Cleaning Solomon's First Fish

Today we went fishing on the Mississippi River in Pakenham, about 30 minutes west of Ottawa. Yes, there is another river with that name. We'd heard from friends who live in the area that the fishing is good both just above, and just below the old stone bridge, so we chose this spot just below. You enter into the area via an access road that comes off Kinburn Side Rd - the road that takes you across the bridge.

I was pretty proud of him actually because he'd obviously been listening to some of my talks on fishing, when I told the boys that Bass like it in the weeds. As soon as we were ready to cast, he went directly to our right along the shore, since he'd seen all the lily pads and weeds there. I on the other hand had been casting straight out. Only a few casts later and he was fighting with a decent sized Smallmouth Bass, and managed to land it himself. It turned out to be 14 inches long, and 600g or about one and one-third pounds. There are no size limits on this stretch of river at this time of year, but even if there had been this would have been within them. So that's what we're having for supper tonight.

In this video we weight it, and gut it, and then I show some of the baits we'd been using today including Solomon's rod, and the bait he'd been using to catch this fish.

We had a great time out there, and may go back tomorrow for another shot at it!