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Bob seems to have a way with getting fishing intel. This intel came from Tom, a friend of Bob's and who I've fished with a few times now. He was there the day I caught my first ever Lake Trout. Today, the intel was that Lake Joseph in Ontario Canada was HOT! Tom said he had about 4 Trout before noon on the spot he was going to take us to.
We loaded up relatively early at Trombly's Tackle Box, which is where we met up with Bryan who was going to come along too. We took the hour drive north and prayed that the rain was going to hold off for a bit while we smacked these Trout with some confidence.
Confidence was the wrong thing we brought with us. We lined up on the existing holes that Tom had used the day before. We even started marking fish relatively quick. I started out with my usual bait, a small minnow imitation that caught me rainbows the week before on Georgian Bay. They didn't show interest and I noticed that they wouldn't even come up the foot I had it at. I switched to my other rod, a 7gr Vibrato in Natural Shiner.
It wasn't long before the marks came back and I marked a BIG mark. I'm talking HUGE. I've never seen a mark this big on my graph before. I dropped my Vibrato to the bottom and started to twitch it. It took a few bits as he looked it over and then there it was, a big weight on my rod. Almost as quickly as I raised the rod I felt the line go slack. I could tell right away that it didn't feel like a break off. I stood there for a bit, confused at what had just happened. He cut through my line. I doubted it was a Trout but the boys assured me, it could have been a massive trout. I feel like it was more likely a Pike or Musky.
I only had the one Vibrato like that, so I was a bit sore that I lost it but looking into my tackle bag I was even more sore. I had forgotten all my tackle at the house. The week before was a wet rainy day on Georgian Bay for Rainbows and all my gear got soaked. I had taken my tackle box out and set it out to dry - and never put it back into my bag. Thankfully I have friends who carry a lot of the same tackle I do and are willing to share. I borrowed Bobs Holo Greenie version of the Vibrato, although in a larger 14gr.
It wasn't long until more marks came and you guessed it... I lost another bait to a biter. Frustration had set in. I missed two really good fish and no one else was hooking up either. I needed a minute to compose myself so I walked around and made fun of the situation with the guys. After borrowing yet another vibrato and fishing the area for a bit longer we decided to pop a few more holes and move around. Eventually we setup about 300 yards up the shoreline to another spot Tom said he did well with.
We popped our three holes and just shot the junk while we waited for marks. Bob finally saw his rod go down but a swing and a miss left him minnowless. Looks like live bait was at least getting a bit of attention here. Bryan decided to put on a plain old jig head and a minnow and bop that on bottom for a bit. He had one swing and a miss as well but on the second go round he managed to pop him in the top of the mouth. We finally had a fish top side! With a bit of hesitation he decided to bring him home for supper (us bass guys seem to have a catch and keep issue I guess).
I'd like to say that's when things started to turn on, and I think if we had more time and more minnows we would have been able to get a few more fish top side. But we all had to get home so we packed it up and headed out. At least the rain kept off and the wind stayed down. Not to mention, a bunch of guys out having a romp on the lake is always a good time. Next time Joe.... Next time.