Thursday, July 14, 2011

Trent River

  OK... so I've gotten my act together.. somewhat. There's a new fridge in my kitchen stocked with all kinds of good stuff for the BBQ, a brand new cell phone to finally bring me into the new millennium, and most importantly... internet access. So I'm blogging again.

  On July 3, several hours after my last post, Tackle Shop roused me from a sound sleep by pounding on my apartment window at 4:30am. All I knew the day before was our destination, Trenton, so it was a complete surprise to see the Russian in the van and a stop along the way to pick up another long lost friend...Treefrog. So at the crack of dawn I found myself surrounded by three characters en route to one of my favorite fishing holes.

  What makes Trenton so special is the fact that it's the first of 45 locks on the Trent Severn Waterway which connects Lake Ontario in the south to Georgian Bay, 250 miles to the northwest on Lake Huron. In the first ten miles north of the Bay of Quinte there are five locks and dams where at any time there is the chance of catching any species that swims in the Great Lakes, all easily accessible and wadeable for the adventurous angler.

    Our collective anticipation was like a living thing pushing us toward an unknown goal, ever increasing as the distance to our destination dwindled until we parked the van and scrambled down to the river in search of a prime location to land a dream. Tackle Shop and Treefrog immediately rigged up and took position on the near wing of the dam, amazed at the large schools of giant carp playing follow the leader in and out of the current, while the Russian and I started pitching heavy metal, wading near the tailout of the plunge pool several hundred yards downstream. This was only the second time this year that I'd started the day out with the spinning gear and I was quickly rewarded for that decision with a strike that nearly ripped the rod from my hands. After almost a minute of questioning myself what I'd hooked into, a "nearly subdued" 20"+ smallmouth swam between my legs and impaled the treble hook into my calf, thus securing his freedom and supplying me with a painful fish tale.
He was grinning ear to ear right up to when I snapped this pic 
  
  Next in line for a surprise was the Russian. He'd been cycling through his tackle until a #5 Mepps struck gold. Close to five minutes were spent "winching" in line, only to have the river monster take it back again, until finally what looked like an ancient piece of driftwood in the depths coalesced into a trophy sized musky right at our feet! Too bad we don't use wire leaders as I'm sure the Russian would have loved to have had a  picture of the beast and kept his Mepps at the same time!

  By this time TS and Treefrog had quit the dam for quieter waters and joined us to fish a back eddy. I'd switched to my fly rod hoping for a large predator, but kept myself amused with the occasional small bass and rockbass. Several times over the next few hours we'd witnessed monstrous fish jump and roll right before us, but unfortunately we'd had our chances earlier in the day and there were few decent takes by noon. A few hours before we packed up the Russian pointed out what must have been a sturgeon "breaching" in the center of the pool
TS & the Russian...an angling cold war
    After noon it was time for a change of scenery so we traveled a few miles upstream to lock #5 in Frankford. As we'd done earlier, TS and Treefrog zigged right and the Russian and I zagged left. After several hours we'd determined the main pool was devoid of life (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) so the others satisfied themselves with fishing over the high water edge of the dam while I explored the many tailouts with an olive woolly bugger. I finally found where the fish were hiding and after twenty 8 to 14 inch smallmouth I was informed that we were leaving for home.
Frankford lock tailout
  I realize that I didn't take too many pictures this time, but I never noticed that Treefrog was missing in all of them until we were back home. So... it wouldn't feel right without exposing showing a picture of him from exactly 2 years ago near lock #45, Port Severn.
anyone know what this bug is?

6 comments:

  1. i know what that bug is! creepy as all get out

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  2. Good to hear that things are beginning to get in sync for you. You guys sure had a run at some good fish, too! Cold water wading in shorts are for the real tough guys!!

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  3. Nothing like an early morning rise with a huge musky on the line. Great pics of the area. Glad you and your buddies had a good day on the water. Tight Lines. Crazy bug pic.

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  4. Ahhhhh Grasshopper, I know what that bug is "BAIT", Get it on the hook haha,
    Good to see you are all out catching fish & enjoying yourselves, You deserve it,
    ,,,Paddy,,,

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  5. great blog....imteresting reading. i love anything to do with lure fishing, bass fishing and just good fishing.
    The bug looks like a praying mantis.

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