Shore fishing and wading West of Montreal

With rain everywhere except Montreal, and the fact that I only had a few hours to spare, we headed to a spot I know on the Outaouais River / Lake of two mountains for some shore fishing. I brought a pair of waders along, as the water was extremely high last time I was there about 3 weeks ago. I was glad to se the water level has come down by more than 2 feet, many of the spots are accessible again. The current is still extremely strong, the waves were quite big on my regular spot, so we moved around quite a bit. I started off with a 2 lb smallmouth bass on a Rogue, all the fish we caught after were more bass on minnows and one baby pike, probably about 1 lb. The cold front must have shut down the big bass and channel cats that normally arrive there this time of the year, so the fish were generally smaller than anticipated.

On the way out as we were trekking back to the car, 2 conservation officers came out of the bushes, one obviously a rookie in training, he must have been about 20-25 years old, along with an elder, more experienced guy. They checked our fishing licenses, discussed fishing a bit with us, then we were on our way. Glad to see they are patrolling, the spot I fish is notorious for bass poachers, this is the second time I've been officially checked there in 2 years, I'm pretty sure I was staked out by undercover guys in the past too.

Mixed species fishing on St Francis in May

Although I was originally scheduled to go up North for some trophy landlocked salmon fishing, my plans changed due to the weather forcast of 3 straight days of rain in that area. Trolling in near freezing temperatures in the rain is not something I'm willing to put myself through, especially when I'm getting over a cold, unless big muskies are the target.

I headed back to Lake St Francis on the St Lawrence River for some more piking. The water temp has dropped back under 50 degrees, the outside temp was about 10 degrees celcius, winds close to 20 KM / hour.

Got to our first target area, figured out that the twitch, twitch, pause was what the pike were looking for after about 20 minutes, ended up catching 8 Northern pike between 5 - 7.5 lbs over the next 3 hours on a Rapala X rap and Smithwick Rogue. Once the wind got to strong and the wave / current combination cancelled whatever effect out lures were having, we moved to the Raisin River for calmer conditions.

Caught about a dozen bass, mainly smallmouth in the 2-3 lb range over the next couple hours, then started trolling worm harnesses for walleye. I hooked 1 walleye in the 20 inch range, unfortunately I lost it right next to the boat before we had a chance to net it. We also caught another 6-7 bullheads, they spoiled our walleye trolling once again.

Hope to do some local shore fishing tomorrow, I'll post the results when I return.

Catching worms for fishing bait

Nightcrawlers, wigglers, or just plain worms. Call them what you want, they are a universal bait that will work for many freshwater species. With the amount of worms I go through in a season, especially when fishing with my kids, I would be insane to buy them at the current price. With the increase in fuel prices, worms have also gone up in value around bait shops everywhere, sometimes close to $4.50 per dozen!

I've been catching them for years before big trips when I knew I'd be needing 200-300 worms, now I stock up on them every time it rains. There is nothing easier and cheaper than catching your own worms, they are always bigger and in better condition than the store bought version.

Simply wait for a rainy evening, go out about 1 hour after dark. Any lawn that has bushes surrounding it is your best bet for easy pickings. Worms will be all over the grass to, I target bushes because the worms are much easier to spot. Fill out a 1/2 liter or 1 liter container about halfway with earth. I don't use any lights to avoid spooking them. If you do need lights, cover a flashlight with yellow, orange or red plastic, the bright white light will spook them immediately.

Once you spot one (or a few), start by picking the outer ones first. A worm will usually leave 1/2 - 3/4 of it's body exposed, the "tail" will remain in the hole in case it needs to retreat. To pick it, simply pinch the tail end closest to the hole and gently pull it free. If you pinch or pull to hard, you risk ripping it in half.

Using this technique, I've managed up to 200 worms in less than 1 hour on a good rainy night, at the current prices that saved me about $75. Not too bad for an hours work, not to mention a great activity for the kids before a trip. Just be sure not to forget the OFF or Muskol.

