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Welcome to the fourth edition of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’ for 2021. Like most of us I remain very much a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll again attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish for a good summer fr²â.Ìý

There is an old saying in Saskatchewan that goes something like; ‘if you don’t like the weather wait 30-minutes’.Ìý

While I do believe that holds largely true it could also be modified to drive a 100 K’.Ìý

That became rather clear recently as I planned a quick run to Stoney Lake for some evening fishing.Ìý

The first day I was planning to head out about 4 p.m., a bit early thanks to having worked a marathon covering a Yorkton Council Committee-of-the-Whole meeting which had me pounding the keyboard to near 11 p.m. one night so I had a few hours banked.Ìý

But that afternoon it was cloudy and spitting some rain at 4, so I climbed into the easy chair and watched a Toronto Blue Jays game.Ìý

If I am out fishing and it starts to rain I’ll dig out a raincoat and keep at it, but unless it’s a rather special trip, I will opt to stay dry most of the time – more so as I age gracefull²â.Ìý

Of course by 7 that evening it was warm and sunny, and I am sure the pike were so hungry they would have bitten on a bent safety pin, but that’s life.Ìý

And, to be honest I don’t recall if the Jays won the game either.Ìý

A week later, things looked better, so into the vehicle went some gear and sandwiches and with my better half as pilot, off we went.Ìý

We arrive at lakeside and the wind is whipping over the water causing actual whitecaps.Ìý

Now I was lucky, I had set my rather well-worn Yorkton This Week bunny hug on a chair to take along, and while I was out the door without it in hand, I did remember – probably to be accurate my better half reminded me, so I did have it toÌý pull on and went to work.Ìý

The water was low, although not drastically so. Still it allowed me to wander over probably a half mile of shoreline casting into the mouth of that angry wind.Ìý

I won’t say I was freezing, but I was wondering if maybe it was time to pull my equally ratty mackinaw out of the emergency back and add another layer of clothing.Ìý

Yes folks we keep ‘bundle-up against the cold’ clothes in the vehicle all year round. Granted as I write this it’s flirting with plus-30, but I’ve froze at my share of summer baseball games and Yorkton Fair grandstands, so I know cold is never far away in Saskatchewan.Ìý

Wind in the face is never great to cast into. It tends to limit distance, and when you find weed beds it’s hard to gauge tosses to skirt the edges where fish might lurk, but I sure tried.Ìý

I threw one hook, switched, tossed another, then another. I walked a bit down the shore and repeated the process, again and again.Ìý

The good news, jumping ahead in this tale just a bit is that we ate fish for lunch the next da²â.Ìý

However, I sadly admit it was Potato Crunch Fillets from Blue Water Seafoods.Ìý

At Stoney the highlight were some fine sandwiches and fresh strawberries and grapes for dessert.Ìý

Oh, and one of the funniest happenings in a long time in terms of a fishing trip. The pilot – yes the better half – was quite surprised to see a couple of ‘deer’ just north of the city that she noted looked rather unusual. I have to admit I was smiling when I pointed out the deer were actually recently shorn llamas. That actually made the trip a win because we all need a few silly laughs in our lives.

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