I haven't spent nearly as much time in my little tinny as I was hoping to this year, so when the weather looked good, I just had to spend a day out in my boat!!
And I can't stand being out there on the weekend with all that traffic *LOL*
Anyway, I decided to fish some parts of the Rideau I don't normally fish, and boy am I ever glad I did!
Sorry folks, no pics as I was all alone and haven't mastered the self-portrait yet *LOL*
Anyway, I found a nice little area that was seemed to be chock-full of panfish. I figured that there must be some nice predators in the area, so I scanned around with my sonar (backtrolling mostly) to get an idea of the structure of the area. I found a lovely little spot that went from 20 ft up to 8ft quite quickly and showed a lot of fish stacked up in a little hump.
They seemed too big for pannies, so I drifted back from that area and tossed in a jig and grub (chartreuse jig with a little tiny willow leaf head and a chartreuse, green and red curly tail grub) and within a couple of seconds of getting in to the strike zone, well... Strike!!
It's a walleye!! Now, I love trying to catch walleye, only because I so rarely ever do! So I was very excited because I figured if this was an eye, then a bunch of those other fish stacked up were probably eyes too!!
Well, 8 casts later I've caught 5 MORE walleye out of the same hole!! WICKED AWESOME FANTASTIC... but I'm kicking myself for not bringing a cooler or anything to bring any home!!
They were all relatively small, but big enough that they would have been great for the pan *sighs* Oh well...
So after that wonderful start I figured I'd try doing some bottom-bouncing with a worm-harness, as this is a technique I've never really had a good opportunity to try. Glad I did!! Caught an absolutely lovely smallmouth around the 1 1/2 lb size. Put up a great fight and did some lovely topwater acrobatics for me too!! Even with a 2oz bottom bouncer attached!!
So from then on in I decided to work the shoreline for some bass. For some reason or another I just can't get much in the way of largemouth this year from the Rideau. So I brought out the tube, and tried working some typical largie areas, but to no avail...
I did manage a very long, but skinny 2lb smallie. I was convinced it was a 4lb'er the way she fought!!
Pitching tubes under trees and around stumps on the shoreline also brought in a few more smallies... then....
WHAMMO!!! I see this big shadow come flying out of the weeds as I'm popping my tube along some sandy bottom. It hits HARD and I don't even NEED to set the hook!!
Grab the net as it's a bigger beastie, and YES!!!!! FINALLY a largie!!!!
3lb 10oz to boot!! A great fish for the only largie of the day!!!
Well time was beginning to dwindle, so I thought I'd spend my last hour or so trolling my secret weapon. OK I have no idea what the lure is, it's a deep diving minnow bait that my wife thought was pretty. And it's quickly become my fav trolling lure as it's caught muskie, pike, smallmouth and walleye!!!!
Anyway, during the hour of my troll I manage another nice smallie to make a total of 8 bass for the day....
and... I just can't believe this... 3 MORE WALLEYE!!!!
A total of 9 walleye in one day on the RIDEAU... unbeleivable for me!!!
Anyway, long story and I hope I haven't bored ya too much, but what an absolutely fantastic day for me out there.
Just wish I'd had a buddy to share it with!!
This weekend, heading to the Quebec side to get my fill of Largies!! *hehehe*
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