reefrunner's most excellent vacation [updated with pics]

[reefrunner]

Hey all,

Been fishin' since july 31 on vacation. Hit the Parry Sound area during the civic holiday weekend and caught a number of pike. Then on Tuesday of last week I went up to the cottage with a buddy. Cought some bass, pike, crappie. Made a day trip through the canals to Mitchell/Balsam for some muskie fishing. ended up with 2 ski's landed, not big at all (28" biggest), and caught a massive 27"walleye on a 10" Believer. A more detailed report and pics to be posted in the next couple of days. Good to see some success on the board here.

reefrunner

 

[frozenfire]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

Sounds like a good time. Awaiting to see the detailed reports

 

[ec1]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

Nice job! Hopefully I'll be able to have a day to tell about it this week!

 

[Bigfisherman]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

Looking forward to it, should I book time off so I can have adequate time to read the full report?

 

[David Kearney]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

Looking forwards to seeing the reports...and pics. It`s good to get away.

 

[diggyj]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

Nice report, sonds like a blast up in the SOUND. CAn't wait for some pics, cheers.

Dirk

 

[reefrunner]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

Looking forward to it, should I book time off so I can have adequate time to read the full report?

lol. I'll try to keep it short and sweet this time around so nobody misses out on work.

 

[reefrunner]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

multi-species vacation...

Well, unfortunately, the pics from my weekend in Parry Sound couldn't be retrieved off the memory card. I caught mostly pike there; most of my luck came on a pike-patterned J-11 trolled by rocky points. I had one great topwater fish when a pike exploded on my zara spook and cleared the surface two feet on the initial strike.

on to my cottage...fishing the period in and around the full moon

started off small with a crappie

next day there was a nice "musky chop" on he water so my friend and I packed a lunch and headed through the trent severn towards Blasam. Stopped by Mitchell Lake on the way to burn a spinnerbait and was rewarded with a hammerhandle mini-ski

moved on to Balsam, put on a 10inch jointed believer and started my troll in 20fow in West Bay. No sooner than 3 minutes into a 4kmh lure wash when my drag starts wailing. A good musky I thought as it was staying deep. I was surprised when I pulled in this 28inch eye (he took a bait about half his size...odd).

and she was released to spawn another year

The winds picked up and made it uncomfortable and cold so we decided to head back into Mitchell to burn more spinnerbaits. Landed a nice, scrappy largie

And my buddy lands his first musky, 28 inches only, but the best of the day.

seen maybe 6 follows that day and had one turn twice on the 8 before getting spooked. I think a combo of the full moon, sparse cloud and slight wind got the musky active for us.

If i could squeeze in one other species, and keep the report short so nobody gets written up at work, lastly the mean sized pike we caught intermittently throughout our stay

The weather was great, the fishing better and the time away from work best of all!

 

[frozenfire]

Re: reefrunner's most excellent vacation

great report...
gotta love those days when you catch them all.

 

[Bigfisherman]

Awesome, nice walleye glad u had a good time. You know I was just kidding about the "time off" hehe. I want to post some reports but lately all my pics are taken with the fish in the livewell, ready to be filleted Not sure if some folks might get tired of dead fish in the livewell pics...

I'm planning a trip to Balsam soon, I'm told rosedale is a good place to launch/fish from is this true?

 

[reefrunner]

No worries, I got the joke was just extending it a bit, lol.

BTW, I love seeing fillet pics and, even more so, the cooked up catch-yummy.

Rosedale, while I've never launched there as Balsam is a skip across a couple ponds for me, from what I've heard is a nice launch. There are a few deep weedbeds known to hold eye's, good perch and Bass and the occasional 'ski near by.

Most of my luck comes in WestBay on the South end of the lake and around the peninsula between West and South Bay. With Balsam, trick is to find good weed growth or a nice saddle, they maybe close to shore. In saying that, I have a good hydrographic map of Balsam that's pretty handy. It's in JPEG and comes in several attachments to be pieced together. I'll PM it to ya.

The winds and waves can kick up in a hurry on the lake, if it gets rough try Mitchell Lake. Lots of weeds and hidden timber in the water so watch out. Burn a spinnerbait

Reefrunner

 

[ec1]

awesome job reefrunner!
The best part is you got into so many different fish in your trips!