Triple Whammy and Tim Allard's Photos

Did a bit of relaxing fun fishing today with friend Eric Fontaine. Headed out to the river this morning with a couple rods and a box of lures. Before leaving the storage room I grabbed a few quick-strike rigs with the intention of stopping to grab a few suckers. We are doing a small side project to assess the viability of alternatives to J-hook rigged live-bait fishing for muskies. (For those in the greater Ottawa area who might be concerned about what our "agenda" might be, I can assure you that we are NOT trying to take away your privileges of using suckers for muskies).

I made my way over to Manotick Bait and Tackle and had a nice chat with the owner. She pumps a bit of compressed oxygen into the bait bags for you which is a nice little gesture. The bait was plenty lively and overall high quality. With three suckers in tow I headed to the ramp.

Eric arrived with his slick Stratos 285 bass boat rigged with an adrenaline pumping 150 E-Tec. It's not everyday that I get to go 50mph down the river (contrast that with a whopping 22mph top speed in our jon boat)! Anyway, once we arrived at our first spot I rigged up a sucker and dropped it in the drink hoping it would work its magic. After a couple hours sucker #1 was grabbed by something. With my heart pumping extra hard I slammed the hooks home. The result? A swing and a miss (pretty much what my entire batting career was like when I played baseball). Bummed but not totally discouraged, I rigged another one up.

Eric was tossing a Bulldawg and hammered the steel to a fish as we drifted a weedline. He looked like Kevin VanDam setting the hook into a 5 lb smallmouth! In fact, I'm pretty sure he delivered a knock-out punch to the fish; it barely fought! A quick scoop with the net and Eric had himself a nice 38" fish. It was Eric's birthday today, too!

We switched weedlines a short while later and in mid-sentence I was jolted by a swishing noise behind the boat. I turned to see a boil on the water's surface and my float gone. The muskie must have chased my sucker to the surface and gobbled it there. We positioned ourselves over the fish and I made sure this time I did not miss. I drove the hooks home and nearly whipped a 30"er across the bow. The little tike was quickly in the net, just as quickly unhooked, admired for a couple seconds (the little ones are always so fascinatingly pretty!), and released. Shortly thereafter Eric put another 38" in the net, this one quite a bit heavier and much uglier (weird crackly mucous coat and red sores on its body).

When I got home I found an email from outdoor writer and photographer, Tim Allard, in my inbox. A few blog posts down you'll see one about Tim, his photography, and new ice fishing book that was just released. If you're an ice fishing newbie (like me), seasoned vet, or just a fishing/outdoor enthusiast, check it out! As promised, below are some of Tim's photos from last week's excursion. The last two images portray what all our gear looks like when it's laid out.