Thanksgiving Fishing At Puslinch Lake

This past Thanksgiving weekend provided some spectacular warm and sunny weather. There was no better way to take advantage of such weather than to pack up the boat and head out on the water.

Our destination of choice was Puslinch Lake in Puslinch, Ontario. Since we hadn’t made it out on the water in two weeks we were eager for a bite, and Puslinch has lots of little toothy critters always willing to oblige. Besides the pike there are largemouth bass, a small population of smallmouth bass, crappie and walleye.

This is one of the best tow vehicles I've ever seen at a launch...

All about spinnerbaits…

We launched on Sunday morning with the sun shining and the water temp at 64F. A quick tour around the lake got the motor warmed up and we settled first into a bay containing a large amount of lily pads (surprising given the time of the year). With the amount of weed still in good condition we started with topwaters and spinnerbaits. Without any action we left the bay and started casting along the shoreline. A rocky point near weeds seemed prime for a fish but again, nothing.

I decided to change it up and tie on a new Strike King spinnerbait I had won for a gear review from OBN. The 3/8oz spinnerbait with a painted blade and a bit more color than the white one I had been throwing seemed to be the ticket. On my 4th cast I felt a thud, set the hook, and pulled in a decent little pike.

The first pike of the day. The only pic was on him in the net because getting the hooks out required some time and we didn't want him out of the water any longer than necessary.

I can’t say the fishing was fast – we went some time between bites. But to be out on the water, enjoying the sunshine and catching some fish, was just incredible. We eventually established a pattern as we picked up a few more pike and some largemouth bass. With the exception of two bass I snagged with a drop-shot off a swim platform, the fish came out of the weeds in about 6-8 feet of water, next to the deep lake basin. The one spinnerbait reigned supreme and it was fortunate we had two of them so both Darrell and I could toss it.

One of the bass Darrell snagged on the spinnerbait

While we had an amazing day on Sunday there was one scary moment when we were running between two islands. There was a marker to indicate the rock shoal extended far out from the island. What we didn’t realize was that the shoal extended the entire width between the two islands. The sound of the motor popping up after hitting the rock is not something I want to hear again.

All about the crankbait…

Holiday Monday morning dawned as beautiful as  the day before, and despite the fact we had a turkey dinner to get to, the lake lured us back for the afternoon. Instead of picking up with our pattern from the previous day, the increased temperature (the water temp was now 66F) had us heading back to the bay and tossing frogs. There is little I like doing more than frog fishing, and having little bass smashing at my frog was great fun. The bite, however, wasn’t really there, so we moved off to recreate our pattern from Sunday.

This time the spinnerbaits were catching nothing but weeds. Since I’m not a patient angler it wasn’t long before the spinnerbait was put down and a new Strike King square bill crankbait was tied on. It took me a few casts to get the feel of running it just above the weeds, but then I felt a pump and reeled in a pike.

One of the pike caught on the crankbait

A few casts later and I finally reeled in a Puslinch Lake crappie! We had tried to target them the day before with no luck and now I had one on the crankbait.

A pretty nice crappie

Again, our day turned out to be about one lure. No matter what we threw, the only lure provoking a bite was the crankbait.

The hot lure on Monday

A few hours later, and after I lost another fish, we decided to be responsible people and pack it in so we were only an hour late for Thanksgiving dinner. I could have stayed out there a lot longer. There really is nothing like a beautiful day on the water and catching fish, especially when the fish are coming in fairly steady.

The boat, waiting to be packed up. The boat has had much more use since we bought it than it ever did with it's previous owner 🙂

The lake at sunset...

It’s always a surprise how therapeutic time on the water actually is. Getting out for two days and catching fish just seemed to make everything better. Puslinch Lake proved to be an excellent destination and we weren’t the only ones who thought so. Many people were out on the lake, taking advantage of the last gasp of incredible weather. I hope everyone was able to enjoy their holiday weekend as much as I did!

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argosgirl

Sporadic blogger and sometimes podcaster who loves fishing, the outdoors, hanging with her animals, gardening, and reading manga.

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