As the fishing season is almost upon us, local anglers are preparing to land the big one this summer. Some however, also enjoy pursuing elusive fish through the ice each winter. Whatever kind of fishing they prefer anglers generally have two main concerns, catching a trophy fish and the lures in their tackle box.
One local angler, Ron Ross, who's been following the Saskatchewan Walleye Trail, has been highly successful on both counts.
It seems Ross was part of a team which included the CEO of P.K. Lures, Pat O'Grady, Canadian distributor for the company Tim Geni of Wilcox, and Steve Gerber, a P.K. Lures pro-staff member which tried ice fishing at Last Mountain Lake last January. The purpose was to test some new lures developed by the company and to create a video catching fish with the new lures. The team was accompanied by television crew from No Excuses Outdoors.
As usual when a group of men go fishing, a friendly rivalry soon developed. Records show that the group of eight anglers managed to pull in about 200 walleye of various sizes in the two and a half days of fishing.
On the second day of fishing, at about 8 a.m. Ross noticed what appeared to be a very large fish on his Vexilar FL18 flasher fish finder. He tried to entice the fish with two different lures which it didn't appear interested in biting.
Ross called to his nearest fishing buddy, Tim Geni, to try his luck with the big one. Geni dropped his lure into the water and within two minutes, he hooked the monster walleye. Once Ross and Geni, who was using only four pound test line, determined that they'd hooked a really big fish, Geni took his time playing it before attempting to pull it out of the eight inch hole in the ice. Ross reached into the hole to help pull the fish up. There wasn't much room to maneuver as the fish pretty much filled the eight inch gap.
When measured on the ice the mammoth walleye proved to be a little over 33 inches long with a 19 1/2 inch girth and weighed in at a whopping 14.5 pounds.
As Geni was entered in the Ice Shanty Ice Fishing Tournament, the initial intention was to measure and photograph the fish and get it back into the water as quickly as possible. After measuring and snapping the photo of the fish, it was released back into the water where it swam away, apparently happy and none the worse for wear.
Further investigation indicated that the giant walleye was not just a line class possibility but possibly a world record for catch and release honors. After submitting the information to the North American Fishing Club, Geni received confirmation a week later that the fish was indeed a world record size.
The P.K. lure that hooked the world class walleye was a chartreuse colored P.K. spoon.
P.K lures are relatively new to Canada. Yorkton Home Hardware is one of the first stores in this country to have this lure, says Ross. "This tackle's been on demand ever since we caught this fish," he reports. Local anglers have purchased a fair bit of the new tackle and to date there have been primarily good reports. Most fishermen reported outfishing those using other tackle four and five to one, Ross announces.
The P.K. Spoon and the P.K. Flutterfish have been doing very, very well through the ice, Ross continues.
The lures don't appear to be species specific. "During the two and a half days at Last Mountain Lake, along with the walleye, we caught tulibee, pike, perch and burbot," Ross states. Of the 200 walleye that were caught on those hooks about 160 of them were caught with no bait on those hooks at all, he adds.
"P.K.'s approach to fishing is really catching fish redefined," Ross suggests. The spoons which are designed a little bit differently are lead free, as is the paint, he points out. They also react a little differently when they are dropped into the water, he says.
The company recently developed ridge line crank baits which react similarly to rapellas, Ross reports. Trying the new tackle on some large mouth bass, he found the bass taking the hook aggressively. "They weren't just taking the lures, they were just absolutely hammering them," he insists.
On the way home through Colorado Ross's wife was reeling in small mouth bass in a pond on a with a small P.K. spoon. "It's more than just for vertical jigging through the ice," he claims.
The company is currently working on some new lures which Ross intends to test at various fishing tournaments this summer. "Myself and the rest of the P.K. team will be giving these things a workout," he says.
Ross hopes to have Tim Geni visit Yorkton Home Hardware at a date to be announced in the near future to spend the afternoon to show the replica of the world record walleye and tell the story of its capture.
Ross admits he was initially skeptical of the new P.K. lures, but after seeing the results with his own eyes, he's convinced it really works and has redefined fishing.
