Okbn #3 Balsam lake

My kawartha curse continues... when I saw the schedule for the OKBN (Ontario Kayak Bass Nation) I have to say I was exactly excited to see a kawartha lake on it but I figured it would have to be there, as this area is such a staple fishery for multiple sport species in southern Ontario that it seems like a necessary evil at this point. That being said it's still a lake and bass are still bass. So having never been here before I wanted to try and get as much information as I could, maybe even practice or at least have a day or two to get a good look at the lake. I was also unsure of if I would be even fishing this event, as my fiancé and I had recently purchased a new home and our closing date was 4 days before the event. But it worked out so I would be able to fish the tournament, I just wouldn't be able to give it the kind of time and attention I wanted to. So a quick look at Google maps, navionics and a couple YouTube videos was all I would be going off of. I got into the area well after dark so any kind of scouting for access wasn't possible, so looking at Google I found a creek arm that ran back a ways that looked like it should be promising, I figured I had seen and heard from people in the previous events I had fished in the kawarthas that they were in heavy cover so finding an area off the beaten path with plenty of that should be a promising strategy, at least for the amount of time I had. I was wrong, at least in my case. But hindsight's always 20/20.

My day started off fairly decent to be honest minus launching my kayak in a swamp and becoming at dine and die for the hoards of mosquitoes there, but once I was on the water I came up with the idea that I would get out to the mouth of the creek and start my day out there thinking maybe I could rally up a quick limit or at least a couple fish for the board and then come back and pick apart the heavy cover in the creek as the sun started to heat up and try to upgrade from there. As six am ticked over I worked along a shoreline throwing a megabass popmax trying to score on a low light cruiser in the shallows, starting at the mouth of the creek where a grass line extended out off of a point it was maybe ten after six and I had a decent fish blowup on the popmax, I missed the hookup and threw back two more times and once with a senko with no luck but made a mental note to stop there on my way back into the creek. So I continued down the bank into a small bay that had a number of docks, near the mouth of the bay was a smaller cut out with a covered dock in the back corner, getting to the back of there I had one more come up on the popmax this time I hooked up and got the fish in and scored 15.25 inch largemouth bass. So it's not quite an hour in and I have one showing not my usual start on these lakes. I continue along the shore out the bay and around the next point with only 2 small pike to show for my efforts. As eight a.m rolls by I start crossing to the opposite shore to fish that back into the creek I had started from, thinking I might be able to pick off two or three more as the sun had started to hit that shoreline. The closer I got however the less likely I figured my odds were as the weed growth seemed to vanish inplace of a silly mud/sand mix with little to no apparent cover areas or definitive structure, so I backed out and tried to run a shallow crank along the weed edge and flip a senko into any visible holes I found. But as I moved closer to the creek I still had not added any fish nor gained any more clues as to what these fish might have been up to or key things they are holding on. So as another hour passed and I came back to the mouth of the creek I still only had the one scoreable bass and a couple pike.

Remembering the missed fish from earlier I spent a little time at that grass point hoping to score with a fish I knew was there but no such luck. I should have known it wasn't going to be a good day when I had resorted to throwing a senko and still wasn't getting bit. But I continued into the creek further throwing a Zman Chatterbait Evo along the weed edges and flipping a Jackall Archeloen into thicker cover and mixing in that popmax that had already boated me my only scoreable fish so far. As I worked further into the creek I knew of a couple places where I wanted to really slow down and fish thoroughly, and the first major turn in the creek arm was coming up. With lily pads thick in places and sparse in others and I kept it simple as I fished to these points of interest I would rotate between the popmax when the subsurface weed growth was too thick to allow me to reasonably fish the chatterbait, and obviously when I was able to throw the Evo that was my go to as the stouter single hook, stronger line, and powerful rod would help me bring fish through the weeds and to the boat should they decide to dig down into them. But you need to get bit before you worry about that, unfortunately there was nothing happening, as I got close enough to start picking apart the pockets and small openings in the pads I switched to the Archeloen, I flipped with everything from a 3/16ths ounce to a 3/4ounce depending on cover and depth but again no luck on this first turn. As I continued towards the second bend I rotated between those same to lures both along the shore or lesser weed lines and deeper into the middle through the submerged growth. When I got near enough to start flipping toward this next section I sent a cast with the popmax along the edge of the pads and almost as soon as it landed a nice big blow up, I watch my line tighten up and swung back, I still don't know what happened but that lure came flying back as fast as possible and landed a ways behind me. I quickly reeled up and sent the lure straight back, this time nothing, so I reeled up and fired the senko into the area as I figured the fish might hit again due to never really being hooked. That just wasn't the case. I moved in and started flipping around this area making a note to cast back before I left. I never got another hit, on anything, or any other spot, even though I'm sure I was around fish, but whether it's just not being a heavy cover kind of fishermen, or they just stayed locked up something just wasn't clicking and the kawartha lakes curse continued I scored that single 15.25 fish for the day which landed me all the way down in 43 out 53 I was disappointed to say the least. After the craziness at St. Clair resulting in a very low finish for the OKBN specifically I was hoping to bounce back a bit, I was hoping to finally put something together on the kawartha lakes area, even though it was a last minute plan and it got thrown together in just as much time I still felt confident at the start of the day, but it takes more then that to hangout with the stellar sticks that fish in these tournaments. Until next time kawarthas I'm in no hurry.

Thank you to the great anglers that come out to these events it's always such a blast and, an enjoyable experience being around such like minded and passionate anglers. Thank you to the people who put in all the work to organize and run these events as always it is because of people like you that this sport continues to grow and get better and bigger every year. And lastly thank you to the sponsors that support the OKBT and Ontario Kayak Bass Nation we are so fortunate to have the best companies in the sport fishing world supporting us and helping us maximize our time on the water making us more proficient anglers. Being a leader of innovation and quality in their respective product areas you can be assured that if they are on the OKBT Banner or website they are top tier.

Next up OKBT #3 LONG POINT BAY (LAKE ERIE)

July 20th

Then OKBN #4 SEYMOUR LAKE August 4th