Collingwood canada day weekend

[RockandTroll]

Went out of Collingwood for a sunset cruise last night. Dropped a couple of lines in for the hell of it. Didn't really expect to catch anything.
Put a purple and white spoon down 100 over 109 fow set back 100 from the ball and similar spoon on a 300 copper.
Rigger fired in just a few minutes and boated a 7 lb chinook. Hand lined him in because I did not have the net out considering I wasn't expecting to catch anything.
300 copper fires a little while later and I am bringing that in when my wife says the rigger rod looks funny. Looked over and it's bouncing like its on bottom, checked the depth finder to make sure but not even close so it's a double. Give her the rest of the 300 and take the rigger rod to keep it away until the copper is clear. Small chinook comes in on the copper and I bring a 10 lb chinook right in behind it.
3 for 3 in 2 hours. Way better that I was expecting and it was a beautiful night to boot.
Things might be looking up for Georgian bay. Fish all looked healthy and were released quickly so I can catch them again another night.
Now if we could just get some of those 30 pounders!

Mike

[John]

Awesome Mike
What a night to be out there! You may have to enter that picture in the spoonpullers photo contest.

[Bigbadbravo]

Nice sunset pic for sure. 

You got any pics of the fish?

[Grandpa Jim]

Great post and sunset pic. Even after all these years on the Bay, I still struggle to understand why GB chinook seem to ignore "temperature preferences", especially at the beginning and end of the day. It is not unusual at all to find decent salmon way up in the warm water column. I run a full core off a planer board all summer and it is not unusual to have a salmon whack the spoon or Lyman despite the warm water at depths of 45 or 50 feet despite being well off shore.

[RockandTroll]

Fished yesterday afternoon out of collingwood. Wind was up and it was rough but decided to go anyway. Trolled from the Harbour along the shore to the corner and then all the way to the main drag at Wasaga. Got one hit on a 300 copper and it didn't stick. Trolled all the way there between 107 and 80 ft of water.
Trolled reversed route all the way back in shallower working the 60 to 80 ft areas. Marked a lot more bait etc but nothing was hitting.
Made it back to just out front of collingwood about 1/2 hour before the sun set and the fish turned on like a light switch. Boated 5 salmon and one good bow in an hour. Largest salmon weighed at 14 lbs.
First fist hit the slider so I move the riggers up to 30 and 35 ft.
They hit one after another as fast as I could reset.
As grandpa Jim said the fish were way out of temp. At 35 ft t was about 65 degrees.
Next time I think we will just cruise for the afternoon and not bother putting the rods in until an hour before sunset.
Here's a pic of the screen with bait full width with some nice hooks under it. It was only in 43 fow.

[John]

Thanks R&T
The Alewives in GBay seem to stay in isolated areas and most that I have seen stay shallow. There is a healthy population from Twelve Mile Bay to Parry Sound and they can be found in 20 to 50 ft. Like all fish salmon will choose preferred food over comfort so I suspect water temps become less relevant for much of the day. 

When we were pike fishing near the Moon River the pike were full of alewives. They locals were catching salmon at the mouth of Twelve Mile.

[RockandTroll]

Went out last night out of collingwood with friend from work and although it was rough we managed to boat 3 rainbows and one salmon with a lamprey attached.
Went out from 6:30 to 9:30 tonight and it was nice and calm. Must have been 15 boats trolling in general area. Have not seen that many boats in about 5 years. Most nights we are either by ourselves or see 1 or 2 boats at the most.
Got a double  a 10 lb salmon and an 8 pounder. Again they are relatively shallow and both of them hit sliders.
Got a rainbow down about 30 ft and then another salmon as the sun went down. All fish in the top 50 ft working the 70 to 90 fow.
Caught this 150 pounder but thought it looked too hairy so  let it go.
Not sure where it came from. The wind was from offshore and has been for a few days. Perhaps it floated all the way across the bay.
And I thought salmon had a strong smell! It made my dog sneeze.

[John]

Great report!
Is that blood on the dear or red paint? Looks like someone took a spray can to it.

[RockandTroll]

Looked like blood. Maybe it was wounded and ran into the water.
Pretty sure it wasn't spray paint but due to the smell we didn't get any closer.

We watch some reality program the other night and a guy pulled a dead duck out of the water and said " it still has its eyes and if the eyes are still there it's still good to eat"
So I grabbed the boat hook and told the wife I was going to check its eyes cause it might still be good to eat..... And that's when she hit the throttle and I didn't get any closer.

[The Kayaker]

If the animal was bloated like that to the point of floating. I would not even think of eating it. Even in the fall when a deer is shot and it's faily mild out there, you need to be fast with the harvest...

[RockandTroll]

You do realize I was kidding right?
Just poking fun at reality programs.

 Definitely do not eat anything found floating dead. You have no idea what it died from.
 The fish that were floating around the beach here in the spring apparently died from some kind of botulism. health unit said to even keep your dogs away from them if you came across dead ones laying on the beach due to the health risk.

[John]

My dogs would love to roll in that

[RockandTroll]

Fishing was good again last night. Got 7 salmon total with 3 of them around 12 lbs. still in shallower water around 70 to 80 feet. They were coming off riggers right on the bottom while past nights they have been up high. About 54 degrees down at the bottom do at least they are not closer to temp than they have been. Fish earlier this week were all hitting in the top 50 feet in 64 degree water. Lots of lamprey. 3 last night.
Fish look healthy so they must be eating well. Here is a pic tried to hold fish and take myself with cell phone
Lots of rescue calls going on last night. Coast guard was on 16 all evening. Weird cause there was little wind and the water was flat.
Mike

[Meegs]

Looks like the evening was better than the morning bite! Morning was really slow and fish were small.  Heard a 24 foot boat had some engine issues while that storm was working its way through.

[spinnerbaitking]

Great Report, on Huron we have been getting most of ours on Dipsy Divers about 200' back & 30' down, Pinks, Rainbows, Coho & Chinook, all on Spoons
Thanx for the Report SBK