fish_finder

I see guys pounding fish ducks and throwing them back in the marsh just to get some shooting in. I disagree with it totally but its done quite frequently. Sort of the same?

And is it something you report if you see it so frequently?

Also Fish Finder - sidenote - I checked out that site in your signature. It looks really good so I signed up!

 

Cheers,

Ryan

Lots of advise to be found on there for big trout buddy! People are usually tight lipped about locations, but the advice is golden man!

I use gulp on whiskey and beer.....

UPDATE:

 

Torco and I met up tonight and went to fish @ the same spot where this fish lives. He was rising and as always there were no other fish in his area.

 

I got fed up with running a lure by his face and decided it was perfect time for the mouse that many of you suggested. It was windy, overcast, and it had just briefly rained I tied it on, put it into the current, let it drift over top of the general area the fish was rising in, and then skittered it across the top of the water. It looked extremely lifelike (from the surface - the hook underneath probably doesn't look that lifelike). 4-5 casts and nothing. Next cast, the surface explodes under my mouse, water is splashing, and due to over-excitement I pull the mouse away too soon After a profanity or two and two in-vain casts, we moved upstream.

 

Nice to see the beast is still around after having not targeted him in a few weeks.

Yeah Buddy!! I bet you'll get him next time man! Most times when a brown grabs something like that, he'll do the work in hooking himself as he'll smash the lure and turn away from you with it in its mouth.

Nice trooot man!! What weight rod are you using right now?

Non stop come mid to late august man!! Then the cohos move in, then the browns, then......the steelhead!

Its far too early to talk about this though. We still have a little over 3 months of resident trout fishing till my arms have to get really sore!!

sounds like what happens on opening trout weekend...

I think my buddy makes your net.

Nah, thats just a crappy tire trout net.

Nice fish dude

Yet again!!

Thanks man. The day started of rainy and wet, but the feesh were lovin it!

Well, headed out again today with my cousin Justin. It was a slow start, fish were keying in on tiny BWOs and maybe midges. Whatever they were they were too small to see on the water.

We did still manage to get into a good number of fish. A few decent sized brookies that let go before they posed for us. But a nice brown and a nice rainbow to hand anyways.

We also ran into Doug Swift out there today. Cool dude for sure!

These guys were on big old stimulators worked pretty aggressively in the fast water

Good times!

What kind of "little" trout are you catching?

 

There are a few things you can do to handle them in order not to hurt them. It's a shame to lose little fish like that, but they LOVE to hit just about anything, so this information should be known.

 

1) Most importantly, PINCH DOWN THE BARBS on your hooks/lures. You don't miss landing fish from pinching down barbs. You miss landing fish from not keeping your line tight enough. Barbs have very little to do with it. At first, I was hesitant to pinch down the barbs on "that $10 Rapala" but it really NEEDS to be done. Pinched down barbs make for better photo opportunities, more living fish, and easy/clean unhookings.

 

2) Avoid using worms (live bait in general) in areas that are littered with lots of tiny and/or young stocked trout. These fish inhale spinners, you should see what they do to a worm.

 

3) Make sure you are carrying a net and that the fish isn't out of water long. You can hold the fish in water while you are unhooking it. Needlenose pliers are a must in your vest/tacklebox - they can, and do, save fish.

 

4) Make sure your hands are wet before handling a fish.

 

5) Don't grab the fish by their gill-plates.

 

6) You may have to revive a fish you've caught (big and small alike). After unhooking them, hold them in the water column facing the current. Place one hand under their belly and one hand gently near the tail and rock them back and forth slowly. This gives them oxygen and helps the shock wear off. You may have to do this for awhile at times, but usually they get their "feet" again and quickly swim away (though I spent 10 minutes reviving a big brown this week).

 

7) Last, and not least, STOP TARGETING TROUT WHEN THE WATER HEATS UP. Trout are a coldwater fish, and require cold temperatures to flourish. When the rivers/streams/lakes heat up @ the end of June - Early September trout survival rate after being caught and released goes way down. They deplete their oxygen during the fight much quicker and many are lost. You should focus on something else for the peak summer months (the trout bite, save for the dumb small ones, gets a lot tougher anyways).

