Accomplishing a Long Standing Fishing Goal

For me, one of the most appealing aspects of fishing is the fact that there is really no end to what you can learn, attempt or achieve. There is always a new technique to try or spot to fish. There are species of fish you've never caught or size class accomplishments to pursue.

My list of fishing goals is substantial and every time I think about it, something new seems to be added to it.

I haven't really had a chance to catch my first musky, arctic char or inconnu; fish species at the top of my North American freshwater bucket list. Just recently I boated my first lake trout. Even though it was just pan-sized by laker standards, finally striking the species off my list felt pretty good.

My fishing bucket list also has many size targets for fish I'm familiar with catching. I would love an opportunity to land a northern pike over 20 pounds or a walleye over 10. Hell, how awesome would it be to haul a 2 pound perch out of the water?

Sometimes, my fishing goals are very personal and related directly to things that only I seem to have trouble doing or are specific goals for specific places. 

My very first Bow River brown trout. Reached two goals that day!

One such goal was catching a walleye, of any size, on the lake where my wife's family cottage is located. This lake is supposed to have a decent walleye population but I have never been able to catch one.

And believe me, it's not because I didn't try. Over the past 7 years I had tried everything from bottom bouncing spinner and crawler rigs, trolling crank baits, casting swim baits, slow death rolled worms to jigging weed edges and even drop shotting minnow imitators and swimming buck tail jigs in likely looking spots. You name it, I tried it. The only reason I was sure there were actually walleye in the lake was a dead walleye fry I found while swimming one afternoon and a walleye skull a bird had left on a rock near the cottage.

Well guess what. Last week I finally caught not one but two walleye and one was of pretty decent size! 

I wish I could say I was out targeting them but my friend and I were drop shotting plastic minnows around a mid-lake weed hump that often gives up big bass. A big group of fish showed up on my fish finder so I dropped the rig down vertically on a prayer and immediately got bit. I readied myself to land a big bass but I damn near jumped out of the boat when I caught a glimpse of a big walleye before it barrelled straight back toward the bottom. A couple minutes later I was giddily holding my first walleye out of our little cottage lake.

My first cottage lake walleye

My second ever cottage lake walleye. Not a trophy but
more memorable than the big bass we were catching!

We managed to catch a bunch of decent bass that afternoon, but I really can't remember much about any of them, my memory blurred by the excitement of achieving one of my longest standing personal fishing goals.

A nice largemouth...that I almost forgot about

Thanks for all the Fish, Alberta

Six years ago, almost to the month, my wife and I loaded up our little Toyota and moved from Richmond Hill, Ontario to Calgary, Alberta to begin our careers in public education.

We originally only planned to stay out there a couple of years to gain some experience while the teaching job market cooled down back in Ontario.

Well you know how things go. Two years turned to three and three years quickly turned to six. It was during our time in Alberta that my passion for fishing was truly reinvigorated. I had enjoyed fishing since I was a little kid but Alberta helped turn my interest in fishing into a full blown obsession.

Jessica and I during our first summer out west

There's many possible reasons I rediscovered my love for fishing while living in Wild Rose Country. Maybe it was my first big Bow River brown or it could've been smashing my personal bests for pike and walleye in Northern Alberta. Being able to have local Albertans tour me around their favourite mountain streams definitely had something to do with it. Regardless of the reason, Alberta had a lot to do with my current love for fishing.

My first fish on fly gear

Can't get these in Ontario! A Highwood River bull trout.

Despite our love for life out West, six years was a long time to be away from our family and friends. So last week, we jammed what was left of our belongings into a U-Haul trailer and began the long journey back to Southern Ontario. Getting ready for the big move didn't leave much time for fishing this past June.

Still, I clearly had to get out for a last hurrah so my friend Adam and I rented a canoe and fished Two Jack Lake in Banff for one last day of fishing in the Canadian Rockies.

The sun was shining and we weren't disappointed with our decision to forego guaranteed fish for a final chance to fish in some of Canada's most beautiful country. If we had gotten skunked it almost would've been okay just to get out there.

I'm definitely going to miss fishing places like this

Adam started off with a chironomid below his strike indicator and I tied on a balanced leech below mine. It took us some time to figure out at what depth we could expect strikes but once we did, it became clear olive leeches were the way to go.

As we rowed around the clear mountain lake, we both got a few whitefish (Adam seems to only catch whitefish). We were having trouble staying at the right depth as the wind was blowing quite strongly across the lake so we decided to try a quieter bay we spotted on the far shore. Once we got there we both landed a couple more whitefish and much to our surprise I caught my first lake trout. Not a big one but I could finally scratch lakers off my fishing bucket list.

Adam and a nice Rocky Mountain whitefish

My first lake trout

As Jessica and I drove east last week I felt a little melancholy to be leaving the beautiful trout streams and my fishing companions behind. But, as we got into Canadian Shield country and passed countless lakes, rivers and fishing lodges, any sadness I felt quickly turned into feeling excited to finally be home.