Well, I was fishing so much that I have fallen behind in
recounting the events of spring 2018. That being said, I’ll do my best to
highlight my favourite experiences of the season. Perhaps the most notable
“event” was my participation in a national fishing competition with my good friend
Tim Wisdom. Together, we competed against 98 others anglers all across the
country in the CFN (Canadian Fishing Network) online fishing competition to see
who could catch the largest specimens of as many different species as possible.
More on that later…
Overall, my spring consisted of a lot more bottom fishing
compared to other years, allowing me to really dial into some new species. I
managed to catch 41 different types of “standard” sized fish, at least a
quarter of them being lifers! One of my favourite set of experiences was shore
fishing at the local hot spot where I met fellow lifelister Alexis. Together,
we upgraded PB’s and caught a good number of new species :) He caught his Silver
Redhorse and Brown Bullhead, and he put me onto a sick jumbo Perch bite! I
caught my PB Brown Bullhead, as well as some much-wanted lifers. Those being an
American Eel and a Freshwater Drum!! The 2 of them completed my goal of
catching one species from all of the 25 families of fish present in Quebec.
One of the bigger trips in May was the adventure to the
Niagara peninsula of Ontario. On the way, my girlfriend and I stopped and spent
a day targeting Steelhead around Port Hope. We were both successful in our
quests and I even managed to break the 30” mark! We caught fish on spinning
tackle as well as on the fly. We then reached our destination in the Niagara
area, where I spent a long afternoon and evening targeting whatever would bite.
Despite not catching many lifers, I was impressed by the sheer diversity of the
waters. Will definitely be heading back for a couple more missing species!
 |
| Big Steelhead |
Speaking of my girlfriend, Alex, she also managed to catch a
few lifers throughout all of these escapades. I cannot remember all of them,
but she definitely got her Rainbow Trout, a Greater Redhorse, Fallfish and
completed her prehistoric trio! She had the Sturgeon, and caught both Gar and
Bowfin in short succession. Much dedication was needed for the gar, seeing as I
called her at midnight to tell her I had found on a hot bite. To my (and her?)
surprise, she drove right over and fished for the better part of 2 hours until
successfully landing one.
 |
| Lifer Bowfin |
 |
| Nighttime Gar |
Another great day on the water was the adventure to the
Richelieu River with Carl. The goal was to target panfish in some of the canals
and marinas. I was secretly hoping to add a Rudd to my lifelist, an invasive
species from Europe. The day blew expectations and we hooked into nice-sized
Crappie, Bluegill, and even my Rudd! Carl also caught a Pumpkinseed x Bluegill
hybrid, a fish that I am still jealous of to this day.
 |
| Lifer Rudd! |
 |
| Sunfish Hybrid |
A final adventure worth recounting is actually one of
failure. Tracking down and successfully catching a wild Red Trout or landlocked
Arctic Char has been my top goal for 3 seasons now. And so, after hundreds of hours
of research, I set out early one morning in May to the lake I had carefully
selected. I had a small kayak in tow and made the 3-hour hike into the woods.
To my devastation, after complete exhaustion, I finally reached the lake to
find it frozen :( I
spent a moment staring at the frozen surface and then prepared for the long
hike back. Luckily, I passed a local on the way back who confirmed that the
fish I sought lived in the lake. The hard part was now over, I had found them!
Ultimately, this was a failure but I will 100% be back next year to redeem
myself.
To end on a good note, let’s talk about the CFN competition
I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Competition was fierce among anglers
targeting roughfish all around the country. I had expected most to focus on the
popular species like Walleye, but was pleasantly surprised to find anglers
excited at the prospect of targeting Suckers, Redhorse, Bullhead, etc. Many
teams managed to catch over 20 species of fish longer than the 8” minimum. The
competition lasted a whole 6 weeks. We were behind after the first week but
caught up and then held first place until the very end. With 35 species, we beat the record for the highest score ever achieved in the competition and took home
gold! It certainly felt like quite an achievement after covering thousands of
kilometers and spending hundreds of hours on the water in a relatively short
period of time. My thanks go out to all of the other competitors who kept us on
our toes throughout the event :)
