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Old 05-21-2018, 11:04 PM
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RavYak RavYak is offline
 
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Default Successful May Long

Who else had a good May Long Weekend?

I started the weekend off with an overnight trip on the river. Found a nice hole anchored up the kayak and tried to sleep a bit although it was surprisingly cold when the fog settled in(thankfully was wearing my drysuit). Ended up catching 7 sturgeon although the biggest was only 3 ft and a bunch of small walleye.







Then I headed up to Cold Lake on Saturday. It was a nice day but fairly breezy so I played around in the back bays looking for walleye and pike most of the day. Found a few pike but wasn't having too much luck so headed out and stumbled on this chunky 31.5 inch laker.





The forecast was for more wind Sunday and I didn't feel like fighting it again so decided to go try a new lake. Ended up finding a few decent walleye and a bunch of pike, best being a 25 inch walleye and 33.5 inch pike.







Overall it was a pretty good weekend, you know it is when you come back more tired then when the weekend started and your knuckles are all skinned up from handling fish lol.

Feel free to share your own story here if you want.
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Old 05-22-2018, 05:32 AM
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Looks like you had fun, great weekend! Mine consisted of yard work.
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Old 05-22-2018, 06:40 AM
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58thecat 58thecat is offline
 
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Wow you sure cover the territory, I was with my son in Long bay and saw a person putting around in a kayak, mentioned there was a fella on the forum who lives in his kayak. You went by us as we were trolling at the edge of the sand bar and caught a 32" laker. 9' of water just as it dropped off, attempting eyes and pike....yup it was a stiff breeze out there....next day in French bay and the wolf packs were hunkered in 2-3' of water, stopped counting at around thirty as the pike were nuts, even caught them on surface poppers

Next time I see a fella out in the middle of no where in a kayak will stop by and say hi!
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Old 05-22-2018, 08:50 AM
McLeod McLeod is offline
 
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Nice report !
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Old 05-22-2018, 09:09 AM
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Great write up! Curious as to whether you kept a fish to eat?
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Old 05-22-2018, 09:15 AM
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Originally Posted by 58thecat View Post
Wow you sure cover the territory, I was with my son in Long bay and saw a person putting around in a kayak, mentioned there was a fella on the forum who lives in his kayak. You went by us as we were trolling at the edge of the sand bar and caught a 32" laker. 9' of water just as it dropped off, attempting eyes and pike....yup it was a stiff breeze out there....next day in French bay and the wolf packs were hunkered in 2-3' of water, stopped counting at around thirty as the pike were nuts, even caught them on surface poppers

Next time I see a fella out in the middle of no where in a kayak will stop by and say hi!
Were you in the smaller boat that I crossed paths with a few times throughout the day and we waved to each other earlier in the day? I figured you would be out there but wasn't sure what to look for.

I was wondering if Long Bay is usually that murky or was that because of the wind? Didn't seem like the best of conditions to me, there were pike scattered around in there but they were biting weird(for some reason I wouldn't get hooked up on a lot of them).

If anyone ever sees a kayak out in what seems to be the middle of nowhere good chance it might be me(and if it is a camo coloured pedal drive kayak with a ton of gear almost guaranteed to be me), feel free to come say hi and chat for a bit.

This was one of my crazier trips to date, I kayaked over 25 kms on Cold Lake that day and 60+ kms over the weekend. At the end of the day Sunday my legs were so tired and sore I could barely stand up lol.
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Old 05-22-2018, 09:18 AM
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Great write up! Curious as to whether you kept a fish to eat?
Nope all thrown back to swim another day. I was hoping to find some walleye on Cold to keep but all I could find were pike and the few lakers.
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Old 05-22-2018, 10:35 AM
Fishwhere Fishwhere is offline
 
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Thats a pretty awesome variety. Thanks for the pics!
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Old 05-22-2018, 02:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RavYak View Post
Were you in the smaller boat that I crossed paths with a few times throughout the day and we waved to each other earlier in the day? I figured you would be out there but wasn't sure what to look for.

I was wondering if Long Bay is usually that murky or was that because of the wind? Didn't seem like the best of conditions to me, there were pike scattered around in there but they were biting weird(for some reason I wouldn't get hooked up on a lot of them).

