Spring is back, so is Fishing!
Well, well…I had been waiting for this day for over 5 months: back on a river with my favorite fishing partner, my brand new BassPro XPS 7′ rod equipped with its brand new Quantum Energy PTi-A (review to come soon…), listening to the wild and having a great time. Don & I decided that our opening day would be that Saturday 15th of April 2006: we would hit the Swift River for the first fishing day of the year! Actually there was one real reason for choosing the Swift: Don sent his boat for carpet replacement, and the boat has not yet been shipped back to him (I won’get into more details, Don has been enough frustrated about it, no need to add more oil to the fire)…
We are lucky because Don was able to register his canoe on Friday afternoon, and to be totally honest, kayaks or canoes are best on the Swift river. A few years ago, Don had added a bracket on the back of the canoe to which he can fix a Minn Kota trolling motor on. This is the best setup ever! Ok, we don’t get any workout, but it gives you plenty of time to concentrate on the fishing and troll up and down the river.
9AM: The Canoe Launch
We got to the launch area around 9AM, which was pretty late, but this early during the season, who cares what time you get on the water, it’s all about having a good time and NOT freezing your butt off with the cool morning temperatures! It only took us a few mn to get the canoe ready:
Then we had to get “inside” the canoe, and I guess we had forgotten that a canoe isn’t as stable as a 17 footer boat! So after avoiding twice to get an early bath in a 30 degrees water, we were on our way. I wanted to handle the boat, well, I like playing with that trolling motor!
We decided to hit the river down to the dam area. Don went fishing this area last year and had some luck catching a few largemouth bass and a trout. Let’s see what we can catch today!
9:30AM: Time to start fishing
On Don’s advices, we decided to troll, which was relaxing….Ok, time for the first Don’s Fishing Advice:
Well, believe it or not, this happened to me later on during the day…I was not really sure what to use on the river, i own a few Mepps spoons for trouts, i believe i bought one of the kits Mepps a while back. Don quickly decided to use a Gold and rainbow Rooters Tail, as always, making decisions which pay off BIG time!
I did not have one, so I kept my Mepps Gold Aglia.
10:30AM: The First Trout!
On the way down to the dam, Don felt a hit and a few seconds later, that was it: “I got one!”…oh you have no idea how i like to hear that phrase! The trout was “wayyyy” back behind us since we were trolling, so Don had plently of time to enjoy retrieving his first fish of the season. Here is a picture:
We decided not to keep the trout, simply because we had not plan on doing so. You can catch as many as 3 trouts per head, that’s your count on the Swift River.
11AM: Second Trout…Don: 2 Me: 0
Trolling on the way back up, Don caught his second trout of the day, and a larger one, around 16″. I made a quick video, you’ve got to check out the Don’s professionalism on that catch! Hand in the water first, grad the trout by the belly, she’s out of the water, that’s it….WAHOOOO!!! This is the way to it kids, the ONLY way!
On the first catch, we tried the net…and that was not a good idea! The first trout tangled itself in the net, was quite a mess…and if you pay attention on the picture above, you can see the green net floating on the water…oops, too much excitement I guess!
Since that trout was really nice and Don had caught his second trout in less than 1 hour, we decided to keep it for lunch.
We were a bit anxious about lunch, because even though that trout was of a nice size, that would not really feed two grown men! Lucky enough for me, Don knows how to catch fish!
12:30AM: Third Trout for Don…I officially suck!
At this point, I knew I was in trouble: you can’t come back on 3 trouts! Don was having a great day, no question about it: we have never caught as many trouts as he did since we have been fishing together. That trout was hiding in weeds, in a very active area of the river: the water was quite fast, and we knew it was going to be a good spot coming up on the area.
Since my Mepps really stank all morning, I let Don give me his feedback on what to use and he suggested a gold spoon. I do not have a picture of it, the closest I found is that Shorty Gold Spoon, something really simple, but the Gold color was king in that clear water.
1:30PM: Captain Switch
Back to the launch area, we decided to keep going for a little bit more time: trying to catch a third trout. We decided to switch positions, Don would handle the trolling motor of the canoe. It sounds stupid but hear me out: in order to switch, you have to reach shore, get out of the canoe, and get back in it…well it is not “that” easy after sitting in it for 5 hours! For the third time of the day, we almost took a bath, actually I did! Don’t get me wrong: canoeing IS fun! hehe…
2:15pm: I Missed a Trout!
We didn’t get lucky at all going up the Swift River, the river is unbelievably beautiful , you can actually see trouts swimming around you, but if you can see it, you ain’t catching it!
We decided to call it a day, and not even 100 feet away from the boat launch, I missed one! As i previously wrote and as Don said, casting and retrieving is not the best way to fish for trouts: they have a tendency to follow the lure for some time before hitting it hard, and that’s what happened to me. I swear the trout had its mouth wide opened after my lure 3 feet away from the canoe! Of course, she got scared seeing the canoe and turned its back at me…damn!
Fishing Day 1: 3 Trouts, not bad at all!
In conclusion, this first fishing day was great, weather was beautiful, kind of warm, we had a great time on the Swift River, and trouts were hitting…on Don’s Rooters Tail ONLY!! We are a very good late lunch, we certainly enjoy the trouts!
But the most important is: next time I’ll do better! Well, at least I’ll try! 