 

Cheers,

Ryan

Excellent advice!

and I'm just going to double up on probably the three most important tips mentioned

Barbless Hooks, fine mesh nets and hemostats or needlenose piers. Keeping that fish in the water and easy hook removal are probably the two biggest steps you can take to ensure fish survive the release. With a net and pliers, you shouldn't even need to take the fish out of the water!

A couple of them were specks??? Yes or no?

Yes, I got quite a few specks. The size on the specks were smaller than previous years. Usually I manage a couple over 14 or 15 inches this particular week, but the speck size was smaller this year. I wish more people would practice C&R in these parts. The population is dropping quickly (sizable spawning fish that is)

It used to be several in the 14 to 15 inch range, but not these days.

O.K.

 

Now I have no choice but to finally get my first fly set up. Very inspiring!

 

Wicked report.

Buddy.......do it.

I hear so many people say how "elusive" "elitist" whatever....

It aint that hard at all. Of course, I started when I was about 5, but even still, if you can fish, you can fish on the fly.

Thanks for sharing your accomplishment with us! That's an amazing fish and even more impressive that it was taken on a dry! Did you happen to get a measurement on him? I'm guessing 21" or so?

20 1/4 to be exact. I had to measure him as its pretty hard to find natural fish that large.

My wife says she heard me moaning as it dragged me downstream...I think she was jealous....

!!

 

 

I Landed him!

 

Definitely my biggest resident brown to date on the fly! (I can't really count the fish in the grand as accomplishments)

 

 

Good for you over hyped fish farm

Well....you know EXACTLY what I'm saying. That sewer is in my front yard, and I fish it about 3 times a year. Honestly, those 12 inch fish fight like the 22s out of the sewer!!

Gierach-esque in fact.

 

The only way dude!!

Thanks guys. Its definitely that time of year when the trout in streams are very active with all the bug activity.

It actually got really tough later in the week to not set the hook on some of the "smaller" fish.

I finally had a few minutes since getting back to sort through some of the pictures I had from last week. It was an excellent week, even though it rained just about every day. Luckily, while all of the rivers in the area were blown big time, the river we always fish was high, but clear. There was a bit of a stain to the water, but just enough to turn on some of the bigger fish out there.

A small branch of the river:

Lots of hatches were going on, and I did hit a couple of good spinnerfalls earlier in the week before it cooled off too much.

The main bugs out and about were these dudes:

And then there were the feesh! There were lots of them!

Didn't manage to hit the green drake hatch this season, but we'll see what the next couple of weeks brings.

Probably the best moment I had out there came on the tuesday evening. I had been out for a few hours late afternoon and caught a few decent fish. I had just about hiked back to camp when a boil in the river caught my eye, so I stopped and watched for a few minutes. About 5 minutes later or so, another boil in the same spot. This time I saw what he was eating.

He was grabbing big stoneflys as they were bouncing and skittering on the surface dislodging their eggsacs. They're well over an inch long to give some perspective to their size. And their double wings make them look even bigger in flight.

Anyways, I watched for a while longer and figured he'd be there when I came back later. So I headed back to camp, had a couple of beers and probably a scotch or two while I tied up some of these.

I walked back to that same spot....which was only about a 200 foot walk from the site and watched again. Sure enough, he rose again. I cast about 25 or 30 feet to him, twitch the stimulator carefully as it comes right down his feeding lane and BOOM! There were a number of very interesting words spoken to myself as I chased the bugger downstream. He had me into my backing in about 10 seconds. After a long battle, you wouldn't believe what happened!!

I Landed him!

Definitely my biggest resident brown to date on the fly! (I can't really count the fish in the grand as accomplishments)

I don't like having fish out of the water, but I wanted a shot of this dude!

It was a great week that ended with the Midwestern Ontario Sportsmans Show in walkerton.

This might answer that:

http://www.basicallymoney.com/questions/1224/ontario-special-hst-sales-tax-transition-rebate-cheques-who-when-how-much

Shouldn't be also brook/brown trout in the river below the dam? I haven't been there recently.

