First bass at Duck Lake

Well it seems that the season to be outside and get burnt has come again. Not until yesterday did I realize it was possible to get a sun burn in the middle of April. Turns out when its sunny out and you’re in a boat on the water all day you can get a sun burn, who would have thought. Though sunburns hurt, the fun of going out with a buddy and fishing for a day overcomes any pain. This past Saturday April 21, 2012 my friend from school and I went fishing at Duck Lake near Creston B.C.

It is about a two hour drive to Duck Lake from our houses so we headed out fairly early to get there in time to get loads of fishing in. We ended up getting delayed on a mountain pass, but fortunately it was only for five minutes and our excitement to get there and fish overwhelmed the sucky-ness of having to sit in the vehicle and waste time. We got to the lake and got to work. We had to pump up the boat (a zodiac type 8ft inflatable), get all our gear in the boat then we were ready to head off. With two different paddles we rowed away. Having two different paddles, of course, made rowing this boat an interesting  task. Though rowing was somewhat more difficult than usual we didn’t care - we wanted to get out and find some weed beds as this is where the bass hide to find their prey.

We paddled the boat around and something odd was happening. This lake which I had visited a year prior and was nothing but weeds now had no weeds. Our one plan for catching bass had been somewhat foiled. We searched hard to find weeds to no avail. At this point we were pretty well willing to do anything just to find somewhere to stop paddling and fish. We were taking turns rowing but it was still a hard task. After about an hour of rowing we figured we needed to ditch the plan to find weeds and figure some other way of catching the bass that had to go somewhere when the weeds died off from the lack of oxygen in winter. We saw boats on the other side of the lake and figured that was the place to go.

We paddled for a long time trying to get to the other side of the lake where the other, hopefully more knowledgeable, fishermen were. We paddled for a long time and it felt like we had gotten nowhere. It was at about the point it finally looked like we’d gotten closer to the fishermen when sunken logs started to appear. As any fisherman knows, sunken logs mean bass gold! We fished for a while at the first log we had found to no avail, so we paddled on. Shortly after we found log after log after log! So we set to fishing. The only bad part was that when we weren’t fishing we were drifting and this meant losing the logs (we both forgot to bring an anchor). We drifted and fished for some time until WAM! There was a bass. I had it on my new bait caster and I was excited to break in the new rod. It wasn’t a long fight but it sure was a fun one. I reeled in and it bulled somewhat but never took too much line. That was until it saw the boat and started to peel line off my reel (I did have my drag set quite loose to make it a little more challenging for the fish seeing as I use 15lb braid). After a bit longer of a fight I had the fish in and my buddy and I were stoked (though it was only a 1 pounder) we’d hit the jackpot so we paddled back.

Me and the bass

After I caught one little perch by the logs we sadly lost track of where they had been and spent an hour trying to find them again with little luck. It was at this point we had to make a decision. Spend more time finding the logs, or seeing if the other fishermen had a better spot. The decision was made and we went towards where the other fishermen were fishing. At this point we were on the complete opposite side of the lake and had to figure out a way to get back to the jeep so I could drive it around to pick up our stuff at the other side of the lake. We saw a nice fisherman leaving that we had talked to a short time earlier and figured this was our best chance to get a ride around the lake so I wouldn’t have to walk the whole way around. After a short conversation and a small amount of time helping the guy put his boat on his truck and tie it down I was on my way back around to the jeep. Not too much happened after this point in the trip. Next time we go we will be sure to go at a later date, and a time when the fishing will be a wee bit better. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to get outside!