I Suck!

  Yep... I suck! This posting could easily have been called "A Crappie Day 2", only crappie being spelled the other way to denote lack of quality. But that wouldn't be entirely true either, as you will soon read, suffice it to say...I SUCK!

   Good Friday was spent by Tackle Shop and myself trying to recruit a few extra companions for Saturday's excursion north. With no takers on board, it was a simple matter of dropping TS's son, Sid The Kid, off at work and drive directly north to Keswick from there. From the onset it looked rather dubious as to whether we were wasting our time as we drove through a torrential downpour for the whole 70 mile trip.

  On our arrival just before 8am, we sat and watched for 10 minutes a half dozen soaked and freezing fishermen catch absolutely nothing except pneumonia. Thankfully the area boasts a variety of opportunities so we travelled a short distance further north to the town of Sutton to try our luck in the Black River. The river is well named because of it's dark tea stained water, which on this morning was flowing fast but clear. TS was fishing a worm and I covered the water with a rooster tail spinner. After 10 minutes with no action it was time to move on to our next destination.

Black River, Sutton

  Just a few miles downstream is the cottage community of Jackson's Point, a hard water hotspot for lake trout and whitefish, but also an early open water haven for spawning perch at the public town dock. Our arrival there found only a few anglers braving the full frontal wind and rain, and for them entirely worth the discomfort as the perch were ravenous and biting almost anything. TS quickly baited up with live shiner minnows and I opted for a chartreuse Gulp minnow. BIG MISTAKE. TS was regularly pulling in two 8" perch per cast while I stubbornly waited for my first bite. By noon the rain had stopped, the sun was threatening to shine, TS had caught and released over 150 perch and I was ready to move on to the next location and catch my first fish of the day.

divider between ponds

  Another 15 minute drive northeast took us to a favorite early season site: Holme's Point at the mouth of the Pefferlaw River. Instead of going to our usual spot we decided to go exploring a little upstream to where, years before ponds were dredged ajacent to the river for a proposed marina. By now the sun was shining brightly, temperatures nearing 70 degrees for the first time this year and we were sheltered from the strong south winds. We had the area all to ourselves and conditions suggested we could be in for some big fish.

  Again TS was still fishing with minnows under a float and I was casting a spinner, working the water along the extensive shoreline. As I was on the far side of the pond TS shouted "Fish On...and it's BIG". I did the 400 yard dash to film the catch and breathlessly arrived in time to find out it might have been a large walleye.

  We both went back to what we doing, although I'd now switched back to the Gulp minnow suspended under a float in the hope of enticing one of the large feeding carp I'd seen. As I was working the pond's access to the river I spotted a 40+ inch pike prowling the drop off, but because of the way I was rigged I couldn't get my bait down to her. Did I mention that I suck?

  I returned to the van, totally disgusted with myself, just in time to witness TS hook into a good sized largemouth. It broke his line right at the water's edge, and if not for a mad dive by the big man it would have been lost. So... the totals for this area: TS- 2 bullhead, 1 2lb bass and a sunburn, Me- 0.

   By 4pm we decided to take a trip farther north to the Talbot River to witness the walleye spawning. There weren't many "eyes" in the river but it was overflowing with three different varieties of suckers! We'd never seen anything like this before and I was itching to get in there with my fly rod but the river's a sanctuary this time of year and being anywhere near it with a rod in hand is just asking for trouble.

  A few hours before sundown found us in Keswick again in search of crappies. Once again Tackle Shop had almost everything going his way as he was constantly pulling in sunfish, rockbass, perch and 3 largemouth (only one crappie though). After 10 hours of fishing I finally manage to hook and land my first fish of the day, a 6" perch. I SUCK

  Anyways... it was a great day out. We both enjoyed ourselves and I'm happy to let TS practice this week's bragging rights because I came away with something more valuable... video of the big guy flopping around on the ground like a fish out of water ...to get a fish out of water!

  If you enjoyed this video... and I know you did, check out more of my videos on my You Tube channel: thedeadfisher. There's plenty of similar fishing videos I've done over the years there. Enjoy!