Fishing

We had planned to go to Lake Erie fishing for Walleye. We left Waterloo at 5:30am, launched at Lake Erie and drove out a few miles — where I found the lake just a bit rougher than I’d like. So we turned around, drove all the way back to the launch, trailered the boat and headed for Lake Simcoe, a 2.5 hour drive at that point.

We didn’t get fishing on Simcoe until the afternoon but it turned out to be well worth it. We caught over 40 jumbo perch and only had one so small that we threw it back. Plus 4 catfish. And all three of us were mathies so lots of talk about Stats 333 final exam.

Four students and I went perch fishing on Lake Simcoe. Hard fishing at the start but we eventually landed on the perch and got enough for everyone for a meal or two. We had a couple ice cream experts in the crew so a lot of conversation about Chapmans vs Kawartha. So we finished up with our latest ritual — going for ice cream after fishing. Conveniently, there’s an ice cream store near where we go fishing. Fishing + ice cream, a great day all around.

A couple of successful perch fishing trips. Followed by… ice cream at What’s The Scoop in Innisfil. Turns out the ice cream was a huge hit with students, so I think that’s a new tradition.

So this trip was a mess that turned into a ton of fun. We were supposed to be headed north to Shining Tree for a four day fishing trip, but my friends up north said the lake still had ice. So in a last-minute scramble, I booked a campsite in Eastern Ontario (where I’m from originally). Myself and three students headed there for some St. Lawrence fishing like I did when I was a kid.

Except — boat mechanical difficulties, and we ended up with no boat for the entire weekend. Which almost sucks, but we made do; we “went on a tour” as we say back home. Hopped in the truck and started to drive. Went to St. Albert’s dairy and had some authentic Quebec poutine. Went to a huge flea market and spent some hours browsing. We visited the original farm where the McIntosh apple was discovered in the 1800’s. And headed to my sister’s hobby farm to collect some eggs and do some target shooting.

So it wasn’t a great fishing trip, but it was a great trip in the end. We had a lot of fun, had a lot of good food.

This trip was a blast. Students were a lot of fun, we had some breakdancing on the ice, caught almost no fish but stayed warm. And a new camaraderie-building exercise — I brought the fixings for tea and a hot lunch, so mid-morning we all huddled in the tent for some tea and cookies, then had a hot lunch on the ice. The food and gathering really make these trips fun.

Oh yeah, and homemade flakies!

Back perch fishing on Lake Simcoe. Fall fishing is always successful — this time I caught a bowfin (not edible unfortunately). Students took home enough fish for a few meals. Good to see some of the students returning for second trips.

Back for more perch fishing with some old friends and new friends (both the women have been on various trips with me before).

Perch fishing in the fall on Simcoe is off the rails. We rented a pontoon boat and caught a ton of fish. We also had a bit of motor trouble — I’m not even sure what. Half the boat were engineering students so all I did was lift the motor up and a bunch of them analyzed, pondered, and fixed whatever the problem was.

Took some old friends and some new ones out for a day perch fishing.

For this trip I took out some newbs, launched at Cooks Bay Marina. We had a slow start so we moved around a bit. Once we found them we really found them; we ended up with 35 keepers and more of them were huge perch than I’ve ever seen before. Normally we get a couple huge monsters, this time every second fish was larger than the last. All in all a fun time.

Ice fishing in 2024 really sucked. We made it out one weekend to Lake Simcoe with about 6 inches of ice, then one more weekend where there was just over 4 inches of ice. After that it was too sketchy for me. We had planned an ice fishing trip to Bay of Quinte as well, but we cancelled that as there just wasn’t enough thick ice for me to be comfortable taking students out.

I’ve noted elsewhere that I went back to University of Waterloo to finish my degree, at an advanced age. Finished my undergrad degree in math in 2020, and in November 2023 I completed my masters, also at UW. As sort of a wrap up, I wanted to do take a larger group fishing. So we took my fishing boat plus rented a pontoon boat from Cook’s Bay Marina, and about 14 of us went fishing for the day.

It started out very rough and choppy and no fish. I was starting to get concerned that I was going to have over a dozen students with no fish. We eventually moved around a bit, got properly anchored, and it was on like Donkey Kong. Ended the day with about 200 perch, everyone took home more than enough food for a few meals.

Pics from a couple of fishing trips to Lake Simcoe in Summer 2023. Mostly students, but on PhD student wanted to bring her father along who was visiting from Jordan. Always nice to do a family fishing trip.

I took four students shore fishing on Canada day, around the Waterloo area. We had no success (see the lunch photo) but had fun. We had stopped near the Grand River to try our luck, but needed directions. So I stopped beside an old asian fellow with a bucket and a fishing rod and asked him where we could park to get to the river. No english was his response. I look around the truck and said Seriously? Nobody here speaks Mandarin, huh? Yeah, everyone spoke Mandarin except me apparently. Anyway after some translation we made it down to the Grand. Plus Baden Pond, and the Nith River in New Hamburg.

I have a secret honey hole for perch that’s completely dead most of the year, but for a few weeks in April/May it’s off the rails. Pulling up two 12-13” perch every time you drop your line down. It’s the craziest perch fishing we do every year. Last year I had to shut it down because our live well was full. I honestly couldn’t put any more perch in (and we were still well below our limit). Here’s some pics from 2023:

When I take students fishing, I have little time to fish myself. Between putting on bait, taking fish off, and dodging hooks I spend my time making sure the students are fishing. So in May, I decided “I” was going fishing. It was my fishing trip, but others could come along, but they’d have to help with camp setup, dishes, etc. Below are the pics from our trip - we caught a few walleye and pike, froze, and had fun.

Had a lot of fun with these guys, and caught a mess of perch on Simcoe.

I first met Frank (Fakkhur) some years ago on an ice fishing trip I’d organized. He’s from Tunisia BTW. He asked if we could do a polar dip, I laughed and said sure, because, uh, no, you can’t get in the water through a 6 inch hole. Anyway, he showed up with a change of clothes and was disappointed. In a number of trips since then he’s always wanted to go swimming. So this past summer, I took him and a buddy fishing. Then when we were done we went way out in the middle of the lake, anchored, and jumped in for a dip.

Last couple of years I’ve organized a charter fishing trip to Erie, on a quest for large walleye. On this trip we ended up taking two boats, with some of my buddies plus some students.

One of the fellows that comes along fishing with me has a username ‘chncs’ which he says means ‘chances’ but I choose to call him Chickens. Close enough. Here’s some pics from a couple of fishing trips the two of us did.