12/26/16 & 12/27/16 A Christmas Miracle

December started out like any other year. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the 20s. It then quickly deteriorated to arctic like temperatures with highs in the single digits and lows down to 17 degrees below zero. We also got our first significant snowfall of the year and had up to 8 inches of snow on the ground in some areas. The ice junkies were excited and buying new gear at a record pace and I was left wondering if any lakes would be open once the current 'Polar Vortex' was out of the area. As you can imagine all of this extremely cold air put an abrupt end to my open water trout season. Every lake in the area quickly had a covering of ice and my favorite trout lake succumbed to the cold literally the night before I was able to make a trip out to fish. Fast forward two weeks and not much had changed. The temperatures were slightly warmer but the ice was seemingly here to stay and ice fishing had begun in earnest for most folks in the area. Then came some interesting news. The forecast for several days now showed high temps in the 40s and the day after Christmas forecasted to be close to 60 degrees with heavy winds and rain! Christmas with my family was great and I went to bed on the 25th with high hopes that maybe, just maybe, at least one trout lake would be open when I woke up the next morning. On the 26th I woke up to a text that simply read: Wide open - wind has pressed remaining ice to the east and about 10 yards out front. I quickly made plans to get up to the lake and take advantage of this opportunity to fish open water again! Upon arriving there was a good amount of ice on the bank and just to be sure I could launch, I put my waders on and pushed my way out into open water. It was relatively easy and I knew it was go time. The wind was still very heavy and I knew that my best chance would be to fish the opposite shore where the wind was not quite so extreme. There was still ice covering approximately 30% of the lake but there was also plenty of open water! There was also plenty of fish willing to play! I ended up catching 4 Rainbows and had several missed opportunities in just over 2 hours! It was a very surreal day with all the ice remaining on the water. I was often fishing around icebergs and shelf ice was still prevalent on much of the lake. The next day was very similar with heavy winds but even less ice to contend with! The fishing was just as good and I managed to put 4 Rainbows and my first Brown Trout of the winter into the boat. I thought that the Brown was going to be massive by the impressive fight that it gave me. Instead it was a chunky 15" fish with great colors and beautiful perfect fins. I released it quickly and only have GoPro footage from which to take pictures. It was great to get out twice to take advantage of this sudden thaw. I only hope that the open water sticks around long enough to squeeze in at least a few more trips.

Video - Last Pike of 2016?

Video - Back to Back Rainbows

Video - Late Season Pike

Video - Tandem Rig for Trout

11/27/16 Late Season Pike Action

On Sunday, I had just a few hours to sneak out and do some fishing. After some internal debate, I decided to head North and see if I could get into some late season Northern Pike. With Sunday being the last day of gun season as well as waterfowl and pheasant being in, I decided to grab my trusty orange hat just to be extra cautious. Turns out that was a good call as there were numerous hunters out and the sound of gunshots in different calibers was pretty persistent for the first hour or so of my trip. The fishing was nothing short of fabulous, the weather was decent, and the river was in perfect shape. After only a few minutes of casting I had my first swing and a miss from a decent fish. After missing another fish I was beginning to get frustrated. On my next cast after missing the second fish, I made a cast near a downed tree. I made a few jerks and thought I was hung up on a limb but all of a sudden the 'limb' was fighting back. My first fish of the day was an extremely fat, beautiful fish measuring out right at 30". It had totally engulfed my lure. So much so in fact, that I had to cut the back split ring to remove the back treble to get the fish unhooked. Even with the trouble I had getting it unhooked, that fish released well and after a short period of replacing hardware, I was fishing again. I caught another smaller but still nice fish shortly after. I headed upstream and had a somewhat slow period during which I had only 1 strike. I did however see a massive fish that probably would go close to 40". That always gets me excited. Before long I was nearly out of time and decided to return to the spots where I had action earlier in the day and fish for another 30 minutes before calling it quits. In 30 minutes I rattled off another 3 decent fish, bringing the total for the day to 6 fish in the boat and at least another half dozen chances. Not too shabby for the end of November!

11/26/16 My Mom's First Ever Trout!

On Saturday, after I finished playing hockey at headwaters park, I had a few hours to get out before dark. Boy the days are going quick now aren't they? I called my parents to see if one of them would want to go Trout fishing. My mom decided that she would go and before long I was packing up and getting the canoe ready to head out. We fished for about an hour and a half with absolutely nothing to show for it and I was suddenly worried that we were not going to have any action. I spotted a bald eagle in a tree and my mom got out her fancy camera and took some nice shots. Before long we finally hooked a fish. My mom reeled it all the way to the boat only to have it flip off at the last second! After that though, we were really into the fish and boated 4 and lost 2 more in less than 30 minutes! She was extremely happy to catch so many fish and was thrilled with how we were doing. Before long though, the sun was going down and we had to head for the ramp. On the way back we somehow managed to hook and lose another 4 fish! With a little more luck we could have had an amazing end to our trip.