Seasonal Reflections: Insights, Adaptations & Strategy

Heading into our last session of the 2023 Quebec Provincials (In Memory of Mark Anderson), Morgan McLean and I were tied for first with only a few fish points separating us . Our final session was on Lac Taunton at Kenauk Nature in Montebello, QC. The session began and my boat partner and I agreed on a plan to start in a shallow choke point which connects the two major parts of the lake and focus on the weeds and the opposing drop offs. I began with a Di3, Halloween Damsel on the point, vampire in the middle and candy floss booby on the top dropper (predictable I know). Julio Rodriquez was on the bow and I was on the motor, he wasted in no time in getting 2 in the boat in the opening 30 minutes. I then proceeded to drop a fish at the net which conveniently took the booby off the surface as I had my rod high in the air as I was beginning to cast.. Bad hook set, bad angling. Julio lands another one. Keeping cool but fighting the urge to Tom Brady launch my rod. At almost half way through the session, the line finally went tight and I finally got to get the score sheet out, phew. This strategy wasn’t working and we knew we had to switch it up. Julio mentioned they had good success on the Western corner of the lake during practice, a 20 minute boat ride from where we were.. We pulled the trigger and went for it. Committed to this plan, it needed to pay off. We did two drifts into the bay with no signs of life. Now there is 50 minutes left, I suggested we go try in front of the old Taunton Chalet where a pipe enters the lake. On the boat ride there, I swapped out my sinking line and pulling set up for the bung. Two chewing gum worms at 8’ and 12’. By the time we had drifted in close to shore, my bung finally submerged and I was hooked up. Along with the next two casts. In 5 minutes, I went from 1 away from blank to 4 fish on the score sheet and 1 ahead of Julio. That was all that Taunton had to offer me that day as the horn blew to end the session. Getting back to the dock, I had 1 more fish than Julio and Morgan signalled he had also landed 4 while dropping another in the last 5 minutes.. Luckily I had some good fish points from the morning session on Mills where I landed 31. Totalling 54 fish throughout 4 sessions with Morgan having 5 shy of me. Great end to the season!

In reflection of this, my biggest growth as an angler, specifically a competitive angler shows through in company of anglers of better or similar calibre. Similar to other disciplines, if you’re not surrounding yourself with people that share common goals and are constantly pushing themselves to be better, you’ll stay stagnant. Having anglers in your group of the likes of Ian Troup, Morgan McLean, Jim Iredale and Sabrina Barnes; you’re forced to make quick decisions, make changes on the fly and capitalize when it counts.

All that to say I recognized a few critical difference makers this season which helped me stay near or at the top.

Spare rod tip - This is something that I never thought through until it happened. During my 3rd session on Mills, my rod tip broke on a cast. Typically, you have a spare rod and this requires you to chop flies, reel in, break down your rod, store it, pull out your spare rod, add reel, line the rod, tie on flies. Even if you’re Spanish quick, this is way too long. At the beginning of this season, I purchased back up rod tips for all my lake rods. So in this event, all I had to do was strip the end of my fly line to just below the tip section, cut the knot from my line to my leader, replace the tip, thread the fly line into the new tip section and throw in a trusty clinch knot. Boom, back to fishing a shorter period of time then I’ve seen people change flies. If I had to set up a new rod and go through that whole process, it could have been enough time for Ian Troup to put a few more fish on the board and put me from 1st to 2nd.

Fighting Fish - If you think you’re fighting fish hard enough, you’re probably not. This is a game of efficiency, conversion and time management. The majority of the fish that we fish here in Eastern Canada in stocked lakes, haven’t earned their keep to be babied. This is not without nuance, there will always be situations where you need to adjust your fish playing to larger fish, wild fish, thinner tippet, doubles and triples. Without those, a 15” rainbow while using 8lb or 6lb test needs to brought in with steady speed. I raise my rod over my head, giving me maximum strip distance (6’ per strip) and do so as fast as I can. Raising the rod has high as possible also helps get their head out of the water and gives you the chance to surf them in with little resistance. The longer you play the fish, the more opportunity you give it to jump, have slack and come off.

Preparation, Intuition and Action - I’ll wrap this up with a 3 part bullet that all ties together. Preparation stems past pre-fishing and having a plan. It’s making sure you have pre-tied leaders and more than you think you need. Preferably with flies tied on them or at minimum, the point fly. I’ve tried a variety of pre-rigging units and the one that works best for me is a piece of pool noodle. Anything in rectangular shape with sharp 180’ turns to wrap the line on or the single, small foam cylinders either kinks the line too much or adds unnecessary memory.

Intuition is what I believe separates the great anglers from the good anglers. This is the ability to constantly be collecting information and weighing it against all your years of experience while having 100% of focus in the moment. Being able to layer that experience on top of what you’re observing throughout a session can make all the difference. It is rare that something you’re doing is going to work for a full 3 hour session and being able to adjust with the changes of pressure, weather, big activity etc. in order to have consistent action throughout is key. A huge difference maker is when the fishing shuts down temporarily, not settling for what comes next but to make necessary changes to turn it back on. This could mean finding fresh fish by changing location, adjusting the depth of your flies, colour and size of your flies, tippet diameter, number of flies or distance between them. I remember during my 4th session at the Commonwealth Fishing Championships in Mont Tremblant on Lac Renversis. This lake was a grind and in many cases, one where you just needed to save the blank. I had tried everything that we learned in practice and what my teammates had success with in the 3 prior sessions, nothing was working. With 45 minutes left, I cut off my 3 fly rig with 8lb fluro, rolled off 18’ of straight 6lb and a single damsel. Shortly after this change, I landed 2 fish back to back and that was good enough for a 2nd place in that session.

Action - I’ll never forget this quote from John Horsey and I repeat it to everyone I know. “If you’re thinking about it, it’s too late”. Meaning, by the time you’ve subconsciously rummaged through options of switching up what you’re doing and it eventually reaches your conscious, you already should have made the change. Far too often we debate back and fourth about making that move to a new location, changing lines or different flies. When in reality, you need to trust your intuition and more often than not, it pays off. Worst case scenario, you took a small amount of time, tried something you felt may work and could go back to or try something else. This ties back to preparation, having everything in order to be able to act in an instant. Having all your spare spools handy, visible and ready to change, various pre-tied leader options in order to act on a new plan immediately. If not, this will take up too much valuable time and could further deter you from making that necessary modification.