Category: General

It had been a while since I went off on a bit of an adventure outside of the Lancaster area. With gas prices being as high as they are you have to pick your battles a little more selectively when opting to pull the boat around to remote areas. I took me between a quarter and half-tank of gas to get from Brockville to Lancaster while pulling the boat. Mind you, in this case it was worth every penny.

I was invited to my new friend Sylvie’s cottage by a long-time friend of mine JP and decided to bring the boat along after hearing about good walleye fishing in the area. JP had never really fished before so I thought this would be a good opportunity for him to get a taste of what it’s all about and perhaps a better understanding of why I’m so…well…obsessed with it. I usually like to name the areas I fish but in this case I will keep it secret because this river is absolutely pristine and virtually untouched by fishermen. I speculate that the reason for its preserved “natural” state is that it was spared from logging because of its shallow waters and low-lying wetland basin not suitable for building on. For the sake of this article I will name this absolute gem of a river the Zhashagi, which in native Ojibwe tongue means “Great Blue Heron” (according to a brief google search anyway). I took the boat upstream a few kilometres with Ken, a long-time visitor of the area from Marathon NY. As soon as we disappeared out of view from the few rustic cottages where we were staying in, I knew I was in a unique place. As we watched fish snatch mayflies around every bend, the loons, hawks, turtles, bull-frogs and many many Blue Herons we encountered seemed to great us with a smile. As we drifted slowly Ken shared 20+ years of hunting and fishing experience he’s had on the river and I immediately felt a spiritual attachment to the area. It is truly wild, extremely fertile, virtually untouched and loaded with fish, birds, insects, amphibians and mammals of all kinds.

When it comes to fishing, the Zhashagi is home to mammoth sized walleye and also large numbers of 2 to 3 pounders. Largemouth bass reaching ridiculous weights (8lbs) and numbers of chunky smallmouth lurk in its dark stained shallow waters as well. Some of the locals were also telling me that pike in the mid-teens and even lower twenties are caught each year in the area. A local of the area Bob, who happens to be one of the friendliest guys you’ll ever come across, insisted that I return in late June for the opening of bass season. Apparently I’m in for a real treat with fish averaging in the 4 pound range. This time around however, I was after walleye.

We arrived fairly late in the day on Saturday and took the opportunity to unwind and settle in. I talked to some of the locals to get a read on the river seeing as there were no hydrographical charts readily available. As soon as I heard stories of walleyes being caught the very same day just up river in the 3 to 5 pound range and of true monsters boated every year I was genuinely excited. JP and I threw a few casts from shore and it didn’t take long to realize this place was full of fish as both a smallmouth and largemouth were quickly fooled by a floating rap. That night, we had a fantastic venison steak dinner followed by a relaxing evening by the bonfire with the other few cottagers in the area. Sylvie and JP were tremendous hosts and really planned out their meals and made sure I was feeling right at home from the get-go. I was immediately swept away by the genuine nature of the people in the area and felt more relaxed than I had in months from the onset of the weekend.

I immediately noticed that the Zhashagi River is similar in size and water colour to two of the local feeder rivers that produce walleyes in Lake St-Francis so I took off solo Sunday morning to see if I could locate fish using methods that have worked for me in more familiar waters. I decided to troll crankbaits to cover water and I opted for an original floating Rapala in the Firetiger pattern. Let’s just say it didn’t take very long for it to yield results. As I neared the first bend in the river just before a shallow shoal my rod bent in half and my drag started to scream. I knew I had a nice fish when I got that “snagged” feeling but with those typical walleye headshakes. At this point I put the boat in reverse for a second, then neutral, and then shut off the engine to try and enjoy the moment a little and also to better evaluate the situation. I seem to think better when the engine is shut off and there really wasn’t anywhere for the fish to go so I just went with the flow and slowing fought the fish. I was working a gravel bottom in about ten feet of water. The only thing working against me was a fairly strong current but seeing as the boat was also at the mercy of the current I steadily fought the fish, keeping constant pressure on it; which is vital with Fireline because it doesn’t have that mono stretch characteristic that acts like a mini-drag. Within about five minutes I got the fish near the boat and that’s when I saw the white spot on the tail and the giant swirl it left on the surface with its massive tail as it desperately tried to head to the bottom. I knew I was tied into my potential best walleye lifetime but I stayed calm knowing that she had at least two of the trebles safely embedded in her jaws. After 4 or 5 valiant efforts to regain deep water and a few headshakes at boat side she rolled over to her side and I gently slipped the net underneath her. While on the subject, I like to keep big fish in the water and use the net as a cradle rather than try and lift them into the boat. It prevents the fish from hurting itself and it also helps avoid huge tangles in your net from a struggling fish with a mouth full of trebles. It’s a safer approach for both you and the fish. Next, I popped the hooks out in about five seconds and she was mine. What a beauty. The picture isn’t the greatest because I had to head back to shore and a young guy there took the pic in a scramble just after waking up but you get the idea. It’s my personal best.

