Well, the smallie trip I dream of all year long has come and gone.
A few new memories in the books and the long wait for next year's trip begins...
This year it was just Frankie and me.
Evidently there was a mix-up in the paperwork for my buddy Scott's Man Card and, to date, it has not been renewed. Frankie and I had a great time and took plenty of pics to send to Scott throughout the year to make him plenty jealous.
Day One - Things went off without a hitch and we were on the water by 1:00.
Here's a view of the river from the takeout.
Water levels were perfect. Just high enough to where we didn't have to drag our toons at all, but low enough to where the fish weren't terribly scattered.
Fish were plentiful and ready to play.
Frankie caught this hog in one of our favorite holes. All of the fish there are very healthy, but this one had a huge gut on him.
This river has a great evening top water bite and this fella was one of many wanting to play.
Day Two - Wow, someone turned off the heat!
In the last five years, we've never had a rainy day and the temps averaged in the lower 80's.
Tuesday started out at 52 degrees and reached a high of 63. And the wind ranged between 15 - 25 mph all day. We had on three layers and a rain jacket. It felt as if we were steelheading in November.
Our hopes were not high, but we managed to catch fish like this one of Frankie's throughout the day.
The sun shined exactly twice for a total of about 20 minutes that day.
When it showed up late afternoon, I threw a topwater fly at this big guy who was hungry and gave a terrific fight.
I don't drink on the water much, but it's kind of a tradition to drink a late afternoon oil can while in Canada. (Just trying to explain the Fosters showing up in these pics)
Day Three - Well, it warmed up a bit and we hit it again on a third section of the same river. In order to get out of the river at a reasonable time, we knew we'd have to get on the oars at some point in the day and decided to do it early rather than in the dark. It pained us to float over nice fish at the beginning of the trip, but we were rewarded later in the day.
Overall, we didn't catch the numbers of fish we're used to because of the weather, but still caught a bunch. It always amazes me the incredible fight that this size of a smallie will put up.
Day Four - We decided to hire a guide for another river on Thursday.
We've fished this river before with limited success. The numbers have been low, but the size never disappoints.
Weather was a little warmer, but still not back to normal.
All reports over the last two weeks were that it wasn't fishing worth a darn.
Started off with this guy in the first bend of the float and thought it could be a good sign.
We knew this river held pike and muskie as well.
The guide hooked me up with a muskie rig and I began my first attempt at catching one.
It took a few minutes to get used to throwing half a dead chicken into the water, but I managed.
This little guy missed the fly the first time. Re-casting raised him again and he put up a reasonable fight.
A few minutes later a large flash came out of nowhere and attacked.
The fight was on for about 8 seconds. Then, operator error occurred and, sadly, game over.
It appeared to be a muskie in the 35 - 40 inch range. No monster, but it would have been my first. A smaller muskie flashed a little while later, but did not make contact. Still a muskie virgin...
Frankie caught a few largemouth in the slower sections of the river. I caught a few more smallies, with this being the best.
We didn't master the river, but picked up some tips for future reference that will help and learned a new stretch of it anyway.
Frankie and I then began the long ride home and talked of how blessed we were to be able to enjoy such a beautiful resource. Man, it was great! Can't wait until next year...