Once you have enough worm, pop a few pin hole in the top of the containers, then store them in a fridge. Be sure to run this by your wife first, I've had early morning screeches to contend with more than once. WARNING: worms will escape if the containers aren't properly closed, last things you need is a bunch of muddy wigglers all over your food.

Fishing with my father and son

Took my father and my 5 year old son out for some 3 generation fishing this afternoon. My son was extremely excited to have a day of school for good grades, my dad was also quite happy to be out on the water again, as it’s something he hasn’t been doing to much of lately, despite my trying to convince him otherwise. Now that I have the boat, he is more receptive to it, as he can no longer scale rocky ledges or tread through mud or brush to shore fish at his age.

We got on the water around noon, made our way up the Raisin River, had my son start fishing for panfish. We attempted some pike, again all we caught were giant smallmouth bass. Every time we moved spots, it was the same story, topped off by a double header where my son caught his PB Largemouth (1.5 lbs), I caught my PB smallmouth (5.5) lbs. 2 of the smallies we caught were 21 inches, another 20 inches, and about 12 in the 3 lb range. With the water temperature hitting 70 degrees Farenheit, some of the bass had already spawned. I also spotted about 5 gars near the surface, 2 of them were in the 3 foot range. They seemed to chase our line more than the bait.

Around 3:30 PM, we started trolling for walleyes using worm harnesses, after the success we had a couple days ago. We trolled the hot spots for about 3 hours, didn’t get any walleye. I managed a nice 3.5 lb bass on the harness, in addition to 6 bullheads (looks like they’re everywhere, hitting anything). I guess trolling for bullheads isn’t that popular of a sport yet, seems to work when they are this aggressive. My dad managed a decent perch too.

All in all we had a great time, brought lots of memories back to my dad of the good old days of him catching the lunker bass, with me fishing near him, similar to my son fishing between us today.

I hope to be able to take him out many more times over the spring and summer, after all he was the one that initiated me into fishing, all I can do is give back and let him enjoy. My kids are also “cashing in” on the trips they have been saving up all winter, at this rate it looks like I’ll be “guiding” family trips until fall.

Trolling Big Walleyes in the Raisin River

The walleye and pike season officially opened on the Raisin River (Zone 18) last Friday, today was our first opportunity to attempt targeting the big walleyes that are still in it. We started off row trolling a worm harness and X rap going upstream, got one hit and miss on the worm harness, later caught a small largemouth bass on it. As the walleye weren’t co-operating much, we decided to try casting and jigging for them with live minnows.

Over the next 4 hours, we caught about 5 or 6 big smallmouth bass, and about a dozen smaller largemouth bass.

Around 3 o’clock, we figured we would call it and early day, decided to troll back for a bit before leaving. After about 5 minutes, I caught my first walleye of the day, a nice 15 incher. My fishing buddy immediately set up a worm harness rig, unfortunately we were out of worms. We cancelled the plans to call it an early day, raced down to the marina to pick more worms, and headed up the river to start trolling again. We passed over an area that was holding lots of fish, some nice sized ones were showing up on the sonar too. Next thing we know, my buddy hooks into a nice fish, turned out to be a 24 inch, 5 lb walleye. We then proceeded to make another 10 passes or so over the same area, just as we were on our last one, I hook into a mid size largemouth bass at the end of the run. As I released it, my buddy was just about to bring his line in and another nice walleye hit, turned out to be identical in size to the first one. We unfortunately couldn’t stay any longer, but his parents were scheduled to have a BBQ, looks like the menu has changed to walleye. I hope to head back there with my dad and one of my kids over the next few days for some 3 generation fishing.

Lac St Francois Northern pike take 2

After seeing all those pike following everything we threw at them a couple days ago, we headed back to the same spot on Lake St Francis armed with some big shiners I picked up on the way. As we neared our spot, we spotted the first pike of the day swimming away form the boat. I cast a CD-9 Rapala Countdown in it's direction and it hit with 10 seconds. Turned out to be a 6.5 lb specimen. About 10 minutes later, I managed to get a larger on to follow a CD-11 Countdown. As it didn't hit it, I threw a nice 6 inch shiner in the direction it swam off to. A few minutes later the baitrunner reel starts clicking, I fed a few feet of line to it, then engaged the reel and set the hook. After a short fight, I had it in the net, turned out to be a 8 LB Northern pike. Feeling real confident after catching the first 2 fish I spotted, I kept casting, but the fish were gone. We moved to a few spots in the area, managed another few followers, but no more strikes.

