2016 Summer Bass Review

It's been a while since my last blog post so I'm going to keep it simple and pic heavy.

Life has been busy and the cottage needed a lot of TLC this summer which meant we had to spend a lot of time at the lake. Tough life eh?

Extended periods of time at the cottage made it possible to relax and be picky about when I wanted to fish. I could afford to keep the boat docked during the middle of the hottest days and just head out for an hour or two near dawn or dusk on those sweet calm overcast days. Having a new baby around also made it easy to get in on the dawn bite. Any parent should be able to relate.

My simple little rig

This year the hot technique was definitely rigging soft plastic Senko-style worms wacky on light weedless VMC Wacky Jigs. Any variation of the pumpkin or perch colours worked consistently. I also boated a bunch of morning bass on topwater poppers. My very favourite topwater bait continues to be the classic Hula Popper in black but I also did well with Cabela's Fisherman Series Top Poppers.

Here's some fish:

Many more fish were landed between learning to take care of the cottage and enjoying time with Nolan. With the addition of a new window air conditioning unit, 2017 looks to be even better!

Casting for Cold Chrome on the Mighty Niagara

This Christmas season I finally found a chance to fish the Lower Niagara River. I had been to Niagara Falls many times in the past, as a tourist and while passing through on my way to the US, but I had never given fishing it much thought until I moved back to Ontario a year and a half ago. I must admit I've always viewed the Niagara as a case study of how commercial tourism and greedy mismanagement can fully ruin the appeal of an amazing natural wonder.

This winter has been record-breakingly warm here in Southern Ontario. With no safe ice around I finally jumped on an opportunity to get down to the Lower Niagara River for some of the big trout I had read about year after year on lists of hot-spots in fishing magazines.

After spending a few hours online researching safe shore access points we decided to try a spot we had heard about near the Queenston jet boat docks. When we finally climbed down the steep gorge to the edge of the river it became clear that I had never fished water like this before.

Just feet from the rocky shore, the river bottom dropped straight down into seemingly bottomless darkness. The river churned and rushed in front of us with whirpools forming out of nowhere at the edge of eddies and the seam of the main river current. At the end of a long cast the current pulled our lines downstream but closer to shore the current of the eddies pulled our lures hard upstream. I had never been this close to such powerful water and in my head I repeated the words, "don't fall in."

I had recently spent a few mornings drifting roe and beads in the lower Credit River with minimal success so I was in no mood to float fish on this day. I was jonesing to cast hardware. With a river as huge as the Niagara I could two-hand my 10 foot steelhead rod and fire my lures as hard and far as I could.

I started casting 2/5 oz. Little Cleo spoons. The water was slightly cloudy so I decided to try a #4 Blue Fox Vibrax spinner to try to draw some fish to my bait with the spinning blade's aggressive vibration. After my friend Alfie lost a fish on a silver Kastmaster spoon, I tied my blue and silver Cleo back on.

And good thing I did. A few casts later, while I was watching the gulls kamikaze diving into the river for baitfish, I nearly had my rod pulled out of my hands by a chunky female steelhead. The fish was fresh; bright silver with a light greenish grey back and she fought hard, making my drag scream 3 or 4 times before Adam was able to get her in the net. A powerful fish from a powerful river.

A Niagara River Steelhead

Shortly after that fish, the first flakes from the winter storm that was forecast for the afternoon started falling and we made the climb out of the gorge. Fishing not only gave me a chance to fight a beautiful Lake Ontario rainbow trout but it also gave me a chance to see and feel what the Niagara River is really all about. Hidden behind all the kitchy tourist crap and the lineups to get on the Maid of the Mist is a powerhouse river that should be respected and experienced up close.

Landed a Real Keeper!

Before June 30, 2015 all my spare time was pretty much taken up with fishing. You know how it is. Thinking about fishing, researching fishing, fixing stuff for fishing, buying stuff for fishing, trying to write about fishing and sometimes even actually going fishing.

Oh how things have changed. I guess I still spend all of my free time doing stuff that's related to fishing. I just don't have that much free time anymore. But it's all good. You see, I don't have as much time to spend on fishing these days because I'm busy spending it with our 5 month old son, Nolan. Since the last time I wrote for this blog, we landed a real keeper.

