Georgian Bay

2nd day of the yak weekend. Tried SML today. Kind of wish I went back to Gib for the warmer day. For most of the day, I couldn't locate ANY bass. The pike seemed to like the cold though, and I hooked a handful. It took way too long and braving some large waves from boat wakes to find 1 spot where water seemed to flow in from the open lake to the more sheltered areas. I saw a bunch of baby bass holding in front of some weeds, then noticed some bigger ones deeper down. 1 larger specimen, maybe 2.5lbs almost got hooked on the jerkbait but no hooks connected before he noticed me and swam off. Met another yak angler who also had near 0 luck

2 casts

1st of the 3 day yaking trip. Back to my favourite lake for a really chilly day. The fishing was difficult. I only managed to locate them in 1 area. When I pulled up the bigger pike, a massive smallie followed it up to the yak. Must've been 4~5lbs. Wielding the pike rod with my left hand, I tried to entice it with a second rod with a Ned. Unfortunately the smallie showed no interest :(

Went back up to my current favourite lake, trying for a redemption with the monster from the deep. It did not happen today, but was still fun with over a dozen little guys landed and a single smallie around 2¾lbs. Almost all on the ned today. Perhaps the lower temp and incoming rain had something to do with it? It turned out to be a real pikey day with the hammer handles. I lost quite a few neds to the little F'ers... I'm pretty sure I hooked a big one on a "fully cover the area" cast on the shallow side of a handful of lily pads. It dove directly into the pads and I had no idea what to do as it dug in and shook its head to saw through my line. This was today's heart breaker. Also installed a new Boonedox aluminum rudder. Install was ass, finagling with the spring but the turning was slightly improved and tracking is more solid overall. pretty decent deal seeing as it was 20usd, only 1/3 the original price for some reason.

After some controlled drifting north along the bank, I was overtaken by a bass boat, and I decided to cross over to the other side of this river-like lake. This west side had quite a handful of cliffs indicating drop offs I really wanted to hit. Having the motor made this decision much simpler. I had recently read that there is likely current even in a lake, and I visually confirmed this by a point in a sheer cliff wall, caused by the wind going around. It made a perfect trail of foam that essentially drew it on the surface for me. I almost had my first jerkbait fish, but after smashing the barbs on all of my lures, he managed to throw it with a jump. I switched over to the new neds I bought yesterday and started dragging them DEEP under the cliffs. I had a hit... A BIG hit. The line was cut clean through... Quickly tying up another, I tossed it down again. Another big hit... I set the hook and it slowly started fighting. Harder and harder until drag was screaming and it felt like a boulder sinking into a chasm. In my inexperience, I tightened my drag just a tad to try and gain back some control, but this only seemed to anger the beast. I felt it roll and an off-putting grinding snap was felt as the fish earned its freedom... This was a PB pike... Possibly trophy sized... Remembering the great day I've already had, I decided I'd come back for this beast in the future, and focused on the rest of the day. Slowly drifting back to the launch, I had a handful more smallies on the ned, including a 2.75lber near where the trophy pike was lost. I'm in love with this place.

Next one was a 4lber, near a dock. The hit wasn't that hard, but he slowly turned the dial up on the fight. He had my ML rod bent over the side of the yak screaming drag a few times!

Having felt a bit unsatisfied with the SML trip yesterday, I made the decision, some may say unwisely, to go back up to the skokas by myself today. I had originally planned to go north east for a different lake, but the weather appeared to have changed so a last min decision was made. Last time I was here, I had decent success but without any large fish, so I had some confidence I'd at least catch a handful of small ones. Wow did it turn out to be a good choice. For the first time, I FELT like I had a slight idea what I was doing and got results from it. Multiple large fish hooked and many smaller ones landed as well. Arriving at the water, it was notably dreary, windy and chilly. The wind was definitely more than I was comfortable handling had I not been equipped with the trolling motor. It really opens up a lot of possibilities. I got the skunk off immediately after putting in by some water shields/weeds with a couple of small bass and hammer handle pikes. I knew then it was going to be a good day. I was hoping to crank deep with a deep diver jerkbait for smallies, but the first one was sitting shallow, taking a ned by a dropoff. Prob 2~2.5lbs The next notable one was a largie, ~3lbs also by a dropoff under a few lonely lily pads. At this point, I was starting to take notice of the specific water structures fish were holding in.

Third straight day with the new yak. The Mirage Drive 180 is very efficient, I'm not that tired from the pedalling surprisingly. Bit the bullet and drove north to Muskoka. Hoping to try a narrow section that boats cant get to. With all the summer growth, it was so narrow that I couldn't get through with the yak either lol I tried a whole bunch of lures today, but managed to only catch anything with crankbaits, most of which Marco Conetta gave me. Thx bro, came in clutch today 👌 I tried a lipless crank I bought more than a decade ago for the first time during the final stretch of the day and was surprised by a decent bass, smallie I think. It came out of nowhere and I forgot to set the hook, leading to a net-less release :( I then lost this lure to a hammer handle pike 😡 I've discovered the usefulness of crankbaits today, and will now proceed to stock my box with more than I will ever need lol