Best Day on the Water that I did not catch a Fish

[zippyFX]

Fishing have been tough for me in September and October. Nothing I want to target seems to be around when I am ready for it. A little frustrating. To make matters work, I was working with some jagged aluminum in my back yard, in the dark and ended up getting 10 stitches on the top of my hand near my knuckles. The wound is relatively healed but keeps opening up when I go fishing which has dampened my motivation.

I was out one day a couple of weeks ago though and as I set up I saw a hatch was in progress. SOL for me I was thinking. I had brought worms as I was looking for mooneye but I had some Jigs and lures with me and medium gear.

Low and behold over the next two hours, I got to watch a meriad of fish feeding on the hatch and feeding on the fish that were feeding on the hatch. the water was crystal clear and I was watching large Gar swim in and out of the area, there was musky, pike, bass, walleye and some interesting fish I could not identify. No mooneye though....

I got a timid hit on my work early on which I thought was a cat but as I horsed it in I watched a nice silver fall off my hook before i noticed and had time to play the fish better. Oh well.... No other fish could be distracted long enough to take what I was offering and I tried a whack of things (including some flys which I had with me) . I would have loved having some minnows that evening. It was a really nice experience to see all those species out.

I got a bucket of minnows and went out about a week later. 3 people were out that night and the bites were supper slow. One of the guys fishing liver for cats got one but that was it (this place usually gives up cats like no tomorrow); the Cat bite is dying off unexpectedly early this year with water temps still good; Maybe i'll go see if I can get an incidental sturgeon.

The funny thing is the night I went out on my Montreal Sturgeon trip last week (report to follow) the Mooneye were every where but I did not have the right terminal tackle to target them.

Fun times!

[MuskieBait]

Such is fishing life...

When I first started Gar fishing, I saw these HUGE Redhorse in the river...and I had no worms. They were easily 8-10lb and I suspect they may be River Redhorse. I've never seen them again...although I have caught Shorthead Redhorse, Silver Redhorse and Greater Redhorse from the same location.

I'm sure they were not Common Carp or Greater Redhorse. The tail was really red and more forked than those two species.

Hope the action will be better the next time you fish...maybe an incidental Sturgeon will come knocking