Welcome to Week CLVI of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
For fisherfolk opening day of a new season might be the closest the year comes to having a second Christmas.
This year the buildup in excitement was made somewhat keener by the warm weather we enjoyed in April.
In a typical April where it’s more like February than June, the snow and cold temper our interest in fishing. It’s also being realistic as ice on our favourite lakes make boating and casting a touch difficult. So we happily hibernate a few weeks and await May.
This year though, April was the sort we all dream of, the kind we often say if it was commonplace then living on the Prairies would be so much more palatable.
The warmer than usual April frankly has our internal clock a tad off kilter. It feels like it should be June now. And when the reality of May and all its vagaries in terms of changing weather are still what we wake up to, we get a bit confused.
Which takes us back to last week’s opening day.
I was looking forward to it until I looked on the calendar once I’d checked what date the season in the local region was launching. The date fell on a Tuesday. Now as a journalist I have a somewhat flexible schedule. I can often do interviews at my convenience, which means shifting things on occasion to slip away to cast a line. But that flexibility does not extend to a Tuesday which is the day we put Yorkton This Week together to go to press. It is also the day I generally tape ‘Locker Talk’ the now long-running sports talk show on Access 7 which I have been part of for years. I thought about retiring once, but really with Mike Stackhouse and Ron Irving as the other regulars on the show I had to stay as the steady voice of sports knowledge.
In short, getting away opening day was a no go for me.
Wednesday then was the obvious choice — until it rained.
I do not mind fishing in the rain. If you are out at the lake and it starts to come down you pull out a cheap rain poncho from a dollar store, and fish on.
But, I am far less inclined to leave home to fish when it is already raining, especially in May when a rain means cold, and the entire season lies out ahead, so there are many days to fish.
I stayed home Wednesday.
Thursday, the wind was blowing off a snowbank as my grandfather used to say. If it’s cold when you poke your head out the front door in Yorkton, it means it will only be colder at the lake where a wind skims over a body of water which has just cleared of ice.
It might be a sign of me getting older, but I don’t really enjoy standing on a shoreline shivering at the best of times, and such a day would dampen what should be a great season start experience.
So, yes I passed on Thursday and Friday too.
Finally, Saturday morning, while not exactly balmy, was sunny, and my son and I headed out.
Where to go opening day is always a big decision, but this year fate stepped in and made the choice for me. I had made arrangements earlier in the week to meet with some of the people in Springside working toward a disc golf course there, (another passion of mine). I had been out and gotten an idea of a course lay-out and was meeting for a walk through with the local people.
Since I was scheduled to be in Springside in the afternoon we headed to Theodore Dam to fish the morning, with arrangements for the better half to meet us at China Diner in Springside for lunch. It’s always good to support small town business, and the lunch was good, and the pie was fantastic.
But I am jumping ahead a bit.
Adam (my son) and I hit the Dam at about 8:15. The first thing I notice are a few ducks on the water. I sort of wished I had decided on acquiring binoculars and a basic bird book to know exactly what species they were.
We start to fish.
After washing a bunch of hooks I switch spots.
I wash more hooks, but am treated to a low fly-by by a honking pair of Canada geese. That is always inspiring.
Finally, Adam pops around the corner with a small pike in-hand. He noted he had to show me, otherwise I would not have believed he had caught one, which is pretty much true. He released it near where I was fishing, but it never obliged taking my lure.
I moved again.
This time I actually caught a wee pike. The good news it flipped off the hook once it came out of the water, and twisted back into the lake and was gone. No pike goo on my hands on the release.
The cool thing was that the pike was caught on one of the new designs in the ‘Dimpled’ series from Len Thompson. It took a ’traffic light’ design. (There will be more on these lures after a few more days casting them so keep reading).
Adam catches two more, both would need a decade of growth to be keepers.
I did see a quartet of pike follow the lure into shore, mocking me with false interest, then turning away the sun glinting off their sides before torpedoing back to the depths.
In some respects watching the approaching pike, as brief as the glimpses were, was as much fun as catching them. The fact is, had they taken the lure 10-feet from shore, the excitement of the fight would have been short-lived. They were not monsters which would have made a long run against the reel drag. They would have made a valiantly flip and twist in an attempt at escape, then been brought to hand quickly.
But seeing the patrolling pike considering lunch, then opting for other fare was actually very cool, and will be the lasting memory of my first day fishing the 2015-16 season.
