missing the hookset on another, larger fish.  Rookie mistake….

Tuesday was my day on the Big Water.  After driving to the ramp and launching the boat, we started fishing the first large shoal that appears as you enter the main basin of the lake.  Some years this place is lights out, but even though we landed a couple fish here, it was not great, and the NW wind was tough for Joey to contend with.  When we moved to the south shore, we caught a few larger smallmouths, but the wind kept blowing, making anything but a spinnerbait or a crankbait next to impossible to fish correctly.  

Tuesday was a windy day on the "Big Water."

We moved to the north shore of the lake, and we found a lot of smaller fish willing to take a shallow running crank.  I had them dialed in this day and probably caught the vast majority of the fish.  Since I come each year for the days on the Big Water, I think my pop was okay with that. We quit before 2 PM and did the boat and trailer shuffle again, this time losing a piece of door trim on the Jeep.  After launching the boat, I thought I’d be a hero and back the trailer back into the drive while Joe brought the boat back around to the dock.  Tired, both Ken and I forget about a couple manmade obstacles on the neighbor’s property and I grazed one with the door while maneuvering the trailer in reverse.  Joe handled it well; I haven’t gotten the bill yet…  We ended the evening taking another swim off the dock.  After a Jack Daniel’s on ice, I hit the pillow and didn’t wake until 6 AM the next morning.

A little fattie

Joe with a shallow running crankbait bass on the Big Water.

Kenny down with brown.

My last day of fishing was Wednesday (at least for bass, as I had packed my fly stuff in case I needed a break while driving home J).  Back on our home lake, it was a cold, windy morning, and fishing was slow until we got out of the wind in a large, productive cove.  Drop shot with the leeches and weedless jigs with thin, more finesse plastics did the trick in about 10-12 feet of water, the second drop off the bank in most cases.  

Wednesday was another day where we took it easy and went back to the cottage for afternoon naps.  After dinner, the wind died down, and that evening Kenny caught his biggest smallie of the week on a shallow crank; it was between 18 and 19 inches and fat, close to four pounds, I would bet.  I had a good largemouth bite for my last night of the trip on a jig and skinny Kut Tail worm from Yamamoto.  I was tossing the nearly weedless rig right up in the snot and waiting for that one "tick" as a bass picks up the bait.  A couple buried themselves in the weeds, which made my fly fisherman's elbow feel awesome, I'll tell you.  After missing a good bite from a carp, and getting attacked by mosquitoes trying to get another fish to bite, I went inside and started packing for the ride home on Thursday morning.

Kenny with a piggie in green.

And one in brown....

He's still got it, folks.

It was raining on the morning I left, so the boys were in no rush to leave, either.  I made great time into Pennsylvania, so I decided to try the Lackawanna River near Archbald, just to kill some time.  It was hot enough to wet wade, and the fish were not very active, but I did catch one small wild brown and I lost a heartbreaker of a brown near the end of my layover.  Even on my 5 weight rod, it was more than I could handle after 6 hours in the car and an hour of walking in the humidity and hot sun.  

A short pit stop on the Lackawanna River yielded one and half....

I got the line caught around the reel handle as I was letting the fish run out the slack line so that I could get him on the reel, and he broke the tippet on the dropper while I struggled to free the line.  He had taken a size 18 pheasant tail soft hackle on 6X tippet.  A bit disgusted (with no reason to be since I was fishing on a travel day!!) I made the last leg of my journey home in time to put the boy to bed.  

The boys left later the same day after some issues with the outboard, so I didn’t miss anything.  Despite a couple minor mishaps and skirmishes, it was a great, memorable trip.  Since Friday, I have been icing the elbow and relaxing with the family, but I see a fishing day in the near future, especially with the cooler temps in the forecast.  A little rain would help too.

Until next year....