June 2, 2013

Ottawa Redhorse Hunt 2013

Michael and I woke up leisurely (ie, we slept in) and only started our day at 9am. We headed to a river on the Quebec side across from Ottawa to chase after a River Redhorse. This river is probably one of the best bet during the River Redhorse spawn. Eli had seen some 2 weeks ago and lost one on the rod. I was really hoping to find my lifer River Redhorse.

However, we got to the river to see stained and fairly murky waters. Occasionally, muddy water would invade our spot. Still, we gave it a good try. About an hour after we started fishing, I had a few taps on my line and landed a Yellow Perch...false alarm.

A long wait later, I was about to check my line. I started reeling in the line when I felt a heavy but dead weight on the other end. I was saying to Michael that I had a big clump when the weed looked like it was drifting downstream fast. It was strange since the current wasn't running as fast as the weed was moving. Still, it was just like reeling in some dead weight. Then, all of a sudden, the weight started to swing upstream against the current. I was still puzzled until I saw something broke the water and it was a Sliver Redhorse.

This has happened to me a couple of times in the past where I would reel in dead weight only to find a Silver Redhorse at the end of the line. They seemed to take the worm and perhaps just sit there, but each time, they were simply lip hooked. Weird!

A while later, Michael hooked into his own Silver Redhorse which was a gravid female. She was spilling some eggs so we got her back in the water quickly.

It was a while much longer when I had a couple of strong taps and some spinning fight, which we correctly called it as a Channel Catfish. It was just a small one so it was released without pics.

Time was flying when fishing was slow. It was already well after 2pm and we were about to leave. I got a hit closer to shore and the fish immediately started to run. River Redhorse is one of the largest redhorse species and they are the strongest. The fish on my line fought well and I was starting to get hopeful until I saw the grey tail...another Silver Redhorse. It was a very nice Silver, but a bit disappointing since I was hoping it was a River...

Beautiful 21" fish (I was calling this a 17" fish...I should seriously stop underestimating my fish!)

Eli spent the morning dealing with insurance and getting a rental car, then doing some groceries. But by 4pm, he was free to fish. We met up to fish the Ottawa River at a spot where spawning redhorse was often seen porpoising.

We did see a lot of redhorse and they often get us excited, but spawning redhorse often is not the biting kind. Between Eli and I, we caught some perch, a channel catfish, a smallmouth bass, and this lit up 8" Pumpkinseed Sunfish.

But we didn't catch a redhorse...not until Michael and I had to be on our way home at 7pm. We just got on the road when Eli called to say he caught a Silver Redhorse.

As a last try, we stopped at a small river where I caught my Greater Redhorse last spring. We were losing light quickly and in the dim light it was difficult to determine if there were any Greaters in the river or not. Michael gave it a try for 30 minutes while I fed the mosquitoes. I hate mosquitoes! And Michael only caught a few micro Rockbass.

All in all, it was a successful weekend since all of us caught our first American Shad. It was just a total bummer that Eli's car was broken into and he now had to deal with the unnecessary hassle of car repair, insurance and police report. I was glad that we did achieve our goals...or else it would really suck a lot.

No comments:

Post a Comment