Blog #4 2008
By Daniel Kiazyk

Catfishing is hot this summer

01 Aug 2008 9:49 pm

I don't know if you've noticed but catfishing this summer hasn't slowed down a heartbeat. I've had more 20+ days this summer than ever before. It was interesting that when I met the young student who was keeping the creel census at Selkirk park and I answered how many fish we'd caught that day his response was "Wow" I've never heard of numbers like that.....Well we did have a good day after all!

Fishing the ducks again...

02 Aug 2008 12:18

I made a quick trip up to the Ducks just recently and had an opportunity to fish some of its beautiful small and deep lakes. What I found of particular interest with this trip was that a normally tried and true technique for trout in the ducks was not as effective as it normally is.... down rigging the "leaf" was nowhere near as effective as just getting a rapala down to the normal depths. One thing we did notice was a lack of fish concentrations on any lake we tried. The fish in general seemed to be scattered. Why well after meeting with a diver and thinking about this summer's weather patterns we pieced together a theory about what was going on with the trout this summer trip. Firstly as cool as it had been so far this summer trout had not set up at a particular level in the lake. Not have a couple of weeks of blisteringly warm weather meant that trout would still be in shallower and cooler water. Next after having talked to a diver we were told that the water was not as typically clear. The diver's theory was that with the higher water levels a larger amount of debris had been washed into the lakes and the resultant higher levels ha meant for cooler water overall. The result of cooler and not as clear water was that fish were scattered and in shallower water than normal. Our "catching" however was not as successful as it had been the year before but we did enjoy thoroughly the fishing.

Walleye tools

03 Aug 2008 12:18

A couple of walleye tools that have really come in handy lately have been a leech tamer and a longer neck (7") set of forceps from Princess auto. The leech tamer has really been a nice addition to the boat in so far as I'm not having to remember another thing when we go out and fish for walleyes. The tamer is made of a heavier plastic material and it sits in the live well once we've decide to keep a walleye or two. I find that my leeches are far more lively once we start to use the tamer (well it makes sense as I'll often have my leeches stored in very cold water from the fridge). Once leeches hit the water in the tamer they are far more lively and they almost seem to be healthier than they were when stored in the cooler. As for the forceps, if you're watching the flyers from Princess auto you'll often see a set of enkay or like forceps of 7-9" go on sale.... buy a pair and you'd be amazed at how easy it is to get those hooks out that are in those places that are tough to get at.

Powder coating

04 Aug 2008 12:18

I've done this before but now that I'm into full blown jig production powder coat painting has become my preferred way of painting jigs. The powder coating that I'm using right now comes from Sourdough bay. I like the colours and the ease of coating jigs. Also of interest is that rick has added another type of glow powder to his selection of paints. The advantage of the new tournament glow paint is that you add it on after having placed a base coat of paint (the preferred colour). The tournament glow adds an added dimension to most colours including to a certain extent darker colours. When I asked Rick about glow in darker colours he said he won't be adding them to his line up until they have the same kind of duration that the lighter glow colours have at present. The secret to having paint stay on once you've coated your jigs is to put them in the oven so they can be cured a little more. I've put the jigs on a piece of brown craft paper in the oven at 200 degrees and have left them in there for 30 minutes. The result is a finish that's a lot harder than if you just coat and fish.

Best walleye lure

05 Aug 2008 12:18

OK I've read articles on this elsewhere with this or that argument made for this or that lure. Well just as an offhand reflection I'd say that the best walleye lure is the JIG. Surprise, surprise but the reason I've made the prior judgment follows from this particular lure's ability to be extremely flexible. I can fish on a spot - vertically at a variety of speeds, I can also have it reach out to fish a spot away from me - horizontally. I can slow down the fall by bulking up or I can speed it up by increasing weight. I can also change the colour to match the predominant forage or I can use a color that is neutral so as not to spook the fish.. Finally I can add bait and or scents to make it that much more attractive. Does other stuff work, definitely, but the lowly jig is something that I have a lot of confidence in and can catch a fish or two with now and again ;)

07 Aug 2008 8:29 pm

I got a good idea how other folks are doing out there cattin' this time of year when the creel census folks asked my guests how they did today and my guests answered 38..... well the answer we got from the young fellow who was keeping the count gave quite a clear idea when he said that the next best numbers was a dozen..... and by another guide service on the river. Really what you've got to keep in perspective is that sometimes what seemed like a pretty good day is way beyond what a lot of other people experience on the river.

08 Aug 2008 8:29 pm

What about bait? OK today I took out five frozen goldeyes and we went and caught five fresh.... The difference in caught rates was 4 to 1 with fresh being king. The suggestion that the frozen did not work as well was even stretched a little when I would replace a piece of frozen (which had not been bitten) and I put the same bait back on that was fresh (and had been chewed) and guess which one was bitten again. Well the experiment was repeated about 10 times..... insome instances to the point where the fresh was left on as skin.... Fresh is best

Computers and fishing

10 Aug 2008 8:29 pm

OK it should be said at the outset that computers and fishing don't mix. So here I am on the river with my laptop hooked up through my cell phone operating as a modem and trying to upload photos to my mail service which in turn would form the basis for a guest that I had fished with two days earlier. Apart from the fact I had a rod going off and another person trying to net a twenty some pound fish and water was being splashed all over the place....what I was doing wasn't all that smart after all..... better to have left it home and to have done it AFTER fishing this day..

Looking at topping up on a few species

02 Sep 2008 8:29 pm

One of the fishing goals that I had at the beginning of this season was to go after some of those species on the master angler list thathad eluded me the years past. I think I've done pretty well this past summer. Now however I believe I've got to go and finish off those species that I started over the past few years. So I guess ts back to the list to make some observations on when it'll be the best time to get the job done.