With a new baby brought home and life getting that much busier I decided to take a break (was allowed to leave for a bit đ) and head out for a quick fish. I didnât want to be away for the entire day and didnât want to go far, so I headed to Frenchmanâs Bay which is only 20 minutes away from my house. A lot of people think that because the bay is in Pickering, it must be âcontaminatedâ or doesnât have fish in it. Well, this couldnât be further from the truth. In the spring itâs full of pike just finishing their spawn in the shallow water. They will usually stick around until the water warms up before heading out to the lake for the summer. Once the pike leave and the bass season opens, it's game on, which bring us to todayâs adventure.
The water in the great lakes is much lower than normal this year which presented an issue in finding bass. I usually flip the reed edges along the outside north end of the bay but because of the low water there was maybe 6â of water in that area. The other main cover type is boat docks and when the reeds didnât produce any fish it didnât take me long to figure out thatâs where the bass were hiding.
The bait of the day was a pretty standard largemouth bass bait, A half-oz black and blue punch skirt paired with a Strike King Rage Tail Rage Lobster and a Trokar Flippinâ hook.
Rod - 7â Med Hvy action Carrot Stix wild wild orange series.
Reel â Abu Garcia Orra
Line â Suffix 832 40 Lb test
All of the bass came from under a dock of some type. They were spread out but aggressive and smashed the jig when you finally put it in front of one.
Over the past few years Iâve had the opportunity to hook into several Bowfin while fishing Frenchman's but hadnât landed one yet. Their mouths are extremely hard and itâs a bit tricky getting a real solid hook set from a seated position sometimes. Today was my lucky day though. I was backing up from fishing a dock when I spotted this guy sitting on the bottom just waiting for a tasty jig to come its way. One flip in his direction and he smashed it. These things are crazy fighters and I wish I hooked into more of them.
And here's the video of the day:
If youâre looking for more information on Frenchman's Bay, access points or any of my gear used please feel free to contact me.
- Randaller