fish_finder

Well, its been a couple of weeks since the season opened. I was out for 5 days including the Monday-Wednesday after opening weekend and had a blast fishing the creeks with a crew I fish with every opener.

I've been busy as heck since, and finally have time to toss up a report.

2 of us headed up on the friday to set up camp and get things ready for our stay. We hiked a couple of rivers that day and watched a few fish rising to BWOs, which got us pumped up for the following morning.

A few shots from the trip.

Hatches are really starting to come off now. Another couple of weeks and the mayflies will be out in full force! Can't wait for that!

I spent a couple of days this past weekend in the same area doing some filming for an Ontario Fly Fishing documentary we are putting together. Hopefully I'll have a couple of trailers for folks to check out in the next few weeks. We've been filming since last november and have a ton of awesome footage.

I guess it just gives a little more depth to the photo having some gear in the shot.

Those are centrepins though manitou, not fly reels. Pinners and Flyers both like to show off their gear me thinks

Some nice feesh you got there bud! Great photos, and some interesting variation from fish to fish.

Just a quick question, why do fly fisherman almost always have the reel in the pic??? Is it sort of bragging rights to catch on a fly instead of a spinning reel or baitcaster?

Firstly, why not?

Secondly, i don't believe those to be fly reels

Here are a couple of the stonefly patterns that do me well at this time of year

Tiny Black Stone

* Hook size 12 - 18 nymph

* Thread brown 8/0

* Tail black goose biots

* Body black hares ear dub

* Rib fine gold wire

* Wingcase turkey feather segment

* Head thread head

* Antennae black goose biots

Early Brown Stone:

* Hook size 10-12 nymph hook

* Thread brown 6/0

* Tail Black Turkey Biot

* Ribbing Clear UTC viny

* Body Black or brown fine dubbing

* Thorax Hackle to match body colour

* Wingcase turkey feather segment (underside folded over and exposed)

* Head brown or black thread

And my fave spring egg pattern:

* Hook size 14 egg fly

* Thread white 8/0

* Egg McFly Foam

Little black stones will be hatching and very active in most rivers right now. Sizes 12-14 would be best bets if the water is clear enough. Up size those if the water is dirty.

So here's my dilema.

Currently my domain regristration and hosting is taken care of by Netfirms in Toronto.

Well I just got an email from them and they have been sold to a US company.

I want to keep my $$$ in Canada so am looking for a new hosting/registration company in Canada.

 

So who are you guys out there using who are Canadian and how is their service.

I found a company called Hostpapa.ca also located in Toronto, anyone using their service?

On thing I'll say is stay away from webserve.ca. I dealt with them for a number of years. The last couple have been an absolute nightmare. I'm currently in the process of transferring everything away from them.

sentex.ca is a company I've dealt with in the past, and you may want to get in touch with them to see if they can help you out!

That horrible I hope it gets cleaned up .I still can't beleive people eat fish from Lake O

I hear that man. Folks who do might be interested in reading what the americans have to say about eating sport fish from the great lakes, particularly lake ontario. They have a guide much like ours.

I see it

First off I have yet to have a helmet cam on if I planned to take just a nice putt on the bike. If you were a cop and in 3.34 min you have watched someone made numerous illegal and reckless moves (turns wheelies,solid line crossing excess speed etc.) on a motorcycle forcing you the cop to aggressively pursue them in traffic do you think you would not be a little amped up? The guy got exactly the reaction I would expect from an unmarked police cruiser with an off duty officer with no back up.

 

 

Art

I'm just gonna say that the cop apparently was off duty as well....I don't think I'd call that unmarked. And, he had backup...there was a state trooper behind the bike. I'm not tryin to stir the pot, but that dude is a perfect example of police power tripping. I'm not saying they all do that, but it was certainly a perfect example of a nasty cop.

I ya haven't seen it, here's the video----

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5bMSyJCsg

I honestly would have had trouble believing the guy was a cop in the firstplace. Look more like he's trying to steal the bike in my opinion, regardless of what he says. Why the need for the gun???? Does the dudes headlight double as a bazooka???

I've got to suck it up and break out my fly rod before the end of the month.

Yes dude!! you do!!

They're pretty aggressive right now.

Managed to get out last weekend with a couple of buddies in GB. We hit three rivers, each one was a treat. Saw a few large fish, but no hookups with the bigger fellas.

The best fish was a 15 inch resident bow, and I'm not complaining about that!!

