Aaron Shirley

Very nice muskie, congrats!

Ouch is right! That is 100 percent Barry Pringle's old boat. That photo is hard to look at. Those guys obviously didn't realize how shallow it got in tighter at that ramp. Can't believe they left it there overnight, I wouldn't sleep. A shame for sure. I'm glad I fished Saturday! Aaron

Very nice. It can be pretty darn cold up your way, looks like great conditions with fish.

Spinnerbaitking, thanks, but I cannot take credit for the idea. I heard about this idea from Al Patton a number of years ago when he told me of his success out of Port Colborne about 5 or 6 years ago. I thought it was an interesting idea, but never tried it at the time (it's hard to stray from the norm when the norm is working). Barry and I did a show for GH a couple of years ago employing this very technique, and I got my personal best smallie at 6.10. Barry was using a Mooselook spoon and I used the walleye jointed Shad Rap. Barry stumbled onto this method a few years back while targeting walleye. The only change I made was the lure colour, as I thought the jointed walleye colour mimicked the colour and action of a goby. I believe Barry had his success with the straight model shad colour, or something similar. I thought about why the technique was so productive when the traditional bite was so slow. I came to the realization that not only was the technique matching the hatch and a different trigger from the standard Erie techniques, but it stirred up the bottom to attract the smallies and get them active. It also covers a lot of water very quickly when the smallies shut down with heavy fishing pressure. As a bonus, it also works very well as a search pattern when smallies school up. I learned about this stirring up the bottom to attract smallies at least 5 years ago from a friend of mine Frank DiMarcantonio of Niagara Sportfishing guide service while we fished Erie one day. While we fished, Frank asked me "do you want to see something really cool?". I said "uhh, yeah!". Frank pulled out his underwater camera and put it just off bottom. I had a look and noticed smallies scattered around lazily mulling about. I said "that is cool". Frank just smiled and said "now watch" as he bashed the camera into the sandy bottom. I was shocked, as the smallies went into a frenzy and schooled up right in front of the camera all excited! I said "now THAT is really cool!". My wheels started to turn after that, and I thought of the idea of dragging a few large chain links behind a thin rope like a drift sock to stir up bottom. Little did I know that it was thought up before (until this thread), but then again, there isn't much that hasn't been thought of before, so I'm not surprised. The technique isn't much different than guys using the trolling motor to pull tubes to cover water, but it's a slight bit quicker with a different set-up. It acts as a much different trigger than trolling a tube jig along bottom though, and has earned a permanent spot in my smallie arsenal. Nomad, I rarely loose a weight, as I use heavy 20lb Maxima fluorocarbon and check for abrasions and retie when needed. Solo, don't give the bank beaters any ideas! lol Aaron

Awesome chrome you tagged! Very nice.

Cool Harrison, let me know how it works on Simcoe. I'd be interested to hear how the technique does there.

I'm really sorry to hear this Wayne. It sounds like your daughter is in the best hands. I wish her well and hope she beats this. I think it's safe to say that you have the full support of OFC.

Thanks guys, it was a fun day. I'm trying to get a day off work this week to go back, I have the itch bigtime! OK boys, here is the skinny on the three-way, and why I like that specific crank. I use 30lb braid to a relatively small black three-way swivel. I then tie a dropper line of 15-20lb fluorocarbon about 20" in length to a 2oz pencil weight. I then tie an 8- to 10-foot leader of 15-20lb fluoro to the crankbait, stickbait or Mooselook Wabbler spoon (profile of a smelt). The main forage for smallies at this time of year is smelt and gobies. Athough the spoons and stickbaits in smelt patterns work well, the walleye coloured jointed Shad Rap is extremely productive. It not only has the colouration of a goby, it also mimicks the action of a goby along bottom. Also, I believe it works so well because the 2oz weight stirs up the bottom and gets attention from smallies, then along comes the jointed Shad Rap digging the bottom looking like a vulnerable goby in the silt line. Deadly tactic out there, and it is a phenominal search tool as well covering a lot of water quickly I set my trolling motor to get my speed at about 1.5mph, and let out about 75- to 150-feet to just maintain bottom contact. I check the line above the three-way swivel and crankbait often and retie as needed. I like 20lb fluoro leads because the zebras and rocks are hard on line when drudging the bottom. I like a MH sensitive baitcasting rod to handle the weight and feel the vibration of the crank. When the crank stops vibrating, I reel in and clear the clump of zebras off the crank and touch up the hooks if need be. Fang, Humminbird makes a good unit as you know. I liked my birds, however, I do like the HDS units even more, they are simply amazing. My fishing has improved since owning the HDS units, especially for salmon on Lake O and bass on Erie. The HDS units have the best picture I've ever seen. I am not sponsored by Lowrance BTW lol. Ehg, that old Kodak was a 3mp camera. That C series cam was one of the best cameras I've ever used, until I dropped it. For some reason, that cam just took great pics almost every time and the pics had a 'warm' colour with the image sensor. It was like a cam for dummies lol. I have always liked the Kodak cams because they are easy to use and take warm coloured shots with a high red saturation. Only thing is, somtimes the odd shot has too much red saturation, but most shots turn out well in Smart Capture mode. Good fishing! Aaron

