CLofchik

Right, since it's on the cusp of pier season here's a how-to on how to make up some cheap pier chucking spoons for after dark kings. With most places wanting $5-$6 for a single Cleo it helps knock down the pain of snagging up or snapping a fish off. Right, here's the essentials you need. Go find some cheap spoons, I always have my eye out for sales throughout the year, but the Dollarama has lately been a goldmine for cheap lures. Don't pay more than $1 for a steel spoon, slightly more for brass. I'm a big fan of genuine unplated brass spoons, but lately they're getting harder to find. Next pick up some glo paint, preferably glo powder coat. Luremaking.com has some decent heat & dip glo powder, the 50g jars should do up around 50 spoons. They also sell spoon blanks, but usually I can find them cheaper locally in the bargain bin. http://luremaking.com/catalogue/catalogue-..._dark_heat_.htm 1st step, wait for the girlfriend/wife to leave the house and get everything spread out. Next, strip off all the paint and the cheap hooks & split rings. We won't be reusing those because a big king will simply bend them like a pretzel. Sandpaper will work, but I'm lazy so a 15min soak in nail polish remover will do the same job. Also available at Dollarama Give the spoons a quick buff with coarse sandpaper anyway to give the powder something to grip. Heat up the spoons one at a time, then put the powder on. I like using a torch, but a butane lighter or something similiar will work. DO NOT use something that leaves soot, like a candle. The paint won't adhere to any black sooty residue. It doesn't need to be crazy hot, 30secs over a plumbers torch is plenty. Too hot and the paint will scorch & burn. I just dump the powder on over newspaper, just enough to give a good coating. You can gently reheat the spoon to make sure it's evenly melted, but DO NOT get it too hot, or the paint will burn. If you're finicky you can file off excess drips and fill in lumps, but really the fish don't care if your spoon is a lil' damn ugly. Once all your spoons are coated and cool enough to handle, pop them into a 350 oven for 20mins. This bakes on the finish rock hard. After the oven I like to give them acoupla coats of rattlecan automotive clearcoat. Even commercial bought spoons can benefit from this, they glow brighter and the hook won't chip the paint off casting. Forgot to take a picture, but y'all know how to work a spray can right? Pop them in the oven again to bake the clear coat. Once they're cool enough to handle put on some 80lb rated split rings (pliers help here) and good 4/0 hooks. I like Siwash singles, good hookups and they ain't gonna bend for nothing. If you stick a King with a treble in the corner of his mouth, he'll just chew it up and spit it out all nicely bent. Finished products, now start casting!

There's also a free bay wide derby tomorrow (Saturday) http://www.hamiltonwaterfront.com/fishingderby.php

You won't have any problem putting any canoe on a Civic with the front ends tied off. For giggles I once put a 16' canoe on a Smart Stay away from square backs if you're going to paddle, they handle like pigs. Call around to all the dealers & rental places, they usually have demo's, blemished hulls & ex-rental boats they may be willing to unload on the cheap. 16'ish is a good all round size for two people, especially if you're going to be swinging fishing rods. As for specific boats, like anything else you get what you pay for. Coleman & Pelican crappy tire specials may come cheap, but I wouldn't want to paddle one more than a few kilometres, but a nice Swift canoe will run almost $2k. The two things you will definitely need to fish out of a canoe is a drift sock & anchor. The small drift socks you can get from BPS for $20, for an anchor I always just used a basketball net filled with rocks. The basketball net lasts alot longer bouncing along bottom than anything else. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...__SearchResults

East tribs usually get fish earlier than the west......nudge nudge hint hint. Still wayyyy too early for reliable #'s, especially with the funky weather we've gotten lately. I'm still blanked on west tribs, been going out 3-4 times every week since late July. This is the latest I've gone without hooking a king, the weather (and especially rain) have really screwed the fishing. I'm of the opinion that August fish follow temps, September fish follow flow. All this rain we've gotten, and those huge mudlines, have dumped ALOT of warm trib water into the harbours, keeping the fish offshore. My earliest chinook I've caught came a few years ago on August 2nd off Bronte, at 3pm, 20+ degrees on a warm bright sunny summer afternoon. But there had been a good N wind and the surface temps were 62 degrees in the harbour.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&...mp;t=h&z=17 This parking lot, look for the stairs.

