I might as well say it right away, the walleye, which was the target species during this first session, was not very cooperative, but I will still make 5 small ones. However, other surprise protagonists visited me for my greatest pleasure. I will start with the most unexpected: the striped bass, which I was lucky enough to cross the path during this fishing session in search of walleyes.
The striped bass of the St. Lawrence River
In the river, the striped bass had completely disappeared for several decades, due to its professional overfishing. Its reintroduction, initiated in 2012, seems to bear fruit. In this region of Quebec, near Montreal, this fish is protected by the Species at Risk Act. Its fishing is therefore prohibited throughout the year. Accidental catches can happen without anything being done about it, the main thing in this case, is to return the fish to the water in the best conditions.
After catching several striped bass, I decide to move away from the fished area because I doubt that such a concentration is beneficial for the search of walleyes. Moving away from the area, I catch a few small walleyes and I end this first day of the year on the water with another surprise guest: a pike.
The technique
In terms of technique, I was fishing vertically. The fish were capricious on the color of the lure to use and only 3 colors gave me results, namely: the green back and white belly, the yellow back and white belly and the whole white, as if the presence of white was the common element. I wasted a lot of time fishing with a yellow lure, with no results. So, you should not hesitate to change lures often to find the right pattern, something not always easy to do when you are too confident in your lure.
I still have a few days left before closing time to hope to find the big river walleyes, stay tuned.