I spent the day on Lake Erie on Saturday with a buddy Dean from work. Finally, after a couple of weeks of not being able to get out due to strong winds, we would have a great day. We got a later start because we worked night shifts all week including Friday night. When we arrived at the Port Colborne ramp, there must have been at least 50 boat trailers in the lot! Definately a few tournies on. We got out around 9am, which isn't bad for a couple of sleep deprived boys. We started out front and caught fish, but not the size we were after. They all seemed to be in that 2- to 3-pound range. Tubes accounted for some bites, but Mr.Champs jigged off bottom worked best for us. The smallies were heavily pressured and biting very lightly for the most part. It was frustrating to get bites and not hook up on many hits. We decided to move and find more active fish that were bigger. We must have put on 30 miles in search mode. We spent the next couple of hours with very few bites while we searched various spots and depths. Finally we hit some productive water with a bit bigger fish by the afternoon, and the Mr.Champs were working like a charm again. By mid afternoon, the fishing pressure was intense and the bite slowed down big time. We started to employ three-way rigs with jointed Shad Raps and covered water. That was a great move, as we started hitting smallies on a regular basis again Good overall average size at about 3.5-pounds with some 4's and a couple close to 5. We didn't hook up with any tanks, but we had a great day on the water and ended up with at least 30 smallies in the boat and a bunch of missed and lost fish throughout the day. The most productive depths for us was between 30- to 38-feet deep. The water temps at surface were about 53 F. The water was also very clear. The day was a bit cool first thing in the morning, but turned out to be a beautiful November day. We had a great time and got a bit of an Erie smallie fix. The itch has started though, and I can't wait to get back out there for some tanks! Good luck for those that can venture out this week! Aaron

Did you hook yourself in the arse Ron?

After some inquiries recently, I was told the same thing, nobody keeps Canadian records anymore. Too bad, it would be interesting to see Canadian records. When I was about 14 or 15 years old, I caught a 2 pound goldeye in the Hamilton harbour tributary Indian Creek on a Mepps spinner by Lakeshore Road. Hardest fighting fish for the size I ever caught, I actually thought I had on a carp which was common in that spot. I was shocked to see such a small fish come to the bank! I didn't know what it was and kept it in my freezer and had it identified later with a fish identification book. I took it to the weigh scale at the old Home hardware on Lakeshore in Bronte (if you remember that scale, your at least as old as I am ) and it weighed 2 pounds even. I didn't know how to register it as a record at the time, as I was a kid. This was a freak thing, as I never heard of a goldeye caught in the Hamilton Harbour before or after. Mooneye are most common in Ontario. It would have easily taken the Ontario record at the time. The Canadian record was well over 2 pounds from Manitoba (I think over 4 pounds). Aaron

Thanks again for the comments guys. Thanks for the play-by-play and additional photos from your camera Bunk. That is pretty close to how I remember it, although I would have remembered fondue and the drum spitting out a musky lol. In all the excitement, I'm not sure if you or Tony netted it, but it was a good team effort to clear lines, stop the boat and net that bad boy. Thanks! A day to remember for all three of us for sure Aaron

That is pretty cool Rick, thanks for the approximate length and girth. I doubt anyone will have a replica with those measurements though. Sheep hearder... Nice lol

I fished for 3 days on the Bay of Quinte in the reach trolling for walleye with TonyB and the Bunkster (Bunk joined us for 2 days). It was a great time with our group of Buddies, lots of fish, food, fish fry, wings, cold beer, laughs and great company, on and off the water. Tony and I had a tough day Thursday, and eliminated a bunch of unproductive water in pretty rough seas, not to mention cold! We ended up with a handful of fish and a place to start for Friday. We didn`t get a start until 11:30am. Bunk joined us Friday and we had a better day, but still a bit slow while we were in search mode. We slowly got into our Quinte groove and by the end of the day we figured out a productive pattern. It was really rough and cold on Friday as well. We got a bit of an earlier start at about 9:30am. Saturday was THE day for us. No messing around, as the weather was awesome! We got a start at daybreak and executed our program on productive water right away. It was non-stop action throughout the day, and we all worked well as a team. The tally for the day was 36 bites. I believe 14 walleye in the boat, 5 lost, a white bass and the rest drum... including a tank of a drum that I caught at 27.5 pounds! It was a memorable day on the water with great company. Bunk got a PB walleye at 11.25 pounds, and I got a PB sheepie at 27.5 pounds A bunch of double headers and a triple header throughout the day made things interesting as well. Riggers and Dipsys were cold for us, it was all boards with braid and 3 & 5 leadcore with a variety of diving stickbaits and a green Mooselook spoon. Typical sppeds between 1.7 to 2.1mph worked well. Thanks for the awesome weekend boys! No shortage of photos from different angles of the adventure weekend, enjoy. Good fishing! Aaron

