It all came together for a week of fishing
By Hookemharry

Posted: July 17, 2008

Every once in a while, the fishing stars align and we are able to put all our other obligations hold. That was the case for me last week and I made my mind up to take advantage of it. I fished the entire time.

This may sound strange coming from a guy who most people think fishes for a living as I gather information for my weekly outdoor radio shows and this column. But it’s really not that way.

This week, however, I planned to go solo — take a nap when I wanted, eat when I wanted, fish when I wanted.

I started my week at Canyon Ferry Reservoir fishing for walleye. The first day I caught close to 20 fish, but none of them were over 15 inches. The next day fishing was slow in the morning with only a small walleye caught.

I was fishing on the north end of the lake when I learned from my marine radio that the wind would be picking up in the afternoon with gusts to 35 miles per hour. I moved to a spot where I had fished earlier in the month on the very south end of the lake. By the time I arrived at my fishing spot the wind was blowing very hard, but the waves were not a problem because the winds were coming out of the south. For the next hour and half, I pulled in 14 walleyes with an 18 inch and 22 inch the biggest.

I planned on leaving Canyon Ferry to head over to Noxon Reservoir that next day and used Friday as a travel day moving my boat and fifth-wheel camper to Polson. The next day it was off to Noxon Reservoir to try to catch one of those monster northern pike.

I didn’t know the lake but got a great overview from John at Lakeside Motel.

I was on the water at 9am and by 5pm I had put 24 miles on my boat reaching all the spots on a map John provided. I fished about every pike lure I had in my tackle box, and only had a half dozen perch and a couple of bass to my credit, but it’s a beautiful spot and I’ll be back.

The next day, my son Harry joined me in Polson and we headed to Lake Mary Ronan to catch some kokanee salmon. By noon, we had only three fish, although other anglers seemed to be having some good success. So we decided to try our luck at nearby Lone Pine Reservoir where Harry and his buddies had done well on northern pike while ice fishing.

After trolling and casting a lure into every weed bed on this small lake we came back empty-handed. “This just isn’t our day”, said Harry. Yes it may not have been our day for catching, but for me, it sure was a great week of fishing.

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