That turned out to be the only big fish of the day but JP and I did manage a few more pike and walleye later that night just in time for dinner. We brought them to the camp and had ourselves an absolute feast of walleye fillets, venison and steak alongside cucumber salad and potatoes cooked in foil wraps on the BBQ and a cold bottle of white wine. It was truly a feast fit for royalty especially when enjoyed in the great outdoors. I really think JP enjoyed the experience. He certainly liked the catching fish part, but I also believe he dicovered the deeper, meditative quality of fishing, its simplicity and its uncanny ability to keep you focussed on something, to help you forget about your daily petty worries and to allow you to deviate from your typical thought pattern. At least that’s what I hope. Maybe he was bored stiff I have no idea. 🙂

The Return Home.…and what a return it was.

I got back into Lancaster last night at about 5pm, dead tired and ready for bed, but it was one of those nights you just have to take advantage of….muggy, calm, warm and inviting, so I asked Pat and Mike if they were up for looking for walleyes in the Raisin. They agreed and we were off.

I hadn’t been in there yet this year so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. We worked our way upstream but found a lot of floating algae and coontails that were starting to grow close to the surface making fishing pretty tough. After a few fruitless passes up and down the river and plenty of removing weeds from crankbaits we headed out to another spot. We found a transitional area between the summer basin and the spawning area. It is a spot where the water temp, colour, depth and bottom structure change dramatically. There were literally enough catfish on the surface to scoop up with a net. We found the walleye concentrated on a small flat holding on a ledge between a deep 25-30 foot hole and a shallow weed edge and man, were they on the feed. I have never seen walleye hit that hard. The interesting thing was that they were almost in a summer pattern hitting very fast moving crankbaits. We were trolling a lot faster than I’m used to and it seemed to trigger very aggressive and numerous strikes. In four passes over the area we caught two fish, one being a monster and the other a 2-pounder that fought like at 6-pound smallmouth. We also missed one because I got lazy and didn’t sharpen my hooks after a few fish and scrapes on bottom. Here’s a little video of the action.

Yes I know that was a lot of talk for such a small fish. I swear it hit like a 10-pounder! 🙂 It must have had me stuck in a rock because I was unable to move it for a minute. Either that or it was one of those mutant super-human steroid fish.
The larger fish was a true beauty and by the time we caught her it was virtually pitch dark out. It was Mike’s first walleye in his new boat and also his personal best by far. It hit like a tons of bricks about half an hour after sunset. Mike’s rod just stopped dead in the water to the point where he thought he’s jammed the #11 Rapala in between some large rocks, until the rod started to transfer the huge head shakes that is. After a worthy fight, the beast was in the net. We quickly took a few pics and released her. This one earned Mike some well-deserved congrats from Pat and I. It gave him (and us) the rush of a lifetime, and the best thing is that he decided to let her go so she’s still out there.

