2014

This year was rather uneventful. I upgraded some of the fish sizes, and started to get an idea of how difficult chasing some species was going to be. During these years I was at school during from fall to spring and rarely fished during this time. I had a few trips in the fall and winter targeting trout and got skunked every trip. .

My major achievement this year was learning how to catch carp. I spent most of my summer chasing them, and to this day they remain one of my favourite species to target. I used a bolt rig set-up that allowed the carp to hook themselves in the corner of the mouth. I used this rig in my local creek with good success and also managed a few carp out of a few other spots. You can see that my terrible handling progressively gets better as the year goes on.

The highlight of the carp trips was on a nostalgia trip with my dad. We drove a few hours to where my dad grew up as a kid, and there was a park there with a creek and a pond. A bunch of families were fishing on the deeper side of the pond for bass and panfish. We set up in the shallower area on the other side and targeted carp. Every time a carp ran we had families walking by stop and watch (most were there to fish as well). The last (and largest one) took my rod into the water since I forgot to reset my drag. A kid and his dad were walking by with a little spider man rod. The kid asked my 100 questions while reeling the fish in. So I got him to help me let it go. It was a blast and I really do hope I made his day.

Some carps the last two were from my dads nostalgia trip

After the carp fishing we tried a spot that used to hold a population of inland rainbow trout. This was no longer the case as the water was very warm and silty. It did hold some stonecats though so that is a new species. Afterwards we tried a trout farm that did not actually have trout, but it did hold a lot of bass and sunfish.

Species #16 Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)- yes I am well aware it took a few years to catch a fish it should have taken two minutes no need to rub it in

 Species #17 Green Sunfish (Lepomi cyanellus)- Also aware this should have taken 2 minutes

Species #18 Stonecat (Noturus flavus)- The largest member of the madtom family, also has venomous spines, do not step on

Species #19 Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) my first picture wont load for some reason, so this is a random one from Thunder Bay. My first one had a severe case of black spot