In Canada for a little break.

My first exploration to the local nature park--phew it is hot but I'm prepared-  plenty of sun cream on but I forgot the mozzie spray, I bet the buggers will home on to me as I'm a big target for them.

                                               

                                                     All ready for a walk on the wild side

I am into my first week of my 4 week holiday over here in Canada.

I am situated way down south of the country on the banks of  Lake St Clair near the mouth of the Belle River. Just down from me across the river is Detroit City USA, next stop further round is Lake Erie---- a big big expanse of water.

Ain't done any fishing yet- maybe next week- mean time I am doing a bit of bird spotting,the odd snake, chipmunk, ground hog and whatever--- plenty of wild life about in this part of Canada.

Into my second week of my holiday.

The weather has been hot and humid with downpours in the evening together with thunder and lightning. Not the type of conditions to be outside too long unless you have a big sunshade to protect you and a nice ice cold beer or two to cool you down. Mind you all the bars/ pubs are air conditioned so I've been spending some of my time cooling down in them - you have to sample the local brew --don't you.

No fishing yet, the Belle River is high and dirty and the spot that I usually go at the mouth of the river is unfishabe-- it maybe ok in a few days providing we don't have more rain.

So I will just have to put up with the hot weather for now. Keep my self refreshed sit back in the shade and think of Scotland.

Today I'm going to attempt a 4 k walk to the local marina to see if I can charter a boat to do a bit of bass fishing.

There is no rain forecast but its still hot and humid at 26c 

Going to be sweaty but there is a pub at the end of my trek, so I will soon cool down.

Well, I started to walk but soon found out that it was madness.

It was hotter and more humid than I thought  I was knackered, so a quick phone calI saw me picked up and driven straight to the bar for a much needed pint of the local brew. 

A welcome site that greeted me as I walked in the door of the local watering hole.

It took me some while to cool down.

So I have been in Canada for 2 weeks now-- half way through my holiday and i have still not been fishing.

I've been having a great time with my daughter and grandchildren so what the heck that was the main point of my holiday anyway----too see them.

The fishing is secondary, maybe give it a go this coming week, my rod hand is getting itchy.

Booked a charter boat for next week, have to give it a go I suppose.

The weather is that hot, I hope it cools down a bit, I don't fancy a long session out on the lake in 90f, it would kill me.

Last time I was out on St Clair we trolled for musky, caught a few but I thought it was a bit boring, not my cup of tea, I prefer the hands on fishing.

The trolling is very technical and there is a lot of skill involved ( by the skipper) but me, the angler, just sits there,waiting for a fish to grab the lure, then reels it in.  Not for me.

We are going to do some bass fishing this time, so I am looking forward to it.

Hopefully I will have some pics. to post on my next entry.

I am now coming into the third week of my hols, a whole week and a few days left, then I'm on my way back to Scotland.

After the thunder storms of last night the weather has finally cooled down a bit and I will need to confirm with the skipper the day I would like to book for my long awaited fishing trip.

It's still going to be hot but not as bad as it has been with temperatures over the 90c and very humid, the forecast is mid 70c for next week.

The cost to charter the boat for the day is $500 with a lesser option of $300 for a half day trip.

I would think that the half day one would do me, I don't think that we will be travelling far, so a couple of hours fishing would be OK.

Or should I not bother,

Leave the fishing till next time, maybe just go and drop a line off the wall at the marina if the river ain't belting through too much.

Had a call from the skipper saying that he was available in the morning.

As I was the only one booked to go, he said he would take me at a reduced price.

I accepted his offer and I would look forward to meeting him at the local marina.

Fishing at last

We steamed out from the marina for about 20 minutes heading for a feature that runs from Belle River out into Lake St Clair 

I think he said it was called "The Hump"--- an underwater ridge that heads NE..

"A good spot to catch Bass" he said.

I sat in the boat in anticipation, waiting for the skipper to give the go ahead to drop my line.

The skipper was right-- it was a good spot to catch bass--dropping my rubber lure to the bottom it was only  5 minutes into the drift when our rods were bent over-- we were into our first fish of the morning.

The pictures tell the story of my trip from Belle River out into Lake St Clair.

Into my first hard fighting small mouth bass

A nice fish of about 3lb

The first of many netted that morning.

I don't normally take fish for the pot but I was told that these were very nice to eat, so I had to try the local produce. A couple of nice fillets, some French fries with a salad, all washed down with ice cold beer, Thats what was going through my mind as I posed with this nice brace of small mouth bass.

 

A big thanks to skipper Art Thibert and his brother Rob  http://www.reelhappycharters.com

I finally managed to get out fishing and caught some nice fish.

Just a week and a bit left of my holidays, lets see if I can catch some more fish.

Well its the last Sunday of my stay over in Canada, 4 more days and I am off back home.

The temperature has dropped down to 18c, a pleasant change from the stifling heat.

Today will be the only day left that I will get my grandson and his dad together to go fishing.

I'm going to try and teach my son in law the basics, so he can take him when I am way.

We arrived at the marina to find it a bit windy and not too warm, in fact there is a chill in the air.

There was no one fishing at our favourite spot on the wall at the mouth of the river 

( the Canadians are late risers and some anglers turned up soon after we started fishing) 

We cast out our rod, sat back and waited for a bite.

We didn't have to wait long before the rod tip pulled over and we were into our first fish

        A nice fresh water drum ( the local name for them is sheep head)

The fish put up a good fight bending the light rod left and right as it tried to escape the hook.

My wee lad held on tight and with a look of determination in his face pulled the fish up the marina wall safely into his grasp.

Not a big fish, just a bit of excitement never the less.

Not nice to eat, so back it went to fight another day.