Wow, sounds like they got the right weather to make things happen! A weight like that was inevitable with the right weather on Simcoe. Congrats to the winners and the top ten, and congrats to the angler with the 8lb pig!

Rick, agreed. A record is a record, and that is why I am dissapointed with myself that I didn`t keep it to weigh on an official scale. Oh well, can`t worry about it, just enjoy the moment. There are a lot of big drum up to 15lbs caught while fishing for walleye in the reach. Tony got 2 that went about 15lbs over the weekend, with several drum over 10lbs (watch for my Quinte report soon). They fight much harder than walleye, and keep us entertained well between walleye bites

Some people have tried to get to that fishing spot by boat and jetskis over the years without much luck. Some even got creative and tried their luck in barrels

Thanks everyone. It was one heck of a fish to say the least. Rick, we were fishing in Tony`s boat. Viral... ya never know, but it`s a drum, not a musky lol.

RippinLips, we were fishing for walleye in the Adolphus Reach area of the Bay of Quinte when we caught the big drum. It was caught on 5 colour leadcore with a stickbait. Good fishing! Aaron

Didn't take long for some of you to guess correctly lol. Yes, I am the one who caught the 27.5 pound freshwater drum. I caught it trolling with fellow OFNers TonyB and Bunk in Adolphus Reach at the Bay of Quinte on Saturday October 23rd. It just happened to be my turn at a rod when the giant hit. We had a triple header at the time, and my fish peeled line like a salmon! We slowed the boat down to a crawl, but I still wasn't making much headway. The fish was just staying deep and heavy, and every once in a while peeled line again. Bunk cleared lines and stopped the boat after his fish was in so Tony (fighting another good drum) and I could get our fish in. My fish still fought hard and had me wondering what the heck I had on, thinking it may be a salmonid. When my fish finally breached the water's surface near the boat, all three of us yelled "whoooooaaaaaaaa" at the same time. It was really a sight to behold. I forget who netted it in all the excitement, but thanks to both of you on the team work to help me get my fish in! We weighed the fish a couple of times on Tony's Rapala digital scale to make sure the exact weight. It was exactly 27.5 pounds. We didn't know if it was a record fish or not, and I held it in the water while Tony tried to find out what the record was on his Blackberry. He found a 54lb drum as a world record, and I ended up releasing the fish. We didn't even get measurements, as Tony didn't have a tape on his boat. I wondered about what the Canadian or Ontario record was, and after talking to some buddies on the radio, realized it could have been at least an Ontario record. I'm not sure if it would have been a Canadian record or not (can't find any info on Canadian record fish), but it would have shattered the Ontario record had I kept it. I really didn't realize just what I let go until after. I was still trying to confirm if it was an Ontario or Canadian record today, and still am about the Canadian record. I know it really doesn`t matter as I let the fish go, but it would just be nice to know for sure. I really wish that I had kept the fish now, and feel bad I didn`t. Even though it will not be an official record, the three of us know what we put in the boat and Tony`s scale is accurate. It was a true giant fish that put up an unbelievable fight. TonyB, Bunk and I will always have the photos of our special day on the water, and the memories will last a lifetime. I`ll post a seperate report with some details about our weekend Quinte trip. Thanks for the suspence Randy lol. Here are pics of the beast.

Very nice chrome

One thing is for sure, I am finally going to enjoy watching Leafs games a little more this year if they keep up this effort. The investment I made in a 52" HD TV and Leafs TV may not seem like such a waste of money this year I don't think the buds will stay at the top of the Eastern conference for long, and they will more than likely be fighting for a playoff spot by the end of the season... but they will be a lot more fun to watch this year. It's been way too long since TO has had a decent team, and if they do make the playoffs, they could be a sleeper with the heart they are capable of playing with. I will not be jumping on the parade bandwagon though Avery just needs a really good thumping.

Awesome chrome, love the bug stick steel reports! Never tried a spey rod before, but I do enjoy steelies on the fly. Cool pics!

Sweet fish. Always wanted to fish that river. So many tribs, too little time lol.