Watching Saturday morning fishing shows with Baby Nolan John

Life ain't all baby and being a dad though. The funny thing is, Nolan has become as much an excuse for me to buy new fishing stuff as he is something to focus on besides fishing. I mean, I really didn't need to buy a fishing kayak, but sooner or later Nolan is going to need something to take out onto the water, right? Hell, my wife even suggested buying a new pop-up ice fishing shelter last season because the baby "will need something to keep him out of the cold."

 

Smallmouth bass fishing in my, I mean Nolan's, new kayak

Also, since everyone wants to meet the new little guy, we've taken some trips that we definitely wouldn't have gone on if it weren't for the baby. It was just an added bonus that our recent trip back to Alberta to introduce Nolan to our friends from Calgary brought us to a province with some safe, early season ice fishing. If the current weather here in Ontario is any indication, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the only ice fishing I get into all season. Thanks Nolan!

There's safe ice in Alberta!

Of course I dream that Nolan will one day love fishing as much as I do. I am fully aware of the life lessons that fishing has taught me and the respect and love for nature that I gained while enjoying my favourite hobby. But I also know that Nolan may just as well find his own pastimes and interests and I can only hope that he finds something that he is as passionate about as I am about fishing. In the meantime, I'll keep justifying my borderline irresponsible purchases with the idea that my boy may want to use my stuff some day (I'm pretty sure he's going to need an ice fishing flasher pretty soon).

Fly-In Fishing Trip Tips...For Noobs Like Me.

I wish I could say I regularly go on remote, fly-in, fishing trips. If I had the financial resources, that would certainly be the truth. The reality is, the cost and logistics of these trips makes them a rare treat in an otherwise local, drive-to, fishing world. But, who better to create a list of things to remember and bring than someone like me who's in no position to take trips like this for granted?

Two years ago a couple of my friends and I embarked on our first, highly anticipated, fly-in fishing trip to a housekeeping-only lodge in Northern Alberta. Seeing as it was our first time on such a trip, we quickly realized there were some essential items that we were glad we brought and a bunch of things that we wished we had thought to pack. In case you're planning your first trip to a remote camp, here's a list off the top of my head of tips and items that you may find helpful. Please add anything that I've forgotten to the comments.

I'd choose a place like this over a tropical destination any day of the week

1. Most obviously, appropriate tackle and, more importantly, equipment suitable to handle the fish you'll be targeting is essential. My friend spent most of his prep budget on new lures so he ended up bringing a couple of not-so-good reels that weren't really suitable for the size of fish we got into. By the third day we had nicknamed his one reel 'old-clickey' and his other one 'old-screechy'.

2. Listen to tackle advice from the lodge proprietors. Seems obvious but even though we all spent around 300-400 dollars on tackle for the trip, most of our best fish were caught on Len Thompson's five of diamonds spoons...which the lodge owners kept telling us would be the only lures we needed for the week.

3. If you drink, BRING LOTS OF BOOZE. You don't want to run out. Liquor, opposed to beer, is a good option if you have weight limits on your flight. Luckily, I'm not a big guy so we could bring lots of beer.

4. Don't rely solely on eating only the fish you catch. After a long day on the water, cleaning fish can be a hassle...especially if you have to travel a considerable distance to a cleaning station to keep bears away from the lodge.

You may have to travel a bit to clean your fish safely

5. Bring a first aid kit. I didn't have one in the boat I was in so I had to wrap my finger in my sock after I got cut up by a big pike. Luckily, one of the lodge owners was a former military field medic so he nipped my infection in the bud when we got back to the lodge before things got ugly.

6. Bring food that's easy to cook. I'm talking cans of beans, chips and hotdogs type stuff. My friend kept saying he can cook like a chef but as tired/drunk as we were at the end of each day, he didn't get much of a chance to prove it on the trip.

7. Brush up on your bear safety and follow the guidelines established by the lodge staff.

If a bear can do this to a doorknob, imagine what it can do to your face

8. Ask if there's anyone staying at the lodge who's fishing single and would like to shares boats with you. We were grouped up with this American guy who had been coming to the lodge for like 20 years and he basically turned into a free guide.

9. Make your group an even number. The lodge people may tell you 3 to a boat is fine but 2 is always better.

10. Bring headlamps/flashlights. The lodge may turn the generator off earlier than you think or you may find yourself out on the water later than you planned.

