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Gabe:
"Alright, here's the scoop on the productive day in Little Raspberry lake (Meadow Lake Prov Park – Sask). A fella camping next to us (who chatted with Eric for a while prior to leaving) had mentioned an area at the northeast end of the lake. On Sunday, at 1:30 PM, he was kind enough to drive me there. *** There is a drivable road from the tennis courts at Kimball, right to Little Raspberry*** The northeast end of the lake is like a little bay (sort-of). The bottom drops off (from about 6 to 20 feet) no more than 50 feet from shore. The vis was good, about 15 feet, just as you guys mentioned. I promptly dropped to 20ft and made my way back up the slope, seeing a big splake cruising the top of the drop-off. It was a great sight that kind of caught me by surprise. I decided to snake my way along the east-northeast end of the lake, passing back and forth over the drop-off as I progressed. After quite a ways, I turned and started heading back. Every now and then I'd head into 20-30 feet of water, with no fish sightings... Now following the drop-off directly, a big splake came into view swimming straight towards me. We noticed each other at the same moment and it swung toward the deeper water. I put the T20 on it and pulled the trigger just as it faded out of vis. A bright flash and I knew I had nailed it! As I approached it quickly began to swim away, but I was able to briefly see that it was secured to the mono. It was fighting hard and I let go of the T20. I was almost giddy with laughter, knowing that I had this big fish on the mono, and watching the T20 as if it were alive, doing it's best to evade me. I simply followed it, letting the float line pass along my fingers ever time the fish took off. It eventually settled in deeper water. Eventually, knowing I was directly over it and the depth it was at, I dove, equalized and powered right down on top of the splake, quickly securing my hand under it's gills. This was the first time I've ever started laughing at depth. It was great.
With the fish secured, I continued along the drop-off toward the shoreline where I initially entered the water. As I arrived, I was greeted by four fast-moving splake, again cruising the drop off. I was not ready for them. As they disappeared, I looked up and noticed that I was directly out from my things on shore. Having had this encounter twice now, I decided to try something ridiculously simple. Noting that the fish preferred deep water after spotting me, I began floating on the surface, facing shore, a few feet past the drop-off, keeping the top lip of the drop-off within range. Then the fun began. I kid you not, every 5-10 minutes, anywhere from 2-6 big splake would come cruising into view from either the left or right... quite quickly, and right a the top of the drop-off. Once I was spotted, a couple would turn toward deeper water and get close enough for a nearly 'gimme' shot. If I wasn't ready for the first fast fish, another would be right behind. I speared three more big splake this way. My shots are not high accuracy yet, so I was not nailing the head shots. Each time though, I was delighted to have to let go of the T20 and follow it as it meandered through the water, eventually diving to 25 feet to retrieve each fish. One of the four fish speared that day managed to dislodge itself from the spear before I could secure it against the flopper or on the mono. The other three came back to camp with me, totaling 14&1/4 lbs. All in all, a great time. I ended up with a photo taken by the store owner, and I'm humbled to have the first spearo pic on display there. The splake have very tasty pink meat, and lots of it
As I've mentioned previously, the highlight of these jaunts for me, remains the opportunity to meet and dive with fellow divers/spearos. A good days' catch is a bonus. We were very very happy to meet a few of the Alberta crew, and really look forward to meeting up and diving again. Hopefully sooner than later
A couple of important closing notes:
the store owner thought that my success might be in part due to the changing barometric pressure as I was hunting. It was transitioning from cool and cloudy, to sunny and warm as I was in the water. By the time I was out, it had pretty much cleared up.
The splake were doing exactly what the fellow camper had suggested, circling the lake along the drop-off.
This all took place from 1:30 to 4:30 PM."
Sorry we didn't see ya James~!! but there will be more trips, hopefully to AB there, and you are welcome to check out our local haunts on the way to V.I. ! We didn't hit any other lakes through SK, just beelined to Regina and potlucked the splake with our families!