Ontario Angler Awards - First 3 are in my hands :)

I've been waiting awhile for these awards to come in! The first 3 of my Ontario Federation of Hunters and Anglers - Angler Awards came in this week (postal strike delayed them a bit)
and they are awesome! So far I've received one for Bluegill, Black Crappie and Pumpkinseed. I'm still waiting on my large mouth bass certificate...should be here soon too! They come with a nice decal as well stating the year...think i'll put them on my tackle box.

Speaking of tackle boxes....I finally went out this week and upgraded to a LARGE one..as I just have to many lures and other things in my old one to keep it neat and tidy and find what I want when I need it. Loving the new one...it'll take some time to get use to...but far more organized (which with me and my OCD tendencies is so necessary).

34 fish in 2.5 hours...Honey Hole absolutely!!!

Every once and awhile (OK...once every couple of years when you're running your own business, looking after a home and raising 2 young boys) you have a day so fabulous, relaxing and just plain old magical that it renews you!

After a 3 day week-end, closing my business for a bit due a possible Postal Strike and a P.A day coming up on Friday.... I decide to throw everything to the wind and just drop everything (including my worry about not accomplishing stuff) and take my rod, some worms and head out for the day completely by myself to fish (something I've dreamed of doing since I started last year but could never find the time). Tuesday it would be...a ME DAY!

Started out as any normal Tuesday...got the kids packed up and ready for school...and dropped them off...and then OFF I drove! Decided I'd go back to Kilmarnock Lock...there was this awesome little inlet on the lower side of the lock that I spotted when we'd been there on Saturday that I had a feeling was AMAZING (frankly my husband says for someone who knows so little about fishing I have some SKILLS..but i think it's ALL intuition...i just get feelings about places, lures..ect) that I wanted to try.

When I got to the Lock..I thought I'd go back to the upper part that I'd had so much luck with on the week-end...but I was there for only a few minutes and wasn't feeling it..so i decide to venture down the to the lower part and try out the spot I'd eyed on the week-end and boy am I glad I did! I stood there...casting my line with worm and bobber and caught 34 fish in 2.5 hours (Literally every cast there was something on my line....it was the time taking them off that kept me at 34..cause it could have literally been a ton more..lol). That little inlet was full of Pan Fish..I managed to get both a Punpkinseed and Bluegill that will add to my OAA goal ..(yes..3 of 5 species down....the requirements for Bass and other fish are on the higher end of length for shore fishing...but I have 4 months left...I'm hopeful :). Heck...even the keepers of the Lock house who were working (and may I saw were AWESOME and brought down a picnic table in their truck for me) were amazed at how many fish I caught....they were up in their house apparently watching me...and finally came down to see what my total was!

Now I was more then happy to catch all those panfish...but boy was a delighted to catch my first Small Mouth Bass of the season..(he was just a baby at 10"..but I was just so happy to have something other then a panfish after 52 in total recently). Found it so amusing how the Bass put up way less fight then even the smallest pumpkinseed I caught :)

Now the fish and sun would have been enough to make it a fantastic day....but the Muskrat that showed up and wondered around right beside me, along with the 2 herons that parked themselves about 5 feet away and the turtles all around on every log basking in the sun...just made me smile up a storm...perhaps they were amused with all the talking to myself I was doing :) I did learn that taking photos of ones self is difficult with a fish in hand...leans to having not the most glamorous photos of ones self...but oh well...fishing is not about vanity...RIGHT??

As Bill and Ted would say "All in all a MOST EXCELLENT DAY".

Worm and Bobber is still an AWESOME time!

I can't even put into words what an amazing 3 days of fishing I had this Victoria Day Long Week-End ...Totally made up for the fishing that never occurred on my Birthday. I spent most of last year using lures trying to catch BIG FISH and I totally forgot how fun and exciting it can be to use worms and a bobber and catch some feisty panfish. In my attempt to get my OFAH (Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters) Avid Angler Award this year from their Ontario Angler Awards Program (you need to land a minimum 5 different species of fish from their list that are a minimum length of their requirements - thus why you'll see a measuring tape above the fish in many of my photos) I decided to start SMALL and get the "easy ones" out of the way and help build my numbers....so out came the bobber and worms this week-end and the FUN! So PANFISH is what I wanted and panfish is what I received ....much to my delight !

On Saturday my husband suggested a location just outside of Smiths Falls in Jasper at the Kilmarnock Lock and after my line hit the water I realized this would absolutely start to be one of my new HONEY HOLES (OK...this term makes me giggle..but it is what it is...and this is a Honey Hole :). We ended up heading out later then anticipated due to getting some home stuff done...and I was a bit worried that we'd missed the prime of the day...1pm is a bit late....OR is it? We started on the upside of the lock and we could see panfish everywhere right at the doors to the lock so quickly the worms went on and in went the line...it took approximately 1 minute for the first fish to attach itself to my line and thus began an afternoon of excitement. That first fish was a fantastic Black Crappie that measured almost 11"and was absolutely big enough to become a notch for my avid angler awards, which set the day off to a wonderful start. I spent the next 3 hours of the afternoon LOVING the beautiful sun after so many days of rain and catching 18 additional panfish including Pumpkinseed and Bluegill.

On our way home we decided to check out another location that had been touted to my husband, by a connection, as a very sweet spot for fishing..so we stopped at Edmonds Lock. It was a beautiful spot and FULL of potential. After checking out the top of the Lock I went over to the drop looking down to the bottom and literally squealed out (hey..there are some girly traits I just can't help ) as I could see TONS of HUGE fish swimming at the bottom of the lock...(bigger then any fish I'd ever seen close up)....these guys were 30-50lbs EASY! After some speculation and research with my trusty Ontario fishing print out..it appeared we had come upon a large group of CARP. We left inspired to see such HUGE fish close up and determined to do some research on Carp fishing and return on Monday (as it was a long week-end :).

Monday came quickly (after a belated birthday get together on Sunday for myself) and we were ready to go back to Edmonds Lock (with Corn for the Carp in hand) and see what we could land. We started at the top of the Lock which looked perfect for some larger catches, so out came the lures....it took only a few minutes for my husband to start getting some Pike bites and one that was on the line and jumped off before he got it out of the water. I wasn't as lucky and there weren't many bites on my line...I did get a great size yellow perch on my line (I was using my newly purchased Rapala Clackin' Rap...which I aquired with some other new lures at the SAIL store in Ottawa the day before)...but it just didn't stick and got away ..It was a bit of a let down because it was big enough to absolutely be another OAA entry. We decided to finally go down and chum the water at the bottom of the lock with the corn we brought and see if we could get the massive Carp to take in a hook (as they're suckers...the don't really bite...it's a crap shoot trying to get them to inhale the bait and then get them on the line). Geeze it was PAINFUL to see these MASSIVE fish just swim by (close enough to touch) and not be able to get them on the line...we spent an hour or more...but alas gave up with the intention of doing more research and honing our skills on Carp Fishing for another day!

All in all it was a WONDERFUL long week-end! I was delighted to get out and get some fishing in and get some (OK A LOT ) of sun and fish! Was happy to have an entry for my OAA (which has now been accepted and my certificate and decal is in the mail). I'll post about my amazing Tuesday later....maybe one of the best days I've had in years :)