Post by Deleted on May 23, 2012 7:46:16 GMT -6
Hit Lockport on Monday... It was everything it should be... a thousand people trying to catch a million fish
I parked in my usual spot at the top of the floodway, just to see how low the water was. I've only been in Winnipeg for four years, but I've never seen it that low. We spent half an hour messing around in the pools below the main pool and caught a couple little pike and some white bass (I'd never caught a white bass before, so I was glad to check that one off the list... next up is a master angler).
After that, we headed to the main channel. The wader advantage was in full effect, as we walked out onto the shoals and fished off the edge, beyond the reach of the shore fishers, and just out of casting range of the boats.
We spent the rest of the day catching drum after drum. There were so many fish in there that on every cast my hook was bouncing off of fish... I thought it was the bottom, but after I fouled a few I realized it was fish. Each cast was just a question of whether or not one of those fish would bite, and the answer was usually "yes". Fly selection did not matter.
It wasn't easy to catch a big drum though... Between my buddy and myself we probably caught close to a hundred drum, and only managed 4 master anglers. Biggest was 25".
Highlight of the day was this carp I caught. My first ever, and at 30" it was fairly respectable. Just nailed a brown DDH leech with big brass eyes (thanks Stu), and put up a pretty good fight. He must have told his friends, 'cause no other carp made the same mistake.
Second highlight of the day was that my buddy caught two of these guys:
I believe it's a smallmouth buffalo. This one wasn't so big and he fouled it, but then he caught a 21" one fair, maybe 5 casts later. He was fishing gear, and I think this one was caught with a big jig head and a minnow body. Kind of cool... Are these things common? I told him I thought it might be a bit of a rare catch.
Anyways, if anyone wants to give me advice, I have no idea how you guys manage to get cats out of the main channel. I've only caught them in the floodway. I was out on the shoals, probably 500m downstream from the control structure. It seemed to me that off the edge of the shoals was extremely deep... I had my fastest sinking tip on (Type 8 I think... 9 ips sink rate), and I still wasn't really snagging anything. I think I must have been close to the bottom, but maybe it's mostly mud down there and there's not much to catch. I also couldn't really get out where there was a significant current, so I wasn't drifting flies so much as just chucking and stripping. If anyone can give me a tip about how to get past the drum and into the cats I would appreciate it
I parked in my usual spot at the top of the floodway, just to see how low the water was. I've only been in Winnipeg for four years, but I've never seen it that low. We spent half an hour messing around in the pools below the main pool and caught a couple little pike and some white bass (I'd never caught a white bass before, so I was glad to check that one off the list... next up is a master angler).
After that, we headed to the main channel. The wader advantage was in full effect, as we walked out onto the shoals and fished off the edge, beyond the reach of the shore fishers, and just out of casting range of the boats.
We spent the rest of the day catching drum after drum. There were so many fish in there that on every cast my hook was bouncing off of fish... I thought it was the bottom, but after I fouled a few I realized it was fish. Each cast was just a question of whether or not one of those fish would bite, and the answer was usually "yes". Fly selection did not matter.
It wasn't easy to catch a big drum though... Between my buddy and myself we probably caught close to a hundred drum, and only managed 4 master anglers. Biggest was 25".
Highlight of the day was this carp I caught. My first ever, and at 30" it was fairly respectable. Just nailed a brown DDH leech with big brass eyes (thanks Stu), and put up a pretty good fight. He must have told his friends, 'cause no other carp made the same mistake.
Second highlight of the day was that my buddy caught two of these guys:
I believe it's a smallmouth buffalo. This one wasn't so big and he fouled it, but then he caught a 21" one fair, maybe 5 casts later. He was fishing gear, and I think this one was caught with a big jig head and a minnow body. Kind of cool... Are these things common? I told him I thought it might be a bit of a rare catch.
Anyways, if anyone wants to give me advice, I have no idea how you guys manage to get cats out of the main channel. I've only caught them in the floodway. I was out on the shoals, probably 500m downstream from the control structure. It seemed to me that off the edge of the shoals was extremely deep... I had my fastest sinking tip on (Type 8 I think... 9 ips sink rate), and I still wasn't really snagging anything. I think I must have been close to the bottom, but maybe it's mostly mud down there and there's not much to catch. I also couldn't really get out where there was a significant current, so I wasn't drifting flies so much as just chucking and stripping. If anyone can give me a tip about how to get past the drum and into the cats I would appreciate it