Boat

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Bass Opener 2013 – Collins Lake

After a half year wait, bass season is back!  This year bass season has opened a week early in our zone.  This has come as a blessing to many anglers in the area who have felt for years that the season opened unnecessarily late.  Coupled with some recent cold nights and warm days, things were looking good!

With boat pre-rigged, a new 65 lb thrust minn kota on the bow of my Legend, and the rods rigged, my buddy Dave and I hit the road at 5 am.  45 minutes later we were on the water with rods in hand.  The morning turned out to be tough fishing with only one largemouth (approx. 2lbs) in the boat.  Temperatures were fairly chilly and a sweater was required.

As the morning pressed we changed up techniques and areas, targeting flat expanses with sparse weed formations.  Fishing picked up almost immediately as we made the changes with several largemouth and pike caught.  Dave even managed one decent sized smallmouth which is pretty rare for Collins.

 

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Great shot of a local loon family….

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To my surprise, one of the fish I pulled out decided to relieve it’s self all over my jeans.  This was definitely a first for me!

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All-in- all we had a fairly decent day with multiple 3lb bucket mouths and some decent sized pike.

Ultimately, our success was directly related to trying techniques and fishing areas that differed from the other boat on the water.  More than a few times, we have found this was the key to a successful fishing day.

I hope everyone enjoyed their opening day!

Cheers from the wild

Al

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Bay of Quinte Walleye Derby – Night Fishing at its finest

I have been getting excited for this derby for weeks now and finally the day is upon us.  Lights and batteries are charged, the worms are purchased and the rods are tooled and ready to go.

This will be my very first time night fishing.

11:00 – We launched from the mouth of the Trent River.  Docking was mostly easy except for dodging the odd pack of drunken teenagers and party goers.  Apparently the Kiwanis Walleye derby is quite the social gathering.

After launching we crawled out through the dark to our spot and waited for 12:01.  Waiting half an hour before opening day was torture, but the excitement and promise of a good day fishing.

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12:01 – Lines were dropped and we began trolling.  20 minutes in and I get a fairly strong hit.  Was this the tourney winner already? Sadly no, just a stinky drum, albeit a big stinky drum.

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The next four hours were filled with more big drum, including one that we suspected to be at least 15 lbs.

So with the rise of the sun we left our spot for deeper waters and hopefully some viable fish.

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After motoring to a spot we knew to have deep water I was saddened to see it full with other boats all jigging.  We dropped out lines anyways and trolled through.  Sure enough, after passing the first boat we hooked into a decent 4 lb walleye. Finally the first good fish of the day!  We caught more than a few glances from the resident boats as we proceeded to catch 1o more walleye in the same stretch of water.

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8:00 fatigue was setting in and the walleye bite was over.  We packed up and headed back to the launch satisfied with our catch.  We didn’t get the winner but had enough action to keep us busy and happy.  There is always next year!

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