wallacio

We could have been down at Lake Manistee and in their eyes, we still would have been "lowholing" them!

You might find this helpful (not only for Lake Trout but almost every sportfish in Ontario). Fish Species Atlas: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/LetsFish/2ColumnSubPage/STEL02_198012.html

HTHM is absolutely correct. I work for an environmental laboratory and a number of our clients specialize in the clean-up and remediation of residential fuel oil spills. I've personally seen the absolutely monumental undertaking that often must occur to remediate a spill when a tank fails (basements or even entire yards dug up, houses raised up on shorings, all the while homeowners are forced to live in hotels for months on end). Paying for a new one is a tough pill to swallow but it's understandable that insurance companies no longer wish to assume the risk of older tanks.

Mostly Chinooks - the Notty has a self-sustaining population and the majority of them spawn in the Pine. Unfortunately the runs are only a shadow of what they used to be prior to the baitfish crash around 2003. The Notty used to get huge numbers of very respectable sized fish (20lbs+ were not uncommon).

Gar will hit just about anything that resembles a minnow but they are lazy and generally won't move very far for a fly/lure. Presentation is key - you need to get your offering at their eye level and almost hit them on the head with it. Strikes happen quickly and can be subtle so you have hit them quickly with a big set in order for the hooks to penetrate. Ideally you want to find a fish that is sitting motionless and is looking away from you. Cast in front of them and retrieve right beside their head - more often then not, they'll strike.

The BOQ is loaded with them and my buddies target them with fly rods on a regular basis. They love to sit and sun themselves in 2-3' of water. I recently got out to try my hand at it as well and put a dozen in the boat, lost many more as it's tough to get the hooks into them. No monsters landed but we did see an absolute giant - without exaggerating, it was almost 6' long! A few pics:

Unfortunately posted land is becoming the norm on the middle Notty (between Angus and Alliston). I figured that with the recent change to the no-kill regs for that section, traffic would lessen and landowners would be less militant but it actually seems to have gone the other way. With that said, there are numerous good places to fish where public access isn't an issue. The slow, log-infested water definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea and I know many decent Steelheaders that have tried it a few times only to delare "there aren't any fish in the Notty!" I'm happy to let them go on believing this!

Nicely done boys. Having completed a few challenging portages with you two crazy buggers - this one looks like it was at the top of the list!!! Still, some sweat is a small price to pay for solitude and trophy fish.

Angus is one of the most heavily pressured spots on the river and as a result, fishing goes stale there quickly. There are a multitude of other places to go that almost always hold Steelhead - they're just a bit harder to get to. Fished moved upstream quickly last season with all of the water so lower sections tended to be a tough go. Trust me when I say last year was a good one...just gotta know where to look! Here's just a small sample:

The Roaring Fork and Frying Pan Rivers are the main attractions in that area and there are a number of smaller creeks as well. If you are short on time, you might want to hire a guide as they'll be able to put you on good water right away.

A bit more on the subjuect of loading multiple maps (this pertains the to the Oregon but I assume it would be the same for the 60cx) "Mapsource transfers the map set to the Oregon as single file called gmapsupp.img which is stored in [OR drive]:\Garmin or [OR SD drive]:\Garmin . Every time you repeat the process above you delete the previous map set and replace it with a new map set. Maps cannot be added or removed incrementally using Mapsource. This implies that if you are trying to load maps from multiple Mapsource products (i.e. Topo2008 and City Navigator) that you will need to include map regions from both products in the same map set. Mapsource supports this by allowing you to select the first Mapsource product via a drop down menu in the upper left corner, pick map regions from this product using the Map tool, select a second product and pick map regions from this product before compiling the map set and transferring to the Oregon." From https://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/page/code/Maps

Who wants a Matrix? Bring back the Lunds!

Was that you guys eavesdropping on 17??? Thanks - yep, couldn't have asked for a better way to spend a summer evening!

