A couple of weekends ago I got to head out to the Barron River Canyon near Petawawa with some 'old' work friends. This was my third year making the trip. We got there Friday afternoon and I was able to get out fishing for a couple of hours. Well, about one hour of fishing and one hour of paddling between the fishing holes and the campsite. I decided to try the senko-style baits. I haven't used them before but know they are popular. From what I understand they are an easy bait to fish with.
I fished around for a bit until I was able to find them. They were in about 15 FOW which is a little deeper than I am used to catching smallmouth. It was great - non-stop action. The fish were not big - the biggest was probably about a pound and a quarter. But they were biting as soon as I could get my bait down there, which is always a lot of fun. When I found them it was next to a bit of a rock wall, and it dropped off immediately. I was able to snug the canoe right up to shore and practically hold onto branches to keep my position. I was using the titleshot jig heads with tiki sticks. When I set out, I did a little research about fishing this type of bait and found that most people said jig it a couple of feet and slowly let it fall, wait for the strike on the way down. Well, I did that but they were agressive and seemed to bite it no matter what.
That evening, there was a campfire, a few beers, the guitar came out, some Johnny Cash, and generally a good time.
The next two days I was able to fish about an hour each day but no more luck - I pretty much kept with the same bait the whole time. It is a little difficult to find spots since the river seems to be either really deep for a KM or two, and then you'll enter a really shallow section. Anyway, they weren't biting or I was looking in the wrong spots with the wrong bait.
My best fishing of the trip came on Saturday night even though I didn't get a bite. I took an extra portage and was alone in a beautiful section of the river. All day it was windy, but then it got dead calm. I was fishing next to some rock walls below a rapids. Anyway, it was just me floating around in the canoe, really peaceful and beautiful. Kind of weird, but one of those evenings where catching fish didn't matter much at all. Anyway, that spot is in the last photo.
This is my last report of this season. I hope to have some ice fishing reports this winter; I'm heading up North at Christmas and I'm really looking forward to getting out and drilling a few holes. And of course, around here in Ottawa with some other Fish-hawkers.
