Come fishing with me

It's a lovely day. A bit of ice still clings to the banks of the creek but the sun is shining and it's a few degrees above freezing. Hopefully, we'll make the acquaintance of a rainbow trout (steelhead) or two. Some have already been upstream and spawned but most are on their way.

This area is only a couple of miles from my house. It's a slow, meandering stretch of creek that threads it's way through a tangle of hoary old willow trees, into an open, marshy area with a marina and condominiums, before emptying into Lake Ontario. There is a lot of birdlife in the area, primarily Canada geese, ducks of many species, swans, hawks and gulls.

Today I'm fishing at my 2nd-favourite spot. If you look at the pic, you'll see it's at the confluence of two creeks. The intermingling of scents give fish pause while they decide which one they'll enter. While they're pondering, I like to offer them something to eat.

I see no signs at all of fish movement. Luckily, other happenings divert my attention.

Three geese wander by. Yes, that's a chair on the opposite bank for the convenience of a weary angler.

Behind where I'm fishing is a marshy area which teems with birdlife at times. It's a favoured nesting area for ducks, geese, swans and redwing blackbirds.

Speaking of swans.... Can't really tell from the photo but these guys can really scoot. They often leave a wake when paddling.

"What the heck is this?" you ask. Well, it's some of the leavings from previous anglers. The pink, green and yellow bits near the top are torn pieces of light mesh which once held a few fish eggs (the gold/amber blob near the bottom) in dime-sized sacks/snacks. Trout and other salmonids like eating eggs that drift downstream from spawning couples. So anglers use eggs for bait.

The gander taking a gander on the right held that pose for a good 10 minutes. He was listening to another goose calling from the marsh behind me and, I'm sure, prepping himself for battle if the need arose. He spent a goodly chunk of the day harassing other males who came too near his lady friends.

What was it we were doing here again?

Oh yeah.

After four+ hours of fruitless drifting with roe, flies and artificials, I hooked on a small worm. On the 3rd pass my float dipped and stayed down. I set the hook and felt a sluggish resistance. "Sucker" I thought. I didn't mind. Homely suckers provide at least a bit of excitement. This one felt fairly heavy, perhaps four pounds or so.

A minute later, as I worked the fish closer I caught a glimpse of silver.

Suckers are bronze.

Woohoo! A minute or so later, I eased a nice, dinner-sized rainbow (about 2 1/2 lbs) out of the water.

You can see in the pic that her anal fin (closest to the tail) and the bottom half of her tail are worn. That's from digging a nest (redd) out of the stream bottom.

Fresh air, sunshine, wildlife and a fish - not too shabby a day. Glad you could come along. Let's do it again sometime.

Edited to add: Q sent me a link which is cute and relates to this post - sorta. Click the end of this sentence, wait a minute or two and you'll see the fish's revenge.