Our cabin shortly before the generator was turned off for the evening

11. BRING BUG SPRAY.

12. Don't tell your friends and family back home that the lodge probably has a satellite phone. Chances are, you're going on a trip into the middle of nowhere to get off the grid...so get off the grid!

These trips are super expensive and pretty short compared to the amount of time you spend waiting for them so finding ways to make them as enjoyable as possible is a good idea. Anyone else have any other tips for wilderness adventures?

Piecing Together My First Ice Fishing Trip of the Season

Fishing this fall has been tough. I've been on a quest to catch my first Great Lakes steelhead which has been unsuccessful thus far, hence the lack of recent blog posts. Around December, as the weather cooled and the chaos of the holiday season started to ramp up, my mind started drifting (no pun intended) away from trying for a tributary steelhead to ice fishing.

It's hard to catch steelhead when people can just Google fishing spots

Getting ready for a fishing trip is like a puzzle in that it's best when you have all the pieces and you take the time to put them together properly. As Christmas neared I decided it was time to start finding the pieces to the puzzle that was my first ice fishing trip of the season. The first piece, the one that I feel I have the most control over, is gear. I began my preparations by scouring the internet for a new portable shelter as I had left my old pop-up with a friend back in Calgary. After I found a used shelter I could afford, I found myself driving out to different tackle shops more often then usual to stock up on an assortment of new lures and line to ensure I wouldn't run out of anything while out fishing.

Piece number 1

As I became more and more well equipped the next puzzle piece I needed was a suitable day to go. The Christmas season in Southern Ontario was unusually warm which just made the waiting longer and more difficult. At great strain to my marriage I spent hours on various message boards looking for updates on local ice conditions.

Close to the beginning of January the forecasts called for a week-long cold snap and the message boards started to fill with news of thickening ice and questions about parking spots and places to buy minnows. Needless to say, my preparations started to become more frantic as I was finally able to put my finger on a date for my first trip onto the hardwater this winter.

The weekend neared and my anticipation grew. Now the next piece of the puzzle I began to search for is one that is nice to have but not totally necessary: a partner. I started sending messages to all my friends who I thought may be at least slightly interested in joining me and what do you know, I even found someone who was able to make the trip. All the pieces, except one, were coming together nicely.

The night before our planned trip, my friend Jared came over and we went over all of our stuff. We even found a local shop that sold live minnows. The last piece of the puzzle we needed was the weather which, as we all know, is often the hardest piece to find.

As Jared and I sat chatting over beers, I surfed over to The Weather Network's website and was absolutely mortified at what I saw. The forecast called for -13 degrees Celsius which is not a huge deal but below that was written, "wind gusts up to 50km/h making it feel more like -27". Now some hardcore ice fishermen may venture out on days like that but the prospect of walking two thirds of a kilometer out to the middle of Lake Simcoe's Cook's Bay in 50 km/h winds was a little much for us.

Frantically I searched the internet for an alternative with at least a slightly friendlier forecast. I decided to check the Grand River Conservation Authority website on a prayer to see if Belwood Lake would have safe ice and much to my surprise I found that another conservation area, that was actually closer to me, was ready for ice fishing. I checked the forecast for the area and saw that I had finally found the last piece. The weather would be perfect as long as I was willing to wait one extra day. Unfortunately, Jared had to work that day but like I said, not having a fishing partner isn't really a huge deal (with friends like me, who needs enemies, eh?).

The morning of the trip, with everything I needed in place, I woke up early and drove out to the lake. The puzzle was complete and the day went exactly as I'd hoped.

A pike I landed after a sketchy fight on 3lb. test and no leader

I remembered all my gear, the fish were biting and the weather held up. The only wildcard of the day, my dull hand-auger, even managed to get through the ice without too much trouble. I aggressively jigged a minnow-tipped Northland Buckshot spoon to draw fish toward me and then a small minnow on a drop shot rig proved to be the fish catching pattern of the day. The perch action was steady except for the few times a pike cruised by under the ice. I ended up with over a dozen perch and a little pike which, on 3 lb. test line and an inline reel with a 1:1 gear ratio, felt more like a 30 pound trophy. I don't often bring fish home but who can pass up cold water perch? Also, I really can't think of a better way to celebrate a month of puzzle building than a meal of fried, freshly caught perch.

