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Spearfishing report from Montreal
A quick report on Saturday's miracle spearfishing day
in lake St-François (40 miles west of Montreal)
Saturday afternoon; René Potvin, Sébastien
Beaume and I went to our favourite spot in Valleyfield, on lake St-François..
The water was warmer than usual, and the weather stormy. I think that's
what drove the fish crazy... they were everywhere: from trash fish (carps
and german carps), to eels, bass, perches, and of course, our favourite:
the walleye pickerels! Big ones!
There was a scuba spearo on the spot before us. He told
us it was a good day, and showed us his catch: tiny bass and tiny walleyes;
I mean REALLY tiny!!! the type that we would put back in the water when
we're line fishing!!! Anyway, he said: this is a good day! So I understood
from that, this is what he knew of as big fish :-(
René was the first in the water (as usual!). By
the time I was getting ready to start fighting the 3 to 6 knots heavy currents,
the Scuba guy comes running to me and yells:
-" Hey! Your friend has got two BEASTS!!! already!"
I answered calmly:
-"are they less than 10 lb each?"
He goes:
-"Well, they are about 8 to 10 lb each for sure"
_ "then", I replied "he must have caught these with his
hands, we usually
shoot nothing under 10 lb"
He turned white, I'm telling you...
I missed three times in a row; God's way of teaching me
never to be mean to other spearos, even if they use Scuba gear and shoot
way undersized fish...
After I took my hood off (I was sweating and choking....
my bottom time was a lousy 30 to 40 sec max.), I felt like a third lung
just grew in my chest, and I started really sweeping the 30 ft argyle and
rocks bottoms... shot 3 big walleyes and 1 bass in less than an hour. But
we were exhausted from fighting the currents. I mean, the cardio-vascular
workout of your lifetime, let me tell you...
René got his limit in no time... 6 walleyes, and
Sébastien got 2 walleyes and 4 bass
Then, René came out of the water screaming! He
saw the biggest fish in his life: a giant northern musky! a 5 foot beast...
Unfortunately, it is illegal to spear... only anglers can keep it. Well!
As a good law abiding citizen, he watched it lazily swim by, and came out
of the water crying....
It was a pain in the back for two people to carry all
the fish back to the car... A truly great hunting day! The walleyes were
between 7 and 13 lb.
Yesterday, Sunday, René and Sébastien went
back to the same spot. They got 6 walleyes. The weather was really
bad, though, and the swells were hard to live with. I couldn't join them
though, as I was 2000 ft away, at the ATA (American Trap Association) mandatory
qualifying 300 target shoot. I was so exhausted from the day before dive,
I barely qualified for the next shoot (in Vermont). My Browning over-under
shotgun kicked me so hard, my right face is all swollen this morning.
The world Championship will be held in Ohio, in August.
Cross your fingers for me :-)
Have a great week everybody (here in Quebec, it's St-John
the Baptist national Holiday tomorrow. I am leaving for Toronto in 5 minutes
now. I will staying there until Wednesday. Friday, we are leaving to Rhode
Island , for the 29th of June Blue Water meet. Hope to see as many list
members as possible there. We will be staying in the U.S. until Tuesday
at least, as it will be a long weekend (July 1st is Canada Day...)
Would you like to see the
"catch of the day"?
for some pictures!
Roger Yazbeck
Monday June 23rd, 1997
Next: "Blue
Water Meet in Rhode Island report"
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