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It's hot up here...for NY standards. Also, the fish are in spawn mode. I thought they would be done by now.
Water temps in the mid 60's. Air close to 90.
They don' have A/C up here....YIKES!
The armada...11 people, 3 cabins. Greg and I have our own.
This is from last night before hitting the hot bed.
Day 1
We picked Craig up at his cottage at 0730.
Some random pics Greg took.
Fishing was slow but Craig got a couple of beauties.
Fattest 18"er I have ever seen!
30.5" pike!
Greg got one too.
I just guided.
Late lunch at Alexandria Bay.
So much water to explore...may try for yellow perch later.
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Nice pics! No A/C...good thing you like it hot!
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Don’t like it hot when sleeping!
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No yellow perch tonight...gotta go find them!
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Ernie wrote:
Don’t like it hot when sleeping!
Of course not. Just joking. Hope it cools down.
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drxfish wrote:
Hope it cools down.
Not until Wednesday.
We will change our smallie finding tactics tomorrow....so much water to cover!
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I'm with you Ernie - not a fan of a hot room when sleeping
Good luck finding them tomorrow (or today?)
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There is lower unit just outside Fishers Landing that shut down my fishing there. Luckily it was not my boat and so we did not get to fish the tourny. Drove home next day.
Capt Mike
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We cross the channel and it's 113' of water. Rises quickly and then there are some slightly submerged rocks. Glad I have the jet boat up here and can completely understand losing a lower unit.
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And fish?
Last edited by hookup (Jun-22-20 1:51PM)
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Day 2
Picked up Craig at his doc at 0730. He hollers out, "hey, my Uber driver is here"! He is a 27 year Army veteran and we are glad to have him on the boat as he has been up here before. Loves to throw the jerk bait!
Better fishing today now that we know what to do.
My disclaimer: I do not like fishing bass beds and that is what we have to do to catch them as they are on beds. We release them right away. The smaller ones (no pics) were males.
The others are like K2 footballs. When you 1st see them, you think it's a monster but they are just 15-16 overgrown smallies. Incredible animals.
But, more random pics by Greg, our new official photographer.
And here are some of the fish (we caught a dozen or so). Most all on jerk baits but two on altered ned rigs.
Can someone tell me what this fall fish was thinking?
Back at it in the morning and then some heat relief coming. We are getting off the water by 1-2p...
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There's a fella staying next door who has been coming up for 35 years or so. Six weeks at a time. Fishes tourneys.
He says this is the 2nd hottest time he's experienced up here.
He gave us some great advice that paid off today. While ned, senko and drop shot were on the list, we stayed with jerk baits most of the day. Way more fun and it doesn't feel like you are robbing the nest.
He too likes to yellow perch fish and want a load of them to send some fillets to friends. He has not found any yet in the shallows. I bet they are still deep like the white perch do at spawn time. If I find them, they may not be able to pry me away!
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Luv the tail on the last one
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A couple of them still had eggs. A 16"er went 3.5lbs! Incredible!
BTW, it's 87df at 6:30p. The locals are dying!
Big weather changes tomorrow...will shut them down some more! Aargh!
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What a trip. Glad you are adapting to the situation. We are getting storms here.
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Day 3
Wind forecast was 6-8mph from the SW. They go the SW right but we had white caps in the river even with the wind at the same direction as the current flow. We figure 15-20 mph! Just made it tough to hold the boat in place and feel your lures.
But, we did catch some!
We caught 3 LMB today, new species for the trip.
We caught a few smallies as well.
Here are some of the nicer ones...
But the best was the torpedo that launched under my boat.
Greg was in front, I was mid boat and Craig was in the back. Craig says he has something on but it might be weeds. We wait and watch. Then, the torpedo makes a run and I tell Craig to come forward or he'll get cut off. So I jump to the front deck and tell Greg to go to the back. Craig gets to the front and I go back to mid boat. It's a huge pike that peeling line. He was still 2' below the boat when he turned on the afterburners. Never seen a fish take off like that. Maybe a barracuda. Anyway. he came unbuttoned.
It took Craig an hour to begin to focus again. He could not believe what just happened. Neither could we. I guarantee that he will
have dreams abut it tonight.
Anyway, that was fun.
We had a very interesting experience that just dumbfounded me.