One more fish was caught, a little perch, before we decided to pack it in, the lad was getting bored and wanted to get back home to play with his chums.

As for his dad, he took the photos and seemed to have enjoyed the short time we spent fishing, but will he take him out when I am away ? only time will tell.

Well that's it, my holiday is finished, packing my case now all ready for my return home tomorrow.

It's going to be a long winded trip back. 

Coach- plane-bus-coach and finally bus ending up about 200 yards from my wee "Buck and Ben "in Edinburgh.

Going to be tired when I get back and of course the dreaded jet lag which usually takes a couple of weeks for me to recover, but I will eventually get back to my usual routine.

I am going to miss my daughter, grandson and granddaughter -- better not forget my son in law--I love you all.

I will return next year.  Byeeeeee.

 

The one that got away ( Sorry--No pictures)

It's the last Saturday in June and there is just 2 days left before I am due to fly across the Atlantic to Canada for my eagerly awaited months holiday.
"So why not get down the river and give the trout a go" I thought.
"The weather is good and with everything sorted for my holiday, it would be a shame to waste the day."

I had been experimenting with some small dry flies (having progressed from tying bugs)
The #19 barbless hooks were about as small as I could manage and with a few c.d.c feathers, yellow thread and a couple of fibbets, my efforts resembled something like an emerger.

I had tested them in a glass of water and they sat through the surface film looking good,
but would they fool The Clyde,s wily brown trout ? I was eager to put them to the test.
 A short drive along the side of the Pentland Hills, heading down and through  Biggar, I was soon parked up at my favourite fishing place on the Clyde at Wolfclyde Bridge.

The spot I had chosen to start fishing was just 200 metres upstream from the bridge, there always  seemed  to be rising fish there and today was no exception,
 "A good place to try out my efforts." I thought.

A 10ft #3 rod with a 12ft tapered leader down to a 6ft 6x tippet ,was the set up for my attack.

In the past I had been having trouble when  picking up the fly from the surface, it always seemed to be sodden.
The reason I soon found out was that my fly line/leader had been sinking resulting in the fly being pulled under the water on the retrieve. 

This time I coated the fly line the leader and half of the tippet in muslin, so it would all sit on the surface.

The last 3ft of tippet I applied leader sink to try and sink the remaining line to the fly.

All looked good and after a few casts I was happy that I had solved my problem.

I was now able to flick the line off the surface keeping the fly dry.

I sat back to work out my line of attack.
The water was no more than 18" deep with maybe an extra foot towards the far side of the river.
I knew by past experience that the trout were very spooky here, I would need to keep my distance and a long cast would be necessary to succeed.
The breeze was coming down stream so I decided I was going to approach up stream of any target and let the fly be first to go over a feeding fish.
The conditions would make it difficult to make an upstream cast and in any case

I'm not the best of casters, I am always frightened of spooking the fish with the fly line.
I had been watching  the Italian style of casting on YouTube and with some practise, finally getting a double haul ( of sorts) into my rhythm , I was feeling confident that I would now be able to get my fly to any rising fish with some control and hopefully fool the trout into taking my offering.

I had spotted some rising fish in the middle of the river, so I decided to start off entering the water some way upstream of them and keeping low, gradually work down to them.
Everything looked good, by throwing a bit of slack in the line and making an upstream mend, I was able to get a good 8ft + of dead drift .
The fly would then swing round in the flow and I was then able to pick up the line well out of the way of the fish and re- cast.
I spent some time targeting these fish but to no avail, I just couldn't get any of them to have a go at my offering.
As I sat back on the bank wondering what to do next I noticed a rising fish close to an overhanging bush on the far bank.
I had seen decent fish being caught in the past from that area and decided it was worth a go.
I once again entered the water some way up from the spot and started to cast as I moved across and down to my target.
I knew that I had to put my fly just above the fish without spooking it and dead drift it into its feeding zone.
I gradually inched my way across the river and at half way decided that if I was to approach further the fish could spook and dart to cover.
I perfected my long cast and on the first go I got it near perfect but had no take.
My second attempt was again spot on and as I held my breath and watched my home tied wee emerger pass over the spot---it was sucked under -- I lifted the rod -- it was on.
Success at last, but my initial feeling was this ain't a fish of any size its just a tiddler.
Then my #3 rod bent double, my catch must have woke up, it head downstream--I held on not wanting the fish to get into the current.
I couldn't quite see the fish, just a lot of splashing----this wasn't a tiddler this was a proper fish.
I tried to get some line back but it refused to come upstream towards me.
A cry from the bank by a passing fellow angler was. " it's a good fish mate"
I nearly shouted to him to stay put as it would be nice to get a picture of my capture to put on my blog but I decided not to tempt fate.

Then suddenly--
The line went slack--damn! it was off.
"Hard luck mate" from my spectator."

" You couldn't have done much about it"

"You had a bit of excitement though" he shouted  "We'll done"
My wee hook was still attached to my tippet-- it wasn't bent -- my hook hold just couldn't have been good enough.
Maybe I was too hard on the fish? Maybe I should have gone downstream towards it? Maybe eased of the pressure? but if I had done that the fish could have gone into the faster water making things even more difficult.
I sat back on the river bank and contemplated the result.
I then fished on for a while but no more takes.

As I finally drove home I thought "what the hell " that was a success, the guy was right, I had got a bit of excitement in the fight.
 I had fooled the fish and it was with one of my first ever home tied dry flies.
Just the last bit was missing -- I don't know how big it was--- definitely well over a pound--2lb--3lb?
No picture to put on my blog--- just this story "the one that got away"
I'm on my hols now.
But I will be back as keen as ever.
To my favourite spot on the Clyde.