Canada Rain Day

After a couple of cancellations and postponements, I was back out with Valerie and Max today. Although not a great looking one, we were fishing nonetheless! With plenty of rain and possible thunder storms forecasted, traffic would be at a minimum. Canada Day usually brings out as many boats as St. Jean Baptist, but the weather would kill that today. Valerie didn’t seem to care about rain and neither did Max as we made our way out. They were wanting pike today and I knew they wouldn’t be disappointed! I figured with the cold night and shift to SE winds this morning that the fish would be a little deeper and began there. Although we had a few rips and managed one small northern in the first 15 minutes, it wasn’t what I expected. A quick change of locations had them tight lined and multiple pike were coming aboard. Max even managed to get what looked like a 10 pounder when it sky rocketed into the air behind the boat. Once in the net however, I realized that it was skinny and closer to 8 pounds. It definitely had the length of a ten but needed a little more girth. We were fortunate enough to be able to fish rainless for a few hours this morning but around 11:00, I had to put the top up. From that point on, the rain started to fall and we were happy to be under to roof. It didn’t seem to matter to the fish though as the reels kept going off. Not all the hits were aggressive and throttling down with light hits was becoming the norm. With water temps around 65 degrees, it was no wonder that the fish weren’t aggressive. I’m beginning to wonder if it will ever top 70 degrees again! We fished through several downpours and remained relatively dry, if not for the winds. Spray managed to get us from the sides at times but it was a lot better than getting poured on! I covered a lot of water today but remained trolling for most of it. Both walleye and pike were hooked on a regular basis and there was very little down time throughout the day. Valerie managed to catch the better eyes and Max had top honors with the pike. There were even a few rather large fish that were never even seen. They came unpinned before we could see them leaving us wondering what might have been. Despite all the miserable conditions today, there was a positive side to it. No boat traffic and a vacant ramp at the end of the day. The last hour of fishing even had us exposed to sunshine and allowed me to take the top down after it had dried. We managed a few more fish and then pulled the plug on this one. I’m not sure exactly how many fish they caught but it was a lot. All things considered, I was happy to see bad weather on, « Canada Day »! It felt like a regular weekday and not a major holiday on the water. Overall a very relaxing day of productive fishing!!