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Another Day on the Hard Water


Ramble

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Mark bailed on Quinte last weekend, so I put the pressure on him to get out today. He didn’t have class till 7pm and every other Thursday I have off. He finally gave in last night and said “Let’s go.” But he didn’t want to leave early…at least we were going.

 

I wanted to try ‘eyes in the morning and if nothing was happening by 10am switch to the perching grounds. But since we didn’t get to Belleville until 11am, I said ta hall with the walleye lets go perching. Mark loves to catch perch and let’s face it….those walleye can be ornery.

 

We walked out and popped some holes shallower then usual. I was curious to see if there was any fish closer to shore. Mark had a couple on the Vex, but there were no takers.

 

We moved deeper to 15 feet. (The magic number yet again.) We set up and Mark had 3 fish on the flasher right away. But they were just looking. He played with those fish for a while and then caught a small perch.

 

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A little while later Mark’s set line bounces and reels in the 1st descent fish of the day.

 

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We keep at it and keep picking off a big perch every now and then. We would just be talking about moving one of us would hook up.

 

We had a few on the ice when a local showed up. He said it had been slow for walleye the day before and this morning he only had 1 pike. That made me feel a little better about not making it out in the early am.

 

The wind was cold, as was the air temperature all day. Mark was having a rough time keeping warm, but he toughed it out.

 

We were about to pack it in when I got a hit on the jigging rod, which was resting in the holder. I set the hook and promptly kicked the holder into the line. It wrapped up in a pretty impressive fashion, but I kept the pressure on. Mark tried to fix the tangle and not loose the fish at the same time. I had let the hole freeze over….probably because I was lazy and I still had a square inch of soft water where my jigging line was. Anyway I got the fish into the hole and could see it was another good perch. Its lips were pressed against the clear ice, like when a kid makes faces on a window. I told Mark to just pull him up. (Figuring the thin layer of ice would just break. He pulled, fish came off, and I crammed my hand into the hole just over the wrist and got the fish. Biggest one of the day at 11.25 inches.

 

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That was the end of the day. By the time I had my hand warm enough to pack and put on another set of gloves. The wet glove was frozen solid. I tired to take a picture of our total catch on the ice, but the camera wasn’t willing to work in the cold.

 

Check out our “cleaning station”. Nothing like living in a house full of guys, with no mothers around. My mother would “fillet me” if tried that at home. (Yes, that’s surviourman on the TV.)

 

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The fatty of the bunch.

 

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Despite being the slowest day I have seen on the perch ground, it was another good day on the ice.

 

Tight Lines.

-Dave

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Top stuff ramble on,

 

great description of the days events...and the commentary about moving./staying.......lol....i know exactly what you mean....and its great when someone confirms your instincts and your not feeling like...what if i had moved....?

 

 

great feed of perch, great report to go with it, and i learnt a new word today....ORNERY....

 

 

thanks

 

 

Simon

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Nice to see you finally got out. I stayed home today and did absolutly nothing all day LOL.

 

If i stayerd home and did nothing one more time when i could have been out fishing i think would have lost it. lol It was great to fight the cold and a few fish.

 

i know exactly what you mean....and its great when someone confirms your instincts and your not feeling like...what if i had moved....?

 

Ya it was welcomed news. But i still would have liked to have gone out for a skunk anyway. Rather be out catching nothing, then sitting at home. However, i'm sure my fingers were glad i wasnt out in the early am.

 

Love the cleaning station.... Cool

 

Yeah , i just kinda took it for granted. But today i thought about what my mother would say, and realized how special our little set up is. Nothing quite like a student house when a couple of the doodes spend time in the outdoors. In college we snuck a coyote in to my buddies basement appartment, slipped bacj a ceiling tile and skinned it right in the living room over some news paper. I'm gonna miss this stuff one day.

 

Thanks for the replies fellas.

 

-Dave

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My reading week is coming up really soon. I'll be in Belleville if you wanna give it a try some time. There is always Simcoe as well. But I'm no where near as familiar with it. But they arn't hard to find.

 

-R-

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