Fishing on a shoestring budget

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2017 (3245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As an avid fisherman I frequently watch angling programs on TV and read related articles in the daily paper, which both disappoint and alarm me.

Fish locators, sophisticated and expensive rods, reels, lines, fishing boats, motors, trolling motors, ice augers, portable fishing huts, snowmobiles, ATVs, along with a wide array of expensive lures seem to be necessities.

Many young people observing all this may find the pastime far too complicated and expensive and find other things to do.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. A fishing rod and reel, a few pickerel rigs or snelled hooks, some sinkers, a can of worms, and frozen minnows are enough to get a youngster started.
Programs covering fishing tournaments show the contestants in fancy jackets plastered with advertising decals much like the auto racing fraternity. They zoom around in high-powered boats seeking the hottest fishing holes where they furiously whip the water to a froth.

That’s not fishing, it looks like work to me. Fishing should be an opportunity to get away, relax, and enjoy nature with your dad, granddad or best chum. There are many places in the city or close by where you can catch fish, enjoy nature and companionship without all the complicated and costly paraphernalia.

When spring floods, have subsided we often pack a lunch and head for a favourite spot a short distance from the city. We usually bring along binoculars to observe the wildlife. We usually have the best luck in the afternoon just below the inside bend of the river, where the current slacks off and fish are poised waiting to capture their lunch floating downstream.

After finding a comfortable spot we bait up and cast out into the river. With our rods propped up on forked sticks we relax, study nature and discuss matters of great import, such as the importance of a nearby milkweed patch to monarch butterflies.

Sometimes we  watch a blue heron on the far shore poised motionless, like a Chinese figurine, also fishing. In our favorite spot we have caught walleye, sauger, northern pike, rock bass, silver bass, catfish, bullheads, carp, goldeye, and suckers.

I wont tell you where it is, as much of the fun is in discovering your own fishing hole. But it’s on the Assiniboine, a short distance from the city.  

Ron Buffie is a community correspondent for Transcona. Email him at ronbuffie@shaw.ca