I'm taking a day off today. I'm going to spend the afternoon watching the NHL playoffs. I like Calgary and the Senators but I'll aways have a soft spot for the Habs.
Went pike fishing yesterday on the north arm of Rainy Lake. I took some friends and we tore them up! We boated lots of large fish, some over 40 inches but mostly in the 10 to 12 lbs. range. Not bad at all. The best part was that the fish were in only 2 to 3 feet of water so the four of us enjoyed some bone shattering strikes and long drag tearing runs. It was a great time and you should give it a try. We kept two smaller fish for shorelunch. It was my first shorelunch of the year and I alway kick off the season by doing one for my friends and family.
Honestly, I needed this day off to heal up. A big pike gave me a hell of a tussel and it twisted my left index fiinger. The finger isn't broken but it looks and feels like a sprain. The knuckle is all swollen and purple. It's tough to reel in a fish with a messed up index finger. Who am I kidding, I'd find a way.
The smallmouth bass are starting to move into the shallows too. Not lots, but some are getting hungry enough to straggle into the warmer bays. I caught my first smallie of the season, (a nice 18 incher), in 8 feet of water, using a Lucky Craft suspending jerk bait. Love these baits, hate the price. $22.00 for a jerkbait is just too much for this fisherman. Or is it? Smithwick Rogues are 1/4 of the price and they work just as well. If you modify Rapala Huskie Jerks a little, they can be the best baits in you tackle. Huskie Jerks are about 1/3 of the price of a Lucky Craft. Alas the Lucky Craft has caught the biggest fish of all. Me, I gleefully shelled out my $22.00 and chanced it in a pike infested bay, without a leader I might add. And, what happens? I catch a football of a smallmouth bass. I guess the Lucky Craft stays tied on until that pike, destined to take my $22.00 lure, eats it.
What a good read these days:
Thunder and Lighting: A No B.S. Hockey Memoir
By Phil Esposito
Warlock
By Oakley Hall
Sunday, April 30, 2006
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