Loons and Fish

It’s saturday, May 21,2016 and we are anticipating a good day trouting at one of our favorite ponds on The Witless Bay Line. We begin our walk at Split Rock..it’s about 8:30am and the walk, to the pond will be about an hour or so. Today, we have my nine year old grandson so it may take a little longer. Also, I’m now 67, so I have slowed down a little. The mind is willing but the body is not what it used to be..

This is the pond that we have had success in with all of our fishing trips, although this is our first trip there, in the spring/summer season in about ten years or more. We are excited and looking forward to a good day of trouting.

A few photos below as we travel to the pond.

Half-way rock

Looking towards the pond

This is the rock where Jeff, about thirty five years ago, caught 18 trout from. Story below about that memorable trip. One of the reasons why I wanted to do this trip was to get a photo of the rock.

There were two loons in the pond.  Photos below. We had always heard that if there were loons, there would be few trout. Apparently, a pair of nesting loons can eat well over a ton of fish a year. Article on Loons and their eating habits.  

According to Bioweb  trout are the meal of choice for loons. This is not a big pond so from what I’ve read about their consumption of trout, the pond is pretty well” looned” out. looned is the noun word loon made into a verb…an action word.  

We were shut out. I had a few bites of the small variety. I guess it’s true that loons eat a lot of fish.

I did manage to catch a half dozen trout on our way out..Had them for supper.

A few more photos below. The flies were bad…

Rock formationsPhoto of me at Split Rock, in January, 2016

 

Split Rock on The Witless Bay Line

It was a tiring walk back to Split Rock but we had a good day.

May 24, 1983

May 24th was one day that I would not miss going trout fishing. It was one date that I considered to be my day for going back in the country with my fishin buddies. This year was no exception, until my 9 year old son said, “dad. can I go fishing with you?” We had planned to leave at 6:00am, drive for about an hour and then walk for 2 hours across barrens and bogs. There was no way that I could take my son. He would not be able to handle the walk and we would not get home until late that night. Also, I knew all the ponds and my buddies were depending on me. Therefore, I could not take my  year old 9 son.

Well my conscience got the better of me and I made the decision to take him. I’m not sure if my friends agreed with me but I had no choice. We left on time and reached the first pond at about 8:30am. It was a frosty morning with a cold mist. We started fishing and my son came over to me and said that his feet were wet. He had torn the side out of his rubbers  and there was no way to fix the leak. Calmly, I said that we would go back home to get a new pair and come back in later. I explained to my friends the route to take so that they would hit all the ponds and the way to get back to their car.

I decided to take a different way back, however; I had to carry my son, piggy back, for quite a distance. Around 10:00am the sun came out and it became very comfortable. I decided to stop at a pond, for a break and to try and dry his socks. There was a rock, just off shore, so I placed him there and let him fish…and fish he did. I put worms on and he caught fish. The quota , back then, was around 24 trout and we caught our quota within a couple of hours. This was one of the best and most memorable fishing trips of my lfe. My son was proud and happy and so was I.

Trouting season is open so it’s time to catch some night worms. I mentioned it to my wife and she reminded me of when our children were young and they would get out of bed and go out with me to catch the worms. They thoroughly enjoyed catching them. Worms were plentiful in the area where we lived as the land was formerly farm land and had been fertilized yearly, with manure.

One of my friends mentioned that there were worms on his lawn as he had put horse manure on the ground.  I asked if It would be ok for me to catch some. Hopefully, we will get a warm damp night before the weekend.

The following is a video on how to catch night crawlers.  I found it on you tube. This fellow uses sawdust to clean the slime from his fingers. Other than using the sawdust, his technique is basically the same. I had been using a flashlight, however: the headlamp allows you to have both hands free.

Happy hunting.

 

May 25,2016 ,light rain and warm,,a good night for night worms

 

This morning I’ve been thinking about the may 24th or Victoria Day weekend. Will I go trouting and if yes, where will I go? I didn’t always think like this! My plans had been made weeks previous to the weekend. There was no question, if we were going and where. We were going!

What really got me excited for this weekend was a call from my wife’s sister. Her husband had caught some nice trout in a pond that he and I had fished in, for the first time, during the 2015 trouting season. We had caught some nice trout there but not the 1lb 3 oz or  l lb 9oz that he had caught on may 15th, the first day of the 2016 summer season. I was envious.

For the past couple of weeks, I had been considering walking to a pond about an hour from split rock, on The Witless Bay Line. I always had success at this particular pond. It wasn’t over-fished and I hadn’t been there, in the summer, for the past seven or eight years. I had been there a few times, ice fishing and caught a few trout. Also, this is the pond that our son Jeff and I had one of our most memorable may 24th fishing trips. Story below..

The other reason for choosing this spot was to get photos of some rocks that have special memories. Maybe, this is where I will go. The other ponds can wait for another time.

Enjoy your may 24th weekend. Send a photo of your favorite fishing rock.

Memorable May 24th  1983 fishing trip..

May 24th was one day that I would not miss going trout fishing. It was one date that I considered to be my day for going back in the country with my fish’n buddies. This year was no exception, until my 7 year old son said, “dad. can I go fishing with you?” We had planned to leave at 6:00am, drive for about an hour and then walk for 2 hours across barrens and bogs. There was no way that I could take my son. He would not be able to handle the walk and we would not get home until late that night. Also, I knew all the ponds and my buddies were depending on me. Therefore, I could not take my 7 year old son.

Well my conscience got the better of me and I made the decision to take him. I’m not sure if my friends agreed with me but I had no choice. We left on time and reached the first pond at about 8:30am. It was a frosty morning with a cold mist. We started fishing and my son came over to me and said that his feet were wet. He had torn the side out of his rubbers  and there was no way to fix the leak. Calmly, I said that we would go back home to get a new pair and come back in later. I explained to my friends the route to take so that they would hit all the ponds and the way to get back to their car.

I decided to take a different way back, however; I had to carry my son, piggy back, for quite a distance. Around 10:00am the sun came out and it became very comfortable. I decided to stop at a pond, for a break and to try and dry his socks. There was a rock, just off shore, so I placed him there and let him fish…and fish he did. I put worms on and he caught fish. The quota , back then, was around 24 trout and we caught our quota within a couple of hours. This was one of the best and most memorable fishing trips of my lfe. My son was proud and happy and so was I.

Steve