Monday 12 August 2013
Kayak Fishing in the Grand River!
This weekend we leave for a camping trip at Byng Island Conservation Area in Dunnville, Ontario. It's one of our favourite places to go for kayaking! There are two boat launches that take you out on to the Grand River near Dunnville. One launch is above the dam and one is below. If you launch below you paddle out a channel and into either marshes that eventually connect to the Grand River or take a more direct route out into the river. We usually try fishing below the dam and usually catch something. There are all kinds of fish in the Grand River, but pickerel is what everyone is hoping for. This River connects to Lake Erie about 10 km from the lower launch at Port Maitland. I'm looking forward to getting back on the water again to do some kayak fishing and exploring! It's been awhile! The bonus here is that we are camping as well!
Tuesday 23 July 2013
Kayak Fishing at Valens Lake
This past weekend we camped at Valens Conservation Area near Freelton, ON. While there, we kayak fished on Valens Lake, which is really a reservoir created by a dam placed on Spencer Creek. The maximum depth I registered on my fish finder was 14ft. The water temperature was around 82 degrees. This lake is known for it's great bass and pike fishing. The park is diligent with keeping the bass fishery healthy. The last time we fished at this park, I caught my first pike. Beautiful! This time around we were hoping for some bass. Here are some photos of Valens Lake:
The fishing was slow, with the only catch being a very small perch for me. Otherwise, we caught nothing. Lot's of bites, but they seemed kind of small.
The scenery is really pretty on Valens Lake and it's a nice paddle even without the fish. The lake covers a lot of territory and to paddle from one end to the other is a nice journey. The East side is deeper and where the small dam is located. The west side of the lake is shallow with lots of tree stumps and structure. Can you say "lost tackle"? Here are some more photos of our time on the water:
I'm not giving up on Valens yet! I'm thinking maybe another camping trip this September and another day fishing too!
This park is very nice for camping. It offers both unserviced and serviced sites in a nice forested setting. Some sites are large pull thrus to accommodate larger trailers. There are over 10km of hiking trails as well. Here's a link to the page on my camping blog that reviews Valens and shows more campground photos:
Monday 15 July 2013
Kayaking the Trent River\Trent Severn Canal
We stayed at Ferris Provincial Park during the last week of our holidays. It's located on the Trent River/Trent Severn Canal by Campbellford, ON. We were really looking forward to launching at the park and doing some kayak fishing. The launch was nice and put us in the Trent River near Lock 13, below Ranney Falls. We tried to paddle upriver to the base of the falls, but the current was too strong so we turned around at the suspension bridge. Here are some photos of our first trip out:
We did catch some fish while we were out, nothing large. Here are some photos:
While we were out, a yacht locked through at Lock 13. We watched the process from our kayaks. It was pretty cool and a totally different perspective witnessed from the seat of a kayak on the water!
And here are some other photos from our time kayaking the Trent River:
We didn't have much time at Ferris Provincial Park, so our time out kayaking went by pretty quickly. There are other public launches in the area above Lock 13, so we found out later. Both of us would love to come back here and kayak more in the future. If we do, I'm sure we'll camp at Ferris again. It was a lovely park.
To see more photos of the park and a quick review, visit my camping blog at: http://sdrvadventurers.blog.com/ferris-provincial-park/
As well, you can find more photos of this park and the our trip to Campbellford at my Picasa web albums site:
Lake St.Peter Kayaking!
We stayed at Lake St.Peter Provincial Park for six nights. Of course we brought our kayaks and fishing gear along with us. The park is really nice! There was a beach where we could launch our kayaks and a boat launch located close to our campsite. In fact, we locked our kayaks up near the launch and just walked there whenever we wanted to go out kayaking - perfect! Here's a couple photos of where you can launch:
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| Boat Launch |
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| Main Beach |
So our first trip out kayaking we marked a few fish, usually in shallow water, but only Dave caught a fish. A smaller bass. Lake St. Peter is a deep lake in some spots with areas a hundred feet deep. Here are some photos of our first trip out on the lake:
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| Dave's first bass |
Most of the time we were at this park, it rained. Everyday, at least once a day. Either in the morning or the afternoon, then it would clear out. We still made it out kayaking a fair bit. Here are some photos of a typical cloudy morning paddle:
We spent as much time as possible on the water at this park. Almost everyday we were out kayaking with the exception of our golfing trip to Bancroft one day and our trip to Eagle's Nest Lookout in Bancroft another day. I caught a couple smaller bass and Dave caught a couple more smaller ones while we were here. The one day we went out, we knew a rain storm was forecast, but no thunderstorms so we headed out anyway. The sky was menacing and we knew we'd end up wet, but it was refreshing considering how warm it was. Here are some photos taken from our kayaks. We only made it out about 1.5 km then it poured so we headed back.
The weather the next day was nice, so we headed out again. Dark clouds blew through and it looked like it could rain at times, but there wasn't rain in the forecast. It wouldn't be the first time we'd been poured upon anyway!
Lake St.Peter was a great place to kayak! We caught a few fish and really enjoyed our time on the water. The shoreline is dotted with cottages and there is not a lot of "wild shoreline" but it's still pretty. The motorboat traffic was not too heavy at the end of the lake where the Provincial Park is located but it's busier on the weekends. During the week it was typical to enjoy a peaceful paddle.
We really enjoyed kayaking and camping at this park!
You can find a review for this park on my camping blog site: http://sdrvadventurers.blog.com/lake-st-peter-provincial-park/
and more photos of the park and our stay here in my Picasa album for Lake St.Peter:
Sunday 9 June 2013
Lake Erie Fishing
This past weekend we kayak fished on Lake Erie. We went out Saturday morning in the light drizzle and had a fantastic few hours catching bass! It was a little choppy on the water and the weather did not improve as we'd hoped. It was still a great time out on the water. Here are some photos:
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| Decked out and ready to go fishing! |
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| Choppy Lake Erie |
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| Dave kayak fishing |
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| Dave's bass! |
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| My beautiful bass! |
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| My second beautiful bass! |
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| My third beautiful bass!!! |
We had so much fun on Saturday, we decided that we would get up early on Sunday morning and try fishing from our kayaks some more! The weather was so much nicer! There was a small amount of cloud cover that cleared out and allowed the sun to shine brightly. It warmed up nicely and the water was calm. The fish however weren't biting this morning. I joked around that it must have been my earrings, my pineapples didn't bring me any luck this time! We spent a couple hours out, then it was time to head in to pack up camp and head home. Here are some photos of Sunday morning fishing. What a great time out!
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| Beautiful sky |
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| Dave fishing |
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| Calm Lake Erie |
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| Beautiful reflections |
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| Lake Erie |
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| Sue fishing |
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| Dave kayak fishing |
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