muddler

8lb(or less) mono or floro to hook, jig or cross lock - Orvis Knot Adding a a tippet (leader - 8lb or less) - Orvis tippet knot Polamar for all heavier mono Uni knot for braids and joining a new line to an older backing muddler

Well, I would always take a few minutes to see what is happening in and around the water. Usually jumping fish are chasing a hatching fly. My guess would be a caddis fly, as the pupa will swim to the surface and litterly explode through the suface film and emerge quickly as an adult and fly away. A hares ear nymph or a pheasant tail nymph or even a prince nymph in a tan colour would catch some trout. Holding the float back so that the nymph will come to the surface can mimic a nymph that is ready to hatch. Try a quill float or any thin body float that creates the least amount of disturbance and hold back the float (checking the float) to get the fly to rise. Fly fisherman do this all the time sucessfully. The key is to be as subtle as possible and as natural as possible in your presentation. Match the hatch as much as possible. If that fails sometimes the exact opposite will work (key word is 'sometimes'). Try a flymph or a purple woolly bugger or a single egg. As for sponge size can vary frime dime size to single egg size. I dip mine in cod liver oil before using them. I don't know if it help but so far so good. Experiment and find what works best for you. muddler

Judging by the depth of the pools that you describe I assume that it is a smaller creek. I'd take the lighter shorter outfit. I would be a lot easier tomove through the bush with (assuming it is a 2 piece rod). As for a set up I'd got with the lightest steelhead float and a couple of small shot a foot or so above the bait. Use the lightest set up that you can. In small areas like this the fish can easily be spooked. Kneel down at the bank keeping a low profile will also help. A florocarbon leader would help if it is super clearwater. Keep the terminal tackle as simple as possible. I have fished inside a cullvert using a homemade float made from a foam ear plug and a rond toothpick a single round split shot and a hare's ear nymph. I spliced 2lb mono to 4 lb mainline and caugt a pile of specks (one about 14 inches). I use a similar set up to catch big shiners for pike bait using #14 hook and boiled white rice as bait. My kids have a ball just catching the shiners, some are like 10+ inches long. The point is to match your tackle to the conditions that you are fishing. Keep you presentation as natural as possible and you will catch some fish. muddler

Sometime steelhead will behave just like resident trout. They too can become selective feeders. Roe works very well when it is the dominant food source and insects are not active. At this time of the year other forms of prey are more readily available and the fish will start to key on one type of food source to feed on. Here are a few examples. On warm winter days the little black stone fly is actice. Probably the only active insect in January. A small 10 to 14 all black stone fly nymph as worked wonders from me. On those sunny witer days it will out catch anything else. When minnows are abundant wooley buggers and clousers work well. A fresh run steelhead in the fall has fed on minnows in the lake and a crippled minnow looking thing can be hard to pass up. Aquatic and terrestial worms are always in the water. Pinkies work well. When roe is the new abundant food...Salmon , brown trout and rainbow spaing run ... it is the go to bait. ANything that even looks like roe will work (beads, sponge, yarn, cheneille flies). May fly nymphs and hellgramites live in a lot of these waterrs too. Here's one that I tried by accident once. A freind of mine caught a 2-3 lb steelhead on roe at the Notty and it was badly bleeding so he cleaned and kept in in the cooler. We found a pile of crayfish (one still alive) in the stomach. Out came my crayfish fly. I hooked over 50 fish that day in September. Prior to that I was skunked. The green caddis worm is one of my secret go to baits to. Caddis larva live in abundaace in most streams as do scuds. The bottom line is that as the water warms up the trout start to behave like ........trout. The easy pickings of the fall and spring runs are gone but some of the trout hang aroud. I once caught a 10+ lb brown trout way up Duffrin creek in July on a .....wait for it ......"buzzer". It's a mosquito larva initation. I was fishing for specks and this huge fish nailed it. Look at all the activity in the water other than the fish. Take a small screen and sample the rubble for the active insects. . Try anything that matches size shape and color. muddler

