Merry Christmas and Happy 2007
Dave and I have been out to Duck Lake three times over the holidays and things have changed since last year. The golden hour is no longer sun up to 9! The mornings we have been out the weather has been overcast, temps just below freezing, very little wind. The fish have been very lethargic first thing, very hard to catch. From 9-10 am things pick up with green scuds fished motionless tipped with a maggot working well. From 10 on the number of fish slow but they are much more aggressive with white soft plastics and jigs enticing the bite. My big fish on Dec 23 was 5lb, 23 inches, Dave bettered me on Dec 26 with a beautiful 24 in male. I can live with that but I had to land my fish alone as he had a second on the line at the same time, while the next day I had to land his not realizing there was still an exposed treble hook flailing about. After impalling my hand there was no way me and the fish were parting. You know fishing in Alberta with barbless hooks has some merits, and that has nothing to do with catch and release survival stats. These are two I caught today. A nice 20 inch rainbow female and a slim spotted mystery fish. Looks like a brookie with spots on the sides, no black on the dorsal like a bull trout, but only other species I know of in Duck is a brown trout.