First catch in 2009

Last week I did not catch any fish but one of our "fishing" member caught 3 big carps.

This Sunday, I caught my first fish for 2009. All are carps from Fanshawe Lake, London, Ontario. I totally got tired walking to and forth to put the carps on a soft plastic cord so that we could keep the catches alive in the water of the lake before we took them home.

The even more labouring job was to take the carps into my Jeep since the fishing spot was about 2km away from the parking lot. The total of the fish was about 50 lbs.

Small tips:

In the Spring, the snakes are quite active in the field and we can easily encounter them which give us a shocking surprise. So, to be safe, it is a good idea to find some sticks of great elasticity and slash the ground before we walk through to the lake side.

Carps caught on Good Friday at Fanshawe Lake, London, ON

The biggest one was about 18 lbs.

Fishing hot spots within the City of London.

This year there was no luck fishing around London, Ontario.


1. Springbank Park is located in the West end of the city(Commissioners Road & Spring Bank Drive). Some of the fish that can be caught are as follows:Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Crappie, White Bass, Chinook Salmon, Channel Catfish and many other species. Also, it is a wonderful park for the whole family as it houses Stroybook Gardens, a minature Railroad and a Merry-Go-Round. Details City of London Home Page.


2. The Fork of the Thames River. The Fork of the Thames River Located near downtown London has many good Fishing hot spots. They are: Harris Park, Ivey Park and Peace Gardens. Harris Park is a good location for catching some large Carp and Suckers as well as some nice sided Smallmouth bass. It is also a good spot for Spring Walleye. Harris Park is accessable off of Dundas Street South. Peace Gardens & Ivey Park are also Excellent spots for catching large Carp and suckers. They are also excellent spots for Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass. Northern Pike are quite common in the Spring and early summer period. These parks are accessable off of Thames Street.


3. Wonderland Gardens is an excelent location for both shore and boat fishing (use cation resivour levels change frequently and is regulated by Springbank Dam). in this location you will find a mixture of species ranging from panfish to game fish such as pike, bass, and walleye. Parking available near the rowing club.

4. Fanshawe Lake is about 23km northeast of the city of London. There are lots of fishing spots around the lake. Most convenient fishing spots are the influx of Thames river into the lake, Fashawe lake dam, Scotial park. Smallmouth Bass, large mouth Bass, walleye, carp, yellow perch, sucker, sunfish, rockbass and catfish are common in the lake. Last Winter we caught a Mooneye in the water under the dam.

5. Wildwood lake is about 50km northeast of the city of London beside Highway 7. It is very easy to catch Northern Pike in the water under the dam in early summer. However it becomes harder and harder into the late summer. In the early summer this year we caught 30 rockbasses in about 2 hours. A big drawback fishing at this spot is the undesired small catfishes which are not longer than 20cm. If you were to use earthworm for fishing there, you will definitely be annoyed by those catfishes keep biting almost every 10 seconds!