Welcome to the second ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’ of 2021. Like most of us I remain very much a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll again attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish for a good summer fry.
If you read the first column of the season back on May 28, you will recall the first trip of the season on opening day was a shut-out victory for the fish – in fact they no hit us that day.
But we ‘fisherfolk’ are a resilient lot – some might suggest stubborn edging toward delusional – as we are always convinced the next trip will have fish jumping on to shore for us.
So, May 16, we headed out again, this time pointing the truck east – destination the new Togo Bridge.
Now, I know many people opt to rise at ridiculously early hours to go fishing – a friend was recently headed out at 5:30 a.m. – but I happen to have a rather deep fondness with my pillow, and would prefer rising at the crack of noon if not for a thing called a job and its associated cyber-paycheque. So we did not head out particularly early. I will add here I tend to believe rising early is more important as temperatures rise, but this is May in Saskatchewan – remember the little icestorm on May 21?
It started out as a nice trip, as a I spied a groundhog waddling in a field. It wasn’t an up-close encounter, but it is a wild critter you don’t see very often. I was lucky I realize. I was simply the passenger, and I am not one to have my head tilted over a cellphone screen – they are in fact an apparatus I could easily, and happily live without – so I watch the world as my son drives.
One of the best aspects of fishing is being out in nature.
The groundhog was simply cool to see.
The cheeky striped-gopher that came down out of the rocks looking for a treat was neat too that day. I wish I had had a few peanuts in my pocket for him.
Then, when Adam went in search of a drink, a black-winged blackbird settled for a visit nearby. These are a usual bird to be found around water, but are also one of the most striking in appearance.
It was turning into a good morning.
It was also warm on the side of the bridge we were, tucked out of the wind, so all we needed was some fish.
Just down the shoreline to out left, we could see a few pike being caught, one appearing to be a chunky specimen that would have been a fun catch.
To our right, a fellow’s rod dipped low, and it was obvious it was a sizeable fish.
He landed a burly carp, which I admit made me jealous. He wasn’t overly happy as he tossed it back, but I relish the muscled fish for the challenge of landing the big lugs.
By now you are likely thinking the luck was all around us, but that we again had a lacklustre day, but that was not the case.
We ended up five walleye to bring home, and one bigger, caught by Adam, one that went back to hopefully be part of the stock breeding the next generation of fish in the lake.
That is one area the fishing sector does a wiser thing than tends to happen with hunting. At least in targeted waters we are required to release fish which are basically the size where they reproduce. Hunting still tends to measure success by big horns, animals you would imagine would be good in the herd in terms of genetics.
Oh, I do need to concede my son easily out-fished me that day, the bigger walleye and one ‘jumbo’ perch topping the day.
But, we got a good feed, on a warm day, and saw some wildlife, and we weren’t up at dawn to do it, so it was an awesome day.
