Mary Lake

#catch25 Just got to Muskoka since yesterday. Fishing has been extremely roughy lately. Got skunked yesterday evening with too many boats passing by and a very cluster-phobic state. Had a long morning trying everything from spoons and chatterbaits for pike to crankbaits and dropshot for smallies. Too many weeds and missed a lot of bites. Went for panfish and perch with a float rig with a Gulp minnow 4inch. Instead, this smallie had it. Lost him at first, then got him that time. Due to the heavy pressure of the area, this is the closest thing to the “biggest” fish here. Safely released. I went back afternoon before storm. Sadly lost the biggest perch ever. Then, caught this new PB “monster” largie while multi-species fishing (and also caught some perch and pumpkinseed). Overall, not bad but definitely noticeably disturbed and pressured by clustraphobia, overfishing and boat traffic. By making this post, was bummed of losing a nice largie (about 1+lb) on a panfish rig after landing it, as well as catching other species on both Saturday and Sunday, with Dino largies, pumpkinseed and perch, as well as turtles.

Smaller of someone’s dock

Mary Lake K2

After an entire day of teaching kids how to fish and almost a bad afternoon fishing, The Vintage Japan Flatfish Crankbait (yes, literally brought it from a Japanese Thrift Store in Japan back at 2024) saved my late-afternoon/semi evening chance. Long story short, after that beautiful smallie in the morning, the fishing was nearly horrible. Lost 3 dropshot rigs from many fatal mistakes (almost 4) which also included entire leader lines. And the traffic of kayakers and boaters in the river mouth was far too much, which is pretty annoying. Tried dropshot, Ned rigs, spinners and even YUM Dinger Senkos to see if any luck. Only thing that entertained me is teaching the kids how to fish. After hours of fishing, got out of there and did the lakeside instead (the rocky pool by the beach). After dipping my feet into the water, just wanting to relax after horrible experience of snagging and multiple traffic interruptions, manage to catch yet another beautiful smallie (10-11 inches) on the Japanese Crankbait/Square Bill. Yet again, the slow suspension (let alone, extremely slow suspension), put up the higher stakes for an unexpected catch. Safely released after measured to fight for another day. Overall, the trip was nearly a miss, but thanks to certain strategies away from traffic, manage to land beautiful smallies in a beautiful fishing spot. Tight lines everyone. No promises for Round 3 tomorrow.