2023 Year End Post - Fishing with Family

[BlueEye]

Happy New Year LOU!  Hope you all had a good fishing season last year and were able to find some time to get out on the water.  I didn't get out as much as I would have liked to for muskies on the river due to the busy schedule that comes with having two daughters these days ages 8 and 10 that want to be signed up for everything.  Regardless I still made sure to make some time and get them out on the water this year, away form the electronics to enjoy some natural scenery.  We did a lot of perch, bass and pike fishing..... targeting whatever would bite that day.  I felt like I was re-living my own childhood and in many cases I was.  Here are a couple photos and funny short videos from the family outings starting with my favorite picture of the year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plenty of good sized perch in the river; and everyone knows about the world class smallmouth fishery here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really had a good time out there with the family chasing anything that would bite just to watch the excitement on the kids face.  My youngest daughter Caroline was especially funny to watch as she would literately lose control with excitement and start screaming half the time.... and sometimes it was just over the sea weed she snagged... haha.  Either way, it was good to get away from the computer for a while in this new age of Artificial Intelligence; who knows where the next gen of fishing equipment and fish finders will evolve too.  One thing that I do know is that it can be fun to generate some funny fishing images with AI..... this is what was rendered when you type in "Crazy old fisherman" :

 

 

As for musky fishing this year, pretty good all in all.   I think the highlight of my muskie year was getting to watch my long time friend and college roommate catch his new personal best during the Gananoque Muskies Canada event.  What a thrill that was!  Congrats again to him   The awards banquet afterwards was equally as fun getting to sit with some of my NMA buddies and catch up with some of my Muskie Canada friends.  The raffle table was especially kind to our table that night  

Overall, I thought the river looked pretty good with respect to the muskie population in general.  I saw a bunch of fish in that low-to-mid 40" range:

 

 

and then a couple that stretched into that mid-50 range, including one of the heaviest I think I've ever caught (red october tube given to me by Hans > thanks Hans!); unfortunately I was fishing alone that day and didn't get a girth on her as my focus was on a nice clean safe release, which was accomplished on all fish this year and I encourage everyone to release the beast!  Did not see a lot of fish from 46-52" range which is different from previous years.  Might have just been luck of the draw this year.  All fish I caught looked pretty healthy and clean overall and certainly like they weren't having any problems find food.

 

 

 

 

Happy New year everyone and best of luck to each of you in 2024! 

 

[muskiedreams]

Thanks Chad.  Your post has had a nice warming effect on a cold grey wintery day.

Edited January 7 by muskiedreams

[tmag]

As I started to look at this thread, I thought: this guy must be a pretty good fisherman... then I realized it was *that* Chad (lol) 

[Frogger]

Great post Chad. Awesome pics!

[strik]

Great picture's defently what its all about...

 

Sometimes we forget it is the little things that count..... perch and smiles

 

 

[BP Swing]

Just fantastic Chad! Congrats to you and your Family. Wow what a fish solo no less. All the best. Bob