A tackle box ful of lures and tackle can be a very sizable investment. Storing it in a garage is taking a bit of a risk. In southern Ontario the humidity can get very high and can cause tackle to rust and/or oxidize. If left open to "air out" then mice,insects and dust can be a problem. If the garage has any strong oil or gas or some other smell then the lures/ plastics can absorb some of these smells. The tackle may not be as effective afterwards in catching fish. I store all my tackle inside the house in a cool dry part of the basement. After 50+ years of doing this I've never had a problem with any of my tackle. Lures still look good as new (minus a few bite marks) muddler

Just a word of warning. Don't use crazy glue to put on a tip top. You'll only get one shot to put it on straight and it's very hard to get the tip top off without damaging the rod tip. Use the thermal glue that archers use. It's a golden coloured termal glue. If you don't get the top straight, just reheat and you have a afeww seconds to move the top. One stick of the stuff will last a life time. I still have half a stick that I got at LaBarons 25 years ago.

I debarb everthing that my kids (8 and 10 years old) use. That includes baited hooks and lures. It has saved a lot of problems when we fish. I've removed too many accidental casts from different body parts painlessly. It is also easier for the kids to remove the hook from a fish by themselves. As for my lures I debarb all lures and flies. The only barb I keep on is the hook for fishing a roe bag or single egg. The bait stay on the hook that way. I debarb by gently and firmly pressing down the barb with a pair of pliers first, then using a battery operated hook sharpener I smooth down the bump. If I do it a t home a Dremel type tool and a cone shaped stone does the job in a jiffy. muddler

"Organic bait includes live or dead animals, plants or parts" I've often wondered about that staement, because that would make most flies "organic". Most flies are made fron fur (animal parts), feathers and strips if skin (rabbit) . By the definition those are organic baits. I don't think you would get charged using these but the regs need a clear explaination as to 'organic' baits. Ithink that they means stuff like , live/preserved worms, larva, minnnows and such. Even a feathered treble on a spinner can be considered 'organic' by the above definition. I agree the regs are very difficult to understand.

I use two methods to connect my leader to the fly line. 1. For floating lines I splice in the leader using a needle knot into the fly line. As the leader gets cut back by adding or subtracting tippet material, I'll just splice a new leader to the last 3 ft or so of the original leader. Eventually after a couple seasons the butt of the oriiginal leader will get too short to splice a new leader. I just cut off the last 1/2 inch of fly line and repeat the proceedure. 2. For sink tip and sinking line I make a small loop by folding back the fly line and using fly tying thread make a neat small wrap over the doubled line. Flexi cement the wrap and I'm done. I use sinking leaders that have a factory loop and use a loop to loop connection. Very easy to change leaders and configurations that way. muddler

Scam.... I used to get a call like that a couple times a month. Always the same pitch. Go some place by the airport. Sit through a presentation (usuallya travel lodge)....blah, blah,blah. I filled out a free draw ticket ONCE in a mall. The free winnings came steady for about 5 years. I support all the local charity raffles here in the north and a NEVER have won anything (fine by me) so I find it very surprising that I've won over a hundred of these great prizes with only one entry(that I can account for). Scam muddler

Get the seial number for it and go to a dealer. They can look up the make , model and year made of the unit. muddler

