Open Water Season Begins
Erza let out a few high-pitched, whiney barks, and wiggled her whole body like only an Australian Shepherd can. She wasn’t the only one excited. We were all finally sitting in the boat and open water season had started!
I’m not sure there’s been many years we’ve been on smaller lakes that were ice free by March 16th. In fact, our first trip to this particular lake most years involves a fair bit of ice breaking and limited open water. What a weird year this has been.
We’ve been preparing for open water for weeks now, ever since we stopped at the boat launches in Owen Sound and Meaford and found they were ice free. Between some work to the boat and crappy wind forecasts, we hadn’t yet made it out. In that time, the smaller lakes in our area were fast losing ice and by this week, we were good to go.
Last night after work we were in the boat and Erza’s excitement could not be contained.
The wind was blowing and after a few minutes the chill started to settle in. I realized quickly that even though I was wearing my ice fishing jacket, I wasn’t dressed as warm as I could be, even for a short trip.
Ducks and geese were scattered across the lake as we made our way up from the boat launch. The water was clear as could be, with a surface temp of 39.8F. On our first trip to any lake after a period of time, I’m always interested to see if there are new changes, but there didn’t seem to be any new trees down or any changes to the structure we would normally fish.
There wasn’t a whole lot of time to be on the water this first outing, but we were able to put the motor through its paces, make sure the boat ran as expected, and start setting up the new fish finder. Over the winter we’d picked up a Humminbird Helix 7 that would network with our trolling motor and there are a lot of new functions for us to work through.
While the dogs slept, we drove by the same logs over and over just to get the side imaging set up the way we wanted.
It felt FANTASTIC to be out on the water once again. There’s something about being in a boat that just soothes a part of my soul that nothing else can touch.
In the end, we didn’t even do any fishing. We just enjoyed being out there and setting up the boat for the season. We were back on the road just as it was getting dark. A wonderful first outing.
Today, Saturday, we did it all over again. The strong wind again kept us from heading to Georgian Bay, but the conditions were fine to head back to our local lake.
This time we managed to get some fishing in, and though we marked some fish, nothing bit. Despite the lack of bites, I sure feel a whole lot happier tonight. I also find myself feeling the need to get out on the water again. It’s addictive.
Thank goodness for open water!
argosgirl
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