Home Forums Fishing Freshwater 2023 open water season

I finished my Canadian groups two weeks ago, helped get a couple of the fly in camp operators shut down.
It was a great summer, nice lakers, literally tons of walleyes, good pike but only two jumbos over 50” which is well below normal. Next year.

Everyone had fun, schedule filling up for next year. I do hope far northwestern Ontario and northeastern Manitoba and the tributaries that feed them have a wet fall, snowy winter, and wet spring. The water levels were at crazy lows.

Going to take a few folks for musky this next half week before the weather turns then pack away the boats. I’m already getting set to head out to Montana to enjoy the mule deer and elk, season for rifle opens Saturday already not counting the youth season tomorrow.

Great thread seeing what all you other guys have been up to. Thanks for the free trip ticket.

Osky

Awesome Mate, glad we treated you right & you & your clients had a good season !

In our 17 years in Canada, I have never know the walleye, to continuously hit as hard as they did this season.

Very few missed fish, due to short striking tail grabbers.

Hear you on the water levels, big time !

And a big thank you, to all of you, for joining in, this was always meant to be a sharing & caring thread.

Will start a hardwater thread, sometime around mid December !

See you there.

Stay safe Fellas !

99s… if you ever make up a little cook book regarding what you can do with Walleye if be the first in line for it.
Granted I have limited resources around the remote shore lunches and impatient groups that want to get back on the water, some of those you post would be certainly doable. I’d greatly enjoy the culinary diversion after 50 plus years of pretty much the same old same old around those campfires.

Osky

on Wednesday, I was going on a two day fishing trip, today and tomorrow. On Thursday I was going on a one day trip, tomorrow. Today, there is no trip. One of my buddies had something come up and then that something got postponed until tomorrow. Idk what it was, but I hope he enjoyed himself. I will probably go Sunday as tomorrow I am busy. Ended up in a tree today, watching a squirrel and listening to specklebellies fly over. I like bad weather better as I get the place to myself. Sposed to be too nice on Sunday.

I went today. Some folks were in my spot. They were catching fish and keeping them so I'm glad they took my spot rather than I take their spot. Caught lots of bluegills and a few crappies. If a guy wanted to keep a sack of fish, he sure could have because some of the bluegills were 9". I usually catch a lot of predator fish when I'm in my usual spot. I caught 3 bullheads, which brings my total of bullheads this year to 3. I didn't keep anything. I don't mind cleaning fish but I don't mind not cleaning fish, either.

Cheers Boys !!

Was in Quebec City, for a long weekend, meeting American friends, whose cruise finished there.

Great food, wine & company, in a truly beautiful, old City !

I made it out for some hot bluegill action. The bait shop was closed even though the sign on the door said 7 and FB said 7, it was 8 before it opened. I just lopped a piece off a curly grub and used that to great effect. It was a beautiful morning.

I got out again yesterday. It was 55 and sunny so was pretty decent, a little breezy though. Still chasing panfish but the bigger fish are moving in, I caught some bass and one guy had a 30" pike on that broke off. With the forecast in the 60s, I might be going for some time yet.

Nice picture, I love calm water in the morning.

That was last week. Yesterday would have sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald again.

LOL

I went after stocked rainbows in South Dakota the last couple days. They aren't real challenging but it's something different for a change, and they pull pretty hard.

Looks football fat, Jason !

That’s a nice fish! SD is my favorite state…

Went and got a couple more today. The others tasted great on the grill, so I'm excited about these. They fight really hard and they are pretty. I still have my grandfather's trout knocker somewhere, I should start taking that with me. It's probably 70 years old.

Super cool Jason !!

Still getting a couple of these. They are getting sluggish.

That's a pretty nice kittykat. I don't catch very many catfish. I can only think of about 4 I caught this year and those were all one day in the Missouri River reservoir at Yankton SD. You never know what you are going to catch at Yankton. Except largemouth or muskie, I've never caught those there.

I went fishing yesterday in a community spot with lots of other guys around and nice docks to fish from. I was catching bluegills and crappies, then a muskie bit and pulled around for a minute until the line hit a tooth. I didn't have another jig on me, so I talked to a couple fellas for awhile and then went trout fishing in a pond in Iowa where they stock them. I think I'll go Sunday since our sanctuary at church is being worked on and then that might be it, because it's getting colder and I get busy the next 3 weeks. I didn't make it out that much this year, compared to other years. Buddies were busy and weather stunk on the weekends. I got a lot of years left, Lord willing.

Lots of trout stocking going on here to for the winter. But i really don’t go after them and if I did go for trout it would be for steelhead or brown out of Lake Erie or Ontario very nice trophy trout can be caught. Then I’ll fish for golden rainbows in spring when stocked then to Muskie. Carps and cats in summers.

I went again today probably for the last time, if the forecast holds. I was road hunting for pheasants, then caught some bluegills, then went after trout. A fun day to end the fishing. Now I have to get serious about hunting.