Since it was a long weekend, I asked if my sister wanted to go camping. I figure we could roll it into a camping/wedding weekend as long as we camp nearby.
Conveniently there was a campsite within walking distance to the venue and that was PERFECT! Not to mention it was on a lake...but I did not expect to fish much since the was a camping/wedding weekend. I only took one rod with me with just a handful of lures.
On Saturday, we drove north in the morning and got there just after lunch. After setting up camp, we just chilled and relaxed until dinner time. We made some "Smornanas" after dinner and had the awesome desserts while watching the fireworks put on by the campsite. The campsite probably bought about $1000 worth of fireworks! Totally awesome.
Next morning, I work up early to see if I could get in a few hours to explore the nearby area. There was a good size river I would like to scout.
Before I got to the larger river, I just couldn't bypass a little stream close to the campground.
It was really a small stream, but it looked deep enough. I put on a jighead and a white twister tail to do a few exploratory casts. On my second cast, I just felt my rod bent over and it was on.
I decided on an artsy shot instead of the usual fish-on-the-ground picture.
I got on the highway, and again, there was a small stream I had to check out. It looked good on the map...but not so great in person. The lack of rain this year really made the area very dry, and the set of rapids turned into step falls.
I did finally got to the large river. I fished one spot where the highway passed over the highway. I was there for about 30 minutes. With no bites at all, I decided to move.
The new spot was under a dammed waterfall. It looked good on the map. The water was deep right by a set of docks. However, even with the tea coloured water, the rocky bottom and a slight current, there were no bites at all. I tried and lost my white twister tail (and had no spares), then tried a spinnerbait, a Wiggle Wart and an X-Rap. Nada...after an hour of exploring about 50 yards of shoreline.
That was it for fishing on the Sunday. The wedding was at 4:30, so I made some lunch for my sister and her boyfriend while they went to the beach.
What can you do with a burger grill?
Grilling vegetables over the campfire!
Zucchini and eggplant...
Tomatoes and more zucchini...
Button mushrooms...
Finish it up with some fire grilled hunter sausages and pasta with pesto sauce...man, camp menu is rough!
I love pork and beans...but come on, let's be creative sometimes...we do need our vegetables!
After lunch, it was basically time to get ready for the wedding. My university roommate was getting married and it was a little reunion with 2 other roommates of ours (out of the 7 of us in the hours). It was a beautiful small outdoor wedding. After the reception, instead of the usual horrible music and embarrassing dance floor, we all sat down and played board games! The married couples are huge board game fans and we played until 1am.
Since the fishing sucked at the big river the day before, I didn't even bother to get up too early. We woke up at 7:30am and decided to cook breakfast early so we could try to go canoeing for a few hours before breaking camp.
We got the canoe for 3 hours. I brought my rod along with a few lures just in case we passed over some good areas. Really, my focus was to spend time with my sister and her boyfriend, so I just tied on a 1/4oz darter head and put on a 3" Bay Smelt BigHammer to troll behind the canoe. As we followed the shorelines, most of the areas were too shallow and featureless. It was the second time my sister's boyfriend had been on the canoe and it took a while for him to paddle without shaking the whole canoe, and to get used to keeping the canoe going straight. I was in the back of the canoe trying to steer most of the time.
We probably went about a couple of kilometers down the lake. It was time to turn around since we were already 1.5 hours into the paddle and we had to paddle into the wind going back. Strangely, the wind was light enough to that it actually kept us going straight most of the time if we slightly angled the canoe to the right. I really only had to keep the paddle in the water a little to steer us straight. Since we were tracking well, we paddled "offshore" a little for a more direct route back.
About 150 yards off the beach, we passed over a transition area where a shallow shelf with some reeds dropped into deeper water. I had my rod set into the rod holder of the canoe and kept the drag fairly light in case of snagging some weeds. Just as we came up onto the shelf, my drag sounded and my rod bent over. I thought I had snagged into some reeds, but I heard a jump behind me. After a minute of gingerly playing the fish, I had it by boat side. I had no net with me so I dug out the gripper tool for a few tense moment of getting the grip on the fish.
Since we were about to have lunch after canoeing, I decided to keep the fish for lunch.
Not too shabby for "This was not a fishing weekend..."
Pan fried smallmouth bass fillets in pesto sauce.
It received raving reviews!
Anyways, that was all I wanted to show about the weekend. I had a great time camping with my sister and her boyfriend and went to a beautiful wedding. Can't think of a better way to spend the long weekend. Oh yeah, I even caught a couple of fish not trying too hard at all.
*** Friend of mine asked me how big the fish was...and here was my reply:
You know what? It was good that you asked. At the time, I estimated the fish was about 15 inches long (since I am aware of my small physique issue
). I did measure the fish against my rod and it was just the same length as the distance from my rod tip to the 4th guide. I just measured it now...and it was 17 1/2 inches conservatively (17 3/4 inches otherwise).
This would actually make it my PB smallmouth! I catch quite a few smallmouths, but never really big ones. My previous PB was 16 inches, but it had a 14 inches girth.
I guess "This was not a fishing weekend..." turned out even better than I thought!
