Father’s Day Fishing With The Fur Kids
Having a small boat can be a real benefit in some situations. It is extremely cost-effective, can be launched in any lake or pond (and even some rivers), it requires little maintenance, and it can be thrown in the back of the truck if we have trailer problems. However, it does come with some drawbacks, the biggest of which is the lack of space for our two dogs. This is a major problem if we are fishing somewhere that requires a large amount of equipment, such as trolling on Lake Ontario. Our Australian Shepherd, in particular, loves to spend a day in the boat, and he is quite persistent about letting us know he is not pleased if we leave without him.
On Sunday we were faced with one of those situations. Did we bring our usual allotment of rods and tackle, or did we par down and bring the dogs? Since it was Father’s Day, the only solution was to lighten the gear and and let two rambunctious dogs leap into the truck. Their happy faces and Darrell’s laughter left me grinning, and the mood in the truck seemed to match the sunny skies and warm temperature.
Launching the boat with the dogs around is always an adventure. They don’t like to be separated from either of us so whether they’re in the truck with Darrell, or in the boat with me, they are rarely sitting still and usually getting in the way. Leaving them in the truck seems to be the best solution, but watching them scramble into the boat when I pull up to the dock, and cringing as they end up stumbling near the rods, always makes me question that approach.
Jack loves the boat. He’s very comfortable in it, can move around easily, and enjoys spending the day out there with us.
Molly, on the other hand, has a hard time sitting still. She likes to sit in different areas, and usually ends up sitting on me as much as possible. Her favorite activity is jumping overboard when she’s hot and going for a swim.
Happy Jack.
Sleepy Jack.
We had fished this lake two weeks ago with some outstanding results. Between us, we caught and released over 40 pike and had some fun with perch and sunfish. The pike were not big, but when they are biting like that, it’s hard to care what size they are. A repeat of that day was hardly expected, but two casts into the day I landed the first pike, Jack got to have a sniff, and I released it, feeling pretty good about the start.
Our pike pattern was consistent from the previous outing – weed beds near shore with easy access to deep water. Most often they were hitting on the edges of the weeds, and the presence of sticks increased the number of fish caught in the area. As the afternoon stretched on, the bites increased, with our best action coming later in the day. My white Terminator spinnerbait was too tempting for the toothy critters to pass up, while Darrell was catching them on a spinnerbait, buzzbait, and crankbait. White or sunfish colours got most of the bites.
A nicer pike for the day.
With each fish brought into the boat, Jack had to inspect it. He is such a fish-loving dog. Molly did not care about the fish as much as just being wherever we were. To my surprise, she did not decide to go for a swim, which meant I was able to stay dry for the entire outing. Both of them seemed content to just spend the afternoon out there with us, and it was nice for Darrell and I to not feel guilty about leaving them at home. I like to think that Darrell ended up having a nice Father’s Day with our fur kids. I know I enjoyed having another blockbuster pike day. The toothy ones are always fun, even when they break my beloved spinnerbait.
The dogs slept peacefully when we returned home, with the odd groan as they dreamed. Maybe they were dreaming about fish, just like we do.
argosgirl
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