Fishing with Piotr

Once you start fishing you are bound to come across the most hated experience of all anglers, the snag. There aren’t many things that upset me when fishing, but this is one them, along with a birds nest (when your line spools out of your reel into one tangled mess), and of course the worst thing to happen is missing a fish.

As we all know by now, fish like to hide in some of the nastiest structure around. In and around trees, stumps, logs, rocks and weeds. This presents a bit of a problem, you want to get your bait in there in order to yank them out, but in doing so there is a chance you’ll get your bait snagged on something other than a fish. Most of the stuff you get snagged on you can break away from, usually weeds or lily pads. However there are those times when you just can’t break away as your hooks have really dug themselves deep into a log or a tree stump. For some reason it always occurs with that brand new bait you’ve been dying to try out and can lead to some serious frustration not to mention put a dent in your wallet.

I’ll give you a few tips that have worked for me, but be aware this is no guarantee. For me it’s usually a 50/50 shot on whether or not I’ll get that bait back. The first thing I usually do is quite simply pull on it a bit. Sometimes you may think you’re snagged but it’s just some weeds or the sheer force of yanking on it might break it free. This “traditional” and easiest method comes with a drawback though. If you really hammer at it you’re just going to dig those hooks deeper into whatever it is that you’re stuck on and make getting it out of there a whole lot harder.

If this method fails, try keeping tension on the line but moving you rod from side to side. This jerking action may pull the hooks out of whatever you’re stuck in. However, there is a word of warning with this method, make sure you have protective glasses on and no one is behind you because if that bait frees up and comes flying out of the water with all that tension on it, it can really do some damage. Basically, have your cat like reflexes ready for this one! If this method yields nothing then what I like to do is keep tension on the line and pull on it with my hand and release it a few times, just pluck away at it. This vibration along the line can also loosen the bait up.

If you are on shore, release your bail and go for a walk. Sometimes I walk quite a ways, and then try this method again. If it doesn’t work from one side, walk in the other direction and try. There have been times where I have walked 100 meters away from my bait to try this method, with my friends all laughing at me, but it does sometimes work. A different angle of attack can really help.

When on a boat all these methods become a little easier since you can actually bring your boat around a full 360 degrees and get all angles of attack. On a boat I find my chances usually increase dramatically when retrieving a snagged bait. On the boat I also sometimes use a paddle to help free the bait if it’s not too deep under the water.

When all else fails there is only one thing to do unfortunately, and that is to cut your line. Nothing relieves the stress of getting snagged quicker than re-tying and catching that next big fish. Hope these tips can come in handy the next time you get a bad snag.

View Canal Lake in a larger map

“SCROLL OVER THE IMAGES ON THE MAP FOR TIPS AND LOCATIONS TO FISH”

Weeds, weeds, and more weeds! This lake harbours some monster largemouth bass, walleye, and even musky. With it only being an hour drive outside of Toronto this is a favourite hot bed of activity with many shore anglers as well as many boaters. The island in the middle of the lake offers a ton of opportunity for shore fishing and you will always find a spot to cast out no matter how packed it can get. The great thing about shore fishing here is that you really can feel as if you were out in a boat as you can pull in some decent fish just of the banks or around the bridges.

As this lake is covered in weeds it is best to fish it in early spring or in late fall when the cover dies down a bit, but don’t be deterred by this, there is still ample opportunity during the dog days of summer. It may be very weedy but all anglers know that weeds are like the kitchen in your house. They offer cover for many bait fish, crawfish, and insects which the big boys chase after. If you plan on fishing this lake in the middle of summer be sure to find a pocket amongst the weeds and fish it slow with either a spinner bait of a Texas rigged worm. By doing this you put the bait right in the strike zone of the fish and you can expect to land a few monsters here.

Sure largemouth bass and walleye can be caught here but if you’re lucky, patient, and fish here often, you just may land the monster musky you’re looking for. Try following the trolling lines outlined in the map and be sure to fish in and around the two bridges. The deeper waters around these bridges offer a lot of room for big game fish.

For a lake that is so close to Toronto there is no excuse not to get out there and try your luck at catching some monsters.

Fast Facts:

Length: 12km

Width: At its widest 3.5km

Temperature: Can go as high as 25°C in the middle of summer

Depth: A very shallow lake with most areas only 1.5 metres deep

Close Towns: Bolsover and Kirkfield

Amenities: Around the locks you will find washrooms. Along highway 48 there are a few burger joints for a quick snack.

Northern Pike (or just Pike)

Characteristics: Pike are a long slender fish. They usually have a greenish body, but this can change from a light green to a darker green based on their environment and their food source. They also have very unique spots on their body. These spots are oval shaped. Cover their entire body, and are usually white or yellowish in colour. Pike can range from anywhere around 30cm and can grow all the way up to 150cm! These are true brutes of the underwater world. When they are young they can weigh in at a small 3-4 pounds but once they grow up they can get up to 50 pounds with some even larger than that.

