Fishing Twice in Two Days

[Ramble]

I’ve been chomping at the bit to hit the hard water for the last two weeks, but school kept getting in the way. Friday rolled around and I had plans to hit the Bay of Quinte with a good friend no matter what the weather. Dominique and I left Peterborough around noon and got to Belleville around 2pm. The roads were in bad shape the whole way. We stopped on the way to help a lady who was stuck.

 

We arrived at 2pm, and Jeff was already at my house waiting. We put the minnows in the bucket; I threw my cold weather clothes on, and grabbed the gear. 3:00pm we were on the ice, off the east side of Point Anne heading out into the storm.

 

 

The ice was slick in the clear patches, and the drifts were up to my knees in places. Despite the wind and ice pellets, we were both sweating with our jackets open. So it was off with the jackets, and to work with the auger.

 

The auger turned out to be a lost cause. The blades on Jeff’s hand auger were in a terrible state of repair. Lucky we had a spud bar with us which we had brought because neither of us could get a good ice report for the area.

 

Somewhere around 12 inches of good, black ice later, we had the 1st hole in the ice. While he cleared that hole, I worked on the next hole. Once we had 4 holes, we set the still lines, and rigged up our jigging rods. It wasn’t long before we spotted the 1st jostle of a setline. Jeff grabbed the line; and we had the 1st perch on the ice.

 

 

We were hoping for walleye, but the perch kept biting, so we kept catching.

 

Notice that there is no horizon, and the white horizontal blurs in front of Jeff’s face.

 

We had pretty steady action the whole time we were out. We’d catch one jigging, and just as you hands were getting warm, the set line would go. It stayed like that till dark. We didn’t catch any walleye but came home with some nice perch. Plenty went back down the hole.

 

 

The two biggest.

 

When we got home, I filleted the fish and left the skin on for later. Jeff took half this fish home for supper.

 

We had a great afternoon; I think the terrible weather actually made it more fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning rolled around, and my alarm went off at 8am. When I got up at nine the day looked like it was going to be a good one. Then I got a phone call from a neighbor and spent the next 2 hours helping her shovel out her house.

 

About noon I was done shoveling, dad had the van packed and off we went. 1st stop was Northway, for lunch. After lunch we went due north up 62 until we hit our turn off for Steenburg lake at Trudy’s.

 

There were quite a few people out on the ice and they were moving around quite a bit leading me to believe the splake weren’t cooperating.

 

We punched our 1st set of holes with the auger threw about a foot of ice and it wasn’t long before we had the 1st fish of the day.

 

 

We were right on top of a school of perch. They were biting so well we pulled up the still lines and had a riot jigging for them. We were catching perch hand over fist.

 

Some were of a decent size, so we started keeping a few.

 

 

 

 

We brought the portable stove, and had a couple of cups of tea between fish. After we had about dozen we moved around trying to find some splake.

 

 

 

We punched a bunch more holes and pulled out a few more perch along with a few rock bass. Before we knew it, the sun was down, so we packed up and headed for shore.

 

Once home, I filleted the fish to the same point as the fish the night before and took this picture.

 

 

Then I removed the skins, and heated up the frying pan. Only dad and I were home, so we fried up the fillets and devoured the whole batch. It was delicious.

 

Can’t wait till I’m home for reading week.

 

Hope your week was as good as mine.

-Ramble

[huntervasili]

looks like ya had a good time there with the fishing and a meal no fisherman could turn down.... Thanks for the report

[Greencoachdog]

Great report and pics!

Those BOQ Perch look very healthy... nice and fat!!!

[mattyk]

nice report thanks for sharing.

[b2kptbo]

Gotta say good on ya for toughing out Fri. weather (my trip was canceled) and glad you and your Dad had a good time. Good stuff...

[Moosebunk]

Dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!!

 

OK, so you caught some dinner. Big whoop. Where's the Kesagami report.

 

 

 

Nice suppertime haul though Dave. Thanks for the report.

[Ramble]

The K-Sawg report is over half done!!! It's a dangg beast of a post. Ill have to work on it some more and proof read it. May even have to take some stuff out. It should get done in the next 2 weeks. It's full of pictures.

 

Thanks for the comments everyone.

 

-Ramble

[brickNblock]

Exellent report and thanks for the pics Ramble...

I too am looking forward to your Kesagami report......

Oh Yeah!....that filet knife of yours......

Man, its looks like it has seen a few fish.........how long you had it?

It looks in great shape....How do you clean it?...Store it?......How often is it sharpened and what with?

Edited February 3, 2008 by brickNblock

[tjsa]

Great report and pics, my buds and I are contemplating a perch trip up our way also, only one lake up here we have found that produces good catch numbers.

[fishindevil]

Great fishing report & trip !!!!...man you were really jonesing to hit the ice,going out into that storm thats for sure....nice catch of fish you guys got !!!! your hard work & perserverance sure payed off !!! well done cheers

[irishfield]

Thanks for sharing Ramble !

[bassmaster4]

nice fish but the sweater in the fifth picture is disgusting GO LEAFS GO! 4-2 last night ahahahaha

 

 

not trying to start anything

Edited February 4, 2008 by bassmaster4

[Joey]

Very nice report. You guys looked cold.

 

Bet that was tasty, yummmmm.

 

Great pics.

 

Joey

[Hawg Hunter]

nothing wrong with those perch let me tell ya,i was out there myself too bad we never met.

great report.

 

taker easy

 

Hawg Hunter

[tbayboy]

Great report, gotta love the determination.

[Ramble]

I got that knife 2 years ago. I used it for two weeks at kesagami my 1st year then i lost it and couldn't find it. I gave it up for lost. One day one of the guys i work with lost his sun glasses in the lake off the dock and went in after them. About 5 minutes later he found my knife. It had been in the water about a month. She's been going strong ever since. The leather changed colour dramatically, and the finish of the handel aged as well.

 

To answer your question, between June and July it does anywhere between 2 and 30 walleye a day. I can't even guess the number of potatoes it has sliced. It also does a really nice job of taking the breasts off of a grouse. I clean it on my pant leg most of the time or in the lake, i think it has seen soap 3 times. I keep it in the junk box in my boat when im not using it during guiding season, and on my desk during the off season.

 

I sharpen it with what ever is handy. Most days i have use a little portable lansky quick sharpen thing. Doesn't but the best edge on it, but it definalty helps you get through fish.

 

 

 

 

-Ramble

[Smokey]

Nice fish and Thanks for the report and pics.