Aaron Shirley

Sounds like a great day out. Nice.

Nice Niagara browns

Ditto what solo said. Nice steelie! Very cool unexpected catch.

I got out this morning for a few hours to make some drifts on a Lake Ontario tributary. The water was just starting to clear from the rain and was still a bit murky, but very fishable with at least a foot of vis. It was a chilly morning out there, and I broke skim ice wading to some spots, but very peaceful. I ended up landing one and losing 2, all on large chart bags. Not bad for a quick fish, and not a person to be seen Good fishing! Aaron

Sounds like you had a good time. Great photos too.

All three brands make good engines these days, I don't think you can go wrong with any of those brands. I have owned all three brands and was happy with all of them. I currently have a Merc Verado with the Smartcraft gauges, and I have to say that is worth the Merc brand. I use the trolling feature with the Smartcraft gauge to have precision with trolliing speeds. It is amazing, and I would go with another Merc Verado again just for this alone. Enjoy your boat shopping, and be sure to have any used boat and engine looked over very carefully by an authorized dealer before you buy it. It is worth the money for the inspection. Aaron

Thanks everyone, it was a fun time out there MSP, actually, I was using the 9'6" Rapala North Coast rod in medium action with the Kwikfish. It is an awesome rod for drifting roe and kwikfish. I was using a medium heavy rod at first, but my friend was kicking my butt until I switched to the medium action rod. I prefer to use an 8'6" to 9'6" (with the 9'6" my fav) rod in medium action on the Niagara, as I find it not only handles the long leads I use in clear water much better, but they are a lot more enjoyable with the fight Yes, a three-way rig is how we fish the Kwikies. The reel is spooled with 12lb mono main line with a 12lb Maxima fluorocarbon leader approximately 7-feet in length (dropper to slinky 12lb as well). Slinky weight worked much better than pencil lead as well. Sometimes the lead works well making a racket down there, but the softer stealthier slinky worked much better this week. I also drift a little quicker than when I use roe so that the Kwikfish has a good thump and action. I drift just quickly enough to maintain bottom contact with a 3/4-ounce slinky. I also had a lot more line out with a larger angle than I normally do, as I found it worked better for the skittish browns this week. Good fishing! Aaron

I fished with a friend Mitch recently for Niagara browns and Lake Erie smallies. The lower Niagara was good for browns, and we had a riot with an average of one fish per drift. Roe wasn't working well, but a silver with pink polka dot Kwikfish was the hot ticket. Our Kwikfish got pretty beat up by the end of the day The browns are in full spawning colours with the kyped males looking nice and the females spitting gold. I absolutely love the way these fish smash a Kwikfish! The fishing on the lower Niagara will only get better into December. Strange that not many steelhead are present yet, but that should change into Dec. Lake Erie was also good. We hit some fish on tubes and Mr.Champs, but again the hot bite was "strolling" a three-way rig with a jointed walleye coloured Shad Rap. We strolled with the bow-mount electric about 1- to 1.3mph allowing the 2oz dropper weight to pound bottom and stir up the smallies. The bigger fish seemed to be in about 30- to 36-feet of water just off the structure with a lot of small fish in deeper water. Water colour on Erie is stained green with about 3-feet of vis in the Eastern Basin. Water temp at surface is around 50 F. There isn't a lot of time left for big smallies, so get your jointed walleye Shad Raps and hit the lake if you can! Good luck to those that are able to get out and take advantage of some of the best fishing of the year! Aaron

Very nice fish Dax, congrats!

Great muskie, WTG. Bet you'll have the muskie bug now

Great fish! congrats.

Welcome to OFC. One heck of an entrance is right wow! Those are tanks. That 7.10 is a fish of a lifetime, congrats! I can feel the true excitement in your post, just awesome The overall size is bigger than Erie fish these days it seems. I live pretty much in between Erie and Simcoe, and I keep saying I'll try Simcoe in the fall for smallies (about 10 years now ) but never do. One of these days I'll make it to Simcoe It's so easy to pound water you know, but I will log some hours on Simcoe soon to learn new smallie waters, especially with mediocre fish on Erie these days. Great report, and congrats on those beasts! BTW totally agree about the HDS unit for fish on the bottom, those units are unreal.

Thanks guys. I can`t believe we had a day like that at this time of year The season will come to an end soon, so get out there and enjoy it while you can!

Nice chrome

Great musky! Congrats.

I had a 16' Sylvan tiller with 50hp Honda 4 stroke back in 97, and I was happy with it for the money. I fish the Great Lakes a lot, and the difference in the ride in rougher water between a Lund ProV and Sylvan is night and day. I also had a 19' Sylvan with a top for a while, and after being spoiled in a ProV, I wasn't impressed with the ride in the Sylvan at all. Other than that, it was a good boat. If you haven't been in a ProV to compare, you will love the Sylvan. You get what you pay for, but I'm sure you will be happy with the Sylvan if it is a good used boat. I second the idea of having the boat looked over carefully on a used boat. FYI I am not knocking Sylvan boats in any way. They make a good boat, and I was happy with mine. Caught a ton of fish in it too

