I’ve had an old fly fishing setup lying around for a couple months collecting dust. I’ve been out fishing several times, but never for more then an hour or two, so I didn’t bother bringing the fly gear. This morning I got up super early just so I’d have an extra hour or two on the water and figure it was the perfect time to try something new.
Let me start by saying this: Fly fishing is not as easy as it looks.
I’m not entirely sure what I was doing wrong, but my fly wouldn’t go any further then 20 feet. Before I head out again I plan to watch a few videos on youtube to sort things out. I think my biggest problem is that I was moving my arm too much. I didn’t catch any fish on the fly, but I did manage to get about 10 small bass on my spinner baits. I spent half the Morning at Albro Lake, and the second half at Lake Micmac.
I’ve been planning on taking my son Ash fishing for some, but the weather here hasn’t been very good until recently. He thinks my fishing reels are his toys, and messes with them constantly. I even have a couple of old reels that I don’t use anymore sitting in his toy box. Today was a beautiful warm day, so I decided it would be a perfect day for our first fishing trip together. We headed down to Albro Lake, which has been producing lots of small bass recently.
We got to the lake at two in the afternoon and I put Ash into a sling so I had my hands free to cast. He was able to sit comfortably in front of me and keep an eye out for jumping fish. We fished for about 25 minutes and I was able to catch 2 little bass, and lost one. Ash was very curious and was happy to handle the fish. He got upset every time I let the fish go because he wanted to play with them. I tried to explain to him that they needed to go back in the water to live, but explaining anything to a 9 month old is pretty difficult.
My good friend from work and I headed out to Albro Lake again on Sunday. Last week we were met with unfavorable circumstances when we were unable to find any fishable water due to snow and ice. This time around the weather was looking good and all of the ice had melted. We hit the lake at 7:30 in the morning and started casting at the south end of the lake (for anyone taking notes, thats the ‘beach’ just off Lancaster Drive). I had hoped that a few days of nice warm weather we had ealier in the week would cause the fish to be active, but this was not the case. The morning was frigid, and my fingertips were so cold I could barely open my tacklebox to change lures. We casted spinnerbaits, spoons, small Rapalas, and some plastic baits without a hit. We even tried a very slow presentation, but there were no takers. We headed to the northwest end of the lake and continued similar strategies in deeper water, still no action. We spotted several other fishermen on the opposite side of the lake, but they moved constantly and did not appear to be catching any fish either.
We drove past the north end of the lake on the highway earlier today and say a couple of fishermen pulling in what looked like a small trout (although it may have been a bass, they were fairly far away). The weather for the looks even better then last week, so we’ll be at it again pretty soon I’m sure, and hopefully we’ll have to photos of fish next time!
Albro Lake - March 30, 2008
Albro Lake - April 6, 2008
It’s been a long time since I’ve been fishing. I was hoping to go ice fishing this winter, but it never worked out. There is still ice on many of the lakes nearby, but trout, smallmouth bass and chain pickerel season opens tomorrow and I’m going fishing even If I have to break the ice to do it. My friend Adrian and I visited a local lake yesterday that has open season year round for fishing, but the only open water was well out of casting distance. I’m very excited about fishing this early in the year. Growing up in Ontario, pike season opened in May, while bass and musky season doesn’t open until June.
I figure it will be another few days of warm weather before the ice melts, but there are some other lakes near my work that have only a little ice remaining. So tomorrow I’ll be fishing on my lunch break!
Albro Lake - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