Perch feed

When Life Gets Too Grown Up, Fish Like a Kid

Having a cottage is amazing but maintaining them can be a lot of work. Over the last couple of weekends, my father in law and I have been building a new shed at the cottage so fishing time has taken a back seat to construction time. I haven't even had a chance to put the boat in the water so I have been limited to fishing off the dock or the paddle boat. (I do understand that complaining about this means I'm totally spoiled.)

There is a silver lining though. Being restricted to the dock has given me a chance to put aside the expensive crankbaits, electronics and fancy finesse-rigged soft plastics and get back to the basics. Any break from shed building I got I grabbed a rod, tied on a bobber and a worm, and ran down to the lake...like I did when I was knee high to a grasshopper.

My tackle box during shed construction

A nice looking off-the-dock largemouth

It had been a long time since I spent any amount of time soaking a worm under float. I hate to say it but I think I had forgotten just how fun it can be. Over the course of two weekends I maybe fished a total of an hour and a half but I caught a bunch of bass including a couple of decent ones. Not only is fishing this way easy and successful, the adrenaline buzz you get when you see your bobber disappear or suddenly go sideways isn't so bad either.

I watched this guy swim right out from under me and then my float went sideways

Works done for the day

I love fishing because there is no end to the learning and progressing but life this summer reminded me how and why I started fishing in the first place; it doesn't have to be complicated and it's really fun.

Off-the-dock smallmouth

If you're gonna fish like a kid, you're gonna get some sunfish!

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.

Mourning The Loss of a Dream Pike Fishing Spot

For months, I had been waiting anxiously for winter to end but my longing for spring had very little to do with the weather. From what I saw on the news this winter, I think we got off easy here in Southern Alberta. Even though we got an early May snowstorm, a long wait for warm temperatures and sunshine is just part of life here. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we got another big snow in June.

The real reason I was looking forward to spring was Northern Pike. Specifically hauling the long toothy fish out of our secret pike fishing spot.

Our spot was a once-in-a-lifetime gem. It was one of those places that you sometimes hear about and wish whoever was bragging about it would somehow offer to take you there even though you know you can't simply ask them to. Less than a square kilometre in area, we could easily fish every inch of the shoreline in a couple of hours. Twenty-plus fish mornings and double or triple headers were not only possible but common.

A standard "Pike Pond" pike

Another healthy pike from "Pike Pond"

The fish weren't just plentiful. Many of them were also big. My personal best at "Pike Pond" was a 12 pound pike I caught casting spoons from shore on a sunny late-spring afternoon. My friend Chris managed to pull a 15 pound gator out of the pond early last fall and I have seen much bigger fish chase smaller fish as we fought them to shore. All fishermen are liars, but I swear some of the bigger fish I saw gliding out of the depths had to be over twenty pounds.

A 12 pound pike. Bigger ones lurked in the depths.

This is the type of spot that fishes well so consistently that it's easy to take for granted. I'm really glad I never let that happen.

Two weeks ago I got word that ice was finally off the pond.  The evening before our first spring pike trip of the season I took the time to make sure all my rods, jerk baits, swim baits, spoons, crank baits, leaders, spreaders, pliers and everything else I would need were carefully accounted for and packed up for the morning. It's funny how it's so hard to fall asleep the night before a long-anticipated fishing trip yet it's so easy to get out of bed the morning of.

When we drove up to the spot we noticed that the planned subdivision development had begun as there was a team of yellow excavators parked in a freshly graded field beside the reservoir. There was also a new culvert spilling water into the southeast corner of the pond.

We didn't think much of the development. We knew this day was coming. We felt lucky to be able to fish the pond for one more season before the construction began on the new "lakefront community" that was being built. I did find it a little strange to see a few dead perch washed up on shore but we paid no mind to it, tied on some spoons, and started casting.

Right away, I found it weird that we weren't getting strikes or seeing followers. Further testament to how awesome this spot was.

We continued fishing unsuccessfully around the pond and we kept seeing dead fish here and there on the shore. It was impossible not to think that something was wrong.

As we approached the far side of the pond we saw what we had been beginning to dread. In a corner of the reservoir were hundreds of dead pike and perch. Along the entire side of the pond the water was littered with fish carcasses big and small. We kept casting but it was clear that a mass die-off had occurred and the spot was pretty much done. With the new subdivision being built, it probably wouldn't be coming back either. Every angler knows what it's like to lose that one monster fish. I now know what it's like to lose literally all of them.

