Fishing Lac St Louis can be sort of overwhelming if you don't know the waterway at all. First place to start is having a proper boat and motor to be able to handle waves and current, as well as to have the ability to run long distances in short amounts of time when the need arises. Next, a sonar and GPS with Navionics map of the area is very important. It's crucial to be able to tell what depth you are fishing or trolling in, and to be conscious of the hundreds of shoals and trenches that exist in the river.
Best bet to successfully fish Lac St Louis around Montreal, is to have a guide that knows the river well take you for an outing or two. Besides for having all the necessary equipment, they know which sections are productive and conducive to successfully targeting the fish species you'll be fishing for. You'll also learn which of the spots are productive, not mention catching a lot more fish.
Despite having a very good knowledge of the river and many hotspots marked, fishing guides still need to scout their fishing spots before taking out clients to fish. Water levels and temperature fluctuate every season, which directly affects were a given species of fish may be holding.
I'm lucky enough to have some good friends that guide on the river around Montreal, so every know and then, I get invited to help them do some scouting. When scouting spots for the next day, whether a guided outing or a tournament, is is important not to sit on one or 2 spots and fish them out. Rather, once you catch a few good fish, mark the spot for the next day, and head out to find more productive fishing spots. This typically ensures excellent fishng condition when required, but a bit tougher on the ones doing the scouting. Either way, the challenge makes it more rewarding when it all comes together and you're putting fish on the deck.
This week, my friend Jimmy invited me out for an afternoon/evening outing, preceding a guided outing he had the following day. Northern pike were the target species. Our goal for the afternoon was to catch a couple dozen, but more importantly, to find some spots with good concentrations of pike.
We started strong, catching about 15 pike or so in our first couple spots, mainly on Spinnerbaits, and a few on jerkbaits as well.
Not wanting to overfish the hot spots, we headed off to some other areas. Unfortunately, we only managed another fish or two over the next 3 to 4 hours. The water was also littered with cotton like moss from the trees, which kept catching on our lines, making casting very difficult.
Finally, towards evening, my patience with casting started wearing thin, due to the conditions, and lack of any action from the fish. I suggested some trolling to change things up a bit. After seeing a big perch follow one of Jimmy's lures, I tied on a perch pattern Rapala Countdown, and we started trolling. Result wa almost immediate, I hooked and landed a nice walleye just under 4 lbs within a couple minutes.
We trolled for another hour or so, landing another 7 or 8 pike before ti was time to call it a day. That evening troll definitely saved the day.
The following morning, I headed out with Mike to pre fish Lac St Louis for walleye, as Mike had an upcoming tournament in a couple days. I brought Avi along for the scouting, as an extra rod is always welcome when trolling, and I owed him a day off school to fish due some some very good marks on his report card.
We got set up shortly after 8 AM, and started catching fish almost immediately, mainly pike with a nice walleye as well.
After catching about a dozen pike, we headed off to scout another section of the river. this portion has very few pike, and typically more walleye. We didn't even have time to get all the rods out, Avi got a big hit on his line. Fish was pulling hard and straight down, telltale signs of a nice walleye. Sure enough, we saw it's big head and nice girth when it surfaced, Avi did a great job of keeping calm and steady pressure n the fish all the way to the landing net. I scooped up the big walleye, measured in over 26 inches, and probably over 6.5 lbs, Avi's biggest walleye by far.
A few minutes later, we hooked into a smaller one, probably in the 3 lbs or so range.
After catching another pike and a small bass, we left the spots for some more scouting. With a heat wave coming in, and the sun shining bright, the walleye seemed to shut down. No more hits in the next 2 spots, Mike called it a day around 1 PM.
On our way home, Our plan was to stop and scout 2 spots near Montreal for carp. Both spots are areas where I typically don't fish until late October and November, but I wanted to see how they fish and whether or not they'd be productive in spring. Both of my carp spots already have heavy weed growth, and the wing blew all sorts of debris in shallow where I was casting. First spot yielded a nice sized redhorse sucker, Avi's biggest ever at 3.5 lbs.
The hot sun beating down on us was getting intense, felt like 30 degrees with the heat factor. Avi started complaining about the heat, so we head off to my second spot to scout for carp, where I knew we could get under some trees for shade. The move paid off quickly, Avi landed his first carp of the season within 1/2 hour of getting our lines set up.
We headed home about an hour later.
All in all, 2 solid days of scouting fishing posts, Avi learned some valuable scouting lessons, and got onto some great fishing in addition to beating 2 of his personal records.
For guided fishing trips around Montreal with the best fishing guides in the Montreal area, refer to my recommended fishing guides page on my web site by clicking:
http://freshwaterphil.com/fishing-guides.cfm
No comments:
Post a Comment