Saturday, May 31, 2008

Canoeing On Round Lake

Monday, Memorial Day, I took My pal Shawn and his son, Lance out in the canoe on Round Lake to try for some pan fish. Met at about 8:00am and got out on the water. No thermometer so I do not know the water temp. It has to be a little warmer, but not quite warm enough. We paddled from the City Park to the airplane and fished the shoreline to the bridge with no luck. I was a little concerned, because I always get the first fish of the day there...not this day. We scooted under the bridge and there were the usual spots on the shore taken by trout fishermen. We paddled the shoreline clock-wise hitting all the promising spots and some not so promising with very little action. We were using jigs under floats. I was using Trout Magnets, 1/64th oz jigs with a split-tail grub and they were both using 1/8 oz jigs with tube shaped grubs with skirts. Shawn tried worms for a while , but to no end. We did catch seven fish between us. I caught two crappie and a fair sized bluegill and a bass fry about three inches long. Shawn caught a couple crappie and Lance caught a crappie in the six or seven inch range. We chucked them all back except Lance's. His dad had gone on so much about how good they taste he wanted to take it home. Shawn showed him how to clean it and they took it home to mom for cooking.

Not much action, but all in all a good day. I love to see kids catch fish.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Wintler Park

Went out to Wintler Park about 8:00 this morning and fished until 11:00.
There was a guy who had been there since about 7:30 and he had three or four fish on his stringer but he did not know what they were. Best we could figure they were squawfish. He also had a nice 10" smallmouth bass. He was catching fish with almost every cast and I caught two squaws the whole time. No suckers, dang!
We were both fishing worms on a leader with a weight above. Tossing them out and letting them drift a little.
Oh, well not a complete waste of time since I found a twenty dollar bill in the grass.

Left there and went to Caterpillar Island hoping that the water has warmed enough for the perch to be biting...not yet.
I was fishing a worm under a slip bobber and the water was higher than I have ever seen it. All I caught was three baby steel head between four and six inches.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

No it is NOT!!!

I have heard people say, "A bad day fishing is better than a good day working."
That is just not true. I had a bad day fishing today and would have rather been at work.
I went out to Lacamas Lake and fished on the northeast side where there are turn outs on the road. I tried everything in the box. At one point I lost three rigs in four casts and left. I went down to where the store is and watched a fellow with his brother and his two little boys fish. I am guessing at the relationships, but it is not important. One of the boys caught a fair sized rainbow and the other had one nearly in to shore when it come off. They were having so much fun I could see that he really enjoyed having his boys out there. He was not even fishing himself, just making sure that the boys were OK. It made me sad and I felt a little pathetic there by myself fishing and catching nothing...not even a bite. I could not stay. It made me feel like crap. I will turn fifty-two years old tomorrow.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Bow Killers

Two of the boys, Zach and Brock, who usually attend the Middle-School activities were not there last night for the regular Sunday night devotional. The kids usually meet at the church building and then I take them in the van to devotional, but last night we had our meeting at the church building and afterwards these two show up with Brock's mom. She was dropping off Zach so he could connect with his sister there at the building to get home because it was closer/more convenient. When I asked where they had been I was told they went bow-fishing out at Vancouver Lake.

Brock had killed a hundred carp and Zach had killed about 80 and they did not know how many Brock's dad had killed. They do this every spring when the carp move up into the shallows. They do not "use" the fish for anything. They do not eat them or even use them as fertilizer or dog food. They just kill them and let them sink, deflated to the bottom of the lake. They just kill to be killing.

I understand that people think the carp has no place in the lake. They are an exotic, invasive specie. I just think that killing just to kill and not using what you kill is, well, just not right.

Skunked...

Well I kind of shot myself in the foot Saturday. I got up real early to go fishing and then dinked around and dinked around and decided to go shoot my blackpowder rifle instead up at the english pit shooting range, which is suppose to be under new ownership, but i talked myself out of that too.

Finally went out to the lake about six in the evening. Went to the dock and noone was catching anything, but I hung out and fished until about eight and got nothing, no bites, no fish. I was tssing a kastmaster for a bit then switched to a worm under a slip bobber. It was almost like a set myself up for failure.

This coming week-end is my birthday and Mother's day, so I will be lucky to get out maybe on Saturday. I was thinking I should try and get some time on the water sometime this week after work.