No Brookies, but the river below is stocked with Browns similar to the Upper Grand.

On the three times I have seen this fish

 

1) When I had him on the spinner it was the only time I saw him.

2) When I had him knock the EGB it was the only time I saw him

3) Today, when he chased my rap, it was the only time I saw him.

 

You only get one chance with this guy, and not even one sighting per trip. I don't suspect he leaves home for everything, all the time.

 

I bought 4 mouse lures tonight of varying sizes and colours. I'll fish them when the conditions permit. I think it is something good to have in the tackle box.

 

I almost stepped on two frogs when I was approaching him today - I'll need a gentle presentation without a whole lot of metal.

 

I'm going to watch him. I've considered doing it before, but took the "Ill just fish for him approach." I'll probably fish for him a few more times first

Thats typical of the big buggers. But, hanging out at that hole during dawn or dusk hours you may actually see him in the middle of the stream feeding on bugs and such. When the opportunity arises and he sees a bigger meal aka mouse, frog, minnow...he'll obviously slam them as they are worth much more energy for the amount of energy that he needs to exert. Nymphs and surface flies probably get eaten quite a bit as well, but big fish need big meals...thats how they got that way to begin with!

With your mouse and frog lures, look for some deer hair flies/lures. Mouse and frog flies are big and probably heavy enough to cast with your spinning gear. Especially once they are a little wet.

With the mouse, try to cast it downstream and across from you, then try to guide it across the stream and slightly towards you. A mouse would have trouble swimming upstream if there is any current, so pulling it across the stream makes is look like it is struggling with the current.

Cast the frog onto the beaver lodge and twitch it off into the water just beside it.

Thanks Ya'll!! Its fun stuff for sure, and for those that dont fly fish, it ain't all that hard really. Especially fishing for brookies in small creeks like that. Every cast is invented at each hole as there isn't much room for a back cast. Its more like flicking a worm or tiny streamer into pocket water than anything else. Of course, you get the odd hole where you can actually pull of a decent cast.

I head out on saturday to fish a few of my favourite streams for a week. The green drakes have already started hatching and I can't wait to get up there!

Then its off to the Midwestern Ontario Sportsmans Show. Anyone else going to be up there?

Beautiful! Stunning pics...Really digging the underwater shots

 

Just wondering what kind of fly outfit (length? weight?) you're running for those small streams? I'm currently thinking of building myself 2 small stream fly rods just for creeks like that (and bigger) for next spring. Just haven't decided on what I would need. Everything fly fishing I own is geared towards steelhead

 

Mike

For the little streams like that, I usually go with an 8 foot 4wt. Shorter would be nice as well, but I just don't have anything shorter! If you have spots that you are primarily targeting brookies, and there isn't much chance of any big browns, you could go as low as a 2wt. I wouldnt go above a 5 wt for the small stream action though. Takes too much of the fun out of it!

dave

I know how to catch 'im..... You just let me know when you want to head out and we'll meet up there. GPS coordinates are a must!

Seriously though, the mouse pattern at dusk is a great idea, as would be a frog pattern too. I've found with bigger fish, if they chase your fly/lure, they'll usually only do it once an outting as they know somethings up when it suddenly disappears from the water.

If you know exactly where he usually hangs out, spend an hour just watching the water to see what he's actually feeding on. Its a tough thing to just sit and watch, but it just might pay off in the end for ya! It has for me.

I managed to get out on saturday with my brother in law for some brook trout action. With the overcast skies and slight drizzle, we knew we'd be in for some fun! Its nice that this little creek is so close to home, you can sleep in a bit and still get out there with lots of time!

The wee crick!

There were a few different hatches happening. Hendricksons and BWOs were making up the bulk of the bug activity, but there were also some cahills coming off. Early, for the cahils, but they were hatching none the less. And quite a few stoners were out and about as well.

And then there were the trout......pardon the number of images, but there were lots of trout to be caught!

Twas a very fun day to say the least! I have no idea how many fish we got, but there were certainly enough to go around!!