# gearing up for a week in Canada



## pizza (Apr 4, 2008)

It looks like I will be heading to Cranberry Lake (Ontario)at the end of August for a week. Its about a 13 hour drive, nonstop. If anyone has any experience up there and advice for lures/techniques I would appreciate it. Sounds like mostly smallies and northerns (which is perfect for me!).

I was at my step-dads tonite (he's got a woodshop) and cut out some blanks from some scrap mahogony. Got home and realized I probably need something much bigger!!!

I'm gonna shape some of them for now, but I need to get some wire thicker than 0.031" diameter. If anyone can tell me what to get from a place like home depot, let me know or will I have to special order it? 

I've been taking a break lately from building lures but am VERY excited to make some bigger plugs.

Shown are the finished lures I made for Canada. Unfortunately I didn't catch any fish on them. I did have one on the perch crank but it got away. Also I did catch a couple (one pike, one largie) on another lure that I had previously made (about 4" and 5/8 oz) which is shown(the big pic). The water was deep (26-38 feet in many places we fished) and I barely fished cranks. I fished tiki sticks(wacky rigged with split shots about 15" above, or texas rigged with 1/8 oz bullet), Countdown Rapala 11's (and countdown jointed 11's), and 1/2 oz Kastmasters a lot.


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

PIzz, you might try 3/8 poplar for baits that size. Lowes and Home Depot usually carry it.

Good luck with your upcoming trip. Sounds like it will be a lot of fun.


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## pizza (Apr 4, 2008)

More pics. 38" (and fat) northern (shallow shad rap 9 in perch). 4.5 lb smallie(senko). 4.7 lb largie -upper pic of the two largies(tiki stick-sweet potato pie) and 4.9 lb largie (tiki stick).

I got a 4.2 lb smallie, 4.0 lb smallie, and 3.5+ (we didn't weigh it bc we didn't think it was a 4 lber)smallie on 3 consecutive casts. We were in +/-36 feet of water and they were hitting deep (towards the bottom)-many times on the fall. I got the three consecutive on the countdown rapala and my buddy was getting them on senkos. On my third cast I said, "watch this I'm gonna go 3 for 3". I had a nice one on and lost it. Then about 10-15 seconds later my lure (CD rapala 11 in perch) got nailed again. Unbelievable -close to 12 lbs of smallies on 3 consecutive casts! Those were all the 4 lb bass caught. Many (approximately equal numbers of largies and smallies)in the 2-3.7 lb range and hardly any dinks. Also many times when you'd reel in a nice smallie from deep water there would be another pig that would come up to "see what was going on". It was quite the sight!

Also shown are the two I caught on my handmade that is shown at the bottom of the first post. I may have caught another pike on it but I'm not sure. I didn't even remember catching the largmouth on it until I looked at the pics lol.

Also all my lures trolled well(except the shad, I need to cut the lip down on it). But I didn't troll much - the times I did I was in the 10 foot jon and you can't troll all that much (perhaps an hour and a half per battery on the speed of 5 with a minn kota 36 which I don't think is even fast enough. I carried a spare battery to weight the front and also use. The large pike was quite the catch. It was my first day trolling and I had no idea what I was doing. When we got there, some people said troll 10-15 feet from shore. Well that wasn't happening (picking up too many weeds). So I had been trolling for about 2.5 hours and nada a bite. I'm in the middle of the lake thinking how nice the scenery was but I had been trolling for a while and nothing. I was thinking one big pike would make the trip. I was holding my 2 rods with my hands since I didn't have rod holders. Later in the trip I "bettered" my trolling technique by holding one rod behind both my knees and the other by hand. So then all of a sudden a fish just slams the shallow shad rad 9 in perch (medium light st croix with 8 lb trilene XL- I know shame on me). I knew it was a big pike and it went on numerous runs. Then it gets all tangled up with my other line. I had cut the motor, and since I had a big fish on couldn't exactly reel in my other pole. So I have to open up my bail and let this fish swim for about a minute while I work my entire fishing pole through a loop of the other's line - the fish is just swimming away! I'm about 200 yards from shore and know there is no way I am gonna land this fish in the boat so I start trying to work the jon towards shore (a small island actually). After many runs and what seemed like 10 minutes I finally see this thing (what a sight) and then my line does one of those "get stuck taught around eyelet #3 so you can't reel in" - I have no clue how this happened but I'm freakin out thinking I'm about to lose this fish. My line is taught, the fish is about 15 feet from the boat and if it would have decided to take off line would have broke. I open the bail and undo the line from around the eyelet. Needless to say I'm still a ways from shore and the fish goes on some more runs. Finally I get to shore (the fish is barely hooked with only a single prong of the rear treble) and I remember my buddy saying that when they get in close the pike like to go on a run. I planned on it and it did. Finally when I think the fish is worn out I am able to get about 35&#37; of the fish in what is probably the smallest net Frabill makes (I wasn't prepared for big pike). I fling the pike up on shore and right away the lure is out of its mouth and in the net. Snapped 4 pics (the one shown is the only one that turned out good) and released her. Catching that pike was the highlight of my trip. The gods were clearly looking out for me that day.