If anyone ever sees a kayak out in what seems to be the middle of nowhere good chance it might be me(and if it is a camo coloured pedal drive kayak with a ton of gear almost guaranteed to be me), feel free to come say hi and chat for a bit.

This was one of my crazier trips to date, I kayaked over 25 kms on Cold Lake that day and 60+ kms over the weekend. At the end of the day Sunday my legs were so tired and sore I could barely stand up lol.
Yes it is dark and murky then fills full of weeds, further back gets skanky too with blobs of jelly like stuff.
French bay back will fill full of weeds but as you come out of the bay it goes from 6-14 feet and that is where we pick off gators. A few points leaving the bay on your left will have eyes suspended in 20 feet of water.
You must have seen my son attempt to net my laker....thought he was trying to knock it off...gong show.
My son said that fella probably has horse legs as you covered more turf than we did using an outboard.
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Old 05-22-2018, 02:27 PM
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Nope all thrown back to swim another day. I was hoping to find some walleye on Cold to keep but all I could find were pike and the few lakers.
Yeah talked to a fella who lives on long bay who said they had departed for deeper water already, I missed that week opportunity to have them all in one area and hungry.
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Old 05-22-2018, 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by 58thecat View Post
You must have seen my son attempt to net my laker....thought he was trying to knock it off...gong show.
My son said that fella probably has horse legs as you covered more turf than we did using an outboard.
I saw you guys having some sort of trouble with a fish and taking a picture just outside of the bay when I went passed, maybe that was what was going on lol.

Hobie kayaks are surprisingly easy to move around at slower speeds, I can troll(3-4 kph) all day quite easily and it probably uses less energy or the same as walking. If I want to cover ground I can do 6-7 kph for a distance or up to 10 in a sprint so I can't get anywhere in a hurry like you can with an outboard but I still eventually get where I am going lol. The wind makes it a fair bit tougher though and it gave me a good workout that day.
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Old 05-23-2018, 01:33 AM
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Great stuff as per usual Rav. Thanx for sharing.
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Old 05-23-2018, 01:42 AM
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Junior (he's 5) and I got a chance to tempt the waters. Managed 3 sturg and 1 Miss Piggy Sucker. From my xp sturgeo arogi was 50-54" but no pics here., Sorry folk. I did realize something on this adventure though. Sturgeon fishing is not for kids, the small sturgeon are sharp like knife, the large are to heavy to holD. Trout time. Xo
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Old 05-24-2018, 08:39 AM
243 wild cat 243 wild cat is offline
 
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Great pics thanks for the post.
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Old 05-24-2018, 09:11 AM
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May long I am typically opening up the cabin at Dory lake. The weather this year was awsome, I figured for sure the lakebut the week before the wind pick up and crushed up the ice am left massive mounds on shore.


Fishing was pretty good lots of fish but nothing over 40" but that is pretty typical for May long. We also managed a day on a local stocked trout pond that can produce some lunkers, nothing big just a couple of pan sized.

It is very dry up there so even though the bugs had started up deck time was very pleasant.



the Yak will likely get wet this weekend I don't have a dry suit so I have to wait until the water warms up past the death range.
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Old 05-24-2018, 09:18 AM
SNAPFisher SNAPFisher is offline
 
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Nice report! That is a chunky laker for sure. You covered some water alright. Good exercise

I'm down in AZ. But, hit the Green River in UT on the way for the our May long. So awesome...
Might take in some catfish or bass here but I'm finding it hard to drag myself away from the pool and drinking in general...got to stay hydrated
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Old 05-24-2018, 10:11 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aulrich View Post
the Yak will likely get wet this weekend I don't have a dry suit so I have to wait until the water warms up past the death range.
Pretty amazing how warm some of our smaller lakes are already, most are fine to fish without drysuit now especially on a nice warm day. Of course flowing waters and big lakes it would be good to have.

This is my first year using one and it is comforting knowing you don't have to worry about falling in, although that also drives me to do crazier things like sleeping on my kayak on the river last weekend lol.
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Old 05-25-2018, 10:24 AM
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Nice photos, great looking fish! Congrats!
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Old 05-25-2018, 11:47 AM
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Damn it looks like you put in the effort you have some fine-looking fish in those pictures thanks for sharing.
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