I had the pleasure of shooting my show this week with the husband and wife team of Matt and Kate Sonier. We met at 7am and headed for Magaguadavic Lake just outside of Fredericton. Long a favourite stop on the NBSFA’s Molson Mercury Bass Tour we were really looking forward to catching some big ones.
The launch site on Mac is off a dirt road that runs through the woods so it is pretty secluded and we had it all to ourselves. We started off the morning watching 8 Loons fishing their way through the cove. There is just something about the call of the Loon that says Canada to me. I love them.
We go unloaded and powered up the Lowrance, Magaguadavic is not boat friendly with many very large unmarked rocks lurking just beneath the surface. I have all of the rocks I have found marked with a skull and crossbones and the screen looks like a minefield as we head up the lake. Not a boat to be seen and you would think from the silence that we were a thousand miles from civilization.
First spot is a small hump quite a bit offshore and missed by most shoreline focused anglers. One cast from Kate and it was very apparent that she knew her stuff. She almost immediately hooked a Chain Pickerel. Not exactly what I was hoping for but a fish to start the day off. A minute later husband Matt was into a Smallie. I had them set up with 6’6” Crucial rods with 2500 Stradics and they loved them. I think a Christmas list got started. We worked this area for about another half hour with no more hits so off we went.
There is a thoroughfare between big Magaguadavic and Little Magaguadavic { Big Mac and Little Mac } and we worked through there with some surface frogs. This is a very heavily vegetated channel with some deep holes and the fish can be anywhere. The frogs let us cover the water without getting hung up all the time in the grass. Again Kate was the first one into a fish and this time it was a healthy Smallmouth. The next twenty or so fish to the boat were all toothy critters. Illegally introduced they have rapidly overtaken the lake and they are everywhere from six inches deep to the deepest water in the lake. My two guests had a ball catching them.
We went through the thoroughfare to Little Mac and hit an area where a stream comes into the lake. The main lake has a small dam on the outlet so these little creeks can have submerged channels running quite a ways into the lake. Two more nice Smallies came to the boat here. One on a soft stickbait and one on a Silver Blue Fox spinner. Also another bunch of Chain Pickerel made it to the boat. It was quite remarkable that we weren’t getting bit off more than we were because they have no shortage of teeth.
Our last stop of the day was the inlet stream at the head of the lake. This area has a very large submerged weed flat that always holds fish. Kate was throwing the Blue Fox and Matt was fishing the surface frog. Both of them were getting pounded by Pickerel and they were coming in fast and furious. Once again Kate nailed a Smallmouth which proved to be the last one of the day.
From the number of Chain Pickerel we caught and the scarcity of the Smallies I am going to have my work cut out for me the next time we schedule a summer tournament here.
I have said before that one of the great things about shooting a regional show is the great people that I get to meet and fish with. Kate and Matt were both good anglers and a pleasure to spend the day with. Catching a bunch of fish was just a bonus.
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