Here's our rep[ort from Team Eye Candy. My crew of three was myself, Matt W from my bass fishing club and Maple.
We left my place in Almonte after work on Friday wth my Tracker boat in tow. We wanted to stop and pick up some gear at Pro Tackle in Belleville on the way to the Picton area. The store usually closes at 5pm, but Stacey kept the store open until we arrived around 7:30pm, a big thanks to Stacey, it was much appreciated to keep the store open late.
After spending some of my wife's hard earned money we left Pro Tackle and headed for West Lake Willows where we stayed the night. This was the first time I've ever been to West Lake Willows and I was very impressed, hopefully I be back for a longer stay next time. The cabin was fantastic.
After a good night's sleep we headed for Picton, meet up with the rest of the fisherman and launched the Tracker. At 7:30 am we were off .... we made our run from Picton Bay to east of the ferry and set up in Aldophus Reach. We set up trolling with my electric motor and set up our mixed spread of crankbaits, spoons and worm harnesses.
Unfortunately, my trooling motor didn’t charge properly and after about ½ hour of trolling the motor was dead!!??!!
Plan B ......... trolling with the big motor .... too fast .... put out a drift sock ... perfect. Trolling with one sock out the back of the boat we were good to go. We had the sock tied to one of the back cleats and the rope was rubbing a bit but looked fine. We made a little bit of a sharo turn to change direction .... and ...... SNAP ... the rope on the sock breaks!!! The sock has an orange float so it is easy to see floating away.
We pull our lines so we can circle back to get the sock. I get to test out my newly installed vhf radio to warm the approaching boats our drift sock is floating just under the surface.
We pick up our drift sock and decide to run out to the end of Aldolphus Reach so we can troll back in against the waves to slow our troll down and hopefully not need the sock.
We set up again .... trolling against the wind ... 2.2 mph ... perfect! Shortly after setting up ... fish on.. finally... Maple lands a hawg sheephead. Shortly after Matt is up and lands another “quality” sheephead. Great we just need 1 more lamb for our 3 fish bag for the tournament. A little later it is my turn, unfortunately, fish number 3 is one of those pesky walleye, about 7 pounds.
A little while later we get our 3rd lamp, a little guy, but atleast we have 3!! Fortunately we cull our little guy with a 3rd “quality” lamb. Nice!!!! We ended the day with 1 walleye and 5 sheephead, not great but a fun day for sure. Back in the dock shortly before 3pm for weigh-in.
Maple's Little Lamb
Talking to the guys most boats had a decent day, most catching more walleye then lambs.
Our turn to weigh our 3 lambs in .... our 2 small fish both weigh in just under 12 pounds each. Last up is Maple’s hawg, who tips the scale at 15.5 pounds!!! Too bad it wasn’t a walleye.
Our 3 sheephead bag totals just over 39 pounds, good enough to take big fish and FIRST PLACE in the 1st ever Lamb the Lamb Sheephead Tournament!!!
After the tournament a bunch of the guys went out for a bite to eat and swap fish stories, then we headed home to Ottawa.
Definitely a fun little trip. Caught some fish... collected people's money ... seen some guys I haven’t seen in awhile and met some new guys.
Thanks to Landshark for putting it together, can’t wait until next year.
JimW