Check out the pike footage on Youtube,
click: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1FMv0s2tUCI

After about 3 hours, the wind picked up, the waves got big, and the temperature dropped. What started out as a perfect day for the big waters, was quickly deteriorating. We moved off, back to where we hooked some bass a couple days ago. Over the next 3 hours, we managed about 15 bass, including some nice smallmouth in the 3-4 lb range, as well as a smaller pike that had a huge tumor, and even caught my first perch of the season casting a worm harness.

Lake St Francis fishing season opener

I finally got my boat launched and made it out a couple days after the season opener for Northern pike in the new Zone 20 of the St Lawrence River in Eastern Ontario. I brought my 7 year old son Avi (pikeman) along, as he earned a few fishing trips / days off school for “straight A” report cards.

We started off targeting an area I scouted on my navigational map of Lake St Francis, it turned out to be the perfect spot. A soon as we arrived and cut the motor, we were sitting on a school of decent sized pike. As we started casting lures at them bigger ones moved in following our lures. No hits for about 45 minutes, we had about 25 follows by pike ranging in the 8-12 lb class. We tried trolling for about an hour, saw many more pike lying lazily in about 10-12 feet of water, still no hits. I finally hooked one after about 2 hours, turned out to be an 8.5 lb pike, caught on a
CD-11 rainbow trout pattern Rapala countdown. We fished on. Again we started getting more follows, but no more bites. The final insult was a very nice specimen that followed 3-4 times, then finally turned and slapped my lure with it’s tail! I was kicking myself all day for not stopping to pick up some big shiners or suckers on the way, I’ll know better next time.

We move to another spot, almost instantly the menu changed to bass. I started by catching a 3.5 lb largemouth bass, Next fish was nothing less than amazing, my buddy hooked into a huge smallmouth bass, when we finally got it in the boat it weighed in at exactly 6 lbs, measured 22 inches. By far the largest smallie I have ever seen caught, obviously my buddie's PB (my PB is 5 lbs). My 7 year old caught the next bass, turned out to be a 3 lb smallie, he was barley able to bring it to the boat, needless to say it was his PB too. After a few more hours of smaller bass, we headed back to see if the pike had changed their habits as the day warmed up, unfortunately we got more of the same. Few follows from big fish, no hookups.

I hope to return this week, I plan to have some nice 5-6 inch live suckers to drop on their heads when they come chasing our lures.

To view the footage of the pike I caught,
click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAutnwFMal0

Big walleye and smallmouth bass in Ontario

After spotting carp in the Raisin River stacked up along the shore and jumping everywhere, we decided to back and target them. Unfortunately, the only day we had available was the start of a major cold font that had us back in winter wear, long, hats gloves and all.

The carp didn’t co-operate at all, so we eventually tied on some small lures and started casting. My buddy caught a 3 lb largemouth bass, and a 4 lb smallmouth bass, almost identical to the one I caught a couple days ago.

I caught my personal best walleye, she measured a whopping 27 inches. She had just spawned, so the belly was thin and empty, weighed in at 5.5 lbs. The big walleye and smallmouth bass were caught less than 5 minutes apart, almost next to each other.

Again, all fish were released in good health, seasons for walleye and pike open between this Friday and next Friday depending on the location and species. The boat should be launched by our next trip out to the Lancaster area.

Pre season mixed species in the Raisin River

I visited the marina today, had them set up the launch and make some minor adjustments. Looks like I need a new prop, OK I guess these things turn up when you have an old outboard.

Once we were in the area, we decided to try some fishing despite the heavy rain. We brought along the frog toggs rain suits for field testing, which held up OK considering the circumstances.

