Outdoors

Records made to be broken

They say that records are made to be broken.
And when the sixth-annual Crackle Cup bass tournament took place out of the Monto Reno Marina in Lefroy, albeit one week later due to high winds on Lake Simcoe, the action Nov. 5 lived up to expectations.
The winning tandem of John MacDonald and Steve Hawkins brought in a five-fish limit that tipped the scales at 29.90 pounds. This mark established a Canadian one-day tournament record. The prior mark was set in 2003 with a limit of 29.59 lbs.
Finishing second was the tandem of Dave Johnson and Barry Graves with 27.75 lbs while Mike Gifford and Howard Gifford were third at 27.54 lbs. In addition to placing third, the pair brought in the heaviest smallmouth bass of the tournament, weighing 7.16 lbs. MacDonald and Hawkins had the second-heaviest smallie at 7.14 lbs.
A total of 18 two-angler teams took to the waters for this year’s event.
Wil Wegman, a spokesman for the Aurora Bassmasters who helped run the event, noted plastic tube jigs and jigging spoons were productive baits on the day.

Autumn ideal for Simcoe perch fishing

Have you ever had one of those days where you wish you could have taken a novice piscator out for a day on the water when the fish are in a highly co-operative mood?
The days of autumn on Lake Simcoe, just out from the mouth of the Pefferlaw River, can be an ideal place and time.
During late fall, the most ardent anglers from the Greater Toronto Area and even from as far away from neighbouring Michigan and New York State make the annual pilgrimage to this province’s sixth-largest inland lake to experience some of the best jumbo yellow perch fishing Ontario has to offer.
As long as Mother Nature co-operates, it’s almost guaranteed you won’t come home empty-handed. Odds are likely you will lose count of the numbers of fish you’ve caught and lost during the course of a day.
It’s simple fishing. Upon launching your boat out of Pefferlaw, just check out where the boats are positioned and gravitate toward them.
The use of a good graph recorder can assist in your efforts to get over schools of yellow perch. One such vessel we encountered had an underwater camera and when placed on the lake bottom, viewed masses of fish.
While a majority of anglers use live minnows on a tandem rig to catch these fish, they aren’t necessary.
If you don’t wish to wet your hands, artificial offerings are just as lethal.
Utilizing lightweight six-foot spinning rods with six-pound test line on a recent outing, my fishing partner, Bill Morrison, and I utilized drop shot rigs with two tandem two-inch Fin-S or Berkley power minnows, one pink and one shad finish, spaced about one foot apart. Upon dropping the rig down to the bottom, I had a bite. Not just one, but two yellow perch on at once.
That wasn’t the case each time I dropped the line into the water, but the action remained consistent throughout the day —  one which would have brought a smile to any youngster or novice. At the same time, it probably would have enticed a new member to the angling fraternity.
At the end of the day, we kept enough for what we wanted to clean and put into the hot cast iron skillet that night for consumption.
While the angling action can be frantic, anglers should closely monitor the weather conditions before venturing out as boating conditions can change with the snap of a finger during these unpredictable days of autumn, especially on a big body of water such as Simcoe.
As well, be sure to have a residential angling licence and check the regulations for catch and possession limits.