Snypa
Moderator
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2006
- Messages
- 396
Went to the Harbourfront July 29th, was a very HOT & humid day, was planning on ging to goto scugog that time and had the islands/harbourfront as a 2nd option, after a bit of convincing my friend convinced me to go downtown instead since he's never fished anywhere down there for pike/ bass down before, so I said "why not" without thinking it through.. When we arrived down there, it was packed, I've never seen that many ppl lining up for the ferry docks to goto the Islands lol. Not to mention lots of ppl walking/tanning the along the boardwalk & waterfront.. Completely forgot about that Wakestock thing was going on at the Center Island, and that it was Sunday & everyone was and about.. And not to mention it was mid-day and it was 35 degrees but felt like 40 out there. At the islands, at least there's trees with shade !! At max we fished for about 2-3 hours before we called it quits. I must've got a really nice tan that day lol.
Anyways on the with the report, parked in the payed underground parking at the radisson hotel, then made our way over to the water, there were lots of sailboats going in & out of the marina, so I moved down more to the deeper end of that particular marina, nothing. Moved more east towards the OPP marine unit, nothing for a good half and hour, at first I was looking for this particular lure that's my secret weapon that does well for downtown pike, couldn't find it anywhere, so instead I tried at least 20-30 different other lures within the hour or two of being there, still notta, just when we think there's no chance in hell for any fish let alone bass or pike, while I was changing my lure, my friend yells over me "I just saw a pike following my bait !!!" he was using one of my smaller flo. yellow dc-18's (a custom one with a extra long skirt), about 20 minutes go by, and I finally found my secret weapon under all these other baits in my tackle box.
1st cast, I let it sink a good 5-10 ft deep, then ran it past these weedtowers, the inlet/inner bay area that we were working was a excellent transition point, my thinking was the bigger pike would be in deeper waters especially in the summer months, the ones at the islands are just to slugish because the water is too warm & shallow there, so I figured the best places to fish were shallow-to-deep areas deeper in the harbour, I guessed right. When my bait was going past this weed-tower near shore, this HUGGE pike just came out of nowhere in the direction of where the lure was, the pike then dove back down deep in the weedbeds, and I did a 2nd cast, when I retrieved this time, I ripped the lure a bit more (faster retrieve) so I would easily get its attention, the pike immediately came out of nowhere and quickly swam after it right in front of us ! It just missed it by a foot, before I had to cast again ;/ I've seen large pike at the islands before.. but this one must've been at least a 40+ incher, a big momma, it was litterally the size of a nice sized musky and it had some girth (thickness) to it. Keep in mind, I was looking at it from 5 -10 ft. above the water on the boardwalk so it could've been a bit bigger. It was approximetly the size of a Lake O. king salmon, but could've been a little longer & more slender. Right when I go for a 3rd cast, to get the pike to commit to it this time around, this OPP marine unit cop walks up to us, and says we shouldn't fish there, and that he didn't want us fishing there cause the fishing line might get caught in the boat prop if there was an emergency and they had to get out. Just when it was getting good.. I didn't mind, I asked him "can I fish over there" pointing towards the sailboat marina, his response was "actually you're really not allowed to fish along the boardwalk", so I told him a bit annoyed "I'll go over to the marina". I've fished that OPP marine unit before and they never said squat to me then, but to be fair to them.. there were lots of boats out, I'm sure were quite busy going in & out of that marina. And that's my harbourfront report, I'll be sure to head there again soon !! Or maybe even the islands this time, but only fishing the deep areas.
Anyways on the with the report, parked in the payed underground parking at the radisson hotel, then made our way over to the water, there were lots of sailboats going in & out of the marina, so I moved down more to the deeper end of that particular marina, nothing. Moved more east towards the OPP marine unit, nothing for a good half and hour, at first I was looking for this particular lure that's my secret weapon that does well for downtown pike, couldn't find it anywhere, so instead I tried at least 20-30 different other lures within the hour or two of being there, still notta, just when we think there's no chance in hell for any fish let alone bass or pike, while I was changing my lure, my friend yells over me "I just saw a pike following my bait !!!" he was using one of my smaller flo. yellow dc-18's (a custom one with a extra long skirt), about 20 minutes go by, and I finally found my secret weapon under all these other baits in my tackle box.
1st cast, I let it sink a good 5-10 ft deep, then ran it past these weedtowers, the inlet/inner bay area that we were working was a excellent transition point, my thinking was the bigger pike would be in deeper waters especially in the summer months, the ones at the islands are just to slugish because the water is too warm & shallow there, so I figured the best places to fish were shallow-to-deep areas deeper in the harbour, I guessed right. When my bait was going past this weed-tower near shore, this HUGGE pike just came out of nowhere in the direction of where the lure was, the pike then dove back down deep in the weedbeds, and I did a 2nd cast, when I retrieved this time, I ripped the lure a bit more (faster retrieve) so I would easily get its attention, the pike immediately came out of nowhere and quickly swam after it right in front of us ! It just missed it by a foot, before I had to cast again ;/ I've seen large pike at the islands before.. but this one must've been at least a 40+ incher, a big momma, it was litterally the size of a nice sized musky and it had some girth (thickness) to it. Keep in mind, I was looking at it from 5 -10 ft. above the water on the boardwalk so it could've been a bit bigger. It was approximetly the size of a Lake O. king salmon, but could've been a little longer & more slender. Right when I go for a 3rd cast, to get the pike to commit to it this time around, this OPP marine unit cop walks up to us, and says we shouldn't fish there, and that he didn't want us fishing there cause the fishing line might get caught in the boat prop if there was an emergency and they had to get out. Just when it was getting good.. I didn't mind, I asked him "can I fish over there" pointing towards the sailboat marina, his response was "actually you're really not allowed to fish along the boardwalk", so I told him a bit annoyed "I'll go over to the marina". I've fished that OPP marine unit before and they never said squat to me then, but to be fair to them.. there were lots of boats out, I'm sure were quite busy going in & out of that marina. And that's my harbourfront report, I'll be sure to head there again soon !! Or maybe even the islands this time, but only fishing the deep areas.
