And of course for any camping trip, there is the small question of fishing. It was incredible! Never have we caught so many large fish in such a short time. You will have to ask for the stories that go along with these fish some other time.
We started out fishing quite a bit on the Mattawa River just below the rapids. There we caught a number of smaller small-mouth bass. But the highlight there is a 14.5 lb catfish - 31 inches long, 18 inches in girth that I caught. No picture unfortunately, but that's the official family record for catfish to my knowledge (aside from Dad's unofficial cat in Jordan Harbour, and aside from any picture-less fish that Jer remembers catching. :) Just kidding, of course.)
After Curt, Jen, Phillip, and Ruth left, Dad, Mom, and I discovered another place, outside of the park. The location is classified... we might let you in on it for a price. :)
First of all, I caught a 3.8 lb large-mouth bass there.
Then soon after that I caught a 4.4 lb walleye! This fish actually broke the line right next to the shore, whereupon Dad jumped in and caught it with his bare hands. So the credit goes just as much to Dad as to myself. Here you can see the two fish. We let the bass go, and made a fish-fry out of the walleye (cut into pieces and fry in egg and bread crumbs).
Then on the following day, Dad caught a 1 lb largemouth, and then I caught a 5 lb largemouth! This was my biggest largemouth ever, though Jonathan still holds the (unofficial?) record for his Florida bass.
Actually, this bass has a bit of a story as well. We decided to keep it, and left it tied up on the shore. But we came to get it just before we were going to go, and a turtle had been chewing on it! :( All in all, we probably lost a pound of meat to the turtle (though the 5 lbs measurement was taken in the pre-turtle era.) We ate this one as well (deep fried with batter). Here is a picture so you can see the turtle effect a little better. (The other side was worse.)
And finally on the next day, Dad wrestled a fish out of the one location that we had been trying for a while. It was a 4.2 lb largemouth. (Dad's biggest?) We let this fish go, as (needless to say) we had just had two very big fish dinners.
I've never seen fishing like that before. Incredible, eh? Too bad Curt and Jen and Ruth and Phillip couldn't have stayed a bit longer!
5 comments:
Wow, looks like you enjoyed yourselves. I assume you'll be going back there since you had so much success with the fishing? I hope you didn't eat the catfish.
I certainly hope we'll be able to go back there! There's a number of big ones we still have to catch that broke our lines and got away. :)
No, we didn't eat the catfish. Catfish are great eating though - we certainly could have, except that it would have been way too much meat. It's surprising that they taste so good, because they're bottom feeders, but we do eat small ones out of Jordan Harbour quite often.
Hey Laurie, we are thinking of going back there, but we're waiting again for you to come with us!!! ...just let us know!
WEll It looks like you guys had some good fishing on the Mattawa and Ottawa river. I was wondering if you could let me know where you caught most of your big bass or where you had the most successe. I know you may not want to share them but I thought I would write you cause it sounds like you guys caught some good fish. Anyways if you want to let me know that would be great, you can email me at vanmierlo_30@hotmail.com. Thank you and I hope you have more great fishing trips ahead of you.
Brian
Hey there. I'm planning to go up there for Canada day as a camping trip and fishing trip with my girfriend. Have you been back there lately? I looking forward to all the fishing also since this is my 2nd summer fishing. Email me and let me know how's it been up there:) I'm looking for bass too!! :p Allan_w28@hotmail.com
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