September 2009 Fish Report

I am often on record as saying September is my favorite time at Long Sault. I just love the condition of the fish at this time, long, lean and mean and plenty of them. Well usually !!

September was defiantly a month of two halves. The first two weeks was business as usual. Every single angler had at least 50 fish and most up in the high 60`s and above. Then disaster struck. Two large ships went aground in Quebec and they opened the dam fully to raise the water level downstream causing us to loose 4 feet of water at Long Sault. It was frightening to see big rocks and tree stumps in areas I regularly drive over flat out in the boats. For the regulars, to give you a vision of how low the water was. Hoople bay was dry at both ends and in the Hole/Bush swim there was room to put bivvies up at the waters edge. My understanding was the ships got off within two days but they never raised the water back for some reason.

This sudden drop in water levels screwed up the water pressure and the fish stopped feeding. It did come back a bit but the fishing still has not recovered properly. This along with the unseasonably warm weather (water temp. 5 degrees higher than normal) just put the fish off. We could see fish, both in the margins, on the fish finders and topping, but were struggling for numbers. To make matters worse the fish we were catching were weighing up very light because they had not fed up. Lots of fish that we would have bet good money would go plus 30 were weighing up at 26 or 27 lbs. The water was so warm that Peter the Dutchman nicked two 30`s out of 4 ft of water. We are normally out of the shallows by July.

Hey Ho that is fishing; Back to September.

As I said first two weeks were fine, everyone on plus 50 fish. The worst catch coming from first timer Damion. Damion`s first 4 days were a nightmare, which sometimes happens with new guys, I think he had 15 fish or so in the early part of the week, and then things clicked into place and he ended up with exactly 50 fish including catching the same 29.15 fish two days apart. This was a PB for Damion who passionately wanted a 30, but as he said 29.15 is NOT a 30. Best catch in that period goes to Ian Wragg, back for his second visit of the year, he could do no wrong!!! 97 fish to 34lb.

The Magpie was back for the whole month and his fish report about sums it up. 213 fish to 34 lb. Now I could make that sound really sexy, but the truth is in the first two weeks he had just under 140 fish and then the wheels fell off. His partner in crime Mark, arrived for his second visit of the year, joining him for the last two weeks and got 81 fish to 28. His worst ever trip.
Harvey had a quiet trip this year only 39 fish, and this is a good lesson. Harvey is a very good and experienced fisherman, but this year was hell bent on trying new methods, rigs and tackle. Boy did he loose some fish!!! Keep it simple here. Strong tackle, big hooks, heavy leads and bolt rigs!!!

I am not going to torment myself listing loads of poor catches. Colin and I live and breathe to you guys a holiday of a lifetime, but fishing is fishing. As always we had fun and tried our best. Guys coming during the last two weeks averaged 15 to 30 fish each per week. No one blanked but we had three guys with fewer than 10 fish which is the worst we have ever done. Pretty much everyone had big 20`s but during that period we had only 6x 30`s in two weeks!!! We normally get that in a day.

I must say no one complained, everyone stuck at it and strangely almost everyone said they had a great holiday. A lot of the guys out normally go to France and as they said compared to that this was fantastic. But this is Canada. We sell plus 50 fish in week and plenty of 30`s.

My thanks and apologies to all the guys that suffered through this period with us. Next September will be different. I promise.