Fishing the Island

[David Kearney]

I was fishing the Island with Tangled line on Tuesday night, we started at 4:45 pm from wards Island and put our rods in just before snake island...We forgot the worms so we started throwing small spoons and spinners...nothing...so i went with my 4 inch rappala blu and orange, suspending...the weeds were about 3 feet below surface, so i dragged the rap threw the tops of the weeds, and wack, my first pike in months...

View attachment 6603

he was only small I know but still got me excited.

We moved on to the bridge at snake island and started looking for the bass, and wasnt long before we found 1, not bad size 3.5 to 4 lbs...we worked that bass for about 45 mins...in the poring rain and everything, finnally he bit. I fought him for about 1.5 minutes...got a tail dance out of him. But he spit it out. We worked our way east, we were at the next bridge east when I started throwing the rap again...dragging it across the weeds, and a 2 and a half foot pike came up and rolled on my lure...spit it out....crap!!! tried for a few more minutes and moved on.

Tangled line didn`t get skunked either, he caught this tiny little guy...

View attachment 6604

he also caught alittle bass, not pictured. It gets dark on the Island really quick...by 8 it was black, we headed home. We will be back

 

[YAWN]

That last one looks more like a baby musky than a pike.
nice trip!

 

[chibi]

the pike at the islands are so selective now... they may follow but not take a bite
you see them, but they're not interested
nice to see some catches still being made there though, even if small

 

[halleb]

I made to TO Islands on September 10. This was my first and only time going to TO Island this year. Came about 2:30 PM and stayed till night time. All in all I got 5 small LM bass, not worth getting excited about it.

But I also got this one, see pic below, this one was worth getting excited. I got it at the boat rental place, it was 48 cm long and weighted about 1.6 Kg

 

[frozenfire]

whoa, nice fish halleb!
what did you use to catch him on?
i always see big bass like that swimming around, but always fail to even get them to look at my lures haha.
did you keep it for the table?

 

[halleb]

whoa, nice fish halleb!
what did you use to catch him on?
i always see big bass like that swimming around, but always fail to even get them to look at my lures haha.
did you keep it for the table?

Thanks frozenfire. You know what, it was surprisingly easy to catch it, so easy that I could not believe it. I was walking by the shore, when I spotted this bass literally few meters away, hiding under the wooden dock at the boat rental place (which is closed now). I just quickly put a half of worm on the hook and gently put it in front of the bass. At first it missed my worm but then I just raised it up and shook it a bit, and that was it, bass went after it. Surprisingly, did not put up too much of the fight.

 

[halleb]

whoa, nice fish halleb!
......
i always see big bass like that swimming around, but always fail to even get them to look at my lures haha.
.......

You know what, after getting a bit more experience in handling bass fishing, I grew in confidence a lot. To me, if I see bass in the water, or know for sure that there is bass in there, I feel very confident I will catch some, sooner or later, it is just matter of time.

What usually works for me - If everything else fails, the live worm will do the trick.

I remember last year, I spotted bass from the bridge (at the Harbour Tours kiosk) , I was chasing it for half an hour, offering all kind of lures, putting worm 10 cm in front of bass mouth, but nothing happened, bass was ignoring everything, looking so disinterested . But eventually, as i was getting ready to give up, it made mistake and took my worm co casually that I almost missed it - because my float did not even go down. But water was so clear, day was sunny and I could see from far above that worm is gone, so I thought : "this musty be it, it took it" , set the hook and got it finally....

 

[David Kearney]

The bass at the Island are finicky...we see them and chase them all day some times they bite, and sometimes they don`t...but worm floating on a hook usually works well for the big bass...more luck with that than on a rubber worm or anyother kinda fake...but still lotsa fun.

 

[ec1]

nice stuff for the both of you!

 

[MikeyMikey]

Maybe I should visit the Island for some fall fishing?

Where would the pikes be camping during this time of the year? or are they out of the island?

 

[David Kearney]

Maybe I should visit the Island for some fall fishing?

Where would the pikes be camping during this time of the year? or are they out of the island?

was at the Island yesterday...we saw 8 or 9 pike sunning themselves near the church, just under the sky trolly. nice size too...but nothing biteing. I had a nice bass on but he rubbed up against a log and ripped the line...crap! But the pike are all over the Island!

 

[halleb]

Maybe I should visit the Island for some fall fishing?

Where would the pikes be camping during this time of the year? or are they out of the island?

was at the Island yesterday...we saw 8 or 9 pike sunning themselves near the church, just under the sky trolly. nice size too...but nothing biteing. I had a nice bass on but he rubbed up against a log and ripped the line...crap! But the pike are all over the Island!

Good to know, thanks for letting us know. I will see if I can find some time to make another trip to TO Island.

 

[balapickerel]

the forum has been dead for a few days so i figured that i would bring some old topics back and see if people are interested. anyway, i know what you mean by chasing bass all day, one good strategy for luring them out is to tie on a weight to the end of you line and about 18" up from that tie on a second peice of a foot long(it doesn't have to be 18" but that allways works for me)to that tie a hook with leech on it. drop the weight to the bottom but keep the line tight (an ultralight rod with very light braided line works best for sensitivity in this situation or the leech will just disapeer) the bass sees the injured leech swiming around and inhales it.

 

[frozenfire]

Yeah, in my opinion, when nothing works, live bait is the way to go.

Personally, I use artificial lures 99% of the time. it's just the odd time I'm out with someone who uses live that I would change to a bait hook and use a minnow or seomthing.
Because of this, I don't catch as much haha :lol:

 

[David Kearney]

Yeah, in my opinion, when nothing works, live bait is the way to go.

Personally, I use artificial lures 99% of the time. it's just the odd time I'm out with someone who uses live that I would change to a bait hook and use a minnow or seomthing.
Because of this, I don't catch as much haha :lol:

I love artificial baits...but they don`t seem to work for me on the Island. I have caught squat in the way of bass on artificial and all others on worms.

 

[YAWN]

David Kearney give it another shot but I can add that it's very visual fishing over there when fishing soft plastics. Natural colours in clear water forsure.
Almost have to place it right in front of them and just quiver it a bit.

The water is so clear I doubt they will venture far from there comfort zone deep in the weeds. Fish deep and slow and look for tails hanging out the back of brush piles. Drop something close!

 

[openfire]

Use scent.

 

[David Kearney]

I will give it a try...I am gonna target the bass more aggressively this year...Hunt them like a wolf huts it`s pry, and pounce!

 

[tangledline]

Having fished all last summer with Kearney at the Toronto Islands i have felt his frustration and at other times
been in awe of his success when everyone else failed to get a bite....
i suceeded time and again with the trusty worm but it was a learning process....no leader...no bobber....6lb test...
below the bass's head 18 inches out.....if i could not see the bass i was better off using artificial lures until i brought the fish into my line of sight then change up to a rod with a worm on it....if it was gonna bite the artificial bait it did so long before i saw it and i would have had an exciting fight...but when i found bass had followed my lure in i found my only chance at sucess was to pull out that rod and throw in the one ready with a worm on it.
this was what worked for me last year at the islands...
kearney is a pike master...but after last year's learning process i think he intends to catch tenfold more bass this
year than last and i bet ya he does!

 

[David Kearney]

Hell ya we will. And watch out for Tangledline...he was pulling out 6lbers all year at the Island that guy drove me crazy with fish on fish on!! and me with these little tiny guys and him with his hogs...put me to shame all year! I`lle get you Tangledline!! LOL!