A Canadian Thanksgiving Fishing Report

[Finessegenics]

Today was Canadian Thanksgiving, so happy thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians here on BR. I enjoyed an early dinner (or late lunch?) with the family and then hit the river in search of fish. I had about an hour and a half of sunlight to work with. Bank fishing on this river is super productive this time of year and I wasn’t disappointed. I was fishing in 2-5 feet of water, with a gravel bottom. Few weed patches here and there and there’s even a few huge boulders to target, but they’re in extremely shallow water; ~2 feet.

 

I started off with a chartreuse craw Arashi Squarebill. Lost what looked like a decent smallmouth on my first cast after it jumped a few times . Three casts later, hooked into one and landed it. I honestly believe it was the same fish, which is weird since I hooked it twice. This one weighed in at 2.5 lbs (anything above 3 is a good one for this river). 

 

Tried some different colors of squarebills with no success so I made the switch to a 3/8 oz football jig with a chigger craw trailer. I was getting so many bites but couldn’t convert any into hookups. I believe they were smaller bass, picking at the claws of the trailer. The fish in this river aren’t particularly big on average so I imagine it’s hard for them to get a full sized football jig into their mouths. Still, I noticed that a lot of my hits were coming on the retrieves where I was working the jig a little more aggressively. So I said screw it; next cast I’m gonna retrieve it 2-3 full rotations then give it a pause. Before I even let it pause, what felt like a freight train absolutely smacked the jig. I set the hook and the fight was on but it was short lived. What looked like another decent smallie spit the jig. Not sure if the hook ever even made contact with its mouth or it was just holding onto the bait. 
 

After losing that fish, I continued with the football  jig and continued getting those little bites telling me I was on some smaller fish. I decided to change it up to a swimbait on a 1/8 okashira screwhead. It’s a simple presentation and figured anything would go after it. After trying a few different holes with no success, I went back to a jig; but this time I made a change. 
 

Instead of a full size 3/8 oz football jig, I made the change to a tiny little 5/32 oz tungsten keitech jig. This thing is so small, even a TRD is too big a trailer for it. I figured I might as well catch some of these smaller fish. 
 

Well that decision was the ticket!!! I covered it full of Garlic Crawfish Liquid Mayhem scent and went to work. One of my first casts I landed another decent smallie, and then another, and many other smaller bass, 1 lbers.


 

 

 

Finally, I topped it off with a perfect eating size walleye. All from the same hole!  
These fish all came with sunlight dying out, around 6:10-6:30 pm. I was dragging the little jig on bottom. So it was sort a slow reel, but constant so that it would maintain contact with bottom and always keep moving.

Catching the walleye made me think that maybe they had moved in shallow and there was a feeding window since the sun was setting. When there’s one, there’s usually more. I tied on a trusty walleye setup of mine, a fire tiger ripple Shad on a 1/8 oz ball head and gave it a few casts. I was hoping for another walleye but instead caught a tiny smallie. No other bites after that and it was already dark (I had overstayed my hour and a half by a bit), so I headed home. 

 

This is a long post for what most would consider an average day of fishing but it meant a lot to me. Haven’t been feeling the best lately and just super stressed with life in general. I haven’t fished as much as I hoped for the past few weeks or so and this reminded me how good getting out in nature is for the soul. Thanks for reading guys! 

[TnRiver46]

Nice!!!!

[Steveo-1969]

Catching river smallmouth makes it a great fishing trip in my book! Hope the degens from upcountry didn’t give you any problems. 

[GaryH]

You had a good day.?

[Blue Raider Bob]

Would not be surprised that you caught the same fish you lost. Earlier this year fishing on the Tennessee River I hooked a smally, got him to the boat, started to lift and he fell off the swimbait. Honest to goodness I saw him swim straight for the swimbait he just lost and bit it again! Got him in the 2nd time and turned that mean little dude loose.

[Finessegenics]

32 minutes ago, Steveo-1969 said:

Hope the degens from upcountry didn’t give you any problems. 

Don’t want you to get reprimanded, but what do you mean? LOL

[Blue Raider Bob]

That's not tiny! 

This is tiny!

[JHTR20]

Not sure which river you fished but the St John's is world class. 

 

Great catches and very nice report.

[Finessegenics]

3 minutes ago, JHTR20 said:

Not sure which river you fished but the St John's is world class. 

 

Great catches and very nice report.

 

I'd love to fish the St John one day. Heard lots of great things about the bass fishing there. Do you live in NB and fish it?

[JHTR20]

2 minutes ago, Finessegenics said:

 

I'd love to fish the St John one day. Heard lots of great things about the bass fishing there. Do you live in NB and fish it?

No, I live in the US but go to New Brunswick for the spring bear hunt.  It is an outstanding fishery.

[Finessegenics]

5 minutes ago, JHTR20 said:

No, I live in the US but go to New Brunswick for the spring bear hunt.  It is an outstanding fishery.

 

Nice! I'll have to add it to my bucket list. Honestly, maybe as soon as summer 2022. Is there lots of accessible shoreline or are you getting out there on a boat or something?

[Steveo-1969]

On 10/12/2021 at 11:48 AM, Steveo-1969 said:

Catching river smallmouth makes it a great fishing trip in my book! Hope the degens from upcountry didn’t give you any problems. 

 

On 10/12/2021 at 12:04 PM, Finessegenics said:

Don’t want you to get reprimanded, but what do you mean? LOL

Sorry for that, weird sense of humor here. When I saw you are from Canada the first thing I thought of was the show “Letterkenny”. The degens from upcountry are always causing problems on the show.

 

Pitter Patter…..

[Finessegenics]

22 minutes ago, Steveo-1969 said:

 

Sorry for that, weird sense of humor here. When I saw you are from Canada the first thing I thought of was the show “Letterkenny”. The degens from upcountry are always causing problems on the show.

 

Pitter Patter…..

 

Ok, I know Letterkenny...but I've never watched it! I'm more of a trailer park boys guy ?

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, Steveo-1969 said:

 

Sorry for that, weird sense of humor here. When I saw you are from Canada the first thing I thought of was the show “Letterkenny”. The degens from upcountry are always causing problems on the show.

 

Pitter Patter…..

Let’s get at her 

[warefisher]

Thanks for the nice report.  I love fishing in Canada!  Got in one trip after it opened up this year and have two periods scheduled in ‘22.  Wish I lived closer.

[Finessegenics]

1 hour ago, Bob Eadie said:

Thanks for the nice report.  I love fishing in Canada!  Got in one trip after it opened up this year and have two periods scheduled in ‘22.  Wish I lived closer.

What lakes do you fish? I know there’s a ton but maybe there’s a chance I've heard of them

[warefisher]

1 hour ago, Finessegenics said:

What lakes do you fish? I know there’s a ton but maybe there’s a chance I've heard of them

I have fished Crotch Lake in the Frontenac Highlands (area west of Perth, ON) and Wabatongushi, north of Wawa, ON.  Beautiful lakes!

[Finessegenics]

10 hours ago, Bob Eadie said:

I have fished Crotch Lake in the Frontenac Highlands (area west of Perth, ON) and Wabatongushi, north of Wawa, ON.  Beautiful lakes!

Haven’t heard of either but I’m sure the fishing is great! Shield lakes are awesome