Winter 2008

March 5, 2021: Cape Shore Ice Fishing (56 Photos)

This week I'm heading back to the Cape Shore for an ice fishing trip, this will be my first time back there in 15 years. I'll be joined by Mark French for his first ever ice fishing trip down that way, and Dad who regularly visits that beautiful country. The last time I was down that way was back in 2006 Ice Fishing with Dad and my uncle Wilson (now passed).

The night before we left French and I did some mid-season maintenance on the Argos, Mark greased his 2017 Argo Huntmaster while I partially dismantled dash to adjust the idler chains on Project 6x6. This important service was completed due to the number of hours on the chains since the last adjustment. It's not a big job but requires taking out the firewall and loosening/adjusting a few bolts. I also took advantage of the firewall being removed to adjust the main adjuster bolts on the brakes which take up slack from wear on the brake pads.

We met Dad on Salmonier Line and arrived on the Cape Shore around 9:30am. We were met with mostly clear skies, strong winds and nice cold winter temperatures. Minus the wind it was a near perfect forecast!

French and hit the open country in our Argos which were loaded up with the bulk of our gear, Dad led the way on his 2011 Yamaha Multipurpose snowmobile.

This part of the shore is beautiful but pretty desolate, much like the Northern end of the Witless Bay Line, and/or the Southern Shore near Trepassey. It's wide open, mostly free of trees and more or less flat with gentle rolling hills. This land is rough tundra and bog, this time of year it's frozen solid and snow covered just enough to smoothen out the ride for an easy trip in vs a tangly summertime ride.

French grabbed a few shots of the ride in to the first pond of the day.

Sometimes the embedded video doesn't play well so here is a YouTube link to the video: https://youtu.be/gbvADD6ry9A

Before venturing out on the pond we drilled some test holes and found a consistent 12" of hard ice everywhere we planned to travel and fish.

Dad's machine continues to run well, he did some paint touch-ups earlier this year and has logged over 700km so far during this short riding season!

Dad loves using his yellow ice fishing tip up rigs while French and I have been very impressed over the course of our first fishing season using our new Automatic Hook Setting ice fishing rigs.

Of course I still have a traditional ice fishing line on hand to ensure I have three lines in the water, the maximum allowed under provincial regulations.

Fishing wasn't very good on the first pond so we packed up and headed further into the country to the next pond hoping for some better luck.

We found much better fishing at the next pond as I struck a beautiful pan size mud trout immediately after drilling the first hole.

Mark caught the biggest trout of the day so far with this beautiful bright red bellied mud.

The wind was unrelenting all day, thankfully I brought my Rapala Ice Fishing Shelter which was especially handy while cooking lunch. It was the first time I had to use all 4 anchor points on the corners plus an anchor rope! There is very little natural shelter anywhere down this way.

The shelter let me cook up our scoff with ease. With the wind blocked my compact MSR Superfly and GSI Pincacle gas stoves worked perfectly even when turned down low to simmer. A piece of black anti-slip drawer liner really made cooking a lot easier as the stoves stayed firmly in place on top of my Action Packer turned table.

On the menu today was bottled moose French and I made a couple weeks ago, fresh fish white puddings and lastly moose sausages cooked by French on his new Charbroil Portable Barbeque.

After lunch we soldiered on in the wind and cold tending our lines moving them here and there in search of the ever elusive hot spot.

One thing I noticed on this trip was the remarkable increase in snowmobile traffic. Fifteen years ago we would rarely see anyone else in this way, today dozens of machines whizzed by and there was a backwoods cabin built along the shoreline. One of our last few honey holes is now well-fished and definitely not producing as it has in the past.

I released this unharmed juvenile trout back into the water, he stuck around for a minute before heading back down to the dark depths of the pond.

As the sun began to set we started packing our gear back aboard the machines for the ride out to the trucks.

The country down here is spectacular in both its vastness and simplicity.

Although quite cold especially with the wind, there is a lot of power in the sun now that March has arrived. There was a lot of snow melt sitting on top of the ice which can stick a machine if you're not careful.

Getting ready to head out I managed to find an Argo sized hole of loosely packed snow amongst the shrubbery. The machine sank and didn't want to move any further.

My Chinese CS 2500 mini chainsaw made short work of the strong stunted spruce which halted forward progress, my Warn 2500 winch did the rest to pull the machine back up on solid snow with ease.

The effort was worth it as a turned around and went back up for a nice pic!

We made it back to the trucks before dark and loaded up the machines for the almost two hour drive home.

Fishing wasn't nearly as good today as it was years ago, I think that's partly due to increased number of people fishing this area now. However it was still an awesome day in the country and great to be back to a place with so much history for Dad and I and a chance to share it with my good buddy Mark.

Cheers, MIKE