Welcome to Week CCX 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.
Sometimes a chance to throw a few spoons comes at unexpected times.
A quick trip to Canora recently first allowed for a sizzling plate at Raymond’s Restaurant, always a good thing.
And then there was a chance to fish.
Logic would have dictated the Canora Dam. It was close, and the last visit my son and I caught lots of pike.
But readers will know I have a certain wanderlust when it comes to fishing, I like different locales.
So I headed to Stony Lake. While never dozens of fish there, the pike are generally a bit larger than most local spots, and walleye will strike spoons, both things being positives in my world.
So west to Margo.
Now it does seem the wind is following me around this spring. It was a frigid, in my face wind that ruined a perfectly good fishing opportunity at Indian Point a couple of weeks back, and at Stony it was again present. This time the temp was at least warmer, and the wind at my back, so I was sending casts a mile (All right maybe not an actual mile but they were sailing out across the water sailing majestic arcs).
Long casts at both Stony and nearby Pelican are generally good. The pike seem to run the deep water and are usually happy to follow a lure into shallower water along the shore before striking. It’s a pretty normal predator fish attack pattern.
However, the pike apparently were unaware of all this, at least at the time I was there.
Now to be fair to the pike, I hit the shore mid-afternoon, not generally a prime time to catch fish at the best of times. I had hoped that it being May that the clock rules might not be in effect, but I never got a nibble. If I hadn’t snagged a root, one which won the fight to claim a Len Thompson leopard frog back the rod would not have bent the entire time.
The fact I was using the leopard frog lure tells you just how slow the day was. In local waters the leopard frog is generally in the classification of lures of last resort. There are many that are tried long before the leopard frog.
I of course tried Pelican too. The sister lakes are only miles apart and no doubt share some common source water in the spring, but the action can vary on a day-to-day basis.
At Pelican I was casting into the jaws of the win. On one cast I sent a bit high the wind almost sent it into the bush back along the shore.
It was tough casting, with a lot of effort made to keep them low and have some snap to fight the wind, and they still were not getting out very far.
When the tennis elbow popped that had flared up a couple of years ago from too much casting, I tapped out like a WWE plug, and headed home.
But we fisherfolk tend to find something to feed our interest in the strangest places.
On the way home I grab a Fresca at a service station in Canora, and peruse the shelves a bit, gravitating to a small aisle of fishing gear.
I had no intention of buying anything, which is my story, and I am sticking to it.
What would transpire is the fault of the Len Thompson Co. entirely. It turns out the company which released new patterns for the first time in years in 2015, is back at it again. This time they are offering ‘Super Glow / Luminescente’ patterns.
The gas station had two patterns in the ‘OO’ 1/2 ounce size, a cream white with orange five of diamonds design, and a white/green spilt design. Under much inner duress I succumbed to my trust in the Len Thomson line and bought one of each.
I should mention I am rather proud of my resolve, as I generally hold by the idea of always purchasing lures in pairs, so if the fish are biting, and the lure gets lost on a snag, you at least have one replacement close at hand.
When I was relaxing at home later I of course headed to www.lenthompson.com to check out the new lures.
It turns out there are four ‘Super Glow’ lures, a blue/white spit, and a white/pink/white.
From the pictures it appears the white areas are the ones which glow, although the green may on the one as well. The photos on the website are not exactly definitive.
The four lures come in the full range Len Thompson offers, and they are glow in the dark, which suggests they could hold a place for very overcast days, and those late evening efforts. Time will tell and then I will tell readers.
