Musky road trip

Josh Roelofsen

Well-Known Member
R.O.C. (Radio Operator's Certificate)
Did a 3 day trip with the intention of fishing new waters in search of Musky. Day 1 put us on a smaller Kawartha lake which I have heard has recently suffered the dreaded pike invasion. Musky numbers have not crashed there yet and the chance of a Tiger Musky is a big draw for me. Well the pike had certainly invaded! Landed several and missed several more. Also landed 3 Musky, and lost a couple. Nobe of which were anywhere near trophy size lol
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Day 2 saw us head east a couple hours to a Lake known for some rather large specimens. I had a mid 40's fish eat early in the day but failed to stick her. A couple more follows and then I hooked into a decent fish which my buddy posed with and quickly released.
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A mid day break as the lake was starting to get busy ended with us deciding to head north to a quiet lake in the Ottawa valley. Nearly all of my first 50 or so Musky between the age of 6 and 12 were caught on this particular lake. I Was hoping the fishing would be similar to what I remembered 28yrs ago but that wasn't the case. Similarly to many Kawartha lakes, it became quickly evident this lake had also suffered the dreaded Pike invasion. Lots of action from hammer handles and a few larger swirls/strikes that we couldn't 100% identify but no Musky were landed. We did do a little exploring and managed to navigate a small creek into another lake further up the chain which was similarly pike filled.
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Day 3 saw us stay in the Ottawa valley and explore another new to me waterway. This day started quickly with a solid rip trolling that left some impressive teeth marks in my Crankbait. We continued trolling, exploring the area and found soke incredible scenery and spke incredibly deep water for such a relatively narrow body of water.

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Continuesd below...
 
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Gorgeous country up there and your photos are fantastic as always Josh. Thanks for sharing.
 
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Back towards the launch we took a left and headed up another direction into a more typical river environment and began casting. We quickly had a mid 40's fish follow right to the boat and into the figure 8 then disappear....continuing upriver we soon found a 'dead end' or potentially deadly end :LOL:
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20200725_143503.jpgWe headed back down river and began trolling again to cover water and had another rip and some more teeth marks but again failed to stick the fish. And that was it for action for the rest of the day.

Not a bad trip overall, Saw/Hooked Musky everyday which isnt always easy on new water. Knocked a few more waters off the 'to do' list and enjoyed some great weather and scenery....

Josh
 
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