How to handle: Be very careful with these guys, especially if you land a big one. They are very powerful fish and if you catch one that is 20 plus pounds you make have some issues with grabbing it. First of all you must be aware that these large predators have very sharp teeth, so don’t go sticking your hand inside its mouth unless you want to be cut. The best way to pull them ashore or to pull them into a boat is to grab them under their gills. If you look at a fish it usually has a hard outer edge around its gills to protect them. This is known as the gill plate. On a pike this gill plate is quite large and you can easily side your hand in behind this gill plate and grab the fish through there, all the while making sure not to actually grab it by its gills so as to not damage it. Once you have it grasped under its gill plate you can pull it into your boat or onto shore and then support it by its belly so that it is cradled in your hands vertically, as my buddy Tom does in the pictures page. One of the best ways to land these guys is to use a net or a fish cradle. While you usually net a fish it tends to calm down making it a lot easier to handle.

Where to find them: These guys love to hang out in weeds. As they are ambush predators so they tend to hang out in weed beds ready to pounce on any minnow or small bait fish that swims by. Weeds however, or only part of the equation, these guys can also be found in deeper waters with rocky bottoms. Be sure to try out both of these types of waters to try to catch one of these guys. These guys are best caught in early to late fall as they go into a feeding frenzy before the winter. You will find a lot of targeting anglers them at this time.

How to catch them: As I said these guys are big time predators and they like to hang out and just wait for a bait fish to swim past them. The best way to hook into one of these guys is to fish the edges of weeds. Unlike bass they don’t tend to really dig themselves deep in the weeds, they prefer to just be on the outskirts waiting for something to swim by. They can accelerate very quickly with their slender bodies and will eat almost anything. The best baits to use on these guys is a buck tail spinner, a large spoon, or even a crank bait. One thing is certain though, if you want to catch a big pike you have to use a big bait. A large predator like this will not waste its energy eating a lot of tiny fish, instead it will make one quick move to get the most out of its bite, hence you should use larger style baits. A great method for catching pike is to troll right beside weed beds or through channels in lakes with a slow presentation. In winter months these guys can also be caught through the ice. They feed all year long but your best bet is to target these monsters in early to late fall.

Northern Pike

Northern Pike 2

Once you get a spinner-bait you will know exactly why it goes by this name. A spinner-bait has a metal blade shaped like a tear drop or an oval that quickly spins around the bait as you retrieve it through the water. This spinning of the blade created a vibration through the water that is irresistible to fish. The spinning and vibration creates flash and it imitates an injured minnow which tricks the fish into thinking it has an easy snack.

A spinner-bait has 5 basic parts to it. Number one is the head. The head is basically a painted lead weight which allows the bait to be cast and allows it to sink once it hits the water. The heads come in different weights from ½ oz. to 1 oz. They are usually all shaped very similarly and resemble the head of a minnow. The second part to a spinner-bait is the skirt. The skirts in spinner-baits come in all sorts of colours, from chartreuse to white, yellow, pink, purple, basically all the colours of the rainbow and even sometimes they come in mixed colours. However, one suggestion that has proven to give you more strikes with this bait is to get one that has a few of the strands from the skirt in a red colour. The red colour has been proven to catch more fish as it resembles blood, tricking the fishing into thinking that this fish is already quite injured. You will see these red strands on the pictures below. The third part to a spinner-bait is the hook. The hooks in spinner-baits can range in size from a 1/0 size to even as large as a 5/0 size. I will cover hook sizes in another article. Because of the skirt, the bait becomes almost entirely weed-less, making it ideal for casting it into weedy spots to find the big boys. Now for the fourth part, what is called the wire-arm or the safety-pin. This is a small piece of very stiff metal wire that comes out of the head and bends out over the body of the bait. This wire-arm or safety-pin is what attaches the blades to the bait and is also used to attach your line to the bait so that you can actually fish this thing. The fifth and last part of the bait is the blade to which this bait owes its name. A spinner-bait can come with one or two blades and they are usually available in two shapes. As mentioned before it can be either tear drop shaped or oval shaped.

Spinner-bait - diagram

The blades are what attract the fish to the bait but the skirt is really what the fish goes after, this is what the fish thinks is its food. The blades play a crucial role in making the fish aware that there is something in its neighbourhood that may be worth eating. Like the skirt the blades also come in different colours. However, the two most popular colours are gold and silver. Gold blades are excellent in murky water while silver blades are great in clear water. Some spinner-baits come with two blades and often times these can be purchased with one gold blade and one silver. Try getting one with both blade colours as it will prove to be more versatile.

Skirt colours are as varied as the rainbow. Depending on the type of water you are fishing, the colour of it, the depth, whether it is weedy or not etc. you will have to change colours. It is a good idea to have at least 2 to 3 different skirt colours so that you can interchange them if one colour is proving ineffective. But remember try to get spinner-baits that have a few strand of red on the skirt.

One tip to make your spinner-bait even more attractive to the fish is to add a tail on it. This gives the bait a larger profile and adds some more vibrations to it as it swims through the water. In the pictures below you will see that I have added some plastic tails on some of my spinner-baits to add scent to the bait and to play with the contrast in colours.

