Hey homies,

 

So this is my first real season on the fly and I'm wondering if you guys could give me some advice on targeting and finding residents since I haven't been having any luck. I've been out before sunrise and fished all day, on the west trib mostly, small streams around it and the like. I try to match the hatch as best as I can; Streamers, Emergers, Dry Flys, Dry droppers, fish the seams, pools ahead and behind riffles, near over hanging ledges, trees, brush, etc., etc.

No luck! So what gives guys? 

I have a Medium-Heavy 2-piece Veritas Baitcasting rod with a Shimano Caius 201 on there, and I have a Medium 2-piece Veritas Spinning rod with a Stradic FJ 3000 on there.

While I really like both, the rod guides on my spinning rod cracked on the first bass (8.6 lber) that I caught, that being said after a quick email to Abu Garcia, they sent me a replacement rod free of charge which was pretty awesome. No other complaints since, as both rods have performed very well and i've had them both for more than 2 years now. Largest Pike I've caught on that baitcaster was 15+ lbs and over 40", rod was bent like a Mother-F'er, rippin drag like an S.O.B. but I was still able to turn the fish and play it without worry of the rod of exploding.

 

As AlwaysCatching pointed out, my rods are First Gen. Second Gen rods are a little nicer. My buddy has a St. Croix rod, and while it is considerably nicer in a lot of ways, I'm still partial to the feel of the Veritas rods.

Aww, bro! This is amazing! Like everyone said, can not even begin to convey my jealousy

I'm still rocking the sardines! Got a 10lber last week on them last week. I fire out the husky jerks too, reeeaaal slow jerk-jerk-pause deal. When the water temp jumps up a little more i'll move on to my usual tricks; flicker shads, rattle traps, bx swimmers, spoons, spinners, and spinnerbaits. All that good stuff!

Great pic buddy, glad you were able to come up with something!

FishFinder17, check shallower bays for sure and also near the mouths of any rivers and tributaries running into the lake, they tend to be a little warmer and have baitfish in them so pike will hang out around them looking for an easy meal. I lived in Gravenhurst on Lake Muskoka for a few years and this was almost always where I found them in temps like that. I know a particular bay that's really good too if you wanna PM me (no idea where on the lake you are, might be a bit of a jog.)

You guy's should check out Bridling baits. Saltwater guys have been doing this for years for big tuna, marlin and such, but for cold water pike it's killer (or any slow day really).

 

You use a big thill slip bobber with a flouro leader snelled to a circle hook (3/0 or 5/0) under it, then you take a bait needle and floss or dacron and attach bait. It keeps live bait alive MUCH longer, or you can use dead bait.  I use store-bought frozen Sardines, (which I called and checked with MNR to see if I could use, so don't bitch lol) and cut them in half or thirds. I chose sardines because they're an oily fish and the scent they release it very strong, draws the fish in like crazy. When water temps are cold and fish are slow moving, this is an unbeatable. 

 

Basically, you bridle your chosen bait, cast it out (gently, if like me you're using a MH baitcaster) then just let it sit, maybe jigging it a bit since i use a slip bobber. The scent draws the fish in, fish swims by and chomps on a free meal and swims away. Your bobber will dip and disappear (or if it's a big fish, it'll probably just be gone lol). Now here's the important part for those of you who haven't used circle hooks; DO NOT reef on the rod to set the hook. Instead; count to 7 (mississipi's if you have too) and then reel in and tighten up on the line, the hook will get stuck in the corner of the mouth every time and when the fish feels the prick of that hook it'll take off.

I've been doing this for a couple years and have caught more than a few 40" pike when guy's around me are bitching because fish wont take anything. AND since you're using circle hooks it's super humane! Unlike traditional quick strike rigs with treble hooks which can kill a fish by getting taken too deep or getting caught in the gills, the single circle hook slightly separated from the bait will get caught in the corner of the mouth every time and wont be swallowed (unless you're really dumb and count to like... 30 or something lol). I've never used it for musky, but i imagine it would work just as well, and I've used some smaller baits for other species too.

Here's a video to show you how it's done.

https://youtu.be/FRk9bGSj-rU

Ha ha ha, who knew this would be such a hot topic? lol When I went the other day, the weather was pretty unfavourable (extremely windy and cold) and I didn't bother targeting Pike, so I didn't see any pike or musky; only a few panfish and one 20lb carp.

