Welcome to Week CLIX of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
In terms of a nice shore spot to fish it’s hard to beat Stoney Lake just south of Margo.
There is a half mile of open shore right up against the grid road which means easy drive-in access, and ample room for all, not that I’ve ever been at the spot with more than a half dozen other fisherfolk.
Co-pilot son Adam and I headed north and west to Stoney recently on an absolutely beautiful evening. The wind can whip off the lake at Stoney rather regularly, and that can make casting a challenge, but this day it was clam, warm, and sunny. The kind of late afternoon that it was a pleasure just to take out the ragged old lawn chair and toss a few hooks.
As we arrive around the curve in the grid the first thing we see is a heron standing in the water just off shore.
Now I don’t generally keep my camera on the seat beside me, and not with the long lens even if I had, so the beautiful bird was winging away long before I even thought of digging out the camera.
But that really doesn’t matter.
As the heron flew away I turned to Adam and made note that no matter whether we caught a fish or not, seeing the bird that close was a thrill worth the trip.
It wasn’t my first heron relatively close at hand, but they are a majestic bird you do not see every day.
And the heron is a bird which is closely associated with fish bearing waters.
So when I had a chance once home, I went looking for information on the big water birds.
“The largest heron in North America, the great blue is mostly grayish blue. Some of its body parts are more colourful: its eyes are yellow, its legs are green and its head is white. A black stripe marks each side of its head. A few shaggy black plumes stick out from its back,” detailed the www.canadiangeographic.ca website.
“The birds’ feathers turn brighter during mating season and dingier in winter. Females look like males but are smaller.
“These herons usually hold their neck in an ’S’ curve when flying.”
In terms of habitat, “water and land are both necessary for this bird. Either salt or fresh water can serve as its fishing grounds, but the birds need islands or woody swamps nearby so they have a place to build their nests,” explained the Canadian Geographic site.
“The birds build one-metre-wide nests out of dry sticks, sometimes lining the bottom with pine needles or moss. Herons choose a new mate each year. The female lays about three to five eggs, which she sits on at night. The male sits on them during the day. Once the chicks hatch, the parents continue to share duties: mom watches the nest at night and dad takes the day shift.
“By about eight weeks old, the young birds start to fly. At 10-weeks, they leave the nest – and their parents – for good.”
When fishing “they stand perfectly still in the water until a tasty morsel passes by. Usually it’s a fish, but sometimes a heron will eat other water life, or even another bird. When they see something the heron lunges with its body and neck. If it nabs the prey, the bird usually tries to swallow it in one gulp, sometimes choking in the process.”
Great blues are Canada’s most widespread heron, from the Maritimes to British Columbia.
In more general terms herons are part of a larger family.
“The family Ardeidae, in the order Ciconiiformes, is a family of long-legged, long-beaked birds with short tails,” detailed the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan at www.esask.uregina.ca. “Their habit of flying with their head pulled back distinguishes them from cranes. During courtship the males develop specialized plumes for display; it was these plumes which led to the near-extinction of several species by feather-hunters when the feathers were in demand for decorating women’s hats and men’s military dress hats. The family of approximately sixty-five species is found on all continents except Antarctica; thirteen species occur in North America. They are usually found in or near wetlands, where they feed on a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate prey.
“Ten species have been reported for Saskatchewan; all are migratory. The most common and largest is the great blue heron (Ardea herodias), which occurs south of the boreal forest. This large bird (~120 cm in length) is often seen standing at the edge of a river or lake, waiting until it can spear a fish. It usually nests in colonies which are found in the tops of tall trees along water margins.
“The other widespread and often encountered species of the southern half of the province is the black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), a smaller species with black crown and back, which is found around permanent marshes.
“A species which was once more widespread and heard more often than seen is the American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus). It was seldom seen, hiding in the reeds and cattails of marsh edges in the southern half of the province and giving its ‘pump-handle’ call. Its presence in the reeds is hard to discover owing to its camouflage pattern of brown stripes the colour of dead cattails. Its recent decline may be due to habitat change by draining of wetlands or to the reduction in population numbers of large frogs.
“The great egret (Ardea alba) occurs regularly but rarely in the wetlands of the southern third of the province. It is nearly as tall as the more common great blue heron, but white with a yellow bill. A recent entrant is the white cattle egret (Bubulcus Ibis), an African species which became established naturally in northern South America in the late 1800s and has since successfully colonized Central and North America. It was first reported in Saskatchewan in 1974 and can be expected, with climatechange, to continue to expand its range and numbers.
“Five small herons rarely appear in the province; since the reports are of single individuals along the southern border, they are considered strays, off-course during migration. These are the least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), snowy egret (Egretta thula), little blue heron (Egretta caerula), green heron (Butorides virescens), and yellow-crowned night heron (Nyctanassa violacea).”
And now back to our regularly scheduled fishing column.
Our night at Stoney started off nicely with a pike hitting a Len Thompson hammered perch spoon hard for me. Too hard actually. It swallowed the lure deep, and while I was in a catch ’n’ release mindset, it was rather obvious the pike’s likelihood of survival was slim, so it went on a stringer.
We would keep four on the evening, so a good feed is in the offing.
While the pike hit hard, they turned out to be rather picky feeders that night. It became a joke between Adam and I, if we caught a pike, or had a nibble, it was time to change lures since the fish did not seem inclined to go after a given lure twice.
With fish not exactly charging any particular lure it was a great opportunity to pull out a new PomPom Fish Bomb (PPFB). Some readers will no doubt recognize the name of the lures from their booth at the recent Parkland Outdoor Show & Expo in Yorkton.
The great thing about the PPFB to start is that is a Saskatchewan-made lure. They are handmade by Cameron and Lorna MacNeal at Naicam, SK. That the lures are locally produced (yes Naicam is close enough to be local in terms of fishing), I was immediately optimistic since the lures should be well-tuned to fishing conditions here, and the designs should be ones which have been catching fish for the creators.
But, by the look of the old word counter, I’ve come to the end of the line for this week, so faithful readers I hope you return in seven days to learn more about the PPFB, including background from its creators thanks to their consenting to an interview.
Until then happy fishing.