Well..........which scale do you have and how close was it? Nice fish, they are getting dark.

Swimming beaches are often an over looked spot, atleast outside of Sweden I used to fish the conservation areas around here alot, and always the big fish were around the most popular beaches, every year the winner of the Valens derby is caught just off the beach. Swimmers stir up all the critters in the sand, big guys aren't too far behind.

Now in the Niagara the huge chunk of skein works wonders, but in the clearer western basin tribs I've tried it without much luck. Downsized to quarter sized chunks and I started taking fish. Smaller chunks also have a good shot at taking an incidental trout (my biggest steel & browns come in the fall fishing for salmon), especially at night. I stopped river fishing for salmon over a decade ago because of all the retards that come out of the wood work overcome with salmon fever. Just piers for me from now on. Plus the fish are in much better condition and put up a MUCH better fight. If you do want to drift for them, the 1st week of October will be a safer bet than September.

Going to be late run this year, and the recent heavy rains aren't going to help in the short term.

I picked up a few of the Storm baits the first year they came out. Probably the best looking lures I've never caught a thing on.

Untrue?!? Untrue?!? Heh, says the guy who think browns have X-spots! That looks like an Atlantic, if there was a shot with the tail it would be more definitive. And the only thing I said that was untrue was about the spots on a salmons tail (coho usually only on upper half). I mixed them up on purpose just to add a little more drama in the th'd and see who'd pick up on it. As I thought not many. You guys really need to get out more. If it's a juvenile fish with a forked tail, no spots on gill plate, but spots all over the tail.........it's a chinook. And it tasted great pan fried in oil & butter on the side of blueberry pancakes.........mmmmmmmm.

Do you know if there's any access into Fishog, just upstream from Head Lk.? There used to be an elderly couple with a farm that would let you launch & park for a few bucks, but they got too old to keep up. Had some good days on Fishog, and a few back lakes north of it.

Lol, there always has to be one that starts it. Here I was, excited in my chance to snooker a few people with a troll of a th'd title, with the side benefit of the "Never cry wolf" factor.........keep telling people the kings are in for a month, and when they ARE in nobody will believe you and I have the piers all to myself No, wasn't an Atlantic. LOL no atlantics live to get that size, there are no atlantics, enough with the atlantics. I don't like Australian wine either It was a chinook, no clippings so it could've come from anywhere, most likely stocked May 2007, so just over a year. Hint: Atlantics (LOL!) have large widely spaced black dots, similiar to browns. But they also have very small mouths, the joint never extends past the eye, and the eye will be noticeably larger in that small a fish. The tail is still forked from the parr stage, it fills out in the 2nd year. It also was not a coho, which has a folding tail like a rainbow. Chinooks are very easy to tail by hand, coho's are not. Forget grey, black, white gums & mouths, and while chinooks are only supposed to have spots on the top half of the tail I've seen them with spots throughout the tail fairly commonly. But always, chinook=stiff tail coho=very flexible tail. Then there's the cohnooks........common coho/chinook hybrid! In fact there's a very good chance I helped gather & sort the egg that the little guy came from, 1st year the Metro East Anglers/OFAH took over running Ringwood after the MNR abandoned chinook stocking in Lake O altogether. Which I thought was rather cool. He took the hook deep and ripped a gill, he was a goner. Instead of feeding the comorants I don't feel bad about making him breakfast tomorrow. Here's the shot of him, with a shot of a similiar sized atlantic. Note the jaw & eyes. And this is a shot of what he would've looked like last year before he was released in May, took this year @ Ringwood.