Nearly all fish were taken on dries, we hit a couple of pretty thick BWO hatches both days, with some larger drakes in the mix as well.

Some pics of the feesh.....

The big ole Bow!

If bass showed up I'd be even more inclined to get rid of them since they are an invasive species. In algonquin park they have warnings against the small mouth because they take over the trout areas.

I agree that nature should run it's course, it's just sad to think how difficult it would be for trout to re-populate when there are 1000 chub per 100 meters. Then again, the decline in trout populations is mostly caused by people, NOT chub.

Theres a good chance the water quality is diminishing/warming up overall if there were once lots of trout, now being replaced by chub. Its a pretty common occurence in southern Ontario, sadly.

Seeing as they are a native species that should be there, and are a large part of the diet of bigger trout, you should probably let them go.....it would also be illegal to do otherwise...they ain't gobies!

If you are catching alot of chub, suckers, shiners, etc, its likely that the water is simply at a warm stage in the season, when trout are far less active, but these baitfish become much more active when the waters warm up. You may also be fishing a transitional part of the stream, where warm and cold water species mix.

Excellent post as always Dave.

I have had a tough summer with the big browns myself. That doesnt seem to be the case for you!

 

Thanks again for all you help last week as well.

Cheers

Rob

No problem buddy!!

And we'll definitely get out this fall for some chrome action!! We'll see if we can get you tied into one on the fly! I've been known to pick up the float rod a few times each season too, some rivers ya just need to! And sometimes I just want to!!

And Leechman, that is pure heaven right there buddy!

dave

I use this method with success, either in a canoe or trolling with a motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUWFP2Z3ZXc

Its definitely a spectacular area Bly. Big skies, Big browns (when luck is with you!) and loads of fun!! Less than a month and it'll be 7 months before I can fish it again

Awesome, I love bush whacking small streams for trout, in fact some of those shots look familiar but then again it could be anywhere.

 

Great photos and some sweet trout.

Thanks Spiel!

Who knows. That particular area is actually pretty popular amongst fly guys. Private land, so access is limited, but definitely accessible if you ask

Very nice guys!

Sorry I couldnt make it up there with yas!

Other things to deal with that excluded fishing..

Next time dude! We'll get up there once, if not twice again before the end of the month.

dave

Well, we knew things would be cooling off, and we got a bunch of rain, so me and Justang headed out to one of our favourite haunts to try for some resident browns before chrome fever takes over.

Headed out friday afternoon. I had the day off, so I was just waiting for justin to call saying he'd been rained out of work. The call came at about noon, and we were on our way shortly after 1.

The skies cleared, mostly, on the drive up. By about 3:30 we were fishin. Justin had a fish to deal with at the hole closest to the access point, so I headed upstream to the next pool, letting him try to taunt the brown that has eluded him more than once now.

Not long after that, I hear justin screaming, and head down to see his rod buckled over just upstream of a log jam. Seconds later, a few choice words were screamed by justin, and his lovely 5wt was tossed over his head into the bushes behind him. He slithered onto the bank and crumbled into a ball, rocking back and forth. I pulled out my flask, had a we tip of it and chuckled before I headed back upstream.

You'll hook him again next time justang!!!

We saw quite a few more large fish than usual this trip. Probably fish putting on the feed bag before they spawn this fall.

Justang casting to one of em...

There were a couple of Justangles as well.....

A couple of smaller fish from the evening.

We got into quite a few trout, 8 to 12 inch being average. We both hooked a couple bigger fish around 15, but failed!

Headed to our camp for the night, cooked some weinies and beans, a bunch of scotch downed, and crashed.

I woke up to cold, dreary weather, and go me coffee on!

Justin woke up a while later with that big lost brown on his mind.

Water was low near camp...

...so we opted to head back downstream to some bigger water.

A few more small trout, a couple big guys spotted and we headed out!

Who knows dude...

Here's the wiki on Blue Walleye...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_walleye

Lindsay has been found. Sadly, it is not a happy ending.....

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=172134962350#!/group.php?gid=172134962350&v=wall

Enjoy? I'll take -20f over +40 humidex any day.

I hear that! The weather turned on me back in May!

oh man....is this the new destination?

I honestly think people would have no idea what they were eating if it was battered in crispy chronzey, fish crisp or a homemade batter.

How many of you folks who won't eat anything but 'game' fish have actually tried 'garbage' fish?? probably not many. I'd take a nicely battered slice of carp over a steak from zehrs or sobeys or whatever anyday.