OKBN #4 Seymour lake

FINALLY!!!! I finally put together a decent day for the OKBN, it was junk fishing at its finest but it was fun and it worked out well. To say the seymour lake is a dynamic, would be an under statement. I have never fished a lake before that had the type of structure that it has, well at least in the area I found myself in. If you love flipping pads this is your lake if you love cranking steep breaks, yep it's for you too, if you like current, finesse fishing, the list goes on. It offers anglers alot of options, but in doing so has fish spread out and scattered all throughout the water column, when I got to the lake for the first time it was the morning of the tournament, I had forgotten the battery I use to power my lights so I had some time to kill before I could launch given the rules and laws in place. So as the daylight increased and I was able to see more and more of the area I was in one thing stuck out, "PADS". I could see areas of pads and thick weeds that topped off on the surface in every direction, so I knew at some point flippin' was likely to play, a shame because in my eyes that is by far my weakest area in bass fishing. It's just never appealed to me but nonetheless I would likely have to put the big stick in my hands at some point and run that pattern. But as it seems to be a running theme this season the morning started out flat calm, so while I was able to I threw a top water along the edges of the pads and even some open water. I had been at my parents trailer in the frontenac area for a couple days and while there I always leave a buzzbait tied on. So because for no other reason than it being already tied on I started with that a black strike king tour grade buzzbait 3/8 Oz rigged with a zoom horny toad in black as well. It really didn't take long to get bit as it was maybe my fourth or fifth cast and I had a small largie hit half way through the retrieve, what was driving me crazy though was I that there were fish blowing up all around me and yet when I would cast to that area it was like they were never there. Very, very different than my experience on st. Clair this year, but I would later find out that there is a good chance that most of those fish were carp so it makes sense that I wasn't hooking up in those instances, but anyway I continued to work down the first section I targeted I would catch a couple more unders, and at least that let me know I was in a productive area and the buzzbait was a working bait today. Moving from that lily pad section and crossing the channel to a section that extends out into deeper water I throw to the first edge, and just as I start pulling out from the pads a little (but scoreable) 14" largie eats. I measure it and release then continue on down this small edge, I miss one and quickly reel in and toss a weedless senko in where the blowup happened, and instantly feel that tick, see my line jump and start going sideways a quick set and another small scoreable 13.25" largie. For those of you that love top water fishing, the biggest thing I can suggest for turning missed strikes into caught fish is having something different ready and available at all times to throw as a follow up bait, near weeds and wood I personally love unweighted whacky weedless, or Texas rigged senkos, and for open water a very shallow jerkbait something that stays in that 1-3' range. It's a great one - two punch that has worked great for me past. It was around this time that I also started to work in a chatterbait, more and more this year I find myself throwing the zman chatterbait Evo in that 2-7' range and it is always a producer, and today was no different. I throw chatterbaits two ways primarily, one is fan casting in sparse weeds/cover with braid to a flourocarbon leader and the other is days like today when I want to get into that first or second row of pads or thick grass and that is when I forget the leader and stick to straight braid and give the bait more of a ripping action, this is what I most excited for when it comes to the new tungsten evos when I finally get my hands on them. I don't really consider this punching or flipping because I am throwing it to areas where it can freely sink and I am hopping and ripping the bait out of the pads 2-4 feet and then swimming it in the open water back to the kayak. Now doing this I have gotten a couple bites similar to flipping and pitching but the majority of the bites come in the first six or so feet as I am swimming the chatterbait back normally. I think it's a combination of the racket created on the way out of the pads and then frantic fleeing look of a swimming chatterbait that really gets some solid strikes. As the sun got higher subsurface became more of a prominent player and on the next decent sized pad areas the chatterbait got it done, four fish unfortunately the small size seemed to continue and only one fish was scoreable at 15 inch largie this fish actually ate the Evo with less than 5 feet of line out and a good ways away from the thick cover in the area. After that though things got a little quiet for about an hour or so but at about quarter after ten as planned to move out of this area and hopefully find some more sizable fish I was able to score another 13.75 in smallmouth. Not bad just approaching 10:30 and I'm a single fish away from a posted limit with a bunch of unders in-between. Between that point and the area I was heading to there was quite a bit of boat traffic both kayaks and power boats, fishing and cruisers so I didn't really cast around much on that move, but there was another lily pad area in shallow that butted up to the edge of the river channel so I decided that I would start flipping around at that spot on my way to an area I was planning on flipping. Good thing too there wasn't anything to be found on the sides but near the middle the deeper water came in tightest to the pads and created a little point inward and my first pitch to the back of that small pocket didn't even make it to bottom and my line started moving sideways, so I swung away and for some reason even though I'm using heavier line on a heavier rod and a more powerful reel flippin' fish just always seem bigger than they are. But I was able to boat and score a 15.75 largemouth to fill my limit. I now had a 15.75", a 15", a 14", a 13.75" and a 13.25 for my limit not impressive but a limit is always the first objective and now it's time to try and upgrade.

