Thousand Islands Report - Victoria Day weekend

[npetersen]

Well, another successful weekend of fishing. Quite hot out which shortened the time we were able to spend out on the lake but still had great fishing. We came up Saturday morning and were on the water by 11am. It didn't pick up until around 12:30 and we caught a bunch of pike and perch but only had 2 keep perch about 11" each.

Next day out on the water by 7:30 and again was slow the first hour or so. Then while in Landon's bay on the river side I caught the first fish which was 25" pike which we kept and right after that my hubby caught a little smaller one. Once we got to the end of the bay hubby caught another smaller one. After that we tried one of our regular, no fail spots and hit a school of jumbo perch. Non stop catching and ended up with six 12"-13" perch and one more chubby pike at 25" which we also kept.

Back out again at 7:30 to beat the heat and found a new area by the bridge by Ivy Lea and pulled in another five 12" - 13" perch. I will post pics when I get home.

[Longshank]

Glad you had another fun weekend.

those perch must be ready if not bursting already!

[npetersen]

Thanks, the perch have been long spawned out already. We have been there the last 4 weekends and I only saw 1 fish on the first weekend that spilled her eggs when I was unhooking her. Most perch are coming from 25 fow. Same story for the pike. No eggs in them, just huge gobies. The bullheads and crappie are in full swing right now but we were not able to get to the crappie water Some guys had at least 5 ziplock bags full of bullheads.

[npetersen]

Here are a couple of pictures from the fish we kept on Sunday. The 5 perch we kept on Monday were about the same size.

[npetersen]

Here are the two pike. I forgot the one was only 24" but was quite chubby so we kept it. Hubby lost about a 10 lber today who came off just out of netting distance. Would have made a great picture but we would have let it go anyway at that size.

[admin]

Great fishing report and catch as usual. Those are definitely chunky and healthy looking pike.. Nice jumbos as well.. Good to hear you had a fun weekend. Yes, it was a hot one today for sure. Beautiful long weekend.

I left Landon bay quite early, by 8am I was done there, only caught 1 small pike and a couple of small OOS largies.

[npetersen]

Well, just spent 2 hours deboning the fish we caught. I like to make sure all bones are out of the pike so they take the longest. Here are the final filets, some for the freezer, some to give away and some for tomorrows dinner. The perch in the picture was only 6, the other 7 we kept were for dinner tonight and some went in the freezer before I decided to take pictures.

[npetersen]

And here are the pike.

[admin]

Well that is real good work!!! I didn't keep the pike since my GF's family doesn't really eat them. But if I cleaned them like you do - they will probably change their minds. Do you cut out the Y-bones or pull them out?

[npetersen]

I cut them out very carefully. You end up with a nice filet but sometimes get a hole in it when you get to the tail end. I may try de-boning with the skin still on and see if that makes a difference. I might be able to pull the bones a bit more without tearing the flesh. I have also seen another way to filet it into 5 sections which I might try when on holidays. If you check out YouTube there are several videos on how to de-bone. I also find bigger pike are better because you get more meat with about the same effort.

[the blue fox]

I would like to ask, why do your fish look like that? Do you cut to kill the fish Do you do it in the boat or are they ready to be filet? Sorry for the dumb Q and A

[npetersen]

I do that to bleed the fish before fileting. It gets rid of the blood and makes fileting a lot cleaner. I also find the fish tastes better if I do it. I do it when they are alive so that their heart beat pumps it out. Sometimes I do it in the livewell about 1/2 hour before cleaning and then if I am going fishing later that day, I will keep the blood in the livewell and when I am at my spot, I release the bloody water to kind of chum the area to attract fish. This is something new we just started trying but both times, we did catch some good fish after releasing the blood.

[FSHN FRK]

That's a neet thing with the blood.
The way I clean pike, I don't even bother with the Y bone.
I first lay the pike on its belly and just behind the head cut straight down till I hit the Y bone,
Then stairght out to the tail. This piece is boneless.
Then I lay it on its side and you can see where the Y starts fillet that piece off.
And that's it. I don't bother with the little bit on the inside of the Y.
Not worth the work to me.
Cheers!

[npetersen]

I have seen videos of this method you are talking about and will try that next time I clean a pike but want to see the video just before doing it so I get it right. I have also watched a couple of other pike cleaning/de-boning videos and I guess I just have to try a couple to find the one I'm most comfortable with.

[the blue fox]

Thanks for the info And that sounds like good idea to "chum" the water.