Snow Day

This past Friday found southern Ontario engulfed in a storm unlike any we had seen in recent years. Much like the storms of my childhood, this storm left in its wake a snowfall that made sidewalks impassable, closed schools and businesses, and wreaked havoc on our roads. It seemed everyone was affected to some degree!

For Nima and I it simply meant our one-hour trip to the fish huts became two and a half hours! And fishing the holes outside the hut wasn’t happening. Too windy, too snowy and no open holes.

So how was the fishing? Not as good as one would have hoped. Sporadic action throughout the morning and early afternoon. At three o’clock though a school of perch decided to cruise through.

With the maximum amount of lines legally allowed down the holes, there were a few times when there were three or four fish hooked at once! But alas, nothing of a size worth keeping. 

For about half an hour just before we were to leave, things did get interesting though. We were fishing in about twenty feet of water. At about six foot below the ice we started to see some larger fish quickly swim by. When our baited hooks were brought to that depth the suspended swimmers would start to show some attention, but quickly sped off. They appeared to be lake whitefish. Twice, one of these suspended fish inhaled the lead weight on the line, so the bait was switched up and presentation altered. 

Fish on! After a short fight a new species for the year was brought through the ice. A Lake Simcoe Cisco, or lake herring.

There is no open season for cisco on Lake Simcoe; and for good reason. Their numbers once rivaled the whitefish, but over fishing took its toll. Whitefish seem to reproduce more successfully and the MNR has been restocking them for many years now. If people continue to release all ciscos caught, we may see the species’ population brought back to a sustainable level. Angler awareness is key. To help with this most rental huts on the lake display a small poster pointing out the differences between whitefish and cisco. The most easily observed differences between the two is the mouth. Characteristic of a bottom dwelling fish, the whitefish’s upper jaw protrudes over the bottom.The cisco’s bottom jaw extends further forward of its upper, indicative of a fish that feeds well above the lake bed.  

I’m sure we’ll be catching plenty of cisco, and releasing them of course, for many years before they’ll be table-fair!