We were in the torpedo cove (getting away from the wind) just slowly drifting. Another boat was about 20 yards away. We each minded our own business. I looked up and saw and older boat coming towards us. Odd. Why don't they turn away? I was ready to start the motor and realized that this numbskull was gonna just ride between us at speed. And SHE did. We hollered at her ad she just looked back as if to say...na na, got ya!
All of wish we had acted sooner and had launched lures at her. What a *****!!
Anyway, the next 2 days look sporty...hoping to be able to get out. One good thing is that the front that moves in tonight will cool down the cottage!
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Right before the storm moved in, one of Danny Grulke's sons caught this nice pike from the dock.
Will be part of tomorrow's fish fry. Apparently, if filleted properly, they are tasty.
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Get some pics of the pike, I'm curious! Also that boat that came at you.....just wow.
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Great adventure. Good luck!
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Day 4
Looks like a blow day as the wind is cranking pretty good. Forecasts are all over the place so we will wait to see if we can get out.
Nope on going out...just some relax time!
Fish fry tonight!
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That's an expensive reading chair! lol. Good way to make the most out of it though
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Those whitecaps look ugly!!!! Hope it calms down.
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It's been a steady 20-30mph blow since we got up. And no let up until later tonight.
Tomorrow looks iffy...
Just went for a nice long power walk and found where the rich folks (A/C) live!
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You look at home on your lounge boat...
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Day 5
Exiting to say the least!
If I were fishing at home, I would not have ventured out with the wind that we had!
The 3 of us took off from Dinghman Pt. at 7:30a and proceeded to cross the channel. The target was Lake of the Isles.The ride was not bad but it was not good either. When you are at the wheel of a jet boat with 1-2 footers, it causes a bit angst.
Anyway, we made it safely and headed to an area that Craig said would be out of the wind and fishable. It was.
More on that in a second.
Go back to Monday night. Greg and I were having dinner on the patio (water's edge) of the Dock of the Bay restaurant. Next to us was a couple, Al and Pauline. We got t talking and he thought I was from NY. They were originally from Brooklyn. I told him I was Cuban and he said, "that explains it" and we became instant friends. They are retired and live in Florida but spend summers up here in their house on Lake of the Isles. As they are leaving, he says to stop by if we fish the lake and told us what his house looks like. Great folks!
Back to fishing.
We get way back and real close to the Canadian border (we were told not to get too close because of the Covid deal) and we start fishing. We knew that there were no bigguns in here but we should get bites. And we did!
So we leave the fish to try the main lake...which was a washing machine. But we knew Al's house was way in the back so we headed there. Not sure Craig was all in to make this visit since he had not met Al and Pauline. I asked Greg if he was good with it and he was so we tied up and I started yelling Al's name. We were pretty sure we were in the right place but no one popped up. So I whistled a few times and lo and behold, out comes Pauline. She tells us that Al is mowing the lawn and tells us to come up...so we did.
All and Pauline are in their mid 70's and full of NY spunk.
We reintroduced ourselves (Al is not good with names) and also introduced Craig.
Next thing you know, Al brings out a couple of beers and Pauline gets me a mandarin water. We sit and chat. And we chat some more. Pretty soon. we are looking at pics of their grand kids. Then pics of Pauline's artwork (she's good) and then pics of boats that Al makes out of pine (from his property).
I'm telling you, we could have stayed for hours! They thought it was so cool that we came by boat! We did too!
All wood!
They invited us to come back.
This was so cool and I think Craig got a melancholy moment (he wants to live here) after talking to these folks. Tough New Yorkers with a heart of gold. Al is a retired NY City cop...among other things. What stories! What a BLAST!!
We fished some more and caught a few more and we headed out of the long lake where the wind was in a frenzy.
Before crossing the channel, we stopped behind a shoal and picked off a few more.
Then, I noticed my gas gauge was really low (motor was working OT fighting current, waves and wind) and I declared that we needed to run back to fill up.
It was a bumpy and wet ride but we were able to get some $3/gal non ethanol fuel.
We decided to go back over and on the way out it was so rough (legit 2-3 footers) that I got soaked from head to toe with 65df water. I was shivering and called it a day.
We caught lots of fish but no big ones.
The boat can take more that I thought it could but it's not built for solid 2 footers in 20+mph winds.
Visiting with Al and Pauline was priceless. Something that I am not likely to forget.
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