I know it's that time, .....ya got ice fishing reports of every size, shape and description coming down the pipe..... and I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything here .....
I still visit occasionaly, ....but being from the other end of the province and realizing that this has basically become an Ottawa area board, ......relevance, ...or lack thereof, ....became a key factor in any information I may be able to offer up here...
However, .....for those of you who still remember me, ...and my coloured past in regards to ice fishing, ....ya had to know I'd be looking for alternatives to get over the hump....
Down our way, ....and I consider myself extremely fortunate, ...we have a river that never freezes, .....at least not that I can ever recall.
Sooooo, .....I thought I'd take the time and post a couple of our recent expeditions on the Niagara River, .....strictly for entertainment purposes, and dedicated to those that are Jonesin' for your boat season to finally begin again....
Sat. Feb. 6
Joe lives in Hamilton, ....he's got a nice lund, ...with a yammy motor, ....both solid, ...and perfect for cold weather fishing, ....he also feels the same about the whole ice fishing experience as I do.... It was time, ...and I had a 6:00 appointment to meet him at his place....
I was at Joe's place at 6:05 sharp, ....Joe and James were already in the truck chomping at the bit, ....when I told them why I was late, .....they told me that was way too much information for them, ...so, .....I'll just skip it here....
We hit Queenston just at daybreak, ....we were number 1 on the launch pad, ...in fact, ...we were number 2, 3, and 4 as well...
The first order of business was to actually get some water to float on....
Did I mention that, ...having not fished since, ...let's see, ...November I think, ....my camera finger was a tad antsy as well...
With that business outta the way, ....we were sorta scratching our heads wondering why we were still number 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the launch pad.....
Shortly after though, ...one of the main charter guys showed up with his boat, ...so we figured there can't be anything too amiss on the water...
We did the back drift once and headed over to the art park, ...congestion was not an issue, ...there were only our two boats launched on the Canadian side all day, ...and I think 5 boats total that we seen....
James has a definite feel for this kinda fishing and broke the "ice" so to speak.....on the third or fourth drift....
Meantime, ....I had spiderwire stealth spooled up, ...it was fine for the first few drifts, ...but after that, ....it began looking like a clothesline every time I reeled in.... Luckily, ...I took a trip up to the tackle store yesterday for just such an occurrence.... I was gonna buy some of this stuff that ya put on braid to keep the ice off, ...but.when I got there, ...he talked me into filling my spare spool with this Power Pro ice, ....I guess this stuff has been out for awhile but it has been improved recently....
Anyways, ...I bit the bullet and swtched up, ...tying knots in this weather, ...is not fun.... I pretty much wasted a drift getting things changed over...
When I was ready and we were headed back up to the start, ....James hands me a roe bag, ...."that's freshly blown" he says...
I give him a funny look and say, ...."so that's the secret, ...ya gotta blow yer bag to catch fish...?"
"that could be pretty difficult for a lot of people"I swear to God though, ...we got back to the start of the drift, .....and it wasn't two minutes after I dropped that line down, ...."BINGO"....
My first fish of 2010.....
As you can imagine, ...the blow jokes and one liners started coming "fast" and "furious"..... This was probably a good thing because after that, ...the fish were doing nothing "fast", ...and I don't think they even understood the "furious" terminology
Needless to say, ...with no fish coming in the boat, ...and ice starting to clog up everything, ...we were ready to throw in the towel...
We went to the back drift a few more times to finish up the day....
And of course James has to close it out in style as well....
We had decided to stay out till 1, ...and we did, ...barely... but we did....
Now, ...as I mentioned, ...I had an antsy trigger finger, ....I think the final tally was 44 pictures.... So, ...I think to finish up, ....I'll just post a bunch of 'em and add a comment or two, ...or three...
It wasn't just boatwise, ...shore trash was pretty sketchy as well
Just a couple of boring drift pics, ....it was too damn cold to do any "modeling"....
During the morning we had to check out "Devils Hole", ....it involved zipping up right between the two big power plants opposite each other on the river, ....it's worth the trek as the fishing is usually deadly just upstream from them, .....not today though as there was no drift, the wind pretty much kept us "jigging". So that lasted about 15 minutes. We froze on the way up, ...not sure about the way back, ...we still hadn't thawed from the trip up....
