Georgina
June 06, 2007 09:58 PM
By: Wil Wegman
The Aurora Bassmasters held its annual pike tournament out of Keswick on the pike-filled waters of Lake Simcoe, May 27.
Despite unsettled weather, the majority of teams still managed to catch plenty of northerns down in Cook’s Bay, not far from the launch and weigh-in site at Pasadena Marina.
The winners with the heaviest three pikewere the hometown team of Mike Caesar and Bob Hartley,who trolled to catch 27.05 pounds of pike.
The average pike weighed about five pounds, but several more than seven were also brought in.
The winners with the heaviest three pike were the hometown team of Mike Caesar and Bob Hartley, who trolled #4 Mepps Spinners to catch 27.05 pounds of pike.
They had two pike more than 10 pounds and a 10.93 pounder won the overall big pike category for them as well.
Bob Kendall and his son, Chris, placed second with 21.81 lbs and Carlo Puiatti and Tom Tsatskas were a close third with 21.62 lbs.
Last week, we left off promising to write about a productive alternative to jigging for lake trout on Lake Simcoe.
For those unfamiliar with the scene out there, typically what happens is folks go out primarily for the more plentiful whitefish and jig for them near the bottom in 65 to 75 feet of water.
The lures of choice are spoons, such as the Williams Whitefish in half gold and half silver finish.
This is a time-tested lure and the jigging technique produces copious numbers of Lake Simcoe whitefish during the hard and open water seasons.
Invariably, what happens, though, is anglers also catch the occasional lake trout at the same time.
For most, they consider the lakers a nice bonus fish.
What about those who may want to target the less plentiful lake trout?
Well, of course you could invest in a pair of quality down-riggers and troll for them.
You could also try a lead-core line that can also keep your baits in the laker strike zone.
Or you can try dragging for lake trout, a relatively obscure technique that has paid big dividends for me this spring.
Here’s how it works:
You start with a three or four- inch white storm jigging swim shad.
The smaller jigs are used when the water is flat calm and maintaining bottom contact is not a problem.
With these, I use a seven-foot medium/heavy Rapala signature series rod and large spinning reel that can accommodate plenty of eight-pound test Berkley vanish transition line.
When there is a bit of a chop, I use heavier jigs and, therefore, beefier tackle – a 6-1/2 to seven-foot medium/heavy baitcasting rod and reel outfit with 12 to 14- pound test line.
I then simply cast it out as far as it will go, let out twice as much line and then, with the bow-mounted electric motor begin to cruise around slowly – the whole time dragging the swim shad behind the boat.
Why so effective?
One key reason is this bait greatly resembles the large shiners or smelt on which the Lake Simcoe trout are feeding.
By slowly moving around with the quiet electric instead of sitting still vertically jigging, you have a natural horizontal presentation non-aggressive lake trout find hard to resist.
Although many lake trout have been caught near bottom this spring, occasionally, they are caught elsewhere within the water column, so, periodically, I lift the rod up high while dragging for a moment or two to allow the bait to ride well off bottom.
This can often trigger those suspended fish into hitting.
When to try.
My most productive times have been whenever I am not marking a lot of bait fish on the sonar while sitting still.
I then begin to move around looking for them, instead of waiting in one spot before they find me.
This often occurs upon arrival first thing in the morning.
In fact, the last time I was out, I tried this technique before I began to focus on jigging for whitefish and landed two nice lake trout right off the bat before I even had a whitie sniff at one of my baits.
Later that morning, jigging produced a limit (two) of whitefish, so it was a productive morning.
An effective alternative to these jigging shads has been a simple quarter to half-ounce tube jig that also can be dragged for lake trout.
Don’t be surprised however, if this bait and technique also yields some nice whitefish, which may just want their dinner served a little different than the standard up, down, up, down jigging method they see every day out there.
And remember, if you catch a whitefish measuring more than 22 inches, a laker more than 26, or pike more than 30 inches, check out www.ontarioanglerawards.com and enter it to be eligible for our own Focus on Fishing award.