Welcome to Week CXLVI of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll 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.
The last day of February arrived bright and cold. I was up earlier than I like to be on a Saturday in winter, but that is the price one must pay if they are to attend the annual Lake of the Prairies Fishing Derby, which was on my agenda for the third straight year.
The trip had been planned as a four-bud trip, but alas that was not the case.
One friend found himself caught in a temporal time warp, and was stuck in 1974 listening to the song ‘Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting’ for the weekend. All right he was actually doing some computer overseeing at a provincial taekwondo event, but I took a touch of poetic license.
Second friend Graeme had heard a rumour there were ice ticks out on the lake, and given his fear of all ticks, stayed home buying tick spray just in case.
And that left two of us, yours truly, and son Adam.
Now one of the best parts of a fishing trip is the time spent on the road with whomever you are making the run with.
Most of the time spent with my son, and I am lucky in that regard as we do a lot of things together even as he nears 26-years-old. We miniature war game, disc golf, do weekly lunches, and of course fish.
Not surprisingly, talk between us turns to those things of common interest, the new discs we covet before spring, how we have our fingers crossed the Toronto Blue Jays might be relevant in the American League East come summer, which graphic novels (fancy comic books) we want to read, and new lures from Len Thompson.
Yes fisher folk, new lures from one of Canada’s best known lure companies, and one with a Saskatchewan history, having started out in Abernathy.
Thompson-Pallister Bait Co. Ltd. has announced Len Thompson’s first new product line launch in 20 Years; The Dimpled Series.
“We are not only excited about the appearance and unique nature of the product, but the fact that these lures attract different species of fish in markets where our brand has great potential” said company President, Brad Pallister on their website at www.lenthompson.com.
“In the water, The Dimpled Series spoons reflect more light, create more noise through extra water turbulence and (perhaps) improve upon the slow tantalizing wobble of a traditional Len Thompson spoon,” noted the site.
“These high quality, solid brass casting and trolling spoons will never rust. They are intricately hand fused with premium, environmentally friendly paints and assembled with strong stainless steel split rings and high quality Eagle Claw hooks. The lures are decorated with a Len Thompson “gills”, a trout spot finish and sealed with a metallic glitter clear coat for extra durability and flash. In addition, a single hook is enclosed in each package to adapt to various fisheries regulations.”
“Initial testing and feedback from both our retailers, our pro staff and our select fans has been overwhelmingly positive,” Pallister explains. “Although consumers will have to wait until the spring of 2015 to purchase these new lures, I would encourage all of our fans to check our website, Facebook page …”
I can add, from a little flicking through the Len Thompson website, there are some really interesting looking lures in the new line including; candy cane, raspberry granite, metallic rainbow, sun set, grey ghost and traffic light.
However, back to the trip to the LotP Fishing Derby.
As I was noting my son and I cover a lot of shared territory as we talk.
But, on this day I learned I had perhaps failed in part of my duties as a father.
The truck radio was tuned to CBC, Adam’s choice, not mine. So that was a good sign. Yes, I know many people are not fans of CBC because of government dollars going to the station, but I fall on the other side of that debate. I am a fan of CBC, and was glad to find Adam listened.
Then the ‘Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean’ came on, and my son had never heard of it. I was amazed given the long-time popularity of the show.
For anyone else not familiar with the radio show; The Vinyl Cafe is an hour-long radio variety show hosted by Stuart McLean and broadcast on CBC radio, BBC Radio 7 and on as many as 80 U.S. public radio stations.
As a summer replacement show, McLean created a radio program called The Vinyl Cafe in 1994. By autumn 1997 the show was broadcast every Sunday at noon. McLean’s books of stories from The Vinyl Cafe have won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times.
Initially, Adam wants to punch up a different station, and does for a bit, then heads back to CBC, where McLean is reading a ‘Dave and Morley’ piece.
Although they are not featured in every episode of The Vinyl Cafe, the ‘Dave and Morley Stories’ are arguably the show’s most famous segment. The stories, written and read by McLean, himself, describe the zany misadventures of a fictional family whose last name is never given (although, in one story, Dave’s mother’s name is given as Margaret McNeal). The family consists of Dave, his wife Morley, their children Stephanie and Sam, as well as several pets which figure prominently in many stories.
Adam was laughing out loud and while too late in the education of my son, I do think he could become a fan of the Vinyl Cafe.
Since I’m talking about time on the blacktop, I’m going to pop ahead for a moment to the trip home. It is my opportunity to out my son on a major secret. He is flipping throughout the programmed stations on Sirius, and stops at one which plays only bluegrass.
It was one of those hallelujah moments for a father. Most times our children, even as they age, listen to music designed to make the ears of their parents bleed, at least that is the viewpoint my own father imparted on me when I listened to AC/DC, Motley Crue and others.
Today my tastes have matured; blues, jazz, Celtic, and yes mandolin and banjo-laden bluegrass, and that my son is listening and liking the latter, is really kind of gratifying.
By now you may have noticed I have not talked a lot about fishing the tournament.
The reason is simple enough, I do not like to write sad stories, and for the third time in as many years the fish eluded us.
I can say, and remember it was a sunny day, so visibility was excellent, I did see a couple of smallish fish emerge from holes, but they were a near football field away from the holes we had claimed.
It does seem the fish are generally caught on the edges or the whole field, meaning get there crazy early to claim a hole, which seems a bit more about setting the alarm early than pure fishing luck.
In our case we enjoyed the sun, and lamented the wind. The temperature was probably 15 degrees warmer than a year ago, but with the wind I felt colder.
Now to provide you with some insight into the boredom of four hours of ice fishing with no luck, the highlight was watching three fishermen near our hole developing a new winter sport, or maybe two.
They began with what I have named ‘ice bocce’.
Bocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque, with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire.
In this case the trio was using chunks of ice and tossing them some 20-30 feet in an attempt to get them into the opposite ice fishing hole.
I don’t think they ever managed a bull’s-eye, but it seemed to keep them warm.
Then the game evolved.
One of the players picked up their ice skimmer, and used it as a makeshift bat, swinging at the ice block as it was delivered. They were much more successful in that endeavour, making a couple of solid hits, which proved two flaws in the game of ‘ice baseball’.
Firstly, ice chunks when struck with a metal ice skimmer, explode into hundreds of fragments, which while kind of impressive don’t really let a game develop further.
Secondly, an ice skimmer is not designed to be an ice bat. Two hits and it was sort of a flattened pretzel. I might suggest for further play a fish club would be a better option.
The second highlight was having bought some liver as carp bait, which proved as unsuccessful as everything else I tried, I had leftover carp bait for lunch Sunday. The better half fried the liver crispy, with bacon, (yes everything is better with bacon especially liver), and onions, and it was just the way I like it. You know you would think carp would have gone after the liver as tasty as it was.
But back one again to the fishing. Two guys walked past us, and I overheard one saying to the other ‘well at least there are no mosquitoes’. Yep that summed up the day about right.