Fishing for walleyes on the feed as the sun is setting is extremely exciting, especially once it starts getting dark. Knowing that a monster eye could strike at any time while you can barely see anything beyond the boat leaves you with quite the impression. The one thing is that I recommend if you try this however is that you make sure your boat is tidied up and that you know where everything is (especially plyers, hook removers, other rods, the net etc). Things change at night, and a misplaced crankbait with three sets of trebles can quickly ruin your outing in more ways than one. Although If you take a few minutes to prepare for darkness before it sets in the results can be trophy sized walleye and, in this case, a personal record fish and the thrill of a lifetime.
This weekend was supposed to be about unwinding and recharging the battery. Not only did it exceed my expectations in that regard, It also turned out to be the foundation of memories that will remain with me forever. Until next time, tight lines and good luck, Jigger.

Before we get started it’s worth mentioning that there have been some changes in the territorial zones the MNR uses to manage fishing regulations in Ontario. In a nutshell, they have restructured their former 37 Divisions into 20 broader Zones that cover a much larger area. Although the MRN claims that this change was brought forth to improve the ease of fisheries resource management by better defining boundaries and reducing sometimes confusing exceptions, I suspect this to be the result of low funding from a government that simply doesn’t place its priorities in wildlife management and fishing and hunting. I believe they were finding themselves unable to meet the staffing requirements needed to maintain, regulate and enforce the old system. If you want more information about this please follow this link to the explanation provided on the MNR website.

Much to my dismay, I rarely if ever see Conservation Officers on Lake St-Francis and I suspect that with an even broader area to cover they will become even more illusive. The OPP is out there and will check fishing permits, but they are more concerned with drinking out on the water. With stories of bags of perch being caught during the spawning period prior to the season opening one would wish that the government allocate the necessary enforcement measures to help catch and penalize the cheaters. Unfortunately year after year it seems certain people believe themselves to have the right to catch and sell perch out of season. Not only is this practice extremely arrogant in the sense that it indicates that these individuals believe themselves to be the sole owners and users of the resource but it is also very frustrating to the vast majority of local fishermen who follow the regulations. Above the dam in Long-Sault I recall seeing Conservation Officers on many visits. On one occasion when many people were out catching walleye on the ice at Ault Island the MNR Officers had blocked the only road leading in and out and they systematically verified every vehicle leaving that night asking for permits and checking limits. I have never seen anything similar that in Lancaster or the area. I’ve seen the MNR trucks around here and there but that’s it. I am concerned that the already understaffed Conservation Officers will now have an even broader area to cover meaning that more and more illegal fishing will be allowed to occur in the area. Also, due to the re-shuffling of the former WMU 65 into zone 28 that encompasses a much broader area there will be no more April pike fishing on Lake St-Francis. This is a part of the season I will sorely miss. Sometimes I felt as though I was the only person who craved pike fishing in April just after ice-out. I was often literally alone on the lake and large pikes were readily hitting baits in shallow water and were easy to find. It’s too bad that this April tradition is now over.

Now let’s get back to fishing.

There are moments in a year we all look forward to and eagerly anticipate. For some it’s the magic of Christmas Eve, a wedding anniversary, a vacation or a trip. For others it’s a festival, a sporting event or a visit from friends or relatives who they rarely get to see. For many of us around Lake St-Francis however the second Saturday in May is the date on the calendar we circle many months in advance. That weekend marks the opening of the perch and walleye season on the lake, and new to this year the pike season also. My cousin-in-law Mike just bought himself a brand new Lund 1625 Rebel SS and lucky for me he and his wife (my cousin) Amélie live only a few houses down the road from my place on Lake St-Francis. This boat, seen in the picture at the top of this post and in the perching video below is an absolute jewel to fish in. It’s like fishing out of your living room. I was extremely impressed with the hull of the boat. It’s a deep-V and is very bulky and stable in the water. We had it out in some decent chop on Sunday afternoon and it cut the waves very smoothly at high speeds and spray was a non-factor. The boat is very wide, and the storage areas are numerous and spacious, thus creating a lot of space and an extremely comfortable fishing experience. Three people can fish very comfortably without feeling cramped one bit. What I really appreciated was the stability of the boat in the water and the spacious interior, not to mention its very slick look overall. The package came with a 50HP 2-stroke Merc which moves the boat fairly well but it could use a more powerful engine, a 72 pound thrust bow-mount trolling motor and a basic sonar unit. The livewell is huge and fully equipped with a place to put your minnow bucket. I think Mike will be very happy with his purchase for many years to come.

