Hello, this is Firas from Mississauga

[MuskieBait]

(09-21-2015 09:46 PM)kouma Wrote:  I am aiming for Bass and Pike. I have been trying for the past two months, some weeks as much as daily with pathetic results. Here are the areas I tried:

Mississauga:
Port Credit from pier all the way to the canoe club
Erindale Park
Lake Aquitaine
Lakefront Promenade Park

Kitchener:
Grand River Trail

Lovely fish btw, maybe i should try Toronto Islands.

Often, it is more about timing and technique than location.

I used to live in Mississauga and I've caught bass in all the locations you listed. I've caught Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass at Port Credit. Erindale Park is always good for a Smallmouth Bass. Lake Aquitaine used to be very good for bass some 15 years ago for both Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass. It's not as good today, but there are still some around. I've caught Smallmouth Bass at Lakefront Promenade, but honestly, I've only fished there twice in the past.

I used to go to school in Waterloo and I've caught bass and pike on the Grand. In fact, my biggest Smallmouth Bass (3lbs), my biggest Northern Pike (32in) and my biggest Walleye (26in) all came from the Grand fishing from shore. I have fished up and down the Grand in Fergus, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Caledonia, Dunnville and Port Maitland.

In rivers such as the Grand and the Credit, I find either spinners or soft plastic twitchbait work well. I especially love to work the soft plastic just below the surface and letting it drift in the current and twitching it to imitate a dying/struggling bait trapped on the surface. Or I will bottom bounce worms sometimes and catch bass while I'm after other species. I've even caught them on the fly rod with woolly bugger, stonefly nymph and elk hair caddis. You can almost be sure to find some bass on the Grand fishing livebait such as worms, leeches and minnows, but you'll catch them of all sizes from 6" up to several pounds.

For Lake Aquitaine, we used to fish minnows under a float as a kid and catch a dozen bass easy until we ran out of bait. Later on, I caught bass fishing twister tail on a jighead. Back in the days, the weedbed by the dock and the rocky area by the lookout was very good for both Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass. We used to set up our "camp" at the picnic table on the lookout and simply fish from the railing. We didn't even have to cast more than 20 feet from shore and the minnows would not last more than a couple of minutes before they were taken. I've seen Smallmouth Bass up to 3lbs and Largemouth Bass up to 4lbs came out of Lake Aquitaine in the past. My biggest bass there was only 1.5lbs, but we were kids fishing small minnows and chunks of worms back in the days.

I've only ever had one Northern Pike hit at Port Credit and that was off a spinnerbait while I was looking for bass. I usually don't fish Port Credit much because it was further for me to travel, and it was out of the way for my parents to drop me off and pick me up (same with Lakefront Promenade...which was the reason I have only fished there twice for bass or pike).

Most of my Northern Pike from the Grand were caught on Rapala. I've caught them early in the morning, midday, late in the afternoon and at night as well. It takes more searching to find them sometimes, and with the shallower and faster areas I used to fish, it really isn't prime Pike habitat (they are more Smallmouth Bass waters). But still, some were caught.

Here's my PB Northern Pike from the Grand fishing from shore.



And here's my PB Walleye from the Grand fishing from shore.



Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of catches from Mississauga since most of them were taken when I was in elementary and highschool...and the pictures were in film. Some of those pictures were lost so all I have are memories.