Aaron Shirley

Awesome stones Spiel! Reminds me of my earlier stones I tied.. it took me an hour to tie each one as I copied the real nymph.. don't have that kind of time anymore! Those are going to kill steelhead, wicked stuff man. Aaron

It's great stuff, I've been using it on a few reels for about 4 years now, and it's still going strong. It is good braid. Aaron

Next time I go Spiel, I'l llet you know. The more the merrier when ice fishing... although I walk for miles in a day! I learned a lot of valuable advice and tips from that Simcoe ice God - Don McCaw. Have you heard from him lately? Sending you a PM Chuck. I'll let you know next time I'm heading out. Bigredneck, that lure is a Blue Fox Little Foxee jig, similar to Meegs, Bad Boyz and Hump Back Creepers, but with a feather tail. I'll be eating that last one this weekend, mmm mm good! Aaron

The sonar I use (until I sell it) is the Humminbird I have for sale now in OFC classifieds, 787c2i with ice transducer. I would say ice was about 8" minimum on Sunday where we fished. Good fishing! Aaron

I fished with Tony on Simcoe on Sunday, and it was pretty slow for the most part. We tried off Inissfil in the morning, but after Tony lost one and nothing else all morning, we switched spots at noon and finally hit paydirt. Overall tough, but we salvaged the day with the move. We needed electronics to help trigger these inactive fish. We worked hard for our bites ont he sonar, and most fish wouldn't move up more than a foot other than my last suicidal whitie up 10' to smash the Little Foxee Jig. Tony got into the first couple of fish, both lakers with one good one. One on a tip-up and shiner, the other on a Jigging Rap. Then I took some hits, on a great set-up, with a hook and shiner drop-shot style and a Jigging Rap and Blue Fox Little Foxee jig as a weight, and both bait and lure worked. We both lost a few fish which sucked on such a slow day... but that's fishin'. Sorry about the black box.. it is covering a new prototype reel I cannot show yet Good fishing! Aaron

We found out the hard way Sibbald launch is down until Oct 15th I think? The perch were on pretty good Sat, all on artificials, in 30' to 33'. diving turns for smelt was the best spot. We noted the fish were suspended from 15' to the bottom. We got some herring as well, anybody else get these while perch fishing? Aaron

Are seagulls in season? LOL Must have been a handful in the boat.

Wow, what a fish! Aaron

I fished with Tony on Simcoe yesterday for perch and smallies, although we spent most of the day for perch... we were having too much fun We launched in Peferlaw, but unfortunately it was pretty windy to fish the break we wanted, so we decided to duck behing Thorah Is and look for fish on sonar. We didn't see or catch much. It calmed down a bit over a couple hours, so we went to the break we wanted to originally fish, and there were boated all over it. We went to the outside of the pack where a bunch of turns were diving for smelt, and it paid off. Constant action with all sizes mixed in. The majority of boats caught on eventually and moved over beside us to the diving birds. There was no magic lure, they hit Mepps Little Wolf spoons, 2" Storm swim jigs, Jigging Raps and a funky lead jig/spoon Tony had. We got a bunch of herring as well, which was good to see. The population of herring looks like it's getting healthy. If you get one, release it right away, you cannot target them, as they are protected. We found them typically in the deeper breaks on soft bottom 27' to 33' deep, from 15' down suspended to bottom. Great time as always Tony. Glad you could make it out. This is what a herring looks like, they are different from whitefish. They are typically smaller and have an upturned mouth, whitefish have a downturned mouth. Disorderly perch, LOL We wanted to try smallies for the first time on Simcoe, so we headed for shoals and rocky areas to do some searching for the remaining couple of hours, but we had a hard time catching or seeing anything. Eventually Tony got a nice smallie just under 5lbs on a jig and FinS Fish. Fluky stuff, he cast it out, put his rod in the holder, picked it up and fish on! Tony's first good Simcoe smallie.. I have still yet to get one. Good fishing! Aaron

Congrats on the PB musky! Aaron

Hard to beat Sorels or Baffins. Aaron

Rapala RType baitcaster is a great reel for $100. Very smooth 10 bearing reel, and you can adjust the brakes. It may not be available until later in the fall though. Practice makes perfect, they are great tools. Aaron

Hey Bucktail, we did get a bunch of smallies off the weed weed edges, as well as sand flats, rock piles, shoreline and deeper breaks... all types of structure. Uglyfish, yes the new RType baitcasters are sweet Good fishing! Aaron

Hey Tibbs, the new Canadian Rapala rods and reels are really nice. I love the RType rods and reels. The new Volt reels are nice as well. I can't wait to try the new high-end Shift rods coming out later this year. Jigger, we found the fish scattered all over. We had to work hard for our bites and run and gun to keep getting quality fish... although they are small lakes, so we didn't have to run far to a new spot Aaron

Congrats on a nice PB muskie! Aaron

Wow, this is the first time I saw this post. I haven't been on here in a while, as I have been busy dealing with a colicky baby. I can't believe someone would make such a public accusation against Tony. I have known Tony for a long time, and I have fished with him for years. I have never witnessed him do anything even remotely unethical. Tony is a stand-up guy that always follows the regs, and promotes following the regs. I fish with Tony all the time in the derby, and I know how much time and effort he puts on the water for the derby with me, and by himself. Congrats on catching such a great derby winning salmon Tony. I wish I was in the boat with ya. Aaron

