Ice out carp fishing

Spring was late in arriving this year, finally made it out for my first open water outing of the season, more than one month later than last year. Despite the warm weather we've had for a few days, many areas of the river still have large patches of melting slush in the surface.

As outlined in my previous tip of the week post, spicy baits and lot's of patience are in order this time of the year, besides for fishing the warmest days during peak hours of heat.

Landed my first carp of the season on one of my fireball boilies about 2 hours into the outing, my 6 year old son got his initiation as net man for the first time as well as being my photographer.

For most of the day, he kept busy catching a variety of other species and critters.

He managed to land some decent size perch. Though they open for year round harvest in the zone we fished, I don't eat fish from the St Lawrence river, so they were all returned to spawn in good condition.

To my surprise, he was able to catch a goby by hand, as it cam very shallow to warm up in the sun.

He tried the same with a crayfish, and quickly learned how not to grab once next time he tries. Ouch!

This baby bullhead catfish was floating near the surface almost dead, he got some more net practice.

And his first up close look at a big frog.

Now there's one 6 year old that's going to sleep well tonight.