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).

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

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.

Ice Fishing for Pan-Sized Rainbows at Chain Lakes Provincial Park

Let's face it. If you're not catching fish, ice fishing is boring. Ice fishing without fish is pretty much just sitting on a lawn chair in a cold parking lot. And without a flasher or a gas powered auger, it is difficult to employ a mobile hardwater fishing strategy to find fish. For us, we may try to better our chances by choosing a likely spot on a map but once we're setup with our holes drilled, we're pretty much stationary for the day.

That's why Chain Lakes Provincial Park is my favourite place to ice fish in Alberta. I'm not familiar with too many other Alberta ice fishing spots but that's largely because we really haven't wanted to go anywhere else.

A pretty little ice rainbow

Steve's dinner

This long coulee in Southwestern Alberta is stocked with rainbow trout every year making the ice fishing action fast and easy.

It's not unusual to pull out a feisty, pan-sized, trout the very first time you drop your bait down the hole. And, as it is legal in Alberta to fish with two lines through the ice, single-handed double-headers are a common occurrence.

Adam and a single-handed double-header

Another single-handed double-header

Even though the fishing at Chain Lakes is easy and fast, the best rig for consistently catching double digit numbers of fish is a 12" - 18" light ice-mono or fluorocarbon leader connected to the mainline by a tiny swivel, thus avoiding annoying line twist. On the end of the leader tie on a tiny, 1/64 to 1/32 oz., jig tipped with a piece of shrimp. For whatever reason, white is by far the best colour for jigs.

The most effective pattern I've found is to drop the rig right to the bottom, pause it in the silt for a few seconds and then raise it a foot or two off the bottom. Hits often come just as the jig is lifted off bottom. If there is no strike on the rise, twitch the jig a few times, hold still for around 30 seconds, and then drop it back onto bottom and repeat. Since the little trout hit lightly and quickly, much like perch, it is best to always have a rod in hand ready for the slightest nibble. Any hole drilled near the south end of the lake will produce fish.

Jessica and a rainbow

Katie and her trout

Not only is the fishing really fun, the drive out to the provincial park is a beautiful trip through the Alberta Foothills. Spotting wildlife is almost a given and on our last trip out, we even saw a pair of moose lazing in the brush just a couple hundred meters from the highway.

Maybe later this season we'll try dead baiting through the ice for some big Southern Alberta pike but it's good to know that Chain Lakes is just an easy drive away for a guaranteed fish fix.