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Family Vacation - WGSF, a Pike and a Rat


charlesn

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First off, I would like to thank the OFNers that responded with possible places to stay with my family. We ended up considering those places but decided in the end to go to Forest Glen Resort on the Trent/Severn between Sparrow and Couchiching. A very clean resort and nice place to stay.

 

Anyways, my family and my wife's friend's family had a great time even though traveling with young ones can be VERY tiring and being in a new place can be very unsettling for young ones. There were definitely more tantrums and fits than there were fish caught, sorta like one of my usual tournament days. lol

 

I'm a tournament junkie. I live for the competition. The thrill of blast-off, the smell of burnt 2-stroke oil in the morning, the rumble of a hundred outboards, the hunt, the weigh-in, all of it. My vacations are usually reconnaissance missions trying to learn more about a lake for an upcoming or future tournament or to learn a new tournament technique. A never-ending quest so to speak. So a relaxing vacation with people that are novice anglers was something quite new to me. I discovered it was quite fun and very rewarding in its own way and I hope I have added at least 2 young anglers to the fishing addicts of the world.

 

My eldest daughter refused to wear a pfd, so she got left back at the cabin and I took two other children out. After the first exhilarating boat ride (at about 8 km/h) they were hooked. The lone young man of the group, Bryce, decided to test out the electronics and hydraulic steering.

 

bryce-boat.jpg

 

It wouldn't be long before I hooked in to what turned out to be the biggest fish of weekend. About a 5 lb pike that was about as long as an 18 month old. It was the first pike they had seen.

 

pike-bryce.jpg

 

The fish came on a medium diving fire tiger smithwick rattlin' rogue with a feathered treble. Fishing scattered cabbage with the occasional milf clump in 5-6' of water. Water temps were only 61 degrees and there wasn't any visual fish or bait activity. A small largie came a few casts later and then one of the guest got bit off by a pike with a 2" pearl senko. Shortly thereafter, I saw their line swimming up past the boat by the time I mentioned it, the fish had dropped the bait. It was agreed by all that it was probably a giant fish. lol

 

We went in for lunch and the dads got a chance to fish a little off the dock with their daughters.

 

dads-daughters.jpg

 

Being a serious tournament angler obviously wasn't enough as I still got schooled! Candice caught the first of several WGSF to be landed on the weekend.

 

candice-dock.jpg

 

My little one decided that she was going to pick the colour bait to use.

 

always-red.jpg

 

She always picked red.

 

After hearing from Candice how fun it was to ride in the boat, Lauryn finally agreed to wear the pfd.

 

boat-buddies.jpg

 

We drove out to the lake again, but the action was slow.

 

After dinner the kids conked out early and so did I.

 

The next morning I was in for a bit of an ordeal. First of all, I have a deep rooted fear of all creepy crawly things, but a special dread for rodents.

 

rat.jpg

 

But in order to keep from embarrassing myself I put on a brave face and acted like I wasn't scared which was a big mistake! The next-door cabin lady put an Australian rat on my shoulder. My daughter obviously is less afraid of rodents than I am. It was weird, they look just like common rats, but apparently are very docile and domesticated. I don't know, I still feel creeped out.

 

After the rat episode, I took a shower and the twin terrors decided they didn't get enough fishing action and fished off the dock.

 

dock.jpg

 

Later the next day I got to finally take my youngest on to my boat. She had been very VERY irritable up til late Saturday night with a virus or something, but Sunday she got her appetite back and was no longer in a rip your face off all the time mood. She sorta enjoyed the boat ride but did not want to wear a life jacket.

 

my-girls.jpg

 

My eldest daughter Lauryn then put on her game-face, it was time to catch some fish!

 

game-face.jpg

 

We didn't actually get to wet a line, because 2/3rds of the way to the lake, Sierra decided she wanted off! lol

 

After dropping off Sierra and momma and picking up Candice and her dad, I decided to try staying in the river where I had seen some mid-river rocks. It turned out to be a good call. Caught a tiny smallie on my first cast and then let Lauryn fish. She caught one on the next cast! Albeit with some minor help. :)

 

lauryn-rockie.jpg

 

As soon as I had thrown it back, Candice caught one.

 

candice-rockie.jpg

 

As you can tell by Lauryn's attention, she was telling me to hurry up and catch her another one while Candice was still posing for a photo. Looks like she has my competitive genes! lol

 

After that they both got snags and broke off so we decided that was a good way to end the day before I ended up beaching my boat on the rocks in the strong current.

 

All in all it was a great time and just hearing my daughter ask to be allowed to go fishing is something I have been waiting for. Amazing.

 

Cheers.

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