Crotch Lake, Ontario
May 2010

The TinBoat Crew

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Nobody went hungry on this trip!
After hitting up Black Lake for many years, we decided to shake things up a bit.  On Kahler's recommendation, we headed for The Crotch in May of 2010.  The crew consisted of Kahler, Campbell, Jeff, Pete, Josh, and Jordan.  Pete drove his new Jeep Grand Cherokee and I drove my old Cherokee.  Pete's Jeep did great!  My Jeep made it too ..... barely.  And it only left a couple puddles of transmission fluid on the road along the way.

Land O' Lakes Lodge

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This boat was promptly sold following the trip.
Again based on Kahler's recommendation, we stayed at Land O' Lakes Lodge.  It was a great place and we had a really nice two bedroom apartment located above the main lodge.  They provided us with a well equipped rental boat, great food, shore lunch materials, and friendly service.  We had a great time talking with the other guests, and Mel was more than happy to lend us tools when my boat needed just a bit of attention.

The Crotch

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I suppose there are more scenic lakes in Canada, but I've sure never seen one.  There is next to no development on the shorelines giving the lake an incredibly remote feel and look.  The rocky shorelines, islands, coves, and rock walls provide just about the perfect backdrop for a day of fishing.  We were fortunate to have beautiful weather and plenty of colorful sunsets.  The trip would have been worth it for just the scenery alone.
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Have you ever seen a prettier sunset?

The Fishing

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We were hoping to get into some quality pike fishing, but we just couldn't find any good weed beds.  The pike we did catch were few and far between.  Smallmouth on the other hand were a whole different story.  We caught plenty of them and good size too.  A couple decent walleye found their way into the boat and even one or two largemouth bass.  The hands down best lures on the trip were 4" Senkos and topwater poppers.  

      

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Finding the fish was tough at first since we were targeting pike.  Once we switched to smallies, things got much easier.  Our run and gun technique of moving parallel to the shore while casting toward shore and toward open water was quite successful.  We found lots of fish holding in less than 2 feet of water, but the bigger ones were typically a bit deeper.
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Josh sure likes his Hula Popper for bigmouts.
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Pete was born to be a fisherman.