Float tube fish finder

Still too much snow and shadow

Dozens of juncos are visible from my windows as they search the snow-pack for edible morsels. What they find is beyond me but they keep pecking away at the white stuff and seem energetic so their efforts are bearing fruit...or perhaps seeds. Ice fishing season is losing ground as snow cover on the lakes softens or melts into puddles; at least in the southern regions of Manitoba.

So what is the antsy fly-fisher, float-tuber and kayak fisher to do? I could cry about the coming cold front and its effect on spring but what would that get me? Tie some flies to augment the thousands I already have? I've already tied a few dozen in the last few days and the thought of more flies right now seems a bit like ordering fries after polishing off a 16 oz steak.

Ice fishing setup

Ahhh, I have it. I'd purchased a conversion kit last fall that would allow me to mount my Humminbird 385ci onto my float tube. I'd also bought an extra transducer and power cable and all the disparate parts rested in a couple of basement boxes. As it turns out, there was really very little to do to assemble the rig...just drill a few holes, thread the mounting box and transducer on a buckled strap and charge the battery. The included battery is only a 2.9 Amp/hr so it may not last a full day since my 7.2 Amp/hr battery won't work for two full days on the ice but I'll see about that later this spring. A couple of rants. Humminbird doesn't make cables for these applications ( at least I haven't seen any) and the standard transducer cables have to be coiled into many loops and hung onto the box...a messy solution. Secondly, when purchasing the attachment kit, the postage charged was significantly higher than the postage paid to ship it to me. Come on guys, why be so sneaky in trying to pick up some extra bucks for an already expensive proposition? End of rant.

My 385ci on the end of my Fish Cat 4

So now I can interchange my fish finder between fishing kayak, ice fishing bag and float tube. How well it works, how it may affect portability and whether the whole exercise was worth it will have to wait for another day. At least I'll be able to spot some huge fish under my float tube, if only in my day-dreams for now.

3 feet of snow and dreams of spring...

I've been back from Texas for a couple of weeks now and while the snowbanks are still high my mind has been drifting to thoughts of spring, flowing water and fish. I've been ice fishing a few times, twice for tullibee and three times for perch. Caught some nice tullibee, up to 19 inches but bombed out on the perch. But since this is a fly fishing blog lets leave the ice to the cocktail glasses and start on the plans for the upcoming season.

Rod, soft case and hard case

First up, I finally bit the bullet and purchased a tenkara rod along with some of the associated accessories, which I'm delighted to say are few in number. The rod itself is a Shimano LLS36 NB purchased from TankaraBum, the fly-line comes from a hi-viz 15lb test flourocarbon spool and tippets will be 5X, 6X and 7X.

Spool of "fly lines"

various tippet sizes

The theory is that tippets of 5X and under will break before the rod does on a larger than expected fish. I also bought some micro hooks to start dabbling in micro-fishing; hopefully with a fly.

Micro-fishing hooks and bobbers

#26 nymphs

But if that doesn't pan out, false pride will not prevent me from sacrificing the odd worm in the interests of ichthyological research.

A break in the search....

The hunt for new species on the fly has likely ended for this year, barring serendipity, an always welcome occurrence. A friend and I, accompanied one day by my fishing-crazed grandson, have headed out for some trophy fishing. Most days, maybe even all days, gave us something to smile about. Here are a few pictures to act as placeholder for the next season.

Emerald Shiner and a perch

 Had a good day on the La Salle today! Managed a few eater walleyes, the first I've kept since spring, a new species and a number of other species, including a first for the La Salle for me.

First up is the new specie, an emerald shiner by my calculations and observations. If anyone knows better please let me know in the comments section.

 Also caught my first perch in the La Salle. Although this specie is listed for the river, I had never caught one here on a fly or otherwise.

Shorthead redhorse

I've been fishing for suckers the last while in an attempt to get a few of the species I'm missing. I've been hoping for a quillback but today a shorthead redhorse answered my call. The small fish sucked in a #12 beaded green caddis .

The La Salle River is full of white suckers right now and I've literally caught 100s while hooking only one golden redhorse and this shorthead. Yesterday, while fishing Sturgeon Creek, I found a pod of these fish that seemed to be grazing on the algae on the river rocks in fairly shallow water. After about a hour, I did hook one on a #16 pheasant tail but it got off. Other than that one fish, all ignored a nymph, including some dangled right in front of their face.

Panfish hunting...How not to

No new species to report but enough good stuff happened to put up a blog post. Was going to stay off the water today but around 10:30 I got an ich that just needed scratching. I decided to go after panfish and loaded up with small flies and my 4 wt rod.

First cast hooked a fairly nice fish, a 17 1/2" white sucker. Not a giant but quite a fight with the 4 wt.

Second fish was a 24" channel cat which kept me on my toes and nervously hoping the cat had forgotten about the brush just downstream of the pool.

A couple of small crappies later I got a solid take that was to test the limits of my flyrod. A 29" channel cat and new record for my 4 wt. Maybe a MA on this rod is in the works? (Just checked an old post and found my biggest channel cat on this 4 wt is actually 32")



A big fish day with a smattering of small walleye, crappie, rock bass, pike and sauger and another great afternoon on the river with a fly rod.

Another two...

Took my grandkids fishing to the La Salle River today and normally don't even bring a rod along because they keep me pretty busy untangling lines, removing and baiting hooks and trying to free snags. Since they are no longer rookies, I threw the flyrod and a few flies into the back of the car and as it turns out, I'm pretty glad I did. The kids fished till about 4:00, catching a number of bullheads, suckers and even a nice channel cat before heading home for supper. Out came the fly rod...I hadn't a clue what species those suckers were and I needed a specimen to pose for some pictures. It wasn't long before I caught one, as a matter of fact before the day ended I managed about a dozen, the first few on a flashy, #10 bead-headed nymph and the rest on a brown #8 leech pattern. A check with my fish keys at home revealed all the suckers caught were the common white sucker.

White sucker

I even managed a brown bullhead, another species I hadn't caught yet.There were loads of both species of bullhead in the pool but they seldom go after a fly, in my experience anyway. The way I usually catch them is to hang a small nymph under an indicator and plop it right into their midst. Eventually one of them seems to grab the nymph. This time I caught it using a leech pattern while trying for the suckers.

This river has an unusual high number of species on any given part and today I also caught some crappies, rock bass, walleye, sauger and pike. I even watched the resident mink drag in a sucker that was 1 1/2 time as long as itself.