RJ, Big-O, MuskieMagnet, Eye-Tracker and I headed out on Thursday afternoon and got into Markus’s place around 11:00. Warm welcome from Pink Lady and after some catching up we were off to bed for our 2:30 wake up call (gulp). Big-O’s threats of an unpleasant wake up call were heeded any everyone was up and good to go for 3:00. Usual stop for coffee and we were onto the 1.5 hour drive to Jordan on Lake Ontario.
DAY 1
We arrived to amazing weather, the winds were down and the water was like glass. We got launched and were fishing by 5:30. Markus and RJ gave me a lesson on using the large planer boards – very nice setup. About an hour in – Fish On!! Being the rookie, the guys had put me in position 1 – first hit was to be mine. I was in a bad position to get to the rod so RJ slammed home the hook and handed it off. I had a short fight and Markus netted this 17.9 LB Chinook for me.
After a few pictures, we got set back up and were good to go again. As it turned out, RJ handing off that rod turned out to be much nicer than originally thought as it was the only salmon our boat saw that morning. By 10:30 the waves were nearing 4 feet and starting to cap – not impossible conditions but Markus had a plan B – Drifting on the Niagara.
Eye-Tracker, Big-O and Muskiemagnet agreed and started pulling in – Muskiemagnet was bringing in a rod when it got slammed – We watched as he brought in a gorgeous 5-6 lb Chinook.
We headed in and made the way to the Niagara.
RJ caught a few minutes sleep at every opportunity – it was that kind of weekend
We were on our first drift a few hours later.
We mixed it up, one guy used Roe, one used a streamer and for our Fish-Hawk buddy Floatfishin – one guy used a pink worm. We had a few misses and about an hour later, my luck continued with a loud “Fish On!â€. We were using a 3-way swivel / weight and fluorocarbon lead setup for the drift and given the crystal clear water I put on a good 10 feet lead – on a 7 foot rod. The problem with this was not apparent until a few minutes later when I had the fish to the boat and I had to hang off the back of the boat to get the fish close…oops. Got really lucky and another fine net job had a 5-6 lb bow in the boat.
Note what is in the trout’s mouth… yup – a pinkie.
That was out last fish of the day and we headed back to Markus’s later that afternoon.
Later that evening RRC and MT Livewell got in and soon headed for some sleep.
DAY 2
After another nap (2-3 hours sleep can only be described this way!) we headed back out to Jordan It did not look good from Markus’s place, winds were fierce from the East but we had to see….
The waves were already capping and rolling onto one another – it was not meant to be. The few boats who tried to go out soon returned.
A big gang showed up to say hello. Legend, MoonDog, Hoss, FishforFun, Crash, Skooter, Hoover, Squig69, Jammer13, SteveHamilton (hope I got everyone).
Plan B was put into place again – back to the drift. A few headed back to get some tackle and the rest headed for Coffee. While the gang was having coffee, someone helped themselves to Steve-Hamilton’s tackle box.
We were on the drift again a few hours later. It was slow; everyone we talked to had one or none. One fish did come in, from Squig69 – another 5-6 lb’er.
Markus, RJ, Jammer and I started to pack up to find some cats somewhere. We were on our way back when Jammer thought we should try the Nanticoke outflow for some Silver Bass… we did just that.
We found a few SM & LM which got their picture taken and released.
Then came Jammer’s battle. He set the hook on what we thought was a nice channel cat until it would not move. He fought this fish for a good 20-25 minutes - line peeling out – Markus chasing it down with the boat as it headed back to the lake. A few minutes in, Markus and RJ called it – a big Carp. They turned out to be right though at times we all hoped it might have been a big ol’ brown.
Jammer was rewarded with this 31 lb carp. She was a monster.
Well fought – Well done.
The fog was getting thick so we headed back to Markus’s for a night of laughs and poker.
We had breakfast the next morning, shook hands and wished each other well until the next great Fish-Hawk adventure – See you guys at WestMeath!