Barry and I headed to the Haliburtons to fish for smallies on our annual trip with the boys on the weekend. We had a riot as always. Barry and I caught a bunch of big smallies up to 5lbs on day one with about 20 fish in the boat, not many under 2.5-pounds. X-Raps and tubes were the ticket with a couple on a DT crank for Barry. I even got a laker on a green tube! Barry had the hot hand on the weekend getting countless big fish. We got to put the new Rapala Volt and RType reels to the test, and I'm impressed with them. I can't wait for the new Rapala high-end rods to come out later this year. Day two we had a mini-tourney with all 6 boats. It was a tough day of fishing, but most boats got around 15 smallies. Spinnerbaits, tubes and X-Raps were the ticket. Barry took it with a 4.2lb smallie. The surface water temps were at 56 F. and gin clear. Moderate to low winds were nice, although we had some storms moving through with bigger winds, one front with hail! The first day was -1 C, day 2 was a lot warmer. The fish were anywhere from 5' of water to 30'. It was a great trip, can't wait for next year already! We didn't take a lot of pics due to the weather, but we got some nice shots. Good fishing! Aaron

Great fish! Congrats. Thought the same thing as Uncle Buck, you got nuts putting your thimb in its mouth LOL. Aaron

Anti-dentite (Seinfeld) LOL. It hurts the pocketbook anytime you hire a lawyer or dentist, but neccessary. Hope the work was good. I had a brutal dentist screw up my front tooth before and charged me the full price. Now that hurts. Aaron

Fished with a friend of mine Mitch today off BBP and did well. We walked out and fished the hard edge, but got nothing. Didn't see much on sonar but bait. We walked out 2 miles into the lake and did well there in over 100'. It was a long hard walk, but worth it. We went 6 for 9, got there late and left early. All on the small Williams ice spoon and shiners on the tip ups. Lakers were between 3 and 6lbs, no biggies. Whities eluded me today. Innisfil Bait and Tackle has awesome 4" emerald shiners, $5. for a liberal dozen. It was recommended that I do not drive out there, as the ice is unstable for vehicles in that area. Oh well, it was good excercise! Will post pics after Sat., I will be going back again Sat morning. Hope to see some of you there! Good fishing! Aaron

Thanks for letting me know Rico. I will start to post the specific links on each page so that people can download the episodes if they want. Hi BigSmallie, although I'm sure it would help, I would not want to be responsible for a flood of e-mails going to WFN and tick them off. Thanks for the offer though. They are talking with us, and hopefully things will go well. I'll keep you all posted. Good fishing! Aaron

I have used my Humminbird portable LCD sonar units on the ice for years with great success. I have used them up to -20 Celcius with no problem. From what I have heard, the LCD starts to act up when the temps dip below -30, but I don't know how true that is, as I have never fished outside a hut when it's that cold. The transducer is underwater and will be just fine. The big thing with an LCD, is to have a real time window. I have a Humminbird with a flasher style on it, but I prefer to use the traditional view with the real time window on the right. I can see my lure or bait in real time, and fish come in to look at it, and have history to the left as well. It matters how you set the LCD sonar bigtime. For the best results on ice, I set the speed of the signal (ping speed) to the lowest point, zoom into the area that I am fishing (advanced mode for newer Humminbird units - upper and lower limit), and adjust the sensitivity last to match the lures or bait for best results. You will be impressed with the results if you have a real time window on your sonar. The nice thing about the portable unit is, I use it on the bow of my big Lund, and for my 12' boat in the summer as well as the ice, giving me three uses for it all year round. Years ago, I modified my old Humminbird portable case to accept two gel cell 6v batteries that worsk great. Of course, now they have a soft case that works with a 12v. As far as the transducer goes, it is best to have a Tightlok pole or something made for it to set it in the hole... or get the ice style transducer with foam just for winter. I have fished with the transducer in the same hole and used it in a different hole as well, and found a hole right beside the one I fish out of works best. If I run it in the same hole, I have to lift the transducer out of the hole when I get a fish on, and once in a while I will hang my line up on the transducer, and need to remove it to unwrap my line. I am solving this issue next year with a round 'ice transducer' with the foam. These are my experiences using LCD sonar on the ice. They work just as well as a flasher in my opinion (if they have a real time window), but need to be tweaked to work effectively. This pic was taken of my Hummibird and a school of perch out of Gilford on Cooks Bay. The line coming down on the right was my small 2" spoon. The window on the right is the real time window (like a flasher, but vertical, not round). The rest is the history like you would see in summer. Aaron

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.. we have spoken with WFN recently, and they may be interested in airing our show this year. We hope they will see the benefit of airing a Canadian TV show and be able to find space for us this year on their network. Will keep you all posted with times if we are able to acquire air time on WFN. Good fishing! Aaron

Thanks for all the great comments. Hey Joey, go out 2 miles, thirteen paces to the left, 2 paces straight and you should be there, LOL. Actually, I have been fishing off Big Bay Point off the big underwater point on the GPS in about 100- to 106'. They have been around that area, but it has been hit and miss. I heard people are getting them off Jackson's Point and a few other spots as well. Fishnpro, we saw them on bottom mostly, and lots of them. They would be gone as soon as they showed on sonar though. Very inactive, they wouldn't chase a bait. The few that did, were quick to get to our baits, then stopped when we paused, and refused them. Very frustrating. Rick, talked to Don a week ago or so, and he was heading to Nippissing for a while. I think he is more into bass now though. He's got he bass bug. Speaking of the bass bug, yeah, leave it to Jimmy Dodd to lip a laker! Bass is in his veins! I plan on heading out tomorrow (Thursday) from Big Bay Point at about 7am. Plan to drive my 4x4 Explorer out to the spot. The ice should be good enough now, as there was about 12" on Sat. I am not walking out that far again in the snow, especially with the snow we just had! If anyone here wants to join me and my friend Mitch, you are more than welcome... there is lots of ice out there. Good fishing! Aaron

Thanks again for the comments guys. Rico, thanks for posting that. That makes sense. Have you tried it out? Does it work well for you? If it works well, I can add the specific link on each episode page for the people who want to download the file to their pc. Good fishing! Aaron