My First Walleye

Earlier this week I managed to get out for the evening bite and, while targeting smallmouth bass, hooked up with my first ever walleye! It wasn’t big, but what a thrill…I was on a high for the rest of the night.

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

After Work Fishing

On my drive home from work yesterday I felt an urgent need to go fishing. I told myself there was a lot of work to do at home and I should catch up on those jobs before hitting the water…but by the time I walked into the house I knew where I was heading. I quickly looked after the horses and gathered up the fishing gear.

By the time Darrell got home the rods and tackle were sitting on the front porch and we only had to throw the canoe in the truck and go.

It was a quick walk from the truck, down the trail, to the river (at least it was for me, I wasn’t the one carrying the canoe!). The water level had dropped since we were last there a week ago and was much slower. Knowing we only had a few hours before dark we quickly climbed into the canoe and set out.

The first catch of the night

Only two casts in and Darrell managed to hook into a decent brown trout. It took me a few lure changes and many more casts but I finally hooked into a brown of my own a little while later. We had quite a few hits but didn’t have the best gear for catching the browns that night – we would have been far more successful if we had brought our fly rods. We watched them surfacing on the hatch everywhere.

There is some amazing scenery on this stretch of the river.

The canoe enabled us to get into stretches of the river we can’t normally reach. The views are stunning and the rock faces are awe-inspiring. I spent of a lot of time looking around at the rock walls instead of focusing on my retrieve.

The advantage of having two people in the canoe is one gets to sit up front and take pictures and enjoy the view, while the other is stuck in the back having to steer . Darrell's always in the back seat.

When we reached the waterfall and the fast water I decided to throw on a crankbait. I had heard some good-sized walleye are in the area and I was looking to land one. I took a few casts into the fast water before deciding to throw my lure into an eddy…and wham…fish on! Instead of the walleye I was looking for I found an incredibly ticked-off smallmouth bass on my line.  They just don’t realize their season doesn’t open until Saturday!

My first smallie of the night. Darrell had to grab it because I couldn't get it near enough to the canoe for me to reach. My balance, while never great, is even worse in a canoe and I didn't feel like twisting around too much to grab the fish.

After a quick picture and a release, Darrell moved us back up to the waterfall to try it all over again. And again I had a solid bite and found another acrobatic smallie on my line. This one put in a few jumps before letting me grab it. They may not have been the biggest smallies, but catching them made me pretty darn happy.

It turned out to be an absolutely awesome night, the kind we rarely get to have during the work week. It just goes to show that every now and then we need to cast off the responsibilities for a night and just enjoy ourselves. Fresh air, the outdoors, time on the water, and catching fish…it’s hard to beat.

Saying Goodbye To A River

When it came time to move last weekend, the only regret I had was saying goodbye to a river. It wasn’t just any river. This was the river that gave me my start in fishing.

The river ran through the property we were living on and was a five-minute walk from our house. Starting the winter we moved in, Darrell would take me down to the river and point out features he thought were interesting. At first I took nothing in. But eventually I began paying attention to the nuances of the water, looking at the holes Darrell excitedly pointed out, and I began to understand how complex a river can be. I learned what areas were likely to hold fish under certain circumstances and when to fish them. I learned to read the water.

One of the last fish I caught in the river.

Flying Brookies!

Last night I had one of my favorite stream fishing experiences.

We were fishing the river out back and, as usual, I was using a spinner – a Panther Martin in this case. I caught both a brookie and an atlantic while fishing faster water and keeping my spinner near bottom. Eventually I changed it up and started using a small spoon which got me a couple of bites, including a big buck brookie with magnificent colours that shook the hooks free right as I was about to lift him out of the water. All-in-all a good little fishing trip.

The really fun part, however, was watching what happened when Darrell tied on a little white tube jig. For some reason I rarely toss tubes for brookies but after last night I may change that. On Darrell’s second cast with the tube a bullet launched itself at the lure and Darrell pulled in a nice brookie. He released the fish and before the tube even hit the water on the next cast there was another brookie launching out of the water and inhaling it. I have never seen anything like it. What an awesome site to see this fish so eager to take the bait that he flew out of the water!

Our shouts of “Did you see that?” and “that was insane!” followed by a lot of laughter on my part seemed to turn the fish the off in that hole so we moved on down the river.

After hitting a few more holes we stopped by our favorite spot. This hole is deep, with lots of structure thanks to a downed tree, and the current is always swift.  We’ve caught many large fish out of this hole but never before have I seen what happened last night.  Darrell tossed the tube in and on his first couple of retrieves brought it back slowly with no results. Then he fished it fast and on top of the water and…holy flying brookies!

The fish were flying out of the water to hit the tube. As long as the retrieve was quick and the tube was at the top in fast water these little guys were all over it. I watched as they kept coming out of the water at the tube and while none of them were brought in, apparently you need a good hookset with the tube, it was an awesome sight.

The sun had disappeared behind the trees by the time we left the river, but tripping over everything on the way back home was worth it for having that experience. What a blast!

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If you’re looking for some entertainment today, watch the weigh-in for the Pride of Georgia Bassmaster Elite event at 3:15pm EST. After day three Ish Munroe is in the lead with KVD and Edwin Evers right behind him. It looks to be wide open heading into the final day of the event. You can find updates all day long at www.bassmaster.com.

Don’t Fall Off The Bank!

There’s nothing like a relaxing evening of fishing to get the creative juices flowing…and boy, did I need it!

This past weekend was supposed to be spent at Lake Simcoe, catching perch to enter in the Orillia Perch Festival. Unfortunately, some last minute repairs to the boat motor did not produce the desired result and without a working motor the boat was doomed to stay at home.

Since we had already made arrangements to be away for the weekend there was a quick change of plans and instead of hitting the lake we decided to pack up for some river fishing up north.

With no exact destination in mind we started driving north on a beautiful, sunny spring Saturday morning.  It was pretty neat to have the time to stop at any stream we came across that had a promising looking hole.

Our first stop of the day was a little spot along the Boyne River. We were driving over the bridge when we noticed a promising looking pool and decided to pull over to take a few casts.

Waiting for a bite. Darrell had a couple hits in this pool, I had nothing. It was a nice little spot to stop. There were other drivers pulling over to ask if we had caught anything even before we had a chance to wet a line.

A Fish-Filled Trout Opener

When I woke up this morning it was still pouring rain. My hopes for a dry, sunny Southern Ontario trout opener disappeared. But this was the day I’d been waiting for and nothing was going to stop me from hitting the river.

After a quick breakfast Darrell and I gathered our gear and, with Jack running ahead of us, walked down to the river.

Open and ready to fish...what a great sight!

The rain had slowed to a drizzle as we made our way to the first pool. I chose to start the day with a Mepps Black Fury spinner on my new Bass Pro Shops ultralight rod. The water was still high and fast so it took a few casts to figure out how to make the spinner work effectively. It didn’t take long before I had my first hit, I saw a flash, felt the weight, set the hook…and it was gone.