Summary of my 2010 fishing season

As I don't have any more outings planned until freeze up, it's time to post my yearly summary of my 2010 season.

I didn't do any ice fishing at all in 2010. I got fed up chasing small pike around Montreal, and most perch and walleye under ice just didn't make it worth my while last winter, as I got really busy with some work related projects.

I got out as soon as the ice melted in March, as spring came very early this year. Sold my boat in April, so I was mainly limited to shore fishing most of the season, besides for a few boat outings and a couple week long fishing trips.

I'll summarize by species, starting with personal best achieved:

Brown trout:
Went out for my first stream wading outing in June, managed to catch my first 4 or 5 brown trout ever. Though they were all under 9 or 10 inches, they made for a delicious meal.



Perch:
Not a species I usually write about, but a managed a 13 inch beauty trolling a Rapala CD-9 in the St Lawrence River. My son also manage a nice 12 incher in a lake up North during our annual summer vacation.


Musky:
Landed a nice 7-8 lb musky while jigging walleye, also lost a very nice 15 lb + musky that spit my jig.



That was it for personal records broken for me, though my kids broke their records for perch, bass, carp, bluegills, walleye and channel cats, as we did many varied outings that were highly productive.

Back to my standard species, starting with game fish:

Bass fishing was a mixed bag this season. The Smallmouth bass were fewer and smaller than the previous few years. Largemouth bass fishing was more productive, the numbers were crazy, but I didn't manage any over 4 lbs.



The pike numbers were OK, but for the most part, they were a lot smaller than previous years, biggest being a 4.5 lb pike caught on my annual trip up North.



The walleye were better than previous years. Though I wasn't able to troll my spots for big ones without my boat, I hit many in the 2-3 lb range jigging from the shore. My August trip up to Lac LeNotre was the highlight of my walleye season, also caught my biggest ones of the season there, two 4 lb fish.



Though I didn't dream of catching any muskies from the shore, I actually hooked two while jigging. The first one was a nice 15+ lb musky that spit my jig after a few head shakes, the second one was about 7-8 lbs, landed on my last outing of the season while jigging walleyes.



Off to bottom feeders:

I planned to target sturgeons more, but got caught up with other species most of the time. I did manage 1 small 5-6 lb sturgeon in June, most of my other attempts ended up with me catching channel cats or eels.



The channel catfish season was very short for me this year. June was good, but night fishing in the summer was dismal. Note that I was initiating my wife into fishing, and she can't take the heavy bugs that infest our shorelines after dark, so all my evening outing ended rather quickly.



Carp fishing was quite good this year. I switched over to boily / hair rig combinations, and my average size remained over15 lbs all season, up 3-4 lbs from previous seasons. I lost one in the 30 lb range, landed a few 20s, the biggest a 26 lb carp in September. I didn't do enough carp outings, hope to do more next season.



Managed 2 fishing / camping trips over the summer, one being a free trip my son won from the FPQ a couple years before. My first trip was the usual bass opener, fishing was a bit slower than the previuos year, but we still managed lot's a bass, along with some monster perch and pumpkinseed sunfish with the kids.



The second outing was a classic walleye adventure. Went to a new lake/region that I'd never been to with my eldest son, spent 5 days on a remote lake. The sonar we brought along really saved us, we managed to catch walleye and pike while trolling deep divers. When the trolling slowed down or was impossible due to wind, we drifted worm/bottom bouncer combos and did quite well. When the wind finally died down, vertical jigging did the trick.


After 16 years of marriage, I finally initiated my wife into fishing. After a few failed catfish outings, I took her carping, she ended up catching a few in the 15 lb range, as well as a nice 22 pounder.





All in all, another good season that I'm satisfied with, and lot's of nice pics for my collection.

Hope you all enjoyed your fishing season as much as I did, and wish you all the best for 2011.