Perch opener May 08

Although he was reluctant to go out for perch because he wanted to try his luck with walleye Mike agreed to make Saturday morning a perch outing. With the water being cold for this time of year at 51 degrees, when we got out on the water I stood in front of the boat and we looked for perch schools in the shallow bay near Glengarry Park and Westley’s Point thinking fish might still be in spawning mode. The very shallow water looked pretty much deserted so we used the wind to drift out towards deeper water and found perch with the Aqua-Vue on the first drop-off out of the bay in about 15 feet of water. From that moment on the action was fast and furious. We literally couldn’t let out rigs hit the bottom without getting hit as the perch were really aggressive, biting with conviction and very numerous. They were spitting up a lot of minnows so we caught them during feeding time for sure. We released quite a few but got some real nice ones here and there. I had come up with a rigging system the night before that uses a drop loop variation knot that reduces the length of the snell, meaning that tangling is a non-factor. The rigs worked out very well. I love catching perch on an ultra-light rod. I use a St-Croix ultralight with a tiny Quantum spinning reel and I absolutely love the feel of a jumbo trying to stay on bottom on that outfit. I stick to 4 pound test mono, #6 Mustad Ultrapoint coloured bait hooks tipped with a minnow hooked through the eyes, as light a bell sinker I can get away with and I seem to do quite well. The idea is to think ultra-finesse approach. As you can see in the video below we had a fantastic time. After a couple hours of furious action Amélie called us and we picked her up at the dock. She helped us fill the livewell by boating about 15 perch. At noon, we decided we had plenty of work cut out for us in terms of cleaning fish so we headed in for the day. For me perch fishing is all about savouring the moment and enjoying the simple act of being outdoors with the smells and sounds of the lake. There is something truly mesmerizing and arguably therapeutic about it. I can’t think of a more relaxing thing to do on a nice day.

We had a few hours to kill on Sunday afternoon and despite the strong East wind we decided to head to the Stumps for a bit of shallow water pike action. I threw a Rattlin’ Rap around the sunken logs, Pat switched between a huge white spinnerbait tipped with a long plastic worm and a large spoon and Mike started off chugging a blue Husky Jerk but also switched to a Rattlin’ Rap when we realized that noise and flash were the way to go that day. We only ended up being out for an hour or so but we managed to boat 3 small pikes. Don’t mind Pat with his comments about me in this video. He’s just jealous.

Fight with a small pike and release

Lake St-Francis small pike release at the Stumps

Pat Fighting a pike

Overall I had a fantastic weekend. It started with fast perch action and ended with a perch feast on Sunday. I can’t complain, well, other than the fact that fishing in my boat suddenly doesn’t seem very enticing. Something tells me we’ll be using Mike’s Lund a little more than my old Sea Nymph this summer.

