Spring has sprung
The Edmonton Boat and Sportsman’s show has come and gone once again this year. I was able to attend this year’s show with the owner of CST Handmade Lures. Bojan, the owner asked me if I would attend with him in his booth, which was both an honor and privilege for me! I booked the Friday off of work and headed north to Edmonton on the Thursday afternoon. Before I made the short two and a half hour drive, I stopped at my friend John’s shop to get my boat out of its winter hibernation. Huge thanks to John for letting me store my boat in his shop once again this winter. I hooked up the Explorer Industry jet boat and headed out of town before rush hour traffic clogged the highway. I arrived in Edmonton at 6:30 PM and dropped my boat off at Explorer Industries as it need some spring servicing; then onward to the Best Western on the West side to check in for the weekend.
I woke early on Friday and headed to the show for 9:30 AM as I wanted to help Bojan set up the displays in the booth and get ready for a huge day of sales, by noon the show was hopping and we started to get many people stopping at the booth. We had a great day sales wise on Friday, selling lots of Domecraft lures, as well as the D-Contact series baits. By the days end, we had great sales and left the show happy and excited for the busiest day, which is normally the Saturday. We went back to the hotel and chatted a little before retiring to bed early, our feet were sore from standing and the voice boxes needed some rest. We awoke Saturday, tired but excited for the day ahead, once again arriving early to set up. We were getting huge complements all weekend on the jerseys we wore pictured here.
Saturday and Sunday were both very busy days, with sales exceeding our expectations. The lures are custom made, hand painted (Airbrushed) lures that twitch when retrieved. They boast fantastic durability as they are clear coated with five coats of clear coat and have a warranty included with every lure purchased. The lures are designed for multi-species applications and deserve a place in your tackle boxes. You can see the full line up of lures here http://csthandmadelures.com/ It was awesome to see everybody at the boat show once again this year!
I picked up the jet boat and headed back to Calgary Sunday afternoon. I was super happy to have the boat back and ready for another season of fun and making memories. I dropped the boat off at Pam and Darren’s place where I store it for the year. Huge thanks to both Pam and Darren for letting me keep my boat at your house again this year. During the week, spring fever set in and I found myself checking the boat launch almost daily. I had three clients coming down from Red Deer this past weekend to do a walk and wade trip with me fishing the banks of the Bow. After checking the boat launch once again this past Friday, I was positive I could get my boat in over the ice ledge that was still not completely thawed out. Mike, Joe and Rob arrived to me waiting for them in the Tim Hortons parking lot with my jet boat attached to my truck. To say they were jacked up to be heading out in my jet boat, as opposed to a shore fishing trip would be an understatement.
We arrived at the launch at 8:45 and got the gear all rigged up and ready for the day ahead. The water was quite stained up from the melting snow we had inner city. I wanted to use lures that rattle and had some bright color to them. I find this most effective when the fish cannot completely see the lure. I got the jet boat over the ice ledge and in the water with no issues and off we went. I jetted up river as far as I could go and pulled the boat off the river in a deep pocket of water, letting the guys cast to the middle of the seam and retrieving into the deep water off the seam. We came up empty after several attempts, deciding to leave that location and head down river. After fishing a few prime locations, Joe finally hooked into a sweet brown that absolutely smashed his Rapala offering. I was super happy that we had one fish on the board. After heading all the way down to the Highwood River junction, and getting some good bites along the way, it was time to jet back upriver. I wanted to fish a side channel of the main river as it seemed we were getting most of our bites in shallow moving water. My hunch paid off shortly after stopping along the bank with Mike hooking a decent brown trout. Shortly after, Joe tagged into a sweet rainbow before we had to close up shop for the day and head back to the boat launch. It was awesome to see some great trout caught and released.
I am ecstatic that the snow has all but melted in Calgary, and the ice is gone off the river south of town. Spring fever has kicked in full affect for me! I will be back out on the River this weekend searching for bruiser browns and monster rainbows. For me, being on the jet boat and fishing an incredible river is exactly what heaven looks like for me. So I raise a toast to open water fishing, watching eagles soar above head, bonfires and camping along the river banks, and let’s not forget personal best trophy trout.
