Poppers+Bass=FUN!!!!

Heres a few fishing photos from my trip. I caught some very nice bass on the surface. I didnt bother using any streamer or sunk patterns at all. Its so exciting catching them on the top I just couldnt be bothered fishing anything else. I would rather catch one on the surface than 5 under. You can zoom all of the photos by clicking on them.

Mark( a local) and I took the quads and canoe back into a lake far off the beaten path. Ended up with a few nice smallies. This was the biggest of the day. It pulled like a tow truck. Great to have a whole lake to yourself!!

Got a few Largemouth this year. This was the first of the trip

This was the biggest Largemouth of the trip. What a gob on them. This took a number 4 Booglebug popper

Another shot of the one above.Getting into "Tank" range

Bassin and Birchbark

I have just returned from my trip to Canada. I stayed with my Mom and Dad who live on Gooseneck Lake near Ardbeg, Ontario. The weather was so so with some warm days, some cool days and a cracking thunderstorm one night. The mosqiutos were wicked on a few evenings as my ankles will attest to. I was able to get out with my Dad to collect some birchbark. He took me to a couple large trees which the beavers felled into the water.


First we cut down the length with a carpet knife and made a few small cut across the diameter

Next we took a paint scraper and slowly peeled the bark off. There is a strange layer between the bark and the wood. The closest thing I can compare it to is like the crumbed cracker on the bottom of a cheesecake. I noticed several other older trees felled by beavers where they had eaten this intermediate layer. Its about 1/2" thick and once removed the "wood" of the tree is exposed. The bark on these particular trees is quite thick and very smooth on the outside. I noticed when the bark had a smooth outside it was easy to peel.

A nice long length of smooth thick bark being

peeled from a tree.

We used Dads boat to get to the fallen trees as they were quite far from his house(cottage). The boat was pulled ashore right next to the trees. Heres a load that we hauled back. My dad is going to rip this into 1 1/2" squares for me on his bandsaw. Im looking forward to making some very nice grips with this stuff

I also got to do some bassin with the flyrod. Poppers were working quite well and I managed some 18 bass. The smallest fish was 16" and the largest was 22". What suprised me was I only caught one small rock bass. All of my offers seemed to be a better stamp of fish than what my Dad normally catches while trolling or casting. All of my fish were released with the exception of a 24" walleye which also took my popper one evening. Here is a few photos

A 17 incer!!

He thought it was a frog. His mistake!!!

A bonus "popper" walleye