A Great Start to the Season

I can’t believe it’s been three months since I last sit down to write something. Mostly because it also means it’s been three months since I did any fishing.

I mean, I’ve been out a few times, but the conditions weren’t great and the fish weren’t biting. Any writing I would have done would have read that it was written by Eeyore (I spent two hours staring at a hole in the ice. The guy next to me caught all the fish. Dang).

That, paired with a very busy time on the non-fishing end of my life, meant I haven’t had much to write about at all.

Then late April came along, I got a new boat and hit the mighty Columbia River in Castlegar.

The trip was a long overdue fishing trip that I normally do once a year with a good friend of mine from Ontario. We had to put off the trip last year because he was travelling in Asia and, as a result, it had been almost two years since we’d had a chance to fish together (and basically two years since he’d done any fishing period).

Without going into too many details, we had an amazing trip. My buddy solidly outfished me and there wasn’t a single day he got skunked. I caught three fish and got skunked half the time we went out there.

How many fish I caught doesn’t matter, though. I’ve talked about my thoughts on getting skunked before and it often doesn’t bother me at all. I’m still floating on the water, somewhere that’s easy on the eyes, in the company of a great friend. It was actually really nice to see him catching fish, after fish, after fish, after fish. Mostly because he had travelled a long way to get there, but also because he was catching walleye–a fish we have been trying to get him into since 2012.

We also managed to get into pike, white fish, rainbow trout and even sturgeon–you’re not allowed to target sturgeon in this section of the Columbia River, but they occupy the same part of the water as walleye and the occasional hookup happened (this was followed by an almost immediate snapping of the line).

My new boat, The Aluminum Falcon, was amazing. I had been worried that it wasn’t enough boat for the Columbia River, but we played it safe and worked the area we knew where were going to find fish. The best thing about the Falcon is that not only does it have seats, which make sitting in a boat for hours so much easier, but if I want to, I could stand up. I don’t even feel great when I have to shift my weight in my canoe, so this was a real treat.

Between the fish, the catching up and the new boat, it was the perfect trip.

A week after that trip ended, I took my canoe out for its first stillwater trip of the season. I went to my trusty local lake (I have renewed love of this lake after my last few experiences there last fall) and, after the usual ordeal of getting my canoe down to the water, I was good to go.

The conditions were almost perfect. The sun was shining, there weren’t too many clouds in the sky and there didn’t seem to be much wind. Even when the wind picked up, it wasn’t too bad.

I found a nice little bay. Tied on a chironomid. And relaxed.

I eventually caught a few fish. A trio of brook trout that wanted a chromie kind of close to the surface. But mostly, I just enjoyed being on the water again.

After a couple of hours, I made my way back home. Happy with how I’d done and very much looking forward to the next trip.