Georgian Bay, Ontario

Pt.2 What would you consider a trophy pike? According to Google, it should be over 20lbs, but I consider this guy my trophy! Moving up to a location I've come to know to hold decent bass/pike the rest of the year, I drew a blank with everything I threw. At a loss to what I could do for results, I decided to try fishing a Ned the way it was meant to be fished, dragged along the bottom slowly instead of jig-swimming like I usually do. I figured the cold may have the fish wanting extreme finesse. Well, this drop in cadence triggered the appetite of something big... I'll never know if it was the same fish as the one I'd catch soon, because I had instinctively performed one of my signature weak-baby hooksets, and a few head shakes was all it took for the line to go limp... I was absolutely crestfallen at the loss of possibly my last big kayak fish of the year, all due to my inability to properly set a hook yet again. Still dejected, I dragged the Ned in the same general area a number of times, searching for some miracle that the fish would come back... Something did. This time, the Ned was closer to the kayak but still deep when I felt resistance. Conciously abandoning my trout mentality, nearly using my entire upper body I gave the rod a firm skyward yank, making sure to firmly seat the hook. My first clue that I was tangling with a monster came with the hookset... Despite putting my bodyweight into it, the fish barely budged. The second clue was audible with the rod bent over the side of the kayak and drag absolutely screaming multiple times. My wispy thin ML Zillion and dainty looking Carbon II's drag were thoroughly put through the wringer. Thoughts raced through my mind with multitude of ways I could lose this fish. Confidence of landing whatever this was dropped to nil, as I did all I could to hold on and keep the line away from the trolling motor. After who knows how long, I had my first glimps at the long shadow rising from the deep, only for it to make another mad dash downward into the dark, tannin-stained depth. I had still not gotten a proper look yet and the picture of a tail-hooked carp flashed through my mind. As the beast tired, I slowly raised him from the deep and finally had a proper view of the monster, a pike of unreal proportions! My next thought had my stomach drop as I had remembered my setup. A Ned rig with NO steel leader... This concern was vanquished after seeing a perfect 8-ball corner pocket hook-set! With the barb deeply seated and line safely out of the way of the maw of razors, I shifted my focus to clearing the tangle of fly line in front of me (I had left my fly rod and line a mess in the kayak to save time, don't do that!) and getting my quarry into the net. This absolute unit escaped from the net as my brain blanked on what to do next and fumbling through my equipment, and I had to re-net him! Talk about a heart attack moment! Ultimately he came out to 14.5lbs after taring out the weight of the net. Unfortunately I was so awestruck that I completely neglected to try and get a length. Safe to say, it will be a PB for a long while! This has been an amazing year of kayak fishing, and this phenomenal catch felt like a proper cinematic end to this season! I hope to see him again next year!

Pt1. Probably my last kayak trip of the year. The Hobie Outback has been the best fishing purchase I've made and has made me fall in love with kayak fishing. I've started putting effort in to bass/pike fishing this year, instead of blind casting the same inline spinner everywhere. Despite losing spirit a few times from frustration, in the grand scheme of things I have gotten more success than I imagined possible within this short year. I've discovered the unforgettable Muskokas and found a lake that has given me bountiful catches and stunning views, whilst having less traffic than other more well known places nearby. Today's trip began with 1 mission: Catch a decent size pike with the new articulated fly I made. The freezing air made the early day near unbearable as my fingers fought off the air's attempt to ice over them. Unfortunately this mission didn't really work out as I couldn't locate many pike, and only managed to badly hook a little hammer handle that flopped off beside the kayak, but I'll count it anyway. A couple of small bass rounded out the rest of the day, but the real reward was a monster...in pt2