The 2010 Lake Ontario Salmon season is off to a "big" start - numerous 30lb+ fish have been boated to date and we aren't even into July yet! Dying to get out there in hopes of tangling with a Tyee (30lb+ King), I was lucky enough to be invited out with my buddy Ben G. For a young guy he really, really knows his stuff and was the week two winner of the Great Ontario Salmon Derby last year which netted him a brand new Lund. Also joining us was Ben's GF Mel who is not afraid to mix it up with the Lake O monsters. Bronte was our destination on late Friday afternoon with plans to fish right well past sunset. It was pretty much a picture perfect day on the water, barely a whisper of wind and glorious sunshine. With that said, these conditions can make for tougher fishing especially during the earlier hours but we didn't mind. We set up in 110-140 FOW, running flasher/flies on copper wire diver rods and spoons on the riggers down 45-75'. We had rods firing pretty much the entire evening, with mostly Steelhead as well as shaker and teenaged Chinooks keeping us busy. We did drop a few bigger fish including one which I opened up a very solid Owner hook on(???) Ben was a good host but I knew he wanted to give me the gears on that one (and rightly so!). As dusk approached, we were happy with the trip but didn't put fish of any size in the boat so we stuck with it on the hunch that the big ones would snap out of lockjaw mode and would turn on under the low light conditions. Boy were we right! About 9:15, all hell broke loose and we were into more large fish than we could keep up with for about 45 minutes. I put two in the boat in rapid succession, both of them in the mid to high 20's and were a riot to fight on Ben's absolutely mint Islander Mooching reels (you don't see many of them outside of BC) which he always runs on his rigger rods! My first: High 20's Another good one: After resting my arms and with both Ben and I frantically working to keep rods re-set, a rigger rod fired yet again and we knew it was a good one. Ben's GF Mel usually is happy to fight smaller fish but after some encouragement she was up to bat and in the end she fought the biggest fish of the evening like a pro. With it being dark by this point, we had no idea just how big the fish was until we netted it...a 30lb fish and Mel's first "Tyee". Unfortunately I only have a release shot and will have to upload a pic of Mel with her fish when I get the pictures from Ben. Mel's Tyee getting set to go home: All fish were released strongly. We didn't bother with pics of the Steelhead or smaller Salmon to ensure that they would get back into the water quickly. I for one can't wait to see how this season shakes out - there should be some monster fish by the time August rolls around...perhaps someone will boat one over 40lbs this year?

Williams Whitefish spoons - when trolled at the right speed so they are "thumping", big fish will absolutely smash them!

It's unfortunate when someone's fishing report turns into a debate HOWEVER, IMO the debate about releasing wild Steelhead by the boat fishery is a good one and some common myths (ie Steelhead caught downrigging can't be released successfully) need to be debunked. First, where does the MNR allow for angling of actively spawning Steelhead in Ontario? Trout season is closed from Oct 1 until the fourth Friday in April ie when fish are spawning. Where extended and year round open seasons exist, they are only on the lower or middle reaches of rivers where the vast majority of Steelhead are not spawning ie Steelhead spawn in the upper reaches of our rivers which are protected by the closed season. Secondly, your point about Steelhead dying the minute they hit the upper water column is off base in my experience. The majority of Steelhead are found in the upper water column ie less than 50' down and if played and released quickly(ideally hooks removed while the fish is in a net which is in the water) they will swim away strongly. Following John's tip of pinching barbs helps get them back quickly as well and we usually forgo pictures in an effort to minimize the time they are out of the water. I for one would like to see this myth put to rest as far too many boat anglers simply dump Steelhead into the cooler because they assume that they cannot be successfully released.

Ah - so close! Have you tried a large streamer yet? When I say large, I'm talking about at least 5-6"...giant Browns can't resist them. Anything that moves naturally in the water like a Zonker pattern in olive, brown, black and even white should do the trick.

Nice going Laz - too bad about not getting a picture. Do you carry a small net? They are very useful for keeping a fish safely in the water while you get your camera ready. The water temp was 59F on Sunday.

A great author esp. if you like Fly Fishing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gierach I can't believe that there are Iso's out already...all of this year's hatches are 2-4 weeks ahead of schedule!

Thanks for sharing your accomplishment with us! That's an amazing fish and even more impressive that it was taken on a dry! Did you happen to get a measurement on him? I'm guessing 21" or so?

Nice little Brownie Laz. If you want to weed through the Chubs as well as bantam weight Trout, in addition to hardware don't be afraid to use large nymphs or better yet big streamers. Big Trout want big meals and many won't even move for something small (including small spinners). Even in creeks that seem to be devoid of baitfish, big fish cannibalize their smaller brethern so they won't hesitate to smash a streamer. I was out today for big Browns, fishing 5-6" streamers (ones big enough that most people would think that they were for Bass or Pike ). I hooked/raised quite a number of medium sized fish including the one pictured below and just missed one shy of 20".

Very, very nice. I too am afflicted with STI! That first fish from Saturday is a stunner - the red spots are much larger (with an irregular shape) than most Browns.

Amazing fish...I like his jewelry too!

The insects that you are seeing on Simcoe right now are't Mayflies but Midges (small non-biting flies)...they can actually be quite a nuisance when fishing Simcoe - you end up inhaling them! Their larvae (small red worms that live in the mud on bottom) are actually an important food for Whitefish. As for the fish on the surface, in addditon to Whitefish (which have already been mentioned by others), you are also prbably seeing Cisco (Herring) and even baitfish eating the emerging Midges on the surface.