Canadian Grand Slam

Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en Anglais Américain. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Lars and his son Niels were in Montreal from Copenhagen and fishing with me for the day. They had hoped for a few new species of Canadian fish and I didn’t want to disappoint them. We headed out shortly after 7:00 and they began catching walleye & smallmouth right away. By drop shotting open water flats they were both able to land several good fish and put a few walleye in the box for their dinner tonight. They had done a house vacation exchange and were staying at someone’s home instead of a hotel, allowing them the luxury of dining on their catch. We made several drifts and once the bite slowed, we moved to another area and began it all over again. This time however they were landing mostly bass and Lars was loving it! They had never felt the power of the smallie and enjoyed each & every one of them. I assured them that there would be much larger ones landed later in the day! As with the first location, this one too slowed and I thought we would give trolling a try, looking for a larger eye.

Once we arrived, I explained what to expect and showed them a new technique. Fortunately Lars was familiar with the rod holders and needed no explanation on how to remove the rods when a fish strikes. Good thing too as it only took a couple of minutes for the first reel to fire and they were into another species. I knew we were going to be catching many northerns and didn’t bother to take pics of these as they had caught bigger ones back home. I was searching for larger walleye and eventually after several more pike, managed to get Niels into his first ever walleye. Not much different from their zander back home, but nicer looking! While we were readying for a pic, another reel fired and Lars had a big eye as well. This would definitely make for a great pic! Another species ticked off the list of Canadian fish to catch! We resumed fishing for a little longer and after several more pike, Lars finally got a shot at a much bigger walleye. This one was closer to 25 inches and I quickly took care of netting his prize. He would now have a great pic of a golden version of their zander to show everyone back home. After the release we decided to pull the plug on trolling and I prepped some rods to cast for bass. I knew they would be loving this technique too!

I arrived in an area that had been putting out some real nice fish lately and instructed them on how to work the baits. As with every new technique, it didn’t take long before Lars was battling a really nice smallmouth and much larger than the ones landed earlier on drop shot rigs. He fought this thing like a pro despite only having experienced them earlier this morning. This fish was definitely worthy of a pic and his largest so far for the day. We stayed in this area for a couple of hours, all the while catching plenty more quality bass, before heading elsewhere. I wanted to check something out that I hadn’t fished before and we all took advantage of the long run by having lunch along the way.

When I arrived we set up and Lars managed to get another species under his belt. He had landed his first ever sturgeon and although not large by my standards, it was still great by his. We moved quickly after and went back to throwing soft plastics for bass, catching many more in the process. We covered plenty of water and they caught fish everywhere we went. Both Lars & his son Niels had bent rods pretty much every time I looked over and they loved every minute of it.

With the day nearing an end, I hoped to hit a few more areas before we were done and the first one was definitely a great choice. They continued to catch piles more fish and even had a couple of doubles in the process. One last stop had me wondering why they weren’t getting bit and it didn’t take long to realize why. This last fish proved to be the icing on the cake for Lars as he battled his first ever musky to the boat. He had seen pictures of them before but now he was experiencing one first hand! The light bass tackle & tiny bait had lured this fish into eating and Lars was almost in shock. He posed for a few quick pics and the fish was released unharmed. That would be it for the day as I told them both that anything else would just be a let down!

We headed back and they were all smiles from the day they had just experienced. Lars had managed a Canadian Grand Slam, catching all new fish. Who could ask for anything more? Oh yeah, they were also going to be dining on fresh fish that they had caught during the day as well. Now that’s a vacation to remember!