November 8th 2007 will forever be etched in my memory. We had been hunting for 3 days and the gang was dwindling. Some of the guys had to work so we were down to 5 and dogging bushes was getting tough. Wednesday was a dry day and faces were getting longer and longer on all of us as a sense of discouragement slowly set in. The deer found the holes between doggers and watchers rather easily and we were getting worried about the rest of the day. Heck, we even contemplated quitting for the day and going our own ways to tree stands. Instead we decided to concentrate our efforts on smaller bushes, hoping that we’d push something out and get lucky. It turned out to be an excellent decision.
It was about 10am and a cold one at 3 or 4 degrees C with clear skies and a steady annoying east wind when we almost reluctantly headed to the backyard of one of the guys we hunt with. We were going to push a small bush, and by small I mean the size of a football field, in the hopes of finding a buck that he’d seen there over the summer a few times hiding from the more heavily hunted larger bushes in the area. We lined up three guys on the east side of the property in a huge hay field. (The area on the right where I point to in the video) There was a large bush on the east side of this field that looked like a perfect place for a deer to run at the time especially given the east wind. Deer typically will run away from doggers going into the wind rather than with the wind. I wasn’t overly concerned about the south side of the bush (where I point to in the video below) because there really wasn’t anywhere for a deer to run that way. Boy was I wrong. Nearing the end of the push, when I could actually see one of the doggers (Pat), I heard him call out on the CB that something just got up ten feet in front of him and it was “something huge”. This caught me off guard because I was almost ready to unload and thinking about which bush to push next. What happened next is nothing short of extraordinary. A buck with a huge rack ran straight south into a corn field along the fence line. He was in full throttle and about 150 yards away from me. I thought about not shooting but I figured I had a chance since I knew my gun was perfectly lined up and that he was in the open. I lead the deer by about 12 feet in my scope, took a deep breath and fired. He jumped up and his knees buckled a little so I knew he was hit. He only made it another 100 feet and then stepped broadside and fell into the plowed corn. He was down and out.

I started jumping up and down and couldn’t believe what had just happened until Leo reminded me that I should collect myself and reload in case something else came out. When we approached him it was like a dream. The size of this buck for the area was astounding, even from 200 yards away. The rack was thick and long. He turned out to be a ten point weighing in at 244lbs field dressed. I brought it to Imbeault’s butcher shop in Valleyfield today where he quickly drew a crowd. They had already processed over 1000 deer this year and he was the biggest yet. He was also the biggest buck seen by the gang I hunt with in the 20 years they’ve been hunting this area.
I’m headed to Leroux’s Taxidermy in Sainte-Justine tonight because this one is going on the wall. This has truly been one of the most intense experiences of my life; buck of a lifetime? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing is for certain, he gave me the thrill of a lifetime.

244lbs (field dressed) 10 Point Lancaster Buck

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St-Francis Smallmouth, late summer action

I had the chance to go out for a goose hunt this fall and let me tell you, it was an absolute blast. There’s nothing like fooling a flock of 7 or 8 geese into thinking your decoys are some of their friends. I know a lot of people don’t like goose meat but when made into sausages, let me tell you it forms a match made in heaven with a Pinot Noir or a Zyndandel.

I wanted to take my camera out into the field to capture video or still pictures of birds in final approach but as you can see it was a wet one that day so I decided not to. Turns out the rain held off for the most part and we had a decent hunt. We were 3 short of our limit at 9am and the birds moving were getting fewer and fewer appart so we called it a day. We didn’t have as many decoys as we would have liked so when the birds started landing in the field adjacent to us in the hundreds we figured it was getting difficult to compete with the real McCoy. At that point we had quite a few birds to clean anyway so heading in 3 short wasn’t a tough call. The farmer who’s field we hunted that morning was kind enough to leave a few rows of corn up so blinds weren’t necessary. We just sat a row or two inside the corn and set up our decoys about 40 yards off the edge the corn. Thoughts of Field of Dreams crossed my mind…Come on now, I was up at 4:30am.

Here Rénald and I display two of the larger bird we bagged that day. Upper Canada geese can reach surprising wingspans and weight. They truly are magnificent birds. It’s amazing to think how far a bird that large migrates on a yearly basis.

Pat was with us too. You’ll remember him from the smallie outings in August. He only really started getting the goose bug this year. He was out with us a few times last year and the year before that but I think his impressions were that goose hunting wasn’t as exciting as the deer hunt. Judging by the ear to ear grin he was sporting that morning I’m guessing he’s slowly started realizing why so many hunters are literaly addicted to waterfowl. Personally I think It’s an absolute awesome way to connect with nature and see the land from another perspective. Driving by a wet, cold half-harvested corn field in Glengarry in late October is one thing, spending a few hours sitting in one at the crack of dawn is another. The incessant cackle of hundreds of birds, the first frosts, the automn colours, the fresh air, the smellls, all combine to create a fantastic experience. There truly is nothing quite like it.