Year’s first, I’ll take it…

All I can hope for is that this one will be around for the Lancaster spring pike tournament.
Well, I put the tub in the water on the weekend. The weather wasn’t great but I did manage to go out for about an hour. My options were pike and catfish, which are the only fish in season this time of year on Lake St-Francis. The wind blew from the North so the North side of the lake was fairly calm. I love getting out this time of year. Nobody else around here seems to have figured out that this is the absolute best time of year to catch big fish in this lake. This one here was a little under 12 pounds and about 38 inches long. She was full of eggs and was ready to spawn. I held her just long enough to take a couple pics and weigh her and then she took off in typical pike fashion, leaving me with a taste of cold water.
She was caught on a yellow 1oz spoon with a red five of diamond pattern. She was warming up in some sunken trees adjacent to a feeder creek and not too far from deep water, ready to pounce on my spoon.

The Granny

This one was a fighter. I was having a beer with my old man down by the lake and was about to go for a swim. That’s when I spotted a small largemouth under the dock. I quietly grabbed my flipping stick loaded with 17lbs test mono and simply attached a #4 bait hook straight to the line and pinched a small split shot on there for a little weight and control. I had some lively nightcrawlers in the boat so I hooked one once through the noose and just dropped him down beside the dock. As I expected, the little bass eagerly ate it and after a few brave jumps I had him lipped. I let him go. I figured, why not try the other end of the dock under the floating weeds while I’m at it. My worm slowly danced down into the darkness…the next thing I saw was this brute lunge, without hesitation, out from under the dock and weeds and just inhale my entire little rig. I made sure to get a good hookset and the battle was on. She really wanted to get back under that dock and that would spell disaster for me. There are way too many obstacles under there (including a boat lift) to hope to pull a fish of this magnitude back out to open water. So let me tell you I was glad I used 17lbs test line with my flipping stick at that point. No way would I have pulled this girl out with any of my spinning outfits. After a few jumps and 2 reel-ripping runs, she was in my hands. I put her in the livewell with the aeration on and ran to the house to grab the digital. The image quality is not the greatest because the lens fogged up in the intense humidity. Definitely the biggest largemouth I’ve seen personally. I’d say she cleared 5 and pushed 6. Just a guess though. Oh, and of course, she’s still growing as you read this…

The Perch Culture

As far as I can remember, I recall seeing the boats out on the water. As a kid, I used to think they had a kind of mysterious allure to them. They seemed to be part of the natural setting of lake St-Francois. Today, I’m usually out there myself and have learned a great deal about perch fishing, both on catching more and larger perch and on the culture surrounding the activity. I now recognize the boats, know the spots and enjoy the sport more than ever. The low rumbling of highway 401 on the north shore of the lake, mixed in with the ever so often passing of a train in the distance, the sound of motorboats engines, the loons, cormorants, ducks, geese and even music coming from a nearby boat meld into one enchanting melody. This article sums this up in a beautiful way.

Reek of Hypocrisy (not a metal band)

I have long had my view of PETA. Better know as People Eating Tasty Animals (That should sum it up for you). Seriously though, I truly believe some of these extremists have the intention of doing something righteous, and that as individuals, they are involved in something they believe is making a difference and helping in some way. They are of course way off track and wrong in most cases. One look at their site reveals a few “opinion leaders” using young people to their advantage, fueling their already eager minds with emotional nonsense. Most of the claims made by PETA are subjective, non-founded, non-scientific and simply based on a view which correlates human emotion with animal instinct. Added to this is their clearly visible objective to make a buck like anyone else. What really made me realize these weren’t the dreaded folks whom I thought might actually succeed in convincing children that fishing and hunting are not only wrong, but evil, is the hypocrisy found within their frontlines. The first of these is the fact that their website is supported by Burger King, while they condemn the fast food industry. Indeed, there is a pop-up add for Burger King’s veggie burger on their website.
Now this….
Keep in mind I don’t like CNN’s approach to news coverage and this is a VERY superficial view of an odd incident.

Backhooking and Catfishing

Missed him on the first try but got him on the second.

These guys are all about catfish, but not just any cat. I can’t believe the size of these fish and the fight they seem to give. I’m also impressed with their jellyfish-looking lure. You have to check out these vids.
By the way, perfect perchin’ day on Saturday (finally). Pics coming soon.