We tried a few banks on the Raisin River for about 3 hours, we totaled 5 largemouth bass all under 2 lbs, 2 Northern pike, the biggest 5.5 lbs, and a really nice 4 lb smallmouth bass I caught a bit later. Of course all catches were “incidental”, as there are many species open that we didn’t manage to catch such as gar, bowfin catfish and crappie. Luckily, all fish were live released in good condition.

I hope to have some pics posted in the next few days, still waiting for the digital camera I picked up on ebay for the tacklebox.

Perch and largemouth bass in Ontario

Kids are still off school, my eldest son came along as he had been skunked the previous day. We decided to try a half day of carping, we arrived around 1:00 PM. No carp for about 3.5 hours, Ari caught about 15 perch.
Here is some footage I shot of Ari catching his first few perch of the season:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iEfox6JLFe4

On the way home, we stopped to try shore fishing on the Raisin river. Turned out to be a great decision, we hooked into about 25 largemouth bass, most in the 1 lb range, 3 were over 2 lbs, one of them close to 4 lbs. Bass season doesn’t open for another 7 – 8 weeks as the fish are about to spawn, they seem to hit anything we threw at them.

Looks like the fishing is heating up as the water temp is rising every day. We were only there for about 1 hour, but the action was non stop. I was designated "camera man", I got some footage you can view on Youtube by clicking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq8r-2YmzSc

Fishing conditions around Montreal

With the kids off school and the great weather we've been having, I headed out for a day of fishing with my 3 oldest sons, ages 5, 7 and 12. We didn't plan on any particular type of fishing or spot, we agreed to "see what happens when we get there", as I had a good hunch that the water conditions might be less than favourable.

We started out at the Milles Roches section of the Long Sault park, I tried carping while the kids fished for perch unsuccessfully for about 1 hour. The water was extremely clear as usual, still some ice drifting out in the middle, the shorelines are completely fluid. With their shortened attention span, I was forced to leave the spot and make my way around the rest of the park. I hit my next spot, where the water was about 1 foot higher than normal for this time of the year, water was more stained. I tried carping unsuccessfully again, while they had some success and caught 3 perch after about 3 hours. When the action stopped, they wanted to head back closer to home to the Bay of Vaudreuil / Outaouais River.

After a 45 minutes drive, we arrived at my perch hot spot for this time of the year, the water was unfortunately ectremely high, and moving faster than I have ever seen it. The shallow shorelines are swirling whirlpools, so we didn't even bother trying there, as the perch are usually in about 1 foot of water this time of the year.

We moved down to the Pointe des Cascades Pier, the water is also pretty high and very stained. The rocky side is high enough to be fished from the car, the deeper walled side is up to about 5 feet from the top of the pier. Nothing hit our offerings for about 1 hour, so we moved closer to town.

Next stop was the Ile Perrot pier, we were shocked to see it closed of with red "danger" stickers as it is covered in water. So much for that idea.

I figured I would take a look at the Lachine Rapids again to see if the water had cleared up, driving by Dorval I decided to exit to see what I can find on Lakeshore blvd. I got off right at some type of yacht club, I belive it's at the Baie des Valois park right on Lac St Louis. The kids got some practice castng for a good 1/2 hour, when I finally casted, I hooked into a decent fish. My eldest son that had been skunked all dauy really wanted to bring it in, unfortunately he lost it just as I handed him the rod. My guess is a probably sucker or possibly a big bulhead. The spot looks like it might be condusive to carping, I'll have to give it a shot when the water warms up.

We hit the road again, finally made it back to the Parc des rapides in Ville Lasalle. I didn't plan to fish as it was getting late and I had the smaller kids with me. The water is unfortunately still stained, might have cleared up a touch over the past week. We watched a couple fishermen try unsuccessfully, then called it a day and headed home.

Hope to make it out again this week, I'll keep ya'll posted.

Fishing and Pesach

That time of the year again, Pesach is the Jewish passover being celebrated from sunset on April 19th 2008 until Nightfall April 27th 2008. Observant Jews thouroughly clean their homes, cars and other areas belonging to them trying to rid them of any "Chametz" - leavened items such as bread, cookies, cakes and crumbs.

