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!