Fishing for TIBS.
I recently observed that watching minnows at the
Cooling Boulder made me want to go fishing, so today we went.
Fishing, that is. You can go too, it's "free fishing week" in Ontario, no license even required.
Taking time off from working in the garden, doing shop work, cutting grass, and trimming weeds in the summer heat is a good idea anyway. Off we went, fishing rods and all.
T.T.T and E.T.S. happily stayed home because when it's over 70F, it's too hot in the van for children, pets OR pups.
One of our favorite fishing-spots is on the Kaministiquia (
Kam-in-ist-ick qwaw) river. That's where we're headed. You can call it the
Kaministiquia (Kam-in-ist-eh-kwee-ya) too, or
if you're in a real hurry to get fishing, you can just call it the
"Kam" for short if you like, we do. It
spells simpler.
Remember the
Kam, the river that runs through Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park and features the beautiful "
Niagara of the North" ?
Up the highway, off on a side road, and down a trail. That's how you get to the old fishin' hole.
Fishing on the Kam River, you can see some rapids. We're fishing a quiet area from a barren rock outcrop of the Precambrian Shield, the most stable piece of rock on earth. Here we are fishing on the Kam River.
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| Fishing the Kaministiquia River |
See the rapids in the distance?
Was that a bite? Nope.
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| Ancient Rocks & modern bubbles | | | | | | |
|
|
.....Was that another bite? Nope. Nary a bite, but we keep trying.
"Patience is good" says the muse.
Meantime,
--we studied ancient rocks and modern bubbles,
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| Canada Geese inspecting the Rapids | | | |
|
-Watched a gaggle of Canada Geese in a line, (we think
they were playing follow the leader, touring the rapids )
(*There were quite a few more geese in the line, but the photo was taken with zoom lens across the bay! )
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| Amazing clouds promising rain |
-Warily watched huge clouds that were promising rain,
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| The Moth Drying On the Rocks after a Harrowing Rescue |
-Rescued a drowning moth from all the hungry fish -- using a new,
exciting and innovative " fishing rod extend-an-arm-to-
rescue-a-drowning- bug" technique,
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| River Foam with Sky |
--Studied artistic river foam patterns mixed with reflections of sky,
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| *Solitary fishing with the Muse |
And fished endlessly while the muse chatted with the photographer and Mother Nature.
Wait! Was that a bite?
...er.....
Nope.
Bottom line, we did not catch anything except 50 yards of deserted fishing line with a still-new sharp and shiny weedless lure attached. That ought to remind someone to attach their line to the fishing-reel before casting the lure to the deep. I had to smile about that one. We
always bring home any discarded fishing line or other plastic trash discovered because it is a hazard to wildlife.
On this wonderful fishing expedition,
"Rock fish", "Grass fish", "Snag fish", and
"Rotten Stick fish" were biting with every cast.
Whales, sharks, 800 lb. sturgeon, old boots and alligators were
not biting.
I'm just kidding about the alligators.
No wonder the fish weren't biting; there was not a mosquito to be seen. Not a blackfly in sight either! A perfect day for fishing it was. We even
saw some fish that weren't taking
our bait.
A happy couple fishing next to us had curious luck. Somehow, they managed to catch a few TIBS. What's that you say?
"Tossed'im backs" of course!
- a daddy Carp about 7 or 8 lbs (Carp looks kind of like a big sucker ) T.I.B.
- a Smallmouth bass about 6 inches long not much bigger than the lure. T.I.B.
- a tiny Great Northern pike about 7 inches long, with a lot of teeth. T.I.B.
- a minnow-lookalike about 4" long ) T.I.B.
- weeds, snags, and a lot of laughs! (S.W.U.) (Shared with us!)
- What was the muse using for bait? Let's see...Solitude? Fresh Air? Happiness? Laughter? It seems so. We tried everything. It's all well-intentioned sportsmanship. We want the fish to be happy and grow bigger before we catch'em and wear'em out hauling'em out of the water merely for a TIBS photo op. Now that's sportsmanship.
Those huge clouds soon turned to rain. Raindrops started to fall. They were so big they made bubbles the size of a silver dollar hitting mirror-smooth water, undoubtedly scaring the rest of the
biters away.
We got wet.
No matter. We're pre-shrunk. Without a bite, we called it a day.
Wouldn't you?
Besides, in hindsight, I wasn't
skunked, I'm up
one lure. Well,
not quite, it made up for the one lost in a fight with a sunken log though.
No matter.
Who wanted fish anyway? .....er....we
did....er...that was the idea....
So.....we had fish for dinner. The
supermarket kind.
The great outdoors. Fishing the Kaministiquia River. 'Ya gotta
love it no matter how you
say it.
No wonder
we like camping better. I'm headed over to
JustCampingOut to see what
Jim Bessey, our
professional camping guru-- has to say about it.
I wonder if he, Lin, Nick, and Layla
the camping pup had fish for dinner, --or was it
bacon'n beans sizzling on the old campfire by the trusty old Shasta? Let's go find out.
Is that incoming I hear?
*
all photo credits copyright 2012 W.L. Kukkee
