The stories on the boat were entertaining with some incredible Bear hunting experiences shared, fish catches reminisced and a fond appreciation for guiding in the outdoors. A labour of love, not a labour as a means for wealth. Pete has been a guide for many years and it I had to ask how the Liberals cancelled the Spring Bear hunt affected his business. We were on the same page with our displeasure of how this came about. It decimated the tourism industry in the north during a time frame where there are no other tourism attractions to draw in dollars. Instead the wait to open lodges (those that stayed in operation) months later and now only rely on summer tourists to make ends meet. Prices of stay at lodges also had to go up to cover the spring loss of revenue. Guides for Bear hunting also fell off the map with the loss of this most important time. Now only a few stayed in business like Pete.
Also the Spring Bear hunt has changed the behaviour of the bears in the north. Bears are now encroaching on urban (town) areas looking for food. Bear attacks on people are talked about in the media, but the true cause to the increased Bear/people exposures are not described in the media as related to taking away the Spring Bear hunt. Media in the south is even more left wing on the topic and describes the hunting season cancelation as a good news story.
We left from the launch at port Dalhousie and set off to fish for staging fish in tight and out front for the first few hours. We didn’t even power up and the kicker motor was started and our troll began as we cleared 20 FOW. The King of the Lake Salmon Tournament was scheduled for the next weekend and a few boats were in the area to start a prefish practice. The bite was slow all around only seeing one other boat net a small salmon. We had two fish on, but they were off before the fight began. Two loops in the 30-60 FOW levels and we decided to go a little deeper. We broke 75 FOW and then 85 FOW and the screen lit up with hooks on the bottom. I figured Lake Trout, but wanted to be sure they weren’t salmon staging a little deeper. Bait was also prevalent in the area at both bottom and mid depths. I dropped the flasher/MC Rocket and Flasher Fly on two riggers down to the bottom and it was only moments later on a zig zag turn that had our first fish take. It was a Lake Trout and it came in with ease weighing around 5 lbs. Then after a picture the other rigger rod moved and the stark bend was released slightly and then doubled over. Pete was on it, this time a better fish. Drag came off the reel, not quickly, but made us think it might be a salmon. It was a heavy fish. Barely any line could be made and we needed to circle the fish to help the retrieve of line. The grey backed Lake Trout came up to the surface behind the boat with it’s big mouth wide open and the net slipped under it’s belly to bring it aboard.
Pete lifted the brute from the net and he was impressed by its size. We put it on the scale and it read 14.4 lbs! Nice.
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One more loop in the area and the Full core leadcore takes another strike. This time a small salmon comes on board.
I decided we should vacate the area and go to the Blue Zone for some silvers. We picked up and ran out 7 miles to around 290 FOW to the are of our waypoints from last week. It was only a short time and the program of spoons on short leads, wire diver/spoon and 10 colour Leadcore starts firing. Not fast and furious, but a steady pick and we managed a good number of rainbows/ one salmon and one pelagic Brown Trout to the boat. Here are a few to show.
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| From Photo_Gallery6 |
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| From Photo_Gallery6 |
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Great fishing with a few guys as passionate about the outdoors of fishing and hunting.
Shane Thombs
www.FINtasticSportfishing.com
Fantastic blog and very good information and very helpful to me
ReplyDeletenorthern ontario fishing