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Saturday, December 7, 2013

My 2013 fishing season

Early December, that time of the year again when I'm too occupied to get out on the water, and cabin fever starts to set in as I wait to get out on the ice. Summer gear is put away, ice gear is ready to go, few more weeks until I'll take the time to hit the ice.

As I do at the end of every season, time to recap my 2013 fishing season, so here it is.

2013 was another spectacular season for the kids, and myself as well. We all got some good fishing done, and most of us broke some previous personal best, as well as succeeding at some new challenges.

The season started off a lot slower than normal. Carp were very finicky in April. Still, Eli managed to catch his few first carp.




 Levi set a new personal record of 20 lbs.


Ari set a new personal record of 26.5 lbs.



My average size was down a bit from the previous season, but still managed some nice ones:





The big breakthough for me was that I managed to solve one of my biggest issues, namely, line cuts due to sharp rocks covered in zebra mussels. Using a heavy mono shock leader has become my standard when carp fishing waters with those conditions. Also got to test new boilies flavours and sizes, more testing panned for the upcoming season.

An early pike fishing trip up North with Avi ended up with water temps a lot colder than normal, which made them very lethargic. Despite very tough fishing conditions, Avi managed to land his biggest pike, which made his trip a smashing success for him.



Ari landed some of his biggest bass, unfortunately, the 5+ lbs largemouth he caught on out annual bass fishing trip never made it on camera due to technical glitch. That being said, he had some great outings, including some wild topwater action South of the border.


I didn't spend much time targeting smallmouth bass, or walleye. For me, the big surprise was the number of trout I ended up catching, as I'm not much of a trout fisherman. I managed to catch 4 trout species (lake trout, rainbow trout, brown trout, and brook trout). Also managed to catch trout in 3 states and 2 provinces.

Vermont:


New York:

Colorado:

Ontario:

Quebec:




Eli and Chaya caught some too:



In addition to catching trout in 3 US states, I also beat my record for number of states fished in one season , catching fish in a total of 5 states, Texas, Vermont, New York, Colorado and Virginia.

Another tough record to beat, was total number of days fished in one season, which now stands at 81, beating my last season's record of 78.

More personal records, were the number of days fished with the same lure on weeklong trips. I spent 5 days throwing just about 1 lure for bass during our annual trip up North. Pop R ended up being lure of the trip for Eli, Levi and myself.





I then threw a Rapala J-7 for 6 days in Colorado, catching all the trout of the trip on that lure:


Finally, the best part, new personal bets. 2013 was by far the best, and most spectacular in that respect.

Caught my biggest brown trout at 14.5 inches:


Caught my few first longnose suckers:


Then, after most of the summer had gone by, the real action started. During a short business trip to Virginia, I caught my first blue catfish, and followed up with my heaviest fish ever landed, a monster blue cat weighing 59 lbs.


Less than 1 week later, my friend Mike invited me out to troll for muskies. Only got 1 bite that day, but it was a 1 bite wonder, a trophy musky weighing over 40 lbs:


Finally, I hooked up with my Patrick, a new fishing friend I met online. We only went out once, as sturgeon season was nearly over, but I caught my biggest one at 55 inches / 50+ lbs:


Reflecting on the success and accomplishments of my 2013 fishing season, I think it's going to be a major challenge to beat what was achieved. Rest assured, that won't stop me from trying in 2014.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Looks like you and your family had a good season. Now the long wait for safe ice! I'm going crazy already.