Just goes to show ya how antsy my finger was, ...it even worked when it was frozen solid....
Every time I'm down here, ...I'm awestruck by these powerplants, ...there's two reasons for this, ...being born and raised in Niagara Falls, ....I actually watched that American station being built, ...right from scratch, ...the other reason, ....since my Dad worked for the hydro, .....and since I decided to do a school project on that Adam Beck II plant way back when, ...I got to go places in there that the guided tour don't even know about, ...I wouldn't be able to do it today because of all the safety bull and such, ...sure it was dangerous, ...I took pictures right down in the generator while it was running, got up close & personal with a ton of different things ..., ....all sorts of neat stuff,
Ya know,....in all honesty, ....anything in life requires just a few things, ...think a little bit, ....use a smidgen of common sense, ... and respect a situation for what it is ....
And I knew all this stuff when I was, ....hmmm, ....I think I was twelve then.....
Actually my Dad just said, ...."if you go any nearer to here, ...or there, ....this or that, ...I'll kick yer butt till it comes out your nose!!!!."
Not much grey area there, ...and I got an "A" on that project to boot.....
If you've been to the falls, ...you've seen them from the top, .....this is the view from the bottom...
This is just a pic of what we were dealing with all day.... I must admit, ...that power pro stuff performed just like Josh said, ...." if the ice sticks to the line, ...just run something along it and it will slide right off"... Great, ...except when your line is about 4ft over the water, ...the only thing there is the ferrule on the rod tip, ...so it sticks to that, ...till it's full, ...then moves down to the second one, ...and so on, ...and so on...etc....
A few pics pulling the boat, ....she's iced up, ...not near as bad as a couple of days last year, ... but iced up nonetheless...
One last one, ...I had to sqeeze a pic of the new ride in there......
Well Ladies & Gentlemen, ...my typing finger has had the itch for some time, .....thankfuly now, ...it's just sore, ....God I needed that....
"Marvelistically interrejuvenating...."
Sat. feb. 13
Well, ....I may have gone a little overboard last weekend seeing as how it was such a long layoff for me, ...So.this week, ....I'll try and keep it brief and to the point, .....as much as skooterly possible that is.....
Being a tad late last weekend, ...I was taking no chances this time and had my business taken care of well in advance of my departure time...
I was at Joe's by 5:50 and was suprised to find, ....just Joe.....
I didn't see him at first 'cause he was hiding behind his truck, ....actually, ....he wasn't hiding I guess, ...but he is a short little fawker, ....and he was right in the middle of it so I couldn't see his belly sticking out either....
He eventually did come out however and I asked him, ...."Ya mean it's just us old farts today...?"
"Unfortunately yes, ...and I'm very nervous...." (I'm guessin' by now that ya got some idea of the way things went most of the day)
We hit Queenston about the same time as last week.... We were number 1 to launch the same as last week, ...there was ice in the water at the launch the same as last week...... Everything pretty much the same, ...except
There was one big difference, ....the wind wasn't howling, ...we had snow instead.....
With the ice removal done, ...We launched without a problem and Joe wanted to do the back drift first before heading across to the Art park one, ...that was fine with me 'cause I needed to rig up .....
And the only thing I've ever caught on that stupid drift is rocks, I always end up breaking off either my weight, ....or my hook, ...or both ....
Ya know, .....I'd like to land one of them rocks, ....but I can never get him to go back to let me reel the suckers in.....
This is where we had our first mini gong, ...Joe was ready to head across the river, ....but when he tried pulling the trolling motor up, ...the rope broke, .....I told him it was probably a rock ....
Times being what they were, ....and remembering the old saying, .."too many hands spoil the broth", not to mention "two fat butts cannot occupy the same space in the universe at the same time"....I left him to the repair, .....the camera was burning a hole in my float suit, ...so guess what I did...?
This looks fuzzy, ...but it's just the snow...
The mad mechanic at work....
It wasn't long though and we were on our way.... The most suprising thing we found was the number of US boats on this drift....