Hahaha, too funny Blaque. I am a realist, and even 5 games into the season, I thought they would go into their typical mid-season slump, then come out on fire as the regular season winds down. They would be fighting to try and make the last playoff spot and be a little better than last year. I thought they would finish somewhere between 8th to 10th in the eastern conference. I didn't think they would be fighting to get out of last place again and give Boston another top player. As it's looking now, Boston will be a big force in a few years with excellent building blocks in key young players with Toronto's picks (what Toronto should have done to rebuild). The Kessel trade will be what Burke is known for in Leafs land in the future. This will be his Leafs mark and what everyone will remember that stands out when they remember the Burke era. I think he is leaps and bounds better than Ferguson overall, but got on the wrong side of the NHL trade of the decade. Kessel is a good 30 plus goal scorer, but that is the extent of his game. Sundin was more of a well rounded player and VERY strong on the puck. Sundin was more of a franchise player than Kessel, and he still didn't have a chance for a cup with Toronto. I hate to say this as a Leafs fan, but I believe that until the Leafs start to rebuild from the ground up with the type of picks they traded to Boston, they will never be competitive enough for a serious run to see Stanley. Burke has set the rebuilding of Toronto back a few years IMO. Yes, I know it's a lottery in the draft, but to have the top draft pick (or close to it) for a few years in this salary cap era, it is the smartest way to have a good foundation for rebuilding a solid team. Just a thought... maybe Burke is getting paid secretly by Boston's top brass LOL

Awesome stuff Tyler! Georgeous rivers with no anglers and chrome... you're a lucky guy! Aaron

Good stuff. Can't beat a trip with a good buddy and some fish in tough conditions.

I would recommend a stocking foot breathable wader with a good pair of rubber soled studded boots. I wear this all year long, even in the winter. As mentioned, you will stay warm layering with fleece undies etc in the winter. The rubber sole boots with studs are great as well all year long. The felt soles will freeze in the winter, even with studs they can be slippery. Also (don't know how true it is, just rumour so far), I heard felt sole boots may be banned in the future due to micro-organisms being transferred between rivers. I've beeen very happy with the Cabelas brand. The boots are roomy and my feet don't get as cold in winter, even with a heavier pair of socks. Your feet will get cold in tight fitting boots in the winter. I wouldn't buy used waders. I would buy new breathables that fit your budget.

I have experimented heavily between clear plastic, balsa and cork floats painted in a variety of colours in clear water conditions over the years. My conclusion; it really doesn't matter what type of float is employed in your drift set-up, they all work equally (depending on float style for water type of course). I used to believe that a clear plastic 'almost invisible stealth' float was significantly improving my hook-up ratio in clear water when I was younger, especially with heavily pressured fish. It gave me confidence in clear water as well. I couldn't have been farther from the truth to my surprise after experimenting over the years. The reason for researching this so much, is when I fished clear water with heavily pressured steelhead (especially noticed this on the Ganny in the spring), I found steelhead shy away from my clear 'invisible' float, 4lb fluoro, tiny hook and small shot at least 18" above the hook. I've also had them clear the water hitting my clear plastic floats on some tribs! Steelhead have extremely good eyesight. If you experience clear water heavily pressured fish that shy away from a balsa float, they will also shy away from a clear float that is white under the cap and painted a bright colour on the top. Now I just use whatever float I have in my vest for the water conditions, although balsa floats very well. If I experience heavily pressured steelhead in gin clear water (don't fish those conditions much anymore) shy away from my float set-up, I break out the fly rod and cast quartering up river without a strike indicator. I have found steelhead have great eyesight ahead and off to the side, but don't see as well more than a 45 degree angle behind them. I believe that is partly why the fly rod works better in those conditions, apart from the lack of hardware drifting above their heads. Good steelheading! Aaron

Cool vids Marc. But... how am I going to go fish smallies now after seeing all that muskie porn?

I took a buddy Mitch and his friend Greg out for Lake Erie smallies on Saturday, and it was absolutely beautiful out there. It almost felt like a summer day with the sun shining and very little wind. A rare occurence for Lake Erie at this time of year. I started to search for bigger fish hoping to find a small school of tanks, but it was difficult to cover water without wind. After only getting a few bites jigging Mr.Champs, we began to employ three-way rigs with jointed Shad Raps and covered water like last week. It was slow but steady picking up a fish here and there, and we even managed a couple of double headers. Still, the tanks eluded us for the most part. Greg's first fish of the day was a personal best for him. It was only a 'good' fish by Lake Erie standards, but he was thrilled with the mid to high 5 pound smallie. He didn't care if he caught another fish all day, that made his trip But... he was on fire getting fish after fish in the morning. A great introduction to a new lake for Greg! A very happy Greg with his PB smallie While Greg was on cloud nine, Mitch and I were wondering where the big fish were, as neither one of us cracked 5 pounds all day. We still had a great day and got about 35 hard-fighting smallies and a walter. We got most fish on jointed Shad Raps, but we also got a bunch jigging Mr. Champs and one on a Trigger X tube. I saw a buddy Dean out there, and he wasn't washing lures lol. He had a great day with the three-way Shad Rap technique, and he also got a PB. He got about a 5 pound smallie beside us jigging a blue and silver Champ in the afternoon. I zoomed in and took a few shots, and they turned out well from about 150-feet away It doesn`t look like a big smallie cause Dean is a giant dude! The water was clear and approx 53 F., with only a small ripple on the water. it's still a little warm, and the bigger fish should come out to play when the temps dip a little more. We covered a lot of spots in the Eastern Basin with similar results. I can't wait until the action really heats up, and the tanks start to bite more consistently! Good to have you guys out, and thanks for the deadly veal on a bun Greg! Congrats on your PB`s boys! Good fishing! Aaron

Great report! WTG.

Now we know why the salmon are so big and ugly at Port Hope. Seriously, I didn't know about this toxic soil until this thread. Brutal. When they dig it up, it will stir up the contaminants in the area for sure. Last I heard, there was a delay on the clean-up of the Hamilton Harbour bottom contaminants due to stirring up badly contaminated sediments. They weren't sure how to safely remove the badly contaminated sediments years ago, and may still be the case? That was many years ago I learned about that, and I don't know what the outcome was, if any. And we wonder why so many people are getting cancer. There are so many chemicals in our food it's rediculous. I try to eat as much organic food as possible, and I don't eat fish from Lake O, and even rarely from Lake Erie.