Final Open Water Fish, Whitefish and lessons learned

Got out yesterday with a friend for a final fish of the open water season. We arrived at the public launch and quickly realized we would have to change our plans. The water level had dropped so low on the lake that the boat would have been beached immediately. We decided to head over to another nearby lake and try our luck there. This was a steeper/deeper launch so we quickly unpacked our things and launched the boat, lines down by 10am.

View of the shoreline, only the oak leaves remain:



We started at a location we have fished before in the spring and winter. After 2 hours of zig-zagging our way along a flats, we had one lone marked fish to show for. We decided to head to the north end of the lake and explore some new waters. We tried deeper basins and tighter to shore with only a handful of disinterested fish appearing below us.

By 2pm we began making our way back south towards the launch and decided to stop at a spot my friend had pinned from a few seasons ago. Finally, we had found multiple fish and they were stacked up in 50'.

The first fish I marked in this location, came up aggressively for my high hook:



The second whitefish a few minutes later:



We stayed for another 30 minutes or so, missed a few more whitefish and caught one OOS lake trout that was promptly released.

Missed whitefish:



As we were lining up the boat on the trailer to tow out, the car suddenly rolled over the wood blocks we had put in place behind the rear tires. My friend quickly jumped into the car and slammed on the brakes, thankfully the boat wasn't hooked up to the trailer yet. Managed to get the car and trailer out and I retrieved the boat with my chest waders on. Faulty e-brake and a steep ramp nearly cost us. We were lucky enough to have a local cottager assist us with the tow out. Valuable lesson learned: be mindful of low water levels, make sure your emergency brake works, not all ramps are created equal. A humbling experience for us, wanted to share as a reminder for others, stay safe!

Wow, that could have been a lot worse. Good for you guys paying attention and jumping into action quickly. Having your waders there was smart as well. Mine are always in the back of the car. Never know when you may have to enter the water at a boat ramp. Maybe to help yourself or just being nice and helping someone else. Glad everything worked out. Nice pictures, like the one of the trees and hillside. Really shows the contrast of late fall, in the forest.

Awesome report and some beautiful whities, im glad you guys made it back safely without too many headaches!

Any more eggs?

Processed the whitefish this morning, mine was a male.

Very nice looking WF. And even more importantly, glad you guys didn't end up with a worse situation. Hope that was not the reason to make it the last softwater trip of the year. I am still hoping to get out for a few more trips before putting stuff away and the long wait for the ice).

Looking forward to your next report John, you've been dialed in on the whitefish. We'll see, might have one more in us before the boat gets stowed away. Maybe get out with the canoe. Ice season is just around the corner and those whitefish shouldn't be far from where we left them!

Thanks C-man, this time of year is a great time to get out. Scenic and more often than not you'll have the lake to yourself.

Could've been much worse! Appreciate it.

good on you for continuing to search till you found them too many of us spend too much time fishing for non biters or inactive fish


And ya, glad you got out of that mishap without some bad issue