We figured the bite must be super hot and word had gotten around.....
Our first drift did nothing to disprove this theory.....
This is a pic I enjoyed taking....... Joe has been snakebit down there so far this year...
I enjoyed this one even more after I told him he really wasn't adopted, ....and he actually smiled....
The second drift produced the same result.....
I won't show ya the first pic here, ...let's just say I finally got him to smile again.....
Actually, ...after that, ...the smile was really starting to pi$$' me off....
As it turned out, ...the bite wasn't really all that hot, ..we found out later that there was a tournament on, ...and that explained all the US boats....
We did a few more drifts with nothing to show for it, ...and to be quite honest, ...it was becoming a zoo there, ...so we moved on....
We went over to the pumphouse drift on the canadian side, ...this is where I cut my teeth on the lower and is my favorite, ...when there are fish there that is...
All the boats howling up and down I think shut down the artpark bite because the next thing ya know, ...there were about 5 or 6 boats that followed us across, ...and a few others that headed downstream....
Since we were over here, ...we went to the next drift down next, ...called the pipeline, ....thought I had a pic of that one as well, ...but I was probably too busy dodging the mini icebergs with my line, ....it was really bad on this side for floating ice....
After the pipeline we headed back stateside and did the drift below artpark, ...can't recall the name but the ice was thick in there as well.....
All this time though, ...we were keeping our eye on the artpark drift, ....it had slowly dwindled to one or two boats over the last hour, ...it looked like that tourney deadline over there was noon 'cause all the boats were congragating at the lewiston ramp around then....
Things should have settled down by now, ....This was our chance, ....we headed back up to artpark, ...and the first drift netted number 3 for Joe....
And ...."Go figure", ....this time, ....one pic, ...one smile.....
I figured with Joe getting three, ...I wouldn't get thrown overboard now with no witnesses if I hooked up, ....so I actually put some bait on my hook and cashed in on the next drift......
I had a super long lead on so it took like 10 minutes to get this puppy in, ....even holding the rod right at the end and straight over my head he was still too far down for Joe to get a clean shot at him with the net.... I basically had to wear him out to the point where I got on the bow and Joe was half way down the boat and grabbed him when I brought him up on an angle.... Nice job Bud, ....I was doin' the mini brick thingy for awhile there with the runs he was taking ....
Since, ....and I quote, ...."Now You've totally screwed up my drift", ....and times being what they were, ...on the other side of the coin this time....
Joe just had to show everyone how much this guy liked me....
It was okay though, .....because the next drift, ....I got even,...putting him back through that netting nightmare again......
And this one was a hen, .....so I told him he could take all the time in the world taking the picture...
We did a couple more drifts with nothing to show, ....and since the boat traffic was picking up again, ....Joe suggested we do the back drift one more time to close out the day ..... I said, "go for it, ....I'll just start putting everything in order and relax for a bit".....
So, .....Joe caught a rock, ...he said it was a fish, ....I said "Yah, .... like the trolling motor rope "just" broke for no reason", .... he gave me a dirty look and said, ...."I'm gonna catch that fish with the roe bag still in it's mouth," .....
I start looking around trying to figure out where I'm gonna sleep tonite, ....start to search for my cell with the idea of calling mama, ... to call work, ..... to let them know I'll be late, ....very late on tuesday, ...and begin hiding all my hooks, ...hoping he'll run out of his, ..before spring trolling season starts...
Then I decide there's really no rush, ....I finish cleaning up, ...and dig out the camera, ....again...
there were a couple more boats launched from our side today, ...but shoretrashing was still sketchy to say the least.....
I really think the secret to my actually making it home and being able to write this so soon is the fact that there were no more hungry rocks on that drift, ....and I ran out of things to take pics of ....
So, .....I just started pointing the lens Joe's way....... One was enough, ....we're done.....
A couple of pics pulling the boat, .....just a couple of "icing" pics....
To all my friends here, ...just wanna say a big "Hi", ....still think about ya all, .....and if any of ya's are ever headin' down to my neck of the woods, ...shoot me a PM, ....I'd love to get ya out on the big "O" fer some salmon reel peel....
Take care, ....and stay warm......
skoots....