Here are some personal insights I compiled as an observant Jew, bear in mind that I am not a Rabbi, so you might want to confirm any of the following thoughts with your local Rabbi.

- Fishing is not allowed on days of Yom Tov, April 19th through 21 and again on April 26 and 27.

- Fishing is permitted on Chol Hamoed (April 22 - 25). It is a great activity for the kids as they are likely to be off from school. A good time to score points with the wife by taking them all and letting her have the day off after all the cleaning and cooking she's done.

- I suggest cleaning your tacklebox by emptying it, vacuuming it, then windexing it. This will get rid of any crumbs or other Chametz, the windex will nullify anything you miss. Also a good time to re-organize it for the upcoming season.

-Beer is Chametz, so are most hard alcohols. As drinking is often part of an enjoyable fishing trip, I suggest wine. If you need something stronger, some of the SAQ outlets carry Arak, 777, and Slivovitz this time of the year. Make sure they have proper passover certification.

- Although most fish are closed, a few species are open. If you plan to keep any catches such as trout or carp, it is preferable to use a new knife to fillet them, although this is not mandatory. You may use your standard knife, simply rinse it well before, then rinse the cleaned fish properly when done. Throughout the process, be sure that the knife and fish remain cold.

- For those of you that enjoy carping: Doughballs are definitely Chametz and may NOT be used, or possessed on Pesach. If you have a stash like I do, put it away where you won't see it, together with the other chametz you own. These can be "sold" for passover, contact me if you need any additional info about selling your chametz at phil@freshwaterphil.com .

- Corn can be used as bait, even though it may not be eaten by Ashkenazic Jews on Pesach as it is considered Kitniyot. We can still derive benefit from it, feed it to animals, use it for bait, etc. Be sure the niblets don't have any chametz additives, they usually don't.

- In general, fishing is halachically permitted by all authorities when at least some of the fish are being kept for food, their skin or any other useful purposes. Some authorities permit fishing for sport only (catch and release), reasoning that the pleasure one derives is enough of a reason to justify the suffering and stress caused to the fish when fighting it, others forbid it. Again, check with your local Rabbi if this is of concern to you.

Chag Sameach.

Brown trout in the Lachine Rapids - first attempt

I finally decided to try fishing the Lachine Rapids for trout. After polling my subscribers, I got a mixed bag of tips. Most suggestions were to use spinners and spoons, also had some for rapala countdowns, jigs and live bait. We headed to the Parc des rapides in Ville Lasalle (Montreal), the water is extremely high and unfortunately very stained. As trout are more of a clear water fish, our chances were slim at best. We tried various techniques for about 3 hours, I had one bite off a live worm from a jig, although I don’t know if it was a trout. We decided to call it a day early, and checked on another couple spots just to find the water rose considerably since last week. I will probably need waders to access some of my local shore fishing my hot spots this spring.

I hope to give trout fishing around Montreal another shot once the water clears up a bit, possibly next week. The MRNF allows a bag limit of 5 trout per license, and the trout are the cleanest fish in the river when it comes to pollutants. Even the biggest ones have the lowest eating advisory.

After doing some more research, it turns out that the ministry stocks sterile brown and rainbow trout into the St Lawrence River, as they are afraid of the possiblity that they might migrate and compete for food with the salmon in Gaspesie if they were allowed to spawn. They are stocked simply to promote some trout fishing locally.

As most of these fish can't reproduce, catch and release doesn't make much sense. I've never eaten a brown trout, cant wait to try...

