(File Photo/650 CKOM)

By CKOM News

LET'S GO FISHING!

Saskatchewan hooks into free fishing weekend

Jul 7, 2023 | 4:30 PM

Grab your rod and reel! It’s a free fishing weekend in the province.

On Saturday and Sunday, you don’t need to purchase a licence to fish. You can just go out and have fun and fish, although you do still need to follow all provincial fishing rules and limits.

Gone are the days when people went out with just sat with a simple rod and a tackle box. Jason Matity, from getfishing.ca, said technology has really changed the game.

“The electronics game is just crazy,” explained Matity.

“You’ve got electrical trawling motors that act like anchors with GPS heads in them that can hold you in spot. You’ve got fish finders that draw a map of the bottom to show you inside turns and places where the fish hang out. You’ve got this thing called live imaging, where you can watch a fish turn on your bait.”

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The high-tech options are often very expensive, running into the thousands of dollars, but Matity said there are different options now, depending on how you want to catch a fish.

“The smaller crafts – like kayak fishing setups – are becoming a big thing, and obviously a lot more affordable than a giant boat with a giant engine on it. They’ve got little trawling motors on them. You’ve got foot pedals so you can cast with your hands. There’s really been a lot of the technology advancements,” Matity said.

But you don’t really need all that technology just to catch a fish. You can still do it the old-fashioned way with a simple rod and a shoreline.

“Fishing rods are now designed by technique,” Matity explained. “You have a casting rod, one for trawling, drop-shotting, all these different specific techniques.”

If you are heading out to fish this weekend, Matity shared some tips on where to go and what to do.

“Walleye is the most popular fish in the province. They’re all done the spawn in early May and in June. When the heat hits, it’s eating season and they are packing on the feed bag, and what that means for the angler is whenever you get in front of their face, they’re generally going to bite it,” he said.

“Now as the heat progresses and the weeds grow up, those fish will slide a little bit deeper, although there’s still a lot of shallow, it just makes it tricky when it weedy. So what I would suggest for a lot of folks, try a little bobber, a little float, with a small jig, like even a one sixteen-ounce jig with a piece of worm on it, to keep you elevated above the weeds. If you can keep that bait out of the grass, out of the salad if you will, those fish will come up to it.”

There’s plenty of places to find a spot for fishing, as Saskatchewan is estimated to have over 100,000 lakes and rivers.