What a day. Was not planning on a pike day but i was given a really good one with the colder water. With the weather network's lenient interpretation of mother nature's plans, I figured I could still get a trip up north. I had conveniently forgotten that autumn winds are built different than summer breezes, and coupled with forgetting my windbreaker, made the day less than comfortable and a bit sketchy by the afternoon. After acquiring a proper weedless punching jig I was excited to try and replicate Feng Li's success by the remaining water shields by the launch. While nowhere near as big, I did manage to catch one out of the dying jungle! Moving across the lake to the opposite shore, I dragged a Uoze swimjig below visibility, and felt a heavy thud. The thud also came with an empty swing as I made the confusing realization that my line broke, way up in the rod... Whatever bit was now stuck with a mouthful of metal and about 30ft of braid... This was a very unfortunate prelude my losing of all 3 Uoze jigs by the end of the day... RIP $60 Moving on, I tied up another Uoze with a white paddle tail trailer, hoping to find another willing customer. As I slowly drifted away from the area of the first bite, I saw a splash. Believing it to be the unlucky victim trying to remove it's unwanted piercing, I hopelessly threw the new jig in it's direction. With some sort of miracle, I made contact with something. It turned out I snagged the broken off line! Quickly I dropped everything and started hand-lining it in, hoping to retrieve my jig, but the fish came up as well! The decent sized pike had unfortunately inhaled the jig, and he was badly gill hooked. I tried in vain to save him and ended up with a dead fish and a bloody mess in the kayak. He tagged along the kayak on a makeshift stringer for the rest of the day. Eventually given to a cottage builder for dinner. The rest of the windy and splashy day was filled with a number of good sized pike, mostly caught on a mepps aglia long #5. White seems to do really well for pike on this lake. Even after skipping some of the lake after a mad dash to the launch racing scary clouds, I ended up with 8 pike landed total, 7 of which were all pretty nice sized. This is the most pike I've ever caught in a single day so far! Definitely better than all the hammer handles I caught here on warmer days. A cottage owner shared that he caught a 20lber recently... I might try to sneak back here again on a calmer day and try my luck again...

Prob one of, if not the last trip to my favourite lake this year depending on weather. Today was a numbers game. Many fish landed but mostly small. Had a 4-5lb largie that broke off at the knot on a dropshot... I had retied the setup on a previous outing with 3x tippet for stealth and it seems there was either damage to the fluoro or I was just pulling too hard... Found a use for my TDEye rod. Using it for Texas senkos exclusively now. Found out I could launch those things comically far with this rod lol. Could also achieve some precision skips/casts as well. I don't seem to miss hooksets either, pretty nice I don't have to retire it On another note, I finally got a lake smallie on a streamer! I had tied this white shiny bucktail fly with a removable curly tail specifically for big pike, but finding my 8wt doesn't have enough punch (not helped by my ass casting skills), I removed the curly tail and did jerk strips like jerkbaits. Well it worked! Between wind gusts, I casted at a structure known to hold fish, and stripped it in just like a jerkbait, and this feisty guy smashed the fly! I was so happy I could have ended the day right there lol I'm starting to feel the difference between pike and bass hits. While a bass grabbing a lure may hit hard, a pike really puts its entire body into it. Quite a few times now I've nearly had the rod yoinked out of my hands when a pike full sent it into my lure, and these are not big fish! A trophy pike would probably actually take a rod from me lol

Went out to Georgian Bay for pike and muskie ended up feeding the birds with gobies and hooking over 10 rock bass on shrimp. Last pike sighting there was about 3 months ago. A guy who caught one muskie and over 70 pike last year said he can’t figure out what’s going on this season.

My kayak fishing this year is finished by today. With the great help from Danny Danny Liu My native slayer max12.5 is installed with trolling motor and upgraded! I got the chance to visit the great lakes in Ontario. Today I almost got skunked(hooked 2 small mouth and 1 pike but lost all three due to cheap hooks…) but the last 5 cast got this 3.5lber and saves the day! What a great finish! Never give up. Looking forward to steelhead fishing this year!

Forced myself to stay on the fly most of the day, and managed to fool 3 pikes. 2 dinkos that were fun to see the strikes, and the larger one nearly took the rod out of my hand when he slammed the minnow pattern. Hooked a 2lber smallie but hook didn't stay, lost it after 1 jump. I'm starting to realize the super fast walleye rod may not be good for bass fishing..... Thinking back, I think most of my hooksets with this rod were bad... Oh well time to shop for a new rod 💸

Bling bling bass fisherman 😁😁