Fishing the Outaouais River at ice out

The warm weather got me dreaming of casting into soft water again, I couldn’t take it any longer as I haven’t been able to cast since November 2007. I headed out for a few hours just to check on a couple spots that usually thaw out before the rest of the river, hoping to possibly hook into anything swimming around. I picked up some worms, headed to a spot where the perch run to spawn at the end of April. I got to my first spot on the Outaouais River, it was nice to see the water is extremely high, especially after seeing it at an all time low last fall. After a couple casts, it was obvious that they aren’t there yet, as the spot usually produces fish on almost every cast. We stayed about an hour or so, then headed down to the Pointe des Cascades Pier to check the water, it turned out to be frozen and access to the pier is still covered in deep snow. The dam was accessible, but most of the water is also covered in ice. The last spot we hit on the way home was the 34th street pier one Ile Perrot. Although the river is still covered in ice, there is a 30-40 foot area surrounding the pier that is flowing. The current is very strong in front of the pier, the left side is a lot calmer. Not much biting until I tried cast toward the shore, where a drainage pipe is sending warmer water in the river. I got bit off a couple times, on my third cast I hooked into what I expected to be a perch, but then I started to pull harder. I figured it was a catfish when I brought it in a realized it was a decent sized sucker. I got some footage, it’s accessible on Youtube by clicking: http://youtube.com/watch?v=oXEXU6Qup18

Last day of ice fishing season in Quebec

Last day of the ice fishing season, I had to get out for one more shot at the grandmother of all trophy pikes. I headed to the south shore of Lac St Louis near Chateauguay, we set up 20 lines with a variety of dead bait and live shiners, covering water depths from 3 to 10 feet. The ice was still close to 2 feet think, the massive hovercraft was already making it’s rounds breaking up the ice in the main river channel. The bite was extremely slow all morning. Around noon, the first flag of the day was tripped, but the fish didn’t take the bait. A couple minutes later, my bait feeder reel tipped with 2 live shiners started clicking, I engaged it and hooked into a decent pike. It peeled some drag a couple times, I brought it in and live released it as the water in that area has and advisory for pike over 2 feet, this one was a few inches over, probably 28 or 29 inches or so.

My buddy shot some footage of the release, you can view it by clicking:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5UpDKXktBEo

This is the first decent fish I’ve brought in on a rod and reel through the ice, the fight is not comparable to a standard tip up or hand line. I’m re-thinking my strategy for next ice fishing season, as catching them on rod and reel is way better. I have some spare reels, I’ll most likely pick up a lot of ice fishing rods online, possibly tip the lines with bite alarms to hear them going off when the pike take off with the bait.

Spring ice fishing for pike around Montreal

With the end of the ice fishing season coming up on us, I wanted to get out before April 1st to target some more pike. We headed out to the St Lawrence River just off Ile Perrot for a short day on the water. We fished a shallow bay using the usual dead bait and some really nice 5 – 6 inch shiners Mike picked up the previous day. He had to trek all the way to the East end of the Island for them, as most outfitters around town are out of stock. The special effort was well worth it, as the shiners worked pretty well on the local pike population. We ended up catching 4 pike between 4 Lbs and 7 lbs, and missing another 3 than stole our bait. The dead bait might have helped to attract them, but all I got was one bite on a big mackerel, the fish lost interest after swimming right up to the live shiner, spitting the dead bait and hitting the shiner instead.

To view some of the footage I shot, click: http://youtube.com/watch?v=I9y1-6pAufw

I also met Pro bass fishing guide Mark Currie, he was out fishing for perch and walleye not too far from where we were fishing. They kept him pretty busy, he couldn't get to his tip ups fast enough before the flags would spring up on the other ones. It looked quite funny from far, seeing him run from flag to flag, I think he got a pretty good work out.

Massive sturgeon caught in Ontario?

A friend sent this picture to me along with a brief story about the fish. Based on the picture, I think the weight of 1000 lbs is completely exaggerated. There is no way they could have weighed that fish properly and then released it alive and in good health. If they claim "Any Sturgeon OVER five feet has to be released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water", how would they have weighed it properly?

My guess was 500 - 600 lbs max, according to some online calculators I checked it should weigh between 650 - 700 lbs, based on the length and girth measurments.

Here is their side of the story:

This Sturgeon was caught at TWO CREEKS CONSERVATION AREA, Wheatley,ON (at Lake Erie) 11/19/2007. It weighed out at over 1,000 lbs and measured out at 11'1'. It was 56' around the girth and took over 6 and a half hours, and 4 dozen beers, for the 4 guys taking turns at the reeling it in. Any Sturgeon OVER five feet has to be released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water.They are brood/breeding stock and probably older than most of us.

