I am very pleased to give you a report on my latest fishing excursion. The Trent River system (aka Trent-Severn Waterway) in Ontario, has been one of my favorite destinations to go and practise the art of fishing and try to become as complete an angler as possible. Historically, this has proven to be a daunting task. Here is my latest.
On the Victoria Day long weekend I booked a beautiful cabin on the shores of the Trent between Hastings and Campbellford, from my friends Catherine and Don at Terrace Lawn Cottages. I met up with my fishing pal, Kelly, who picked me up in his boat and off we went to try and catch a few walleyes and northern pike. Our priority was to catch walleye, however, the northerns seemed to be the order of the day.
The weather was what I would consider perfect for fishing, warm with slightly overcast skies. Kelly and I started jigging the bottom in about fifteen feet of water off a reef and along a weedline. A good spot for some walleye to ambush our offerings but we caught pike. I switched to an orange jointed rapala and tried a stop and go retrieve. This is one of my favorite spring tactics, casting into shallow water and slowly use this pull and pause technique. I caught more pike. We tried many more walleye standards but all we caught were pike.
So I accepted the fact that we were pike fishing and switched to a big shiny spinnerbait. On the first cast didn’t I catch a fifteen inch walleye. It ended up being the only one I was able to catch all weekend. That’s fishing for you. The more I think I have the answers, the more surprised I get. Nothing wrong with a little dose of humility.
The thing I love the most about the Trent Severn Waterway system is we always catch something. My friends, Kelly and Scotty, and I have hooked into some really nice fish on this river. Big largemouth and smallmouth bass (season opens last Saturday in June), some large muskies, walleye, northern pike, jumbo perch, rock bass, pumpkinseed and bluegill sunfish. What also appeals is the opportunity to spend some quality time with my close friends on the water. It helps me stay in the present and forget about everything else for awhile.
The one unfortunate thing about my stay at Terrace Lawn Cottages was that my sons Cam and Nate were not there this time. But, we will be there again soon fishing together, catching fish, a proud papa and his two favorite people in the world.
Tight lines and sharp hooks
Pete
Awesome…I wrote a couple articles on Walleye fishing but here’s the hook…Fly-Fishing for them, a friend of mine use the same fly as a trailer and casted…low and behold he was pulling them out like crazzy.
I still now and then concentrate on walleye fishing and use my friend method. It works…so why not…
Tight line guys and good fishing
Guy Martin
Great pictures!!The Trent River at it’s best.See you soon Peter.
Hope you let that baby walleye go!
Great information, I just bookmarked you.
Sent from my iPad 4G
Thanks for the read. Good fishing at the mouth of the Trent as well.
For pickerel / walleye. Would love to hear back from you Jeff on what you fish at mouth. Thanks for commenting on Roadstories.ca. Much appreciated.