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## pizza (Apr 4, 2008)

More pics. Sunsets, creek entrance, we saw a bear! And the leopard frog lived in front of the cabin and was very tame and let me pet it. This pike (countdown jointed rapala 11 black/silver)was 36" and 8.3 lbs. The 38" was much fatter. Next biggest pike was 29".

That vacation was awesome. I haven't been fishing since I've been back (12 days) and have no desire to lol.


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## pizza (Apr 4, 2008)

a few more pics. The three consecutive smallies(complete with chopped off head -the first pic somehow got reversed when I was rotating/flipping the image), There were about 5-6 different types of lilies. Many were flowering.

Also a couple mornings I woke up and fished from the shore in front of the cabin at about 6 am. When it got cold at night and vapor was coming off the water in the morning, I landed a pike on a stanley ribbit topwater frog (had a few more on/hit the frog on but never landed). When it didn't get cold at night and there was no vapor coming off the water surface I didn't get any bites in the morning. The smallies were footballs already, and the people up there were saying that the 2nd and 3rd week of Sept is when the fish really start fattening up for winter...

Canada is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## triton175 (Feb 21, 2006)

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
We leave tomorrow for a week in northern Ontario (Horwood Lake, near Timmins). I made 16 new lures for this trip, so I hope to catch lots of pike and walleye with them.

Brian


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## crittergitter (Jun 9, 2005)

Awesome pics Pizza. Good to have you back.

CG


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## rjbass (Aug 1, 2007)

Looks like you had a great trip...great pics!

Rod


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## pizza (Apr 4, 2008)

triton175 said:


> Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
> We leave tomorrow for a week in northern Ontario (Horwood Lake, near Timmins). I made 16 new lures for this trip, so I hope to catch lots of pike and walleye with them.
> 
> Brian



Best of Luck Brian and thanks! I'm jealous, the first thing I did when I got back home was try to find someone to go back up there with me lol (I wanna see what the pike and smallies look like once they start putting on the feed bags?!?!?!). Be sure to take some Senko or Senko style soft plastics (and some split shots, bullet wts, etc). I had never fished a soft plastic of this style until this trip, and that type of bait was what we generally had the most success on (its the only bait one of the guys threw, I threw a lot of other stuff). They were just nailing them. On our last night there a "very mini" storm blew in and we must have pulled at least 12 largies in the 1.5-3.5 pound range off a single stump (in about 8, maybe 10 feet of water)- all on these. I was throwing tiki sticks, the guys I was with were throwing original senkos - they seemed to produce a little better. Also (although I am generally not a fan of the spray scents), the YUM garlic spray seemed to help. When things got slow, I'd spray some of that on and it seemed to work.


Also just so everyone knows, starting June 1, 2009 you will need a passport to come back into the U.S. Right now all you need is an I.D. (like a driver's license), and your original birth certificate.

Thanks VC111 (got some poplar lined up for future lures), RJ, and CG!


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