wallacio

If you want to fish for Trout, the upper Nottawasaga (and various headwater tributaries) flow through Hockley Valley - in addition to Rainbow parr and smolts, there are a few Brookies and Browns to be found. Island Lake in Orangeville is close - you can fish for Pike, Perch, LM Bass a Crappie).

Definitely good suggestions so far (a mouse pattern, live minnow under a float). You will likely have the most success (regardless of bait/lure) by changing the time of day that you try to fool this wise old fish as large Browns primarily feed at night. I'm personally not a big fan of fumbling around in the dark (especially with a fly rod) but in many cases they'll start to become active just before dark. I've taken all of my largest Browns an hour or two before dusk so give it a try. One last thing, keep an eye on water temperatures as we get into July and August especially if we keep getting this type of weather. I personally stop fishing for Trout when the water is beyond 65C or so and when it is that high it's best to fight fish quickly and don't take pictures so the fish isn't out of the water for long (which is pretty hard to resist when you get a big one). Good luck!

Thanks for the info FM...it sounds like deep off the bar is the place to be right now. Good luck with the 40lber hunt!

This term usually refers to a diving disc such as a Dipsy Diver on a rod/reel with copper wire line and usually a flasher with a fly is used as the actual "lure". It's a deadly combo as divers run out and away form the boat and you feel every headshake with that copper wire line. Nice report Fishmaster - care to share any more details ie what depth of water you were fishing and in what general area of the lake?

It would have been brutal trying to fish from a canoe in that wind. The old aluminum boat needed some serious repairs to fix a six inch slash in the bottom, not to mention a missing plug. I spent close to an hour repairing it with foam (from my sleeping pad) and good old duct tape - it was worth it though as the patching kept most of the water out and we only had to bail it every few hours. As Mike mentioned, the best success came on fat dew worms (on a bare hook with split shot or on a jig head). We only took a few fish on spinners and spoons and I got one on a small Perch Shad Rap.

An excellent synopsis of our trip (as usual) Mike! I think that I've looked at our pictures a few dozen times since we've been back and they instantly transport me back up there and I'm always left with a smile on my face. Brook Trout are (hands-down) my favourite sport fish and have been since I was a boy. Even though we only caught a mere fraction of what we should have, just holding one of those big lake-dwelling fish is magical (the dumb grin on my face of me holding the first fish of the trip just about sums it ) It seems like the challenges that we faced were never ending. Besides the ones that you listed (the tough bite, the cold, the never ending gale-force winds, the portage from hell), you forgot to mention the blown tire on the way home. After driving through the night (again) we blew a tire somewhere between Sudbury and Parry Sound, just before dawn. I for one almost cried when I heard that tire let go as the last thing I wanted to do was to leave the warm truck and wrestle with a jack and a spare in the sub-zero temperatures. Despite all of this, I'm a firm believer that life is a journey not a destination and I throughly enjoyed every minute of it. So, Pukaskwa in September????

Nice going Mike - that has to be a huge weight off of the shoulders and perfect timing for our trip! I can't wait...I barely slept last night (mostly thinking about the 1,000,000 things I need to do at work before we leave tomorrow) and probably won't tonight either. I don't think I've ever been this excited for a trip before...every one all the way in Southern Ontario will hear me hollering when the first 5lb Brookie is landed!!!

Geeze, I go away for a few hours and my name is getting dragged through the mud! For the record I was fishing well upstream from Mike!

It was good to see you again Mike - yesterday was definitely the highlight of my Spring Steelhead season. It really, really tough to tear myself away for that meeting! Something tells me that tackle/fly shops in the province are soon going to be sold out of Stonefly numphs As for the pattern, I was using a couple different ones. The one with the copper wire rib is a small Montana Stone pattern. The larger one is a standard pattern that's available at most shops (known as Kaufmann's Stonefly nymph - just Google it.). Bead head, rubber legs, turkey quill wingcases).

12lb Raven (green) for me. I continually try other lines and keep coming back to the Raven. JB's Fishing Depot usually has it in stock.

It was a pretty tough bite Tony...we were marking a lot of disinterested fish and the hoards of people out there certainly weren't pulling them up with the frequency that I've seen on some days (when everyone gets limits quite easily).

I'm glad that at least one of us could keep the hooks into a fish today - nice job with that Whitie! Great to meet you Doug - you can fish with Bill and I anytime...just keep bringing those sandwiches!

Here's the study that you are referring to - interesting evidence that shows that (at minimum) Steelhead from Lake Ontario are moving down the St. Lawrence and are establishing self-sustaining populations along the St. Lawrence Estuary. http://www2.bio.ulaval.ca/louisbernatchez/..._DivDist_09.pdf

We have a 12' Springbok (Princecraft) Ungava with a 20hp (2 stroke) on it....needless to say she absolutely flies! We used to waterski behind it as kids! That said, the Ungava has a wider beam that most 12'ers and can handle the HP. Go for the a 15 - if you end up needing to travel any distances on a lake, a 9.9 will feel like a snail's pace.

Turning the sensitivity down on the HB does help...the only problem is that if you turn it down too much, you'll lose the return from some smaller lures.

Great thread - let's keep it going! Here's a personal favourite...snapped by your's truly.

Nothing better than small stream Brookies - Spring can't come soon enough! Here's a little spot that holds some nice fish: Here's a nice one from a few years ago, opening weekend.

Here a home movie of my last "trip" there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Kx_t6ko1k...feature=related

Nice catch! Please send the hind feet this way if you aren't using them...the hair between the toes is great for my absolute favourite dry fly pattern! http://www.flyguysoutfitting.com/usual.html

I have an older portable Matrix 20 which is comparable to the 565 and echo what's been said already. Try the split screen with zoom on 4X or 6X and it should help. Try putting the bottom view on "bottom black" as well.

I'll echo what Solo posted. I've been there once with various groups of friends going other years and we experienced the same thing...it's a nice enough lodge and you'll be well fed but don't expect much in the way of fish if you stick to the huts. I suspect that the owner places his huts where they are convenient for him to run guests back and forth rather than placing them over productive fishing grounds.

LOL. It shouldn't be too difficult there aren't too many guys in red floater suits out there on any given day!!!

Good eye. That is actually one of the small tags that come with Swedish Pimples which I put onto the split ring. That smaller spoon in the 1/2 & 1/2 hammered finish is definitely my go-to lure for Simcoe. Good luck tomorrow Andrew!

That was good fun Bill - I'm glad that we were able to get out and find a bunch of willing biters! Let's get out again this weekend!

LOL - more like 99% in my case! Laz, bad timing on getting into Steelheading this past fall...ah well, you can get back into it in about 10 years Congratulations Laz and Anna and welcome to the world Eliana!