My main target was carp today. It's been a while since I have solely targeted for carp. I left my plastics, my spinnerbaits and my nightcrawlers at home and brought only corn and boilies.
I got to the Island by 10:30am. There were lots of people already since this weekend was Festival of India.
My Spot #1 was clear and I didn't see any feeding signs or any cruising carp. At my Spot #2, I saw two feeding mud plumes.
I set my rig and put corn on the hair rig. I chummed the area a bit and begin the wait...a long wait...
Fish were feeding in the middle of the bay well away from my chumming range. I tried to fish in the feeding area with my hair rig only but the fish couldn't find my bait.
Then a couple of fish started feeding where I chummed and it was a rush to get my rig in my chummed area...but in the process I scared the fish away.
A little later, the fish came back and ate all the chum without picking up my rig. I put out new chum again and repositioned my bait in a sandy hole in between clumps of algae (to make my bait more visible). Fish came in again and ate all the chum but ignored by rig. Hm...
Just as I was puzzling over this dilemma, out of the corner of my eye, I saw some movement. about 7 feet from shore, there was a bowfin trying to bury itself into the algae clump. At first I though it was digging out a worm from the mud...but then I realized that the fish was trying to hide itself so it could ambush some of the spawning sunfish.
The fish was clearly in a hunting mode...and I immediate realized I brought nothing to target bowfin. Darn! But still, I rummage through my backpack hoping for a forgotten plastic lure somewhere in the three pockets. I have a habit of tossing used plastic lures into my backpack to keep them separate from the new plastics. I couldn't find any plastics...but as I look through my carp rig box, I found a small little spoon!
This spoon was "rescued" on my last trip with my bud and his friend. Someone might have unknowingly dropped the lure on the ground. The lure looked like it might have been abandoned for a while since it was muddy and rusty when we found it. I never thought much of the lure until now.
At least I have a spoon!
I quickly clipped off my line and tie on the spoon. In the time I was looking for a lure and tied on the spoon, the bowfin had moved off 15 feet. It was again hiding itself in the algae clumps to ambush another sunfish. I pulled out some line from the reel. With my 9' rod, all I had to do was just lowered the spoon quietly into the water about a foot from the bowfin. The bowfin was still finding a good area to hide...and it swam right past my spoon.
Once it sat down again, all I could see of the bowfin was the ribbon like dorsal fin and the tip of the tail. I estimate where the head of the fish would be located and lowered the spoon 6" to the side and 12" in front of the fish.
I began a slight jiggle and hop to imitate a feeding minnow. After the second jig, I saw the dorsal fin rose and started a slow, deliberate undulation. The fish slowly inched forward so I gave the spoon another tiny twitch. The head approached the lure, the jaws opened, the gills flared...and SNAP!!!
I could see that the fish grabbed the lure...but the hook were still hanging outside of the mouth. So I waited for the fish to make the second gulp. As my entire lure disappeared, I set the hook...and the WRANGLING BEGINS!
Since I dropped the spoon to the fish, there was very little line between the fish and my rod tip. It was basically a hold on and move the rod to accommodate to the fish's movement. But soon, the fish made a run and pulled out 30 feet of line. It then jumped twice trying to shake the lure, got back into the water, and did a few gator rolls. These fish fought downright dirty!
(A lady had taken a video for me with the last bit of the fight and landing...I'm just waiting for the lady to send the video to me).
But in the end, it was no match for this experience angler...and I had the fish in the net on the second scoop.
Bowfin are unpredictable even on land. With a jaw full of teeth and they are known to pull out some lightning speed acrobatics, I approached the fish carefully...
After getting the lip grip on a secure spot, I was going to cradle the fish for a picture...but as my left hand reach under the belly for the cradle, the fish tried to jump. I had to get up quickly, hold the fish way out from me, and pull my other hand back. I think this picture summed up the moment best
But finally, the fish settled down and it got is mug shot taken.
After I released the fish, I took a picture of the little spoon. I'm going to switch out the hooks and put it back into commission.
A young lady around my age came by to chat for a bit and I found out she was on Bob Izumi's show while fishing a Pro-Am held at the Toronto Harbour. She also fishes other tournaments with her boyfriend. She was a nice girl...certainly someone with the looks, the smarts and the passion
Too bad about the boyfriend thing though
Anyways...I got back to carp fishing and it was slow to dead. For some reason, I could get the carp to take my baited rig. I was already using 8lb fluoro and a #12 hook...it was rather frustrating.
It was so slow I had time to take a picture of this marten crossing the bay. Cute little bugger.
I decided to move back to Spot #1 to see if fish had arrived in there and started feeding. I saw 2 fish very close to shore and they were slowly cruising looking for food. I set up my chum and put my rig in the middle of it...just 15 feet from shore (that's how close these fish were!)
It was frustrating again.
One fish came in and ate all around my bait but not taking my hook.
One fish was coming in straight to my area when someone decided to walk close to the shore and sacred the fish away.
The last fish was right in my chum area but it only made two very quick rounds. It only grubbed three times in the area and took off after 30 seconds.
Just can't get a hit today!
By 2pm, I had enough of this and called it a day. My sister and her boyfriend arrived at 3pm and we went for the free food at the Festival of India.
A pretty good plate for free food!
After eating, we took a 1.5 hour bike ride around the Toronto Islands, caught the ferry back to Toronto and rode some more along Lakeshore. By 7pm, we were all tired enough and called it a day.
The carping sucked big time today...but the bowfin made up for it. Sight fishing these bowfins is awesome!