This Sturgeon is Still alive , just worn out from the fightIt was turned loose after the photo.

Ice fishing near Beauharnois / meeting a musky legend.

This winter seems like it will go on for ever with all the snow and cold March we are having. A nice sunny day, one of the last chances to ice fish for big Northerns, I headed out for a day with some friends, we “set up shop” near Beauharnois. This had to be the one of the worst outing I’ve seen to date, we had 1 bite on a frozen mackerel, they rest of the day was totally dead, despite fishing live minnows, worms, dead bait and lures on a variety of about 20 tip ups, brimbales and ice jigging rods. The bright side of the day was a visit from world famous musky guide Mike Lazarus. It’s the first time I met him, although I’ve heard and read about him before. He is a down to earth, nice guy, we chatted for about an hour or so, he’s got to be one of the most die hard fishermen I’ve ever met. Despite the fact that he specializes in guiding anglers for big muskies for a living, he still takes the time to fish a few times a week during the winter. He also did tip me off on an auger that Canadian Tire is selling at half price, I’m thinking of picking one up for next season, to get more freedom and access to fish anywhere / anytime. Equipped with a 9 inch blade, it should do the trick for the big pikes that I’m targeting, provided they co-operate.

Dreaming of trophy Northern Pike ice fishing

In my quest for big winter pike, I headed out to Lac St Louis near the Montreal area with a couple friends. The weather was overcast with light snow, about or just about freezing.

I set up a variety of bait dead bait including minnows, smelt, sardines and small mackerel, on my pike lines, a double worm rig on my jigging rod. The fishing was extremely slow, we moved to 3 separate spots over about 1 mile in search of the pike, all we caught were some small perch jigging live minnows and worms. We unfortunately were only able to fish until 3:00 PM. As I’m pulling up my lines, the one with a 7- 8 inch mackerel had a decent sized pike on it. Again, I lost it when trying to bring it through the 8 inch hole. A frustrating loss, my consolation is that the rig worked for a second time, and on both occasions the pike skipped smaller live minnows for the larger (and smellier) dead bait.


So why has it failed to "ice" pike twice? My best guess at this point is the quick strike system. Although I can see how it can be very effective in hooking fish, when it comes to pulling a pike through an 8" hole, the rig can actually work against the fisherman. Assuming the fish is hooked by the trailer treble hook in the side of the mouth, (which is the entire focal point of the quick strike rig), when I'm pulling the fish to the surface it will most likely be somewhat sideways as it hits the hole. To make matters worse, the treble will most likely be in perfect position to pull out if the pike's large snout goes past the hole. I think this is exactly what happened on both occasions.


My next modification to the rig will be the hook setup, I will probably use a similar setup to a "kingfish rig", although this will mean preparing, prerigging and re-freezing the sardines or mackerel with the rigs in them. The modified rig probably will be "beta tested" on my next outing, hopefully within the next week or two.


Check out my big pike setup and rig on Youtube, I would love your input.
Click: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z8mBQ-Hs6Us

Bullhead catfish ice fishing on Lake Champlain

My office PC needed some repairs for a day, I naturally decide to make the best of what’s left of the ice fishing season. With the temperature just above freezing, I headed out to Lake Champlain for the day with my 5 year old son Levi. I intended to fish for pike, but also rented some “brimbale” tip ups, and picked up some minnows and worms when I got there. The lake was solid ice, covered in about 2 inches of water, the waterproof boots and “stabilicer” cleats came in very handy. I set up 5 pike rigs with frozen smelt, sardines and mackerel, as well as some tips ups with live minnows and worms. Unfortunately, the pike weren’t interested in what I had to offer, the perch were hitting throughout the day. The big surprise came when I pulled out a fat bullhead on my ice fishing rod, surprised me when I say it, I thought it was a “jumbo” perch or walleye. All I caught on film was the release, you can check it on Youtube by clicking: http://www.youtube.com/v/2j5Hy2WdHw4