Some guys live for opening day of bass, others for fall steel. I love fall chinooks off the piers, late summer gun metal freight trains, giddity giddity. On hearing rumours that an early run was on I couldn't help myself and roused early to be casting before dawn. Ahhhh, the ozone hiss of the flash warming up, following the graceful arc of the glo spoon descending towards the calm waters like a falling star landing in an inland sea. Feeling the thump-thump of the spoon slowly working, the anticipation of the strike that may never come. But this morning the wait isn't a long one, a STRIKE, a short hit but that was definitely a FISH. Only five casts in, this is going to be a memorable morning. Another half hour of casting, varying retrieves, the occasional large fish rising, was that a carp or something more silver? Then the hit, BAMMMM, slam the rod back quickly three times to lay the big single hook in deep and the weight is still there, then the familiar cry that hasn't been uttered since last season, FISH ON! A few head shakes, then the run. Drag screams as line melts off the spool as the silver fresh fish moves quickly left, then out of the water in three successive leaps. The barely dawn light glistens from it's silvery blue sides as it crashes back down into the water and begins a quick bulldogging fight, trying to keep deep but the steady pressure of braid & flourocarbon eventually wins the tug of war. Coming to net after a valiant fight the exhausted fish lays quietly as the first king of the season hits the concrete. Wooooo baby this is going to be a banner season! Glorious colours, from an inch away it's hard for the wide angle to capture all of the fish................................... Okay, it may be a little small, but it's still a KING. First one of the year. Woot, another 12.5" for Team #4

dbl post

Bronte may be better due to lower traffic, and that area of the Credit is one big shoal. Even if there's not much wind rollers turn into nasty breakers. Seen more than one tinny get swamped there by a big wave on a nice afternoon. Bass Pro has the smaller socks for around $20, very helpful casting out of a canoe. Though on the canoe scale, that's a tank so the wind might not be that much of a bother. BTW as soon as you put a motor on it, even an electric, you turn it into a powered craft and need an operators card. If you do end up fishing Bronte or Credit you will be checked.

You must have a mother of a net to land those cats there!

Stay away from Sevlor. Tried one of their inflatable kayaks this year.......sucked dog bollocks. Thankfully I picked it up cheap and sold it cheap. Kayaks & canoes are the way to go, if money is a problem most manufacturers will sell used or ones with cosmetic defects at a significant discount. Unfortunately I was looking for something to carry on a motorcycle......and still haven't found anything you can fish from.

2 rods allowed with artificials, only 1 rod allowed when using bait. There, end of problem. Too easy though, will never get passed.

I think the problem with people snapping PP is getting nicks. It WILL nick, and if it does the strength is compromised greatly. I use 20lb PP pier casting for salmon, around 100 fish a season, and never once break off. Seeing as every year I get a pulled muscle from strikes the shock strength is fine. I also always use a 3' length of flouro tippet, for visibility & avoiding nicks. Check for nicks frequently, like a frayed cable nicked PP will give way easily. Been using the same spool for three years, just unwound and reversed it on the spool and shouldn't have any problems getting another two seasons out of it.

Extreme everything seems to be the rage these days, sooooooooo............... http://www.break.com/index/helicopter-fish...sport-ever.html

In the fall it can be a sleeper steelie spot if you catch them moving through. Summer, small bass & pike. I used to throw a few casts around there passing through, biggest I ever saw was a 4lb. pike. There's also schools of mooneye around, a few guys flyfish for them. Very scrappy & tasty bbq'd if you find the 12"ers.

Heh, any more trout out of Bronte?

What he said. The only time I target bass is taking a canoe into back lakes, and then I only count the fish over 20". 1 or 2 a day is a good outing. Ofcourse somebody swiped my canoe and I've gone out twice after bass around Hamilton from shore. Late spring, they're still guarding fry in the shallows, skunked both times. Having a small boat increases your odds exponentially, even just around your shore spots.

Not exaggerating enough is more like it. FYI -- Canada has the 2nd highest mobile rates in the world. #1 is Uganda.