When we realized things were really not good

Had we caught these fish before?

So what happened? I have heard of winterkill on several small trout lakes around Alberta. But like I mentioned above, the winter wasn't abnormally bad here and pike and perch are pretty hardy. A friend of mine who works in the water treatment industry suspects something more sinister. He hypothesized that the land developer may have used chlorinated water to sanitize the water line connections for the new community and may have dumped the spent water directly into the pond, thus "sanitizing" our pike spot. I'm not really in any position go much past speculation but that would be pretty unfortunate if true.

I've been hurting to go fishing lately. Pike Pond was supposed to be my big fix this spring before summer bass fishing in Ontario. Maybe this is a sign for me to put down my lead-chucker for a while to focus on tightening my loops in the Bow River until runoff arrives.

Fishing is Priceless...Well, Not Quite

The last time I wrote anything for this blog it was February. It is now May. It's not that I haven't wanted to write anything and it's absolutely not because I haven't been thinking about fishing. Between work, closed lakes and streams and crappy weather, I just haven't been able to get out much.

Generally, when I'm not fishing I'm out spending money on stuff related to fishing. Judging by my last Visa statement, I haven't been fishing enough lately.

In February I finally went out and committed to my first fly rod. I bought a Temple Fork Outfitters 5 weight to go along with the waders, wading boots, vest, fly box, forceps, wooden landing net, strike indicators and zingers I had already purchased. A couple of weeks ago the ice shelfs had shrunk enough for me to take my new rod to the Bow River and whadya know, it works! According to a few anglers I've spoken to, the Bow has been slow this spring but I managed to pull an 18 inch Rocky Mountain Whitefish out of a very popular run in Southeast Calgary. Not bad considering all the times I've been skunked on the Bow River.

First fish on my new 5 wt

A week ago I also went out and bought my first baitcasting outfit completely on a whim. The sales guy at the Fishin' Hole, my favourite local tackle shop, saw me checking out the rods and must've instinctively detected my weakness for sales "suggestions". Next thing I knew I was walking out the door with a brand new Fenwick Nighthawk rod with a Pflueger Supreme reel. I plan to try my new setup out this weekend at our favourite secret spring pike spot.

Part of the reason I never have new clothes

I'm convinced that fishing equipment manufacturers design their gear to catch the eye of the fisherman as much as that of the fish...either that or there's some sort of magic that makes money fly out of my pocket as soon as I cross the threshold of any tackle shop. Regardless, I can think of way worse things to spend money on and if you ask me while I'm on the water, I would tell you fishing is worth every cent.

Shaking off the Winter Angler Blues

Winter weather has certainly been in the news lately. From crazy ice storms in Ontario to record ice coverage on the Great Lakes and even winter driving chaos in the American Deep South, this winter has been something else.

Even though winter seems to have been more harsh all over North America than here in Southern Alberta, it's easy to start feeling the cabin fever creeping in, especially if you're an angler. Even if the weather is cooperating, most of our favourite spots are closed or too dangerous to fish.

That's not to say we haven't been catching fish. We've had fun days down at Chain Lakes Provincial Park and despite my recent skunking at Lower Kananaskis Lake in the edge of the Alberta Rockies, my friend Peter caught the biggest bull trout I've ever seen in person.

A couple more Chain Lakes trout on the ice

I can think of worse places to get skunked than on Lower Kananaskis Lake

Peter and his Lower K bull trout. This pig barely fit through the hole.

Just last weekend, my friend Ivan invited us back to ice fish the little private lake where we spent the last nice day of fall drifting in the sun catching big rainbow trout (read about that day here). Again, the lake was productive and I managed to pull a couple of big trout through the ice as well as a mess of little perch that we weren't allowed to put back as they had been illegally introduced some years ago. I usually don't keep many fish but my wife and I had a blast filleting and frying the little fish for dinner.

A nice rainbow through the ice

Another ice rainbow

A mess of tasty little perch

So, I may not be able to troll around beautiful Canadian Shield lakes or wade through pristine free stone mountain streams for at least a few more months but if this is the worst it gets, we're pretty damn fortunate to be anglers in Canada. It beats having to sleep in your car after getting caught in an Alabama "blizzard" any day of the week.