 

Honestly after seeing the lake, I would and wouldn't be surprised to see pike in there. I would think the lake too shallow for pike to do very well, but at the same time, I've fished other bodies on the Trent-Severn system and caught lots of pike so I have to imagine they can make it in there (spawn sticking to waterfowl, people being dicks and dumping them in there). I would really rather that Pike were kept out to make sure the musky pop stays healthy, buuuuuut i'm pretty cynical sooooooo; time will tell I guess)

Ha ha, I used to live up there, I've caught a couple on joe.

You can turn contours on and off on the left hand panel. That being said; I find the majority of lakes DON'T have contours on them (maybe 5% have them), generally only popular lakes. I've heard from a couple MNR guys that they're trying to map all the conservation bodies of water with radar, but it's pretty slow going I guess.

I've never seen the place where you could download a pdf version, but that would be neat.

I use this thing all the time to find new lakes to fish or to find structure and stuff on my go too lakes. The place i go to the most we heard stories about people putting 6 or 7 bass cribs into the lake years ago. Lol with this new imagery you can actually see them... there's 18 of them lawl.

Ha ha, you can always do the survey on the lake you fished? I try to do it as often as possible =) or I email them a report if there's no info

I don't know if anyone else has been to Fish ON-Line recently (i started noticing it a couple weeks ago), but it seems like the boys over there have done a major update. There's now 4 viewing modes; the standard map, and satellite, but now there's also LIO Topographical and LIO Imagery modes as well. Also, in some areas when you zoom in close, it automatically switches over to an HDR aerial photograph of the area (you can check it out from the Toronto Islands eastward), pretty darn neat if you ask me!

 

Here's some photo's for your enjoyment!

 

The Toronto Islands

 

A popular GTA Lake old and new for comparisson

 

The boat launch at a favourite lake of mine

 

How cool is this?!?! Any body else geeking out over this???? Go check it out!

 

PS: this is a FO-L thing only, google maps is still useless.

Yep zone 16. Little rouge is the border between 16 & 17

not really, my sources are people that not only live on the lake year round, they fish it daily year round, and have the entire lake GPS'd for every hole that fish hide for the last 40 years

 

IF, and thats a big IF, there pike in scugog, they are very very few.  like i said, the ONLY way pike can enter that lake, is to either come down through sturgeon lake, be transported there by someone, or have eggs transported there via water fowl

ha ha, I'm just giving you guys a bit of a ribbing, I honestly don't think there are pike in there, but i'm sure it's possible.

Yeah, definitely a slimy little Hammer-Handle right there. I one caught a 7 inch pike like that on a 4inch demon dancer spoon, lol greedy little poop.

PS, thanks for the link FrequentFlyer, was interesting.

LOLOLOLOL I think Salmotrutta just slapped y'all with some knowledge.

I know that pike are bad for a musky population. Pike spawn earlier, are large enough to decimate the musky yearlings = no bueño. I generally fish for pike, and don't want to target OOS fish, so I'll just have to switch up my game. I know Scugog is really a boat lake, but we don't have one so its gonna be a shore game anyways. Any tips? Generally I bridle under a big thill bobber for spring pike, but doesn't look like I can do that.

Hey Guy's

 

Looks like I'm heading to Scugog on tuesday to take my buddy fishing for the first time and I'm wondering if there are any Pike in there? I know there's Musky, Bass, Walleye, and some other species, but obviously musky and bass are OOS so I don't wanna poach.

Thats a pretty sick Rig there FG, ha ha.

PBenson, right on man, great videos. Love that figure-8 strike.

Interesting. The closest thing. I have is orange which is a pretty popular colour around here.

 

To be honest I like to use the color red with muddy water. Black and blue is a classic color all around but red with a lot of noise seems to be best.

Yeah right on board with alwayscatching there. My rule of thumb is use opposite colours of your light conditions, Bright and sunny: darker baits. Dark and cloudy, lighter baits and lures. depending on the trope conditions i'll switch up colours too. Muddy water I favour reds, yellow and oranges, clear waters I go metallics and, blues, greens, etc. that being said, sometimes you just have to throw it all out the window and fire out anything until you find something that works.

Yeah I was on the Credit on the Trout opener, as a few days later and had MNR stopped me both days.

Sorry guys... had too

You're in luck! Rain Saturday through Tuesday should bring a fresh run in.

I'm hoping! gonna be out as much as I can!

Fantastic video man, love to see more.

Theres a channel between the islands called pike channel, its right beside the airport, apparently, lots of pike in there.    it might be possible to launch at one of those marinas near the airport and cross over.   again, I’m not sure though

 

You talkin about between the islands themselves, or between the island and the Toronto shoreline?