Spinner baits

Booyah Red Hook Series Spinnerbaits – Single Colorado – Bleeding White Shad Bass instinctively attack injured baitfish first. That fact makes these already hot lures even deadlier because each is equipped with Mustad® ultra-sharp red hooks, special paint accents, and flowing red strands within the silicone skirts. Adapt your retrieve to simulate crippled prey and watch your catch rate soar!Super-soft 50-strand silicone skirts deliver outstanding action on all retrieves.. Booyah® Red Hook Series Spinnerbaits – Single Colorado -

 Fishing a spinner-bait is quite easy once you get the hang of it. Having a medium action rod with a sensitive tip is the best for these baits. The medium action rod will allow you to cast into the weeds without worrying that you will break anything while the sensitive tip will allow you to sense whether or not you are going over weeds or if a fish is attacking your bait. To actually fish this bait it is as simple as casting it out and retrieving it. Well, that is the very simple way to fish it but now here are some tricks to entice the fish to bite.

When you cast it out, a spinner-bait will begin to sink so if you start reeling it as soon as it hits the water it will stay within a foot of the surface. However, you can cast it out, wait for a few seconds, and let it sink to the bottom to try your luck at any drop offs that you may come across. While retrieving it you can pause it, jerk it, or just retrieve it at a steady pace to entice the fish to bite. Play around with these methods to find out what the fish are going after.

A spinner-bait is fantastic for covering a lot of water in a short period of time. It is also a great bait for fishing any weeds that you may come across. Because the skirt covers the hook, it makes this bait almost entirely weed less. You can really cast it into some heavy cover and pull it out with ease.

Spinner-baits are used to catch a variety of fish from smallmouth bass, walleye, the occasional musky or pike, but what these baits are known for is their ability to catch largemouth bass. As you know by now from reading other articles, largemouth bass love to hide in thick weeds, and this bait was made just for that. A few words of caution however. If you are a beginner angler this bait may prove to be a bit frustrating for you as it takes a little while to get used to it. Also you may lose some fish on this bait because of failed hook sets. Usually a fish will hook itself on this bait and then you can set the hook more firmly but sometimes you will feel a pull on the bait and try to set the hook too early. Fish have been known to go after the blades of this bait and since there are no hooks on the blades you will miss your fish. The best bet is to either wait until you really feel the fish on there to set you hook or if you feel a tap on your spinner-bait stop your retrieve and let the lure sink a bit, the fish will think that it has injured the bait some more and will usually come back to gobble it up. If all else fails cast it right back into the spot where you had the bite and see if you can entice the fish to take it again.

Do yourself a favour and go out there and get a few spinner-baits in different colours and different set ups, you won’t be disappointed.

When you get by the water you’ll need to know where the fish like to hide and where they sit and wait for their prey. There is a lot of different structure, weeds, and rocks that you will have to learn to look out for if you want to catch the big one. As you read through and follow up with this site, this will become second nature for you.

For the most part if you are fishing a bobber and just looking to get those pan fish you can find them by docks, amongst weeds, and close to shore. Pan fish are small so they tend to hide in areas that will keep them safe from predatory fish such as in between weeds, behind rocks, or amongst tree stumps. That being said the big fish will also follow those pan fish into the shallows as they too need to eat, and pan fish can make a nice meal for a largemouth bass or a pike. My number one suggestion for fishing pan fish is to bait your hook and just cast it out there. What you will want to do, especially if this is your first time fishing a new body of water, is to locate just how far off shore the fish are hiding.

First cast pretty close, you’d be surprised how close to shore fish can tend to hide. If you think about it this makes perfect sense. Where do a lot of the insects, frogs, leeches, and other creepy crawly things that fish like to eat live, that’s right close to the shore! How close is close you ask? That depends on how quickly the water becomes deep, what we call the drop off point. If you come up to the shore to inspect your fishing locale look into the water, you can usually see right through the shallow water and see where the drop off begins from the shore. This drop off is where the fish cruise and peer into the shallows for a quick snack. It is also an excellent place for fish to run into deeper water or come up closer to shore depending on the time of day, how warm the water is, and where the food is. Fish the drop off and you won’t be disappointed.

Another favourite hiding spot for fish is structure. What we define as structure is a stump or tree in the water or even a pile of rocks. These offer fish a variety of places to hide from predatory fish but they also attract a ton of the bigger predatory fish. A tree in the water is a great place for fish to catch insects that slip off the tree and end up in the water. Trees and stumps are my favourite honey holes for fishing that never seem let me down. As you become a better angler you’ll be able to throw your bait right in and around these types of structures without getting caught in the branches. I find that with some practice and getting tangled a few times you will quickly learn just how to cast right into the sweet-spot of different types of structure. The picture below is an excellent example of the type of tree structure that I am talking about. If you look closely you can see the bottom of the lake so you know its shallow but yet I have fished this tree many times and have always been able to pull out a few nice largemouth bass. Throwing a lure or even a worm on a bobber can prove to be productive in this situation.

Fallen Tree Structure

Flooded Tree Structure