By the time I made it to the area I was heading to it was around noon and the wind had started to pick up. Which did not bode well for the new area but a look across the lake to the wind blown shore and a quick check on navionics, and I had a new spot in mind. The new area was a wind blown bank that had a steep break into the deeper river channel fairly tight in to shore. But on the way there I would cross a mid lake hump that also looked promising. So I started tieing up different lures as I started on my way over, this is honestly one of the biggest benefits to a pedal drive or motor drive kayak. The hands free ability allowing you to get what you need and do things like retieing or changing graph screens setting waypoints let alone the increased speed and steering it's just a win from every angle. By the time I got to the mid lake hump I had tied on a shimano world minnow, a zoom super fluke and a swim jig that I made at home. As I came up to the spot I was fishing with the swim jig as it will get deeper and then as a continued to et shallower moving onto the hump I focused more on the world minnow. As I was working on top of the hump fan casting off  into deeper water and retrieving it back into shallow water I got whacked hard, but unfortunately it turned out to be a decent pike, fun but not what I was hoping for. I continued to fight the wind to stay on the top and fan cast out but the wind coming between the two islands made it more difficult then projected to stay where I wanted to be so I decided to finish moving to the far side as planned while heading there I retied yet again this time adding a squarebill and medium diving crankbait to the line in place of the jerkbait and swim jig. I pull in close to shore and start to cast parallel with a kvd 1.5 hard knock squarebill as the water is fairy dirty and I am hoping that the fish in this area will be aggressively feeding due to the conditions, I'm also hoping I can find them up near the bank as that would only narrow down the water I need to focus on and cover and allow me to fish more effectively. But that wasn't the case, I caught nothing but weeds for the most part, although this shoreline had a rather sharp point at the end and as I approached the water cleared up, not alot but just enough to make it noticeable and as I came to it I got my first hit with the squarebill a 14.50 smallie for the board, not a big cull but I was hoping that was a sign of things to come. I back out and throw back to that same area 3 or 4 times and nothing but as I continue forward to just passed that point, still within a cast of shore the bottom drops out almost straight down to 15ft. So I reposition myself so that I would be casting right on to that break but this time I have the strike king pro series 5 crankbait. I'm not sure if I missed a fish on that cast but, on the following cast I hit something in about the same spot and this time when I stopped reeling to let the crankbait rise up and over the apparent obstacle my line took off to open water, and fast at that. I quickly set in and fought the fish for what seemed like 15 minutes but finally dumped it in the net and got it on the board 16.75" smallmouth. I very quickly reposition and fire into that area, and the second cast in I get whacked as I bring it to the kayak I'm getting excited because I have been on bites before that worked out and looked just like this and if there are good fish here schooled up I might be in for a treat. As I get the fish in and bumped it's another cull 15.50" smallmouth. I'm feeling better as I check the leader board and see I'm sitting in a decent spot but I would love land a good kicker fish to replace that 14.50 I still have showing. I went on to catch probably another half dozen or so but nothing that would bump out that fish. So at the end of the day alot of fish were caught on a wide variety or techniques and lures in a wide variety or scenarios, and with this being my first top ten in the OKBN circuit on a lake I had never seen until that morning being able to adapt and make the decisions that allowed me the chance at a top ten was a huge success to me. 

As alway 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 is OKBT stop #4 

Georgian bay (port severn) say tuned for that one it's going to be a slugfest, as it already holds the record for the largest single day limit posted in the okbt. Will the record fall !!!!!