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Tag Archives: bass

Wednesday Night Fishing

I finally managed to join the OFS weeknight fishing group. Tonight we met at Hog’s Back Falls along the Rideau River – my first time fishing this spot. There are several pools and riffles below the falls.

It was warm and humid and I was sweating by the time I got down to the river. I guess my slip and subsequent filling of the waders was a way to cool off but it didn’t help much.

This was my first real test of the Korker rubber soles on rocks. The rocks were a bit slippery but not seriously so. However it was more than the rubber soles could handle. I will have to switch to the studded soles and see how that works.

As far as fishing was concerned, I caught a number of smaller bass and several fall fish. Todd did pretty well pulling in a couple good sized bass and four walleye.

Nice night out.

Where Have the Bass Gone?

It was one of those nights. Everything seemed prime for a great evening of bass fishing.  Nice warm summer evening, stable barometer, calm conditions (maybe more farourable for me than the fish).  We hit the water around 6pm in search of small or largemouth bass.

Bass WaterThe setting seemed perfect.  But where were the bass.  We managed to find a few smallmouths in the one pound range but not much else.  Persistence wasn’t paying off despite varying the approach.  The biggest thing we saw was a beaver who seemed upset that we were fishing in his home waters.  At least the slap of the tail a couple times suggested it to us.

Although the bass proved elusive, as the sun started to set the crappies started to feed.   Positioning ourselves off the edge of the massive weed beds expanding out from the shore, we hit upon a school of crappies that were more than willing to cooperate for the last half hour or so before the oncoming darkness forced us back in.

Despite the lack of bass, any evening out fishing is a good evening and the crappies were a bonus.

And one take away – bring in your fly line before you kick through the weed bed.  I didn’t and my line is in sore need of a good cleaning!

Float Tubing for Bass

Fishing After Work

Doug and I had decided to meet after work for a bit of fishing. While it isn’t urban fishing, Appleton is pretty close to civilization. This means it is easy to get to but you also hear people cutting their grass so no wilderness experience here. I doesn’t hurt that you can usually find fish within access of a float tube. It turned out that we were joined by George, Sandy and Bob so it was almost starting to get crowded.

Sandy was nailing fish all night. Here he is looking for a new fly. I am not sure why since he didn’t seem to be having any trouble landing fish.

Sandy Looking for the Right Fly

Bob wasn’t doing too bad either. Lately he has had a fixation on Humpy’s and was having pretty good success with them tonight. Notice the fine home in the background. Not a bad place to be situated. The couple living there came down to the water with their canoe and headed out for an evening paddle while we were fishing.

Bob with Another Fish

George spent most of his time at the far end of the bay but eventually made his way back. His electric motor equipped pontoon boat gives him a lot of mobility.

George Landing a Fish

As the sun began to set the crappies started biting more consistently. There were some good sized ones that were willing to bite. For the last hour I was catching them pretty consistently on a small (probably size 12) olive micro leech. But the infamous submerged Humpy seemed to be working pretty well too.

Low Sun and Near Full Moon

All told, it was a great evening. The fish at Appleton aren’t exotic but in three hours I managed to catch perch, a small pike, a couple sunfish, one out of season smallmouth bass (long distance release), tons of rock bass and a large number of crappies. Not sure whether that constitutes a grand slam but it certainly provides lots of variety.

Sunsetting After Evening Fishing