My Mission is Fishin'

 So what can a guy do when he's broke and bored here in Ontariariario? Well, it rained here the other day and I found a few worms trying to escape their flooding holes. I had 4 of them. I figured that would be enough for a fish or two. I knew a place where a couple of kids were fishing and using just bare can hooks and worms with floats they were pulling in catfish like nothing. I'm not a cat fisher and they rank way down my list of most delish fish, but it's been a while since I had the joy of not getting skunked at the fishing hole. Thanks to the Peet/Spiwaks I had the chance to get tight line rush just two summers ago. But that's too long between fish dog gone it! So me and my worms went to Twin Lakes here to try our luck.

Twin Lakes is where one of my all time heroes Dick Proeneke built his cabin and lived off the land in Alaska. So I imagined myself doing the same and in the back of my brain (I hope) I was even narrating my trip like old Dick might have done. "The mosquitos were extra affectionate today. But I was working too hard hiking with my full pack to Twin Lakes to notice. I set out at first light so's I could fish for my supper. It was gonna be a full day and I'd packed myself a lunch of peanuts n' fish jerky." (really it was peanuts and pepperoni) Also it was only a couple of hours. I heard it was supposed to rain around 3 o'clock so I got there about 2:30 to get the feeding frenzy just before the rain. I've found in my fishing experience that before or after (sometime during too) rain is often lucky for fishing.

I had bought a few cheapo lures at the Dollar Store and I gave them a try at first. They weren't attracting the fish at all. Some weren't even spinning the way they should have. I guess you get what you pay for sometimes. But I really hadn't had any luck with the spinners yet this year. A couple bites and followers was all I got last visit to Twin Lakes. Yes, I got skunked on my first attempt. So I wasn't interested in another day of cast and retrieve practice. It wasn't long before I switched to float, can hook and worm bait. And it wasn't long before I caught this beauty!

It just might have been 6 inches but that's not a bad size for a bluegill. Just look at those colours! All the bluegills I was catching were like that! But that wasn't all I caught.

I also caught me a bass! And it was the best fight of the day even though those bluegills are scrappy fish! If it were 9 days later I could have kept this fish, but it's not bass season yet here so, like all my fish on the day, I chucked it back. I told it to get bigger so I could catch it again during bass season.

I also caught

I think this is a rock bass but it has a small bluegill mouth. It's not as colourful as a bluegill so I thought it might be a crappie. Anyway, it was pretty small. Fun fight though. A couple of nice jumps even! If you know for sure what this is, please comment.

Then I got this one:

I KNOW what this is! It's a perch. And at the very TOP of my most delish fish is the Walleye, which is a perch. Perch are also delicious but usually so small they're not worth the effort filleting. This guy was puny! Miniscule! But where there are perch there are sometimes walleye so that'll keep me coming back to fish this lake. 

You can see how tiny this perch was by the size of the swivel in comparison. Just a little nug. 

Here's another of the bluegills 

Look at the colours! 

Anyhoo, I got nine fish and not one of them was a catfish. I didn't even get to the lake where I saw those kids pulling catfish out left and right. By the time the rain started I was getting fish almost every cast and hits every single cast! It was so much fun I wanted to stay. My spot was well covered with trees so the rain didn't bother me a bit and there were absolutely no mosquitos. I had bug dope even if there had been. 

But, at about 5 I ran outta worms and packed 'er in. I didn't realize how hard the rain was coming down until I left the fishing hole and got out into the open. I had to wait for the 20 bus about 20 minutes and I got pretty wet while doing so. Did I care? Not even a bit!

The other night I had one of my 4:30 AM wake-ups so I wrote a country song. Well? What do YOU do when you can't sleep? lol "What the hell's a fella to do when it does no good to daydream, hope, or wish? If you got a pole and a honey hole it makes a life worth livin' if you fish. I'm too old to love, too young to die, but I ain't too busy to tie a fly and go fishin'. I used to be a helluva guy, now I'm just an ornery coot with a vision. Life is hard and times are tough, I'd call the Police but they're jammin' my transmission. (HEY don't stand so close to me!) I don't have much hope for the Lord and the Pope so now my mission is fishin'."

As I always say, I write my best stuff at 4 in the morning. It's a great time to go fishin' too! I think I'll fish as much as I can until I get working more here.

On THAT note, I did a full day of work today but hours are coming seldom. Even the volunteer work has yet to start. I finally got my Ontario security guard license (to go with the dozen other licenses and/or qualifications I've gotten since landing here in the province of my birth so I don't think it'll be long till I am a guard again). In fact I got news today that I've reached the second cut of hopefuls for a position as an Ontario prison/jail guard. This week sometime I'll be doing yet another test for that. Then it'll be a month before they determine whether I pass or not. Who knows how many more stages there'll be or how long it'll take to actually get work? That's how I constantly feel here. But in the mean time... my mission is fishin'!