madtekniques

Great report and nice pics. A day of fishing like that makes up for all the long hard days and more!

My 2006 lake season has come to an end but there's still plenty of fishing to take place in the rivers!

We have two snowmobiles up at the cottage so I can give a little but not much insight. We've been Artic Cat guys from the beginging and we've had much better luck than a lot of our friends with other sleds. Right now we have a 98 ZRT 600 and a 2002 ZR longtrack. If you are looking for power than a tripple like the ZRT is a blast but they are noisier and they do guzzle the gas, also 600cc+. If this is primarily an ice fishing sled than go with a long track sled since they handle better in untrekked territory. Make sure you get one with a studded track or you get the track studded yourself! If you are looking at one that is already studded make sure you look closely for two things; 1 the studs aren't fully wor down and 2 that the studs aren't pulling right through the track. That's all I have, good luck.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I have no pics from this weekends outing. To start, I got home Saturday night (Sunday morning) at 4am with the booze heavily absorbed in my blood stream. We had been at a 70's disco party where I wore a monster black afro and flared clothing that was as tight as you can get. At 5:30am the alwarm goes off and I hit snooze and must have fallen back asleep because next thing I knew it was 6:45am. I jumped in the shower, grabbed my gear and started the car. I had just received my new bluetooth GPS in the mail so I fired her up to see how it worked. Paired with iGuidance on my iPAQ this GPS was awesome and I'm really excited to use it next time I head to new unvisited territory!!! Anyways, I grabbed a Rockstar energy drink and drove east, grabbed a coffee whe I got closer and hit the trib about 8:15am. My buddy Todd was about 20 minutes upstream so I walked and walked and walked. We fished until about 3pm with nothing more than 2 little 6 inch bows. We found a number of pools where we could spot the fish since the water was so low and clear but they wouldn't take a thing. We tried pink/orange roe bags, flies, pink worms and they were not interested. Found one pool with some real heavy cover and Todd hooked into a biggie. This thing took charge and pulled Todd around, including hang ups on a log and one pile of branches which Todd managed to get out of before ever letting the line break. Fish landed and weighed in at 9lb. We dedcided that the water was just to clear and the fish were not going to take a thing so it was time to leave. I still had some roe on so I figured I'd try a few floats through the pool closest to the parking lot and it's a good thing I did. I watched my float pop down and back up then down again so I set the hook and watch this beautiful chrome body fly two feet out of the water She took off and I fought her for a good 7-8 minutes with two more acrobatic displays again with the full body flying out of the water. Todd helped me land her and we admired the beautiful colours than let her go to swim another day. I would say she was 4-6 lbs with a real wide fat body, must have been pre-spawn. This was probably the best fish I have ever caught in terms of the fight and the action! Chris

I asked the same question when I started fishing the rivers this year and I tossed and turned over what to buy. I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I was just getting into it and was unsure of what I would like. The majority of replies that I got were telling me that the longer the rod the more fish I would land in the long run. Originally I bought a 10'6" Browning Six Rivers from BPS for $69.99 I believe (the 13' and 15' are more $$). It felt really really light and I was afraid it wouldn't have enough backbone so I called around and Al O'Flahrety's (sp?) had Canadian made rods from Emry at a low cost. I went to check them out and I ended up going home with a 13' Emry rod for $54.95 and I returned the Browning. In all honesty the Browning was a nicer rod, looked better and felt lighter but I was cheap and I wanted to try the longer length. I caught my first steelhead last weekend and with the crazy head shakes I was really happy to have the long rod with a ton of control. It has taken a lot of getting used to and I'm still trying to master it, 13' is a lot of rod to work with. At the end of the day . . . if you are willing to spend around $100 I would suggest the Browning 13' from BPS (I was there this week so I know they still have at least one) and if you want a lower cost option you should call Al O'Flahrety's and other independent shops to see if they have an Emry. Another option is the Shimano Convergence which you can pick up for around $100 but I like the handles on the Browning's a lot more than the Shimano.

Great job! I was out today with very little luck probably due to the gin clear conditions where I was. We spotted a ton of fish but they wouldn't take anything we threw at them.

I hope those weren't your tighty whities I saw drifiting down the river this weekend Beautiful chrome! I'm hoping to pull some more out of there again this weekend, maybe even tomorrow if Trib 1 isn't holding any fish . . . I'll keep you posted.

Sweet! I'm heading out tomorrow for some action and I'd love to get into 13 fish . . . with a better ratio of fish landed of course

Beautiful lady you've got there! Nice job

Got up bright and early this morning in search of some chrome! Left the appartment at 4:30 to pick up HighDrifter, stopped for some Timmy's and then headed across the 401 to a Lake O. trib. We met up with my buddy Todd around 5:30 and made it to the creek by 6:00. By 6:30 we were suited up, geared up and hyped up! The sun started to come up and by 7:30 we each had a fish. Not much action after that, one small 8" bow and that was it. Fish 1, mine. Fish 2, HighDrifter. Fish 3, Todd. (worked a double header with another angler in the pool) A flash of chrome! We fished until 11 then called it quits. Great morning for us all but myself especially since this was my first Steelhead ever!

Great topic and discusssion, this is an area that I have wondered about and it's great to see all the responses and input!

Great replies everyone, thanks a lot. woodro, that's interesting I'll have to make sure I try different lengths when I get out tomorrow.

I'm planning to get out Sunday so hopefully things clear up!

If you care to share, what has been producing for Steelhead the last couple weeks? Roe? Worms? Spinners? I was out last weekend with no luck on roe or pink worms under a float.

Anybody hit any of the Lake O tribs today? I'm wondering if we had enough rain to wash them out. I'd like to get some action in this weekend. . .maybe my first bow!