Lake Simcoe isn't my best friend... sometimes I wonder if we're even friends at all! I can't count the amount of times she's left me fishless on both my hands and feet - I'd need more digits. I've always meant to have someone take me out and show me the ropes and today was the day. Well, okay. My WIFE actually had someone take me out - how cool is THAT!? She booked me with Fatal Force Outfitters.
It was an early rise and we hit the lake around 6am. Before we left, Tom messaged me and told me the first fish was going to be 5.86lbs. I laughed and just thought he was messing around. We pulled up to a spot in shallow water and tossed out. I hooked up pretty quick - the thing was huge! I reeled him in as best I could but he was strong! He made a run at me and before I could pick up the line he made a jump and tossed the hook. It was for sure a 5.86 😂.
We hit a few of his spots but the slight ripple on the water with a heavy overcast day made it hard to see any distance in the water. We hooked my first fish on the other side of the bay that we started. It wasn't the 5.86lbs I wanted but a heavy 5.37lbs smallie was pretty fun too!
The entire time hes moving through waypoints I ask him if he's finding these areas with a slow troll or if he side images the lake to find 'em. The teacher he is, he says "come on, I'll show ya." and off we went. We moved to another part of the lake he hadn't been through yet and walked me through his entire process of moving down the bank, looking for things that stood out - boulders, wood and shell beds. The two things that got me was he didn't have a rod in hand until we came to a fish and his way down the bank was different.
This is where I think I'm losing on Lake Simcoe. I tend to meander down the shoreline tossing at "stuff" and in between "stuff" I'll throw a moving bait. Don't get me wrong, I've caught some okay fish - usually a 3-4lb'er being my upper limit. What Tom was doing different was he was following the transition lines. On the one side of the boat would be rock and the other side of the boat being sand. He moved down those lines looking for "stuff" and unlike my "stuff" his "stuff" had fish on it and if it didn't, the rod wasn't in his hand.
This let him fish quickly and effectively. He wasn't fishing water that didn't have fish in it and he was concentrating his time on areas fish are going to be either moving into or out of.
The day was a smashfest. We hammered Bass all day long, to the tune of roughly 28lbs for our best 5 fish. That would have put us into a contending spot on any of the Simcoe tournaments being fished out there.