Tackle Shop's Gay Pink Worm

   Two weeks ago Tackle Shop, the Russian and his friend Brian went to the Scugog River. TS and Brian had great success using a bright pink worm while the Russian struggled to get a solitary bite using conventional tackle.When asked if he would like to try one, the Russian replied; " I don't want your stupid, gay pink worm!"

  Thus was born an instant classic with the Dead Fisher Crew.

  Last week in the same location the worm struck out and spinners were the go-to baits.

Pigeon River

  Jump ahead to this past Saturday and TS and myself returned to the same general area once again. Along the way there we made a slight detour east to the village of Omemee on the Pigeon River. Just like the Scugog River, it's shallow, weedy, slow moving tea stained water is ideal for bass, walleye and musky. We stopped at several bridges along the way and Tackle Shop's worm was starting to show it's chops right away with several small bass from each location. As the river nears Omemee it widens into a large swampy area that offers better shore fishing than the bridges.

 
  I'd spent well over an hour covering the water with a selection of extra large spinners, gradually decreasing their size as time went on in the hopes of seeing any action at all. Seeing my lack of production, Tackle shop offered me a gay pink worm and I had to tell him to "keep it in your pants buddy, I'm pitching hardware". By the time we we left the area TS's worm had accounted for over 20 small bass and I'd yet to get a bite!

Hardly looks smug at all

  We drove a short distance into the village looking for lunch and another access point to the water and found a small river side park with several tents set up. One was a BBQ food vendor and the other, to our surprise, was a local tackle manufacturer, Bruces Tackle Box, that specializes in bass and musky tackle. The first thing TS pointed out was a bag of pink worms. I chose not to notice as I had my eye on a tray of beautiful crankbaits marked down to $2 each. I bought them all. Screw the worms!

   Well fed, a pocket full of new crankbaits, and a couple more bass under TS's belt, we left Omemee for the Scugog river. Overlooked by us was the fact that by mid day Saturday there was no room at the bridge and after paying for dock access at the marina we found the river unfishable because of all the pleasure boat traffic. Luckily we had searched  Google Earth for an alternative, out of the way site, several miles up Cross Creek.

Cross Creek

   Arriving at the new location we saw a wide, weed choked bend in the creek with huge floating mats of algae. TS went to work immediately while I was content to oversee the action from atop the bridge. It had been a long, hot, unproductive day for me and I had little inclination to try and fish this slop with lures and I'd had that stupid gay pink worm shoved in my face way too many times to give him the satisfaction of trying it out now!

   Immediately TS pulled a keeper from a pocket in the weeds.

     Followed immediately by another.

 

  And another...and so on...
When he finally tired of the game, an hour before sundown, he'd caught well over 40 bass on that stupid gay pink worm. I threw a perfect game of no hits, no runs, and no fish. I probably should have bought that bag from Bruce!

This one's for you Blake!

This one's for me!

This one's for everyone