The Ultimate Skinny Water Boat

Earlier this week my attention was drawn to a blog post on Craig Ritchie’s blog about a 4×4 boat. I had to have a look and what I found was a boat I absolutely must have.

The boats are Jet Boats made by Harbercraft, incredible welded boats made right here in Canada. While Harbercraft makes a variety of boats to suite all sorts of uses, it is the jet boats that get my attention.

I enjoy river fishing but I often wish I could have a boat with me for such fishing – easier access to good fishing holes and no long walks (even though they’re good for me). The canoe works well but it’s not the same. This boat would make it possible to fish some of my favorite rivers, without having to worry about damaging it. With full bottom armor there’s not much this boat can’t handle. Only a trickle of water? No problem for this boat! Just check out these videos for proof:

For more history on Harbercraft:

 

These boats are awesome! I would absolutely love to get the chance to drive one. Although I am in no position to buy a boat these days, I’ll be dreaming about this one until I can afford it. In the meantime, I’ll keep watching videos of all the great stuff you can do with these boats

Toothy Critters On Tiny Gear

Sunday was forecast to be a beautiful, sunny day. Of course, the chimps predicting the weather were wrong and it was actually a cloudy, cold and windy day.

But that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm as we took the boat to Belwood Lake to give the freshly repaired motor a test and try to catch some pike.

The motor performed flawlessly, taking us on a great tour of the lake and getting up to speed in no time. Apparently I’m lucky enough to have a good boat motor repairman living in my house. We weaved around Gull island, into the bays, past the brush patches dotting the lake, and over by the dam. The motor didn’t make so much as a blip.

My first pike of the day.

We spent a few hours fishing, tossing everything we could think of to try and interest a fish into biting, with nothing more to show for it than an adventurous perch follow a big spinnerbait.

As we fished along a ledge I got bored and decided to switch over to some lighter gear, in hopes of enticing a few perch to play. My gear of choice was a 6’6″ ultralight rod with 4-lb Power Pro and a 1.5-inch white tube jig. I made a couple tosses with no bites before I hooked into what a thought was a rock…until it started peeling line. It took me a few minutes to reel in what turned out to be a 24.5-inch pike. What a blast to reel that in on ultralight gear! And boy was I lucky those teeth didn’t touch my tiny line.

That seemed to set of a storm of bites and Darrell reeled a pike in on a jig with a 2-inch twister tail.

Darrell and his first catch.

After a few fish the bite died down. They weren’t big fish but they were a ton of fun. My first pike was easily my personal best for a pike and I loved playing it out on the light tackle, wondering when its razor-sharp teeth would slice through my line.

A really nice perch out of Belwood Lake. It took a bigger lure than any of the pike did!

It turned out to be a great afternoon on the water. I even took a turn driving the boat (at faster than trolling speed) which was an absolute blast! One of my goals this year was to learn how to drive the boat and this was a great way to get going.

Toothy critters and flying around in the boat – what a way to spend the day!

Counting Down The Hours…It’s Almost Fishing Time!

All clean, hooked up and ready to go!

It’s almost here – tomorrow is trout opener in Southern Ontario! The countdown is now in hours instead of days and tonight is beginning to feel like Christmas Eve with all the anticipation.

The weather report for tomorrow morning is calling for light rain but it doesn’t matter what the weather is, I’ll be down at the creek first thing casting for brook trout. Fortunately for me there’s a good creek a short walk from the house. We’ll start at a couple of our favorite pools from last year and go from there. I hope we get at least a few bites.

Since it looks like the wind might pick up we may leave the fly rods at home and just take the ultralights out. A few spinners proved to be extremely effective last year and they will be on our rods to start the day.

However, this weekend is not devoted just to trout. The boat went for a bath today and if the weather is nice enough we’re hoping to get her out for a spin this weekend. A visit to a local lake is a great way to put her through her paces and see if anything needs repairs before taking her out on the larger water. Hopefully everything will be working great and we’ll catch some crappie.

It’s almost time! Rods are ready. Let’s go!

Goals For This Fishing Season

The last few days have had me anticipating some fishing. I have spent a lot of time visiting the river and prospecting for good holes for the upcoming trout season. I also spent time visiting tackle shops to pick up new line, and inevitably pick up some new lures. Then today we spent some time cleaning up the boat and started to get it ready to hit the water.

All of these activities have had me thinking even more about the upcoming season and I realized that I have quite a few goals for this year:

1. Learn to fly fish – I received a fly rod for Christmas and although I’ve practiced casting I really haven’t had the chance to use it. I know very little about fly fishing but it’s something I’m eager to learn. Discovering the Outdoor Blogger Network has opened the door to a wealth of blogs with information about fly fishing and I’ve spent the winter reading as much as I could. I can’t wait to take my fly rod down to the river and cast for brook trout in two weeks. I think I’ll invest in a lesson at some point too, it’s always good to lay down a solid foundation.