Donated trip number two.
I donated a fishing trip to Saint Thomas University’s charity golf tournament earlier this year and we finally got together for a day on the water and also turned it into an episode of Backwater Casting on Rogers TV NB.
My guests today both worked for the DNRE, Art works as an enforcement officer and Kirk is in charge of the trail systems in the Province. Both were great guys and both could fish so the day was off to a great start.
Magaguadavic Lake has been a good Smallmouth Lake over the years but lately it has been overrun with Chain Pickerel. We made a conscious decision to try and locate as many Smallies as possible and for the most part stayed out of the real weedy areas. At our first stop Art nailed the first fish off of a sandbar that has about a 5 foot drop into the weeds. The fish was up on the edge on the sand and Art was throwing a Blue Fox spinner up over the flat. Kirk was swimming a Zoom Toad across the flat and I was throwing a big Skitter Pop out over the weeds. Art nailed another one so I switched Kirk over to a Blue Fox as well. Can’t have one guy catching all the fish and Kirk got his first on a few minutes later. We worked around the whole bar and no more fish. This was a bit of a disappointment because this has been a good tournament spot over the years.
Our next stop was only a hundred yards away and it was wind current pushing water between the point of an island and a shoreline point. We worked all the way across the gap and Art picked up another one on the spinner and I got one on a Melon Orange tube. I held the boat into the wind so the guys could work the area but no more fish. It looked like it was going to be a one here one there kind of day.
The upper end of the lake can be good when the wind is blowing into it, which it was, so we headed up to give that a shot. There was a definite Pickerel presence and several came to the boat quite quickly. Then we had a big oops. Shawn was trying to fix a Go Pro mount and I went to dig him out a screwdriver, lost my balance and knocked a new Crucial rod and a Stradic into the lake. I almost hooked it on a Spinnerbait but the wind was pushing us to hard. We kicked a marker over and circled back but no luck. I stuck a waypoint on the Lowrance and I will go in the first sunny day next week and get it back. Only in five feet of water. That is the first one I have lost overboard since a tournament on Lake Erie over ten years ago. Back to the fishing and we never had a Bass all the way across the flat.
We moved into the connecting waterway between the lakes and caught a bunch of pickerel and seven or eight bass. I was testing out my new XRap Prop and pulled about a dozen fish on it before a Pickerel took it. Good thing I ordered two because I plan on using it in a tournament this week
We moved into the second lake and headed for one of the creeks. There is a small dam on the bigger lake so the creek channels run out into the lake and that is what we were headed for. I started about 100 feet away and kept the boat on the weed edge in six feet. Art had an old smasher hit the Blue Fox as he was lifting it to make another cast. I just happened to be looking at him when the fish came flying out of the water. There was no question that fish would have been the day’s lunker. We circled back later and went through the area again but no dice. Again we picked up two fish. They were not bunched up at all.
Two more spots and five more Smallies. The guys were happy with the action between the Bass and the Pickerel and Shawn and I were happy because there was lots of activity and some great footage. It was very interesting talking to these guys. They both shared a love of the outdoors and their jobs enabled them to spend time outside. It doesn’t get any better than that
Today’s equipment was 6’6” Crucial Rods and 2500 Stradic Reels. We were using 20lb Power Pro on some and 8Lb Suffix Siege Green mono on the rest. Most of the Bass came to the boat on a number three silver Blue Fox. One came on a Melon Orange tube and three on the XRAP Prop. We caught Chain Pickerel on the Blue Fox, the XRap and a Zoom Toad in green pumpkin.
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