As another open water fishing season comes to an end, most of us look back on the season and say how we would've liked to get out a lot more than we did. I, however, definitely cannot complain about this season or say how I would've liked to go out more often. This season will be one to remember for me. It started like any other year with me going fishing non-stop for the first couple days. After about the first week or two of the season being open I noticed that I had caught a fish every day since May 13th. This got me thinking 'why not see how many days in a row I can catch a fish?' So that became my goal for the year. It involved considerable commitment from me - and from my parents for the transportation. Usually it's the father in the family that will beg their kids to come fishing with them, in my case it was exactly the opposite, I was always asking my mom or dad to take me somewhere. If they weren't able to take out the boat or give me a ride to the Red River I would fish the local nature pond in my hometown of Altona. Fortunately that pond is virtually in my backyard. Sometimes this meant that I would come home from playing a baseball game and have to make a late night run to the pond at 11 p.m. to quickly catch a carp, which would usually only take about 2 minutes.
My fish streak was challenged, though, at a couple of points throughout the season. One of those was when my family went on a short vacation trip to Minnesota. Here I was very unfamiliar with the lakes and the fishing patterns. The thing that helped me out was that the locals from the bait shops were more than willing to point me to nearby hotspots. One small lake in the area yielded four different species in less than two hours. On this trip I was able to catch my first Largemouth Bass, which was very cool. Another surprising challenge came when took our annual trip into Whiteshell Provincial Park to Big Whiteshell Lake for a week. The first night there we went to one of our usual reliable spots on the lake where I was willing to settle for a little hammer handle or anything else that would bite. To my surprise the fishing was very tough. This is where I stooped to my lowest point of the season. It was already almost dark and I was so desperate to get a fish that I had to reel a fish in on my dad's rod. Other than those 2 challenging points, the rest of the season went fairly well, but all good things have to come to an end. Finally, on October 14th, even my old faithful pond in my back yard failed me. The carp, bullheads and koi were shutting down for winter and I was shutout. I had been lucky enough to catch a fish every day for 154 days. Throughout out the streak I was able to fish many different bodies of water and meet a number of fellow anglers. Some of the places included: William Lake, Whitemud River, Rock Lake, Mary Jane Reservoir, Lake Minnewasta, Red River, Roseau River, Horseshoe Lake, Crowduck Lake, and many others.
Though many of my fish through the streak were very average sized there were a few bigger ones. One the highlights was my trip to the Sportsman's Corner Campground on the Whitemud River for their annual Freshwater Drum(silver bass) Derby during the May Long Weekend. During the tournament I caught a 21 pound, 3 ounce, 33 inch beast of a freshwater drum. The fish would have won the derby, but unfortunately it was a live release tournament and the fish would not swim away even after an hour and a half of trying to revive it.
The other high point was a late season trip to Selkirk with my dad and my grandpa. It was an average day with mostly small saugers and then in the last 20 minutes of the day each of us landed our first ever, master angler walleye. It was a great ending to a very full, fun season of fishing the open waters. Now bring on the hard water!