singingdog

I never had much luck with them in lighter colors (white, chart), but have caught some great fish on them now that I am using craw patterns. My favorite is a 3/4 oz football jig that I converted to a chatterbait: dark green/brown with a craw trailer. I fish it like a crankbait, bouncing it off logs and rocks.

Nice fish!!

Why fluoro? because its completely invisible underwater so the fish don't see it and get spooked. It's a finesse thing.

I have a bridge that you might be interested in....and some swamp land.

get some pencil lead, some shrink wrap tubing, and some swivels and make your own. Otherwise, just tie an egg weight on.

Planning a trip to PEI, wondering if anyone has any tips. I have read that there is a decent brook trout fishery in the freshwater. Any other opportunities that don't involve chartering a boat? Thanks all.

First, why the flouro leader (especially if you are risking losing fish/lures)? I understand a leader in a river-fishing environment, but flouro is unnecessary 90% of the time, and notorious for not holding knots. A good hybrid line or mono is fine for a leader, and will hold a uni/uni knot very well. If I am using a leader on braid (very rare) I use PLine and a uni/uni connection. I have never lost a fish at that knot.

There are lots of reasons not to use a barrel swivel: the possibility of damaging guides (which will ultimately lead to more line failure than a poor leader/main line connection), and the loss of proper action for certain lures (cranks, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits) are two that come to mind.

Unless you're fishing shallow pits up north, at this time of year large pike are down a lot deeper than 15 feet. As in, down with the lake trout in 60+ feet or water.

 

Fish a six-inch minnow down 15 feet and you'll likely catch some nice largemouth though, and probably a few decent walleye mixed in.

Really? I guess all the pike we caught today in 8-10 FOW - within pitching distance of 40 FOW - aren't paying attention.

It's a milk snake. The brown blotches, outlined in black, differentiate it from a fox snake. If it were a fox snake, the brown blotches would not have a black outline.

I catch lots of big smallies in 20-25 FOW on wacky-jigged senkos. I really like the Zappu Inchi jigheads (haven't ever had hook problems, even with 21" SM) because the hookset is very similar to using a circle hook. Jigs made especially for a wacky-jig (they call it flick-shake some places) are very short and compact. This allows you to "shake" the senko which sometimes triggers strikes better than a simple fall. It's a deadly deep-water technique that, for me, out produces dropshot most of the time.

Haliburton is not, and never has been under a state of emergency. The flooding is limited to a small area of Minden, and is largely on the Gull River system. Lakes that are not on that system show very little effect of the high water.

If you are keen on fishing right after ice-out, this could be the weekend. Most lakes that get any wind have opened up in the last day or two. Smaller lakes that are sheltered may not open by the weekend, but would be worth checking. Road access could be dicey, although the flooding is mostly limited to the Gull river system right up into Haliburton forest.

Big change in ice conditions here yesterday. The wind was finally able to start breaking up the last bit of ice on larger lakes. By this weekend, there will be some significant open water.

was there alot of wind with the storm singingdog, trees down etc., or just lots of rain?

I didn't see - or hear of - much wind damage. LOTS of rain, still a fair amount of snow on the north slopes, and saturated ground seem to have created perfect conditions for flooding.

Took a drive up to Kinnesis to check on ice conditions. Small lakes are still locked-up, with very little open along the shores. Larger lakes are right on the verge, but still largely ice covered.

Side note: LOTS of washed out/flooded roads up here right now. If you have to take an unpaved road to get there, you probably aren't going.

My rule of thumb for brookies is that they don't start biting real well until the bugs start to come out.....definitely not 1 week after ice out. If there is lots of wind, they will start to get more active earlier, but not nearly as soon as the lakers will.

Just longline troll with a bait that will run 10ft deep and you will catch lakers no problem !!!!!!

There you go.....all of lake trout fishing summed up in one sentence. I wish someone would tell the lakers it is that easy

Curious if anyone can provide Minden Haliburton updates?

We are right on the edge. Most lakes - except where there is good current - are still ice covered, but very dark. I went to check Koshlong yesterday, and it was just coming off the banks.

If we get 2 days of good winds, it will start to break up fast. We have 3 days of 30 Km/h forecasted.

Size is tough to use as a field mark, especially with waxwings. It's really only useful if you see them side-by-side, or next to something very familiar (Robin, backyard feeder) On average, Cedars are slimmer than Bohemians, unless they are puffing up their feathers to stay warm.

My guess is Coopers hawk. The sharp contrast between the cap and the nape of the neck is almost diagnostic. That, in combination with the shorter outer tail feathers makes me think Coopers. Perched accipiters are tough...much easier in flight.

Pretty well just like The Incredible Silver Minnow except rabbit instead of feather. Hard to beat Zonker... it's full of life even when the fly is dead in the water.

 

 

This is an early-mid May speck. Yellow Stones, Caddis and Craws all in it's belly. Can't find the pic of another one caught same time of year, in it's belly were 8 sticklebacks, a leech, maybe a dozen waterboatman (surprise) and a black mush of what were likely midge.

 

Come spring they'll eat whatever is available.

Agreed on the similarity of those 2 flies. Really, I think any decent minnow imitator will work. I have caught the majority of my big spring brookies on a very simple bucktail jig: olive over white.

Another agreement on the "they will eat anything". One day it took us a couple of hours to figure out we weren't going to catch any brookies unless we were throwing right against the bank. Those fish were nose-in and not even looking at presentations 2' away from shore. When we cleaned one, it was absolutely full of salamanders.

My 2 best all-round flys for stillwater trout are

1. black leach pattern: wooly bugger or rabbit-strip

2. Zonker minnow.

Open, unless I am using a leader. R-bend sbaits vibrate much more than closed-eye sbaits.

That's trout fishing. It can be a real gamble putting a lot of effort into getting to a remote lake. If the bite is off, it doesn't matter how good the lake is. My guess is that the big weather change shut them down, but trout don't need much of an excuse to shut down.

There are still plenty of public-access lakes in between Haliburton and Algonquin.

good website to check out lakes

 

http://www.web2.mnr.gov.on.ca/fish_online/fishing/fishingExplorer_en.html

As long as you don't care much about accuracy The info about species is rarely correct for the lakes that I fish.

Try Clare Ridsdale: 705.488.1075. Sorry for the lack of judgemental or smart ass comments.