Greetings,

Today we’re going to discuss one of those fishing trips that seriously payed off. Fishing is the same in all areas of life, you toss a line and hope to hook something, most of the time you catch nothing. Other times, you snag something or pull in something undesirable like say a log or the classic old rubber boot. Also it’s called fishing and not catching for a reason. This update discusses a random river stop that payed out, big time.

I was fishing on Bate Island(cue messed up psycho who lives with his mom) in Ottawa with an old friend when we got the idea that we should link up with a friend from Montreal. Since the two cities are about two hours apart, we decided to meet in the middle aka Hawkesbury as well, it’s only fair right? We get there and within say 10 casts, all of us lose our tackle to some weird demons from the deep and I’m not talking fish but logs, or who knows what.

We reload on some tackle just because we’re crazy like that and jump into one car. We’re driving around looking for a spot and basically going in blind. We’ve done this many times and it usually doesn’t deliver, kinda like panning for gold; this time was different. We found the Rouge River which connects to the Ottawa River and decided to give it a go. We parked the car and made the long trek to the river which was harrowing in it’s own right.

We caught nothing except more snags and were slightly disheartened, these gents near us seemed to be having similar luck. They left and we took their spot and that’s when the magic started happening. It seemed like near every cast we made we’d catch a fish or more likely, lose a fish. We were using worms and weights and going for whatever we could find lurking around the murky bottom. We all got countless tugs and managed to land some serious fish.

Besides the fishing, the area was just picturesque and made me realize how you can travel the world but if you’re from somewhere beautiful, you best appreciate and enjoy it during prime time. The river was cool and on the other side we saw countless people enjoying the sunny Sunday summer day with their families doing all sorts of things like paddle boarding, kayaking and swimming like awkward seals. There were also random white water rafting trips that end here which added to the scenery.

In the end, a friend of mine we’ll call “Blarghchamp” came out the big winner with that monster catfish above. Catfish aren’t exactly prized fish but if you’re hanging with your friends looking for some fun, they are a solid time and always put up a good fight. My other friend with the carp we’ll call just call JP because that’s his name. Personally, I caught the smallest of the lot but was still excited about it and just as much to be out and about on such a nice summer day.

In closing, we spent several hours fishing and it was like being a kid again. I’m a big fan of days that let you forget about everything and get lost in the moment, they happen all too infrequently as we age I find. It’s also days like this that make fishing all worth it, similar to golf where you can hit dozens of bad shots but that one you strike perfectly keeps you coming back for more…

Cool announcement tomorrow, so stay tuned…

Tips hat,