About 30 years ago a buddy and I went out to a local lake (Walker Lake) to do some lake trout fishing. The lake is only a couple of miles long. The forecast was clear and sunny skies. We parked in a bout 100 feet of water and baited up with minnows and a slip bobber and sat there fo a couple of hours shooting the breeze and telling stories. All of a sudden I heard a runble in the distance. We thought it was a gravel truck (some road maintance was going on) as there was no clouds and the the lake was glass calm. The next 15 minutes would scare me out of my wits. Within a few minutes we heard a roar and at the far end of the lake we could see huge waves forming. Pull up anchor, but not hurrying because it was clear and sunny. It was stil glass calm where we were. We just got the the anchor in and started the motor (4 hp Merc on a 12 ft tinny) when a small black cloud came over the mountain where we heard the rumbling earlier. That's ok we were only 15-20 minutes away from the car and launch ramp. We followed close to the shoreline (50 -100 feet or so) just incase, and were making our way to the ramp. About a 100 yards or so from the ramp the waves catch up to us , 6+ footers and the wind is howling. It's raining so hard now that we can barely see the shore (where the heck is the sun anyway). A few seconds later the hair on my arms starts to stand up and feel a tingling. I turned the boat to where I thought the shore was, a few seconds later (thank God we were closer to the shore than I thought) I beached the boat with a wide open trottle. We ran for cover deep into the bush and heard a loud crack and a bang. The rain started to pound even harder. In a few minutes the rain stopped and the sky cleared , it was sunny again. We were in the bush about 50 yads or so from the launch ramp. We got back into the boat and headed to the ramp. The dock next to the ramp was hit by lightning and charred a section of it. A boat that was tied up there got hit. I've never fished Walker Lake since. I've never been so scared in my life. Had we left a few minutes earlier we would have been tied up at the dock when the lightning hit. A few minutes later and we would have been in the middle of the lake with the big waves. Someone up there was looking out of us the day. muddler

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not sure what the rating is for the florocarbon I use since my fishing buddy gave me a 10 ft chunk so I could make up my own pike leaders ( swivel and cross lock snap at either end), but it looks pretty thick so Ill guess 40 lb. I'll try the 20 lb stuff though. I landed a 46" pike last year using the power pro for a leader and I know I've been cut off by some real heavy fish. I like to get a real bragging size one for a picture one day. I usually get these pike when fishing for walleye. I don't often just target pike , and if I do I use a steel leader that I make up. Once again , thanks guys. muddler

Looking for ideas. I fish a lake 10 minutes from my house. Great walleye , pike and bass fishing. I use mostly a jig and twister tail to locate fish with a lot of sucess over the years. The problem that I'm having is that I'm getting a lot of cut offs when a pike hits the lure. I spliced a 3 ft section of 30lb test (8lb diameter) PowerPro to my 8lb mainline and my cut offs decreased dramtically. I still get cut off now and then. I tried the heavier florocarbon but I found that splicing it to my mono was a real hassle and the action of the jig was ' stiff' for lack of a better way to describe it. I treid trolling wire but it was too visible and my walleye hook up went way down. I'd reall appreciate any other suggestions for a pike resistant leader when fishing walleye. Thanks ....muddler

$1825 at Angling Specialties in mid October 1999. I quit smoking on October 11 1998. I would put $5(a pack of smokes was about $5 back then) each day into a jar. One year later I had $1825. I went Angling Specialties in Scarborough and I bought, an offset AngSpec float reel, 13 ft IMX float rod blank, corks and reel seat and guides, Lamson fly reel, 10 ft Lamiglass fly rod blank, reel seat and a bunch of hooks and fly tying materials. George gave me a discount so that the total was exactly $1825. I was very proud of myself for that. I would have smoked it all away. Haven't smoked since. I've never spent that much at one time since. muddler

I agree with the sign. Fish should not drink alcohol. muddler

You might also want to include these in your instruction class: 1. Debarb all hooks by crimping down the barb. If a hook gets impailed in clothing it comes out real easy. Also comes out easier in skin and fish. 2. Use jigs when possible. Most of the time they have enough weight to do the job. Gets them in the fish zone fast. 3. Use slip bobbers and a plastic bobber stop. Super easy to adjust depth. Easy to cast. 4. Teach the Uni Knot. It's not my favourite knot but it very easy to teach and learn. 5. If bait is a hassle (some kids are sqeamish about live worms - some parents too) try 3" truout worms. Pinkies work real well on almost all spieces. A crappie size jig and a pinkie are easy to cast and the work real well. My 8 year old daughter won't use anything else. 6. Use light lines. 4 and 6lb test are best. The heavy 20 lb stuff is too frustrating for little people. 7. Push button reels are best for beginners. Under spin leaver reels are the easiest to use (a little harder to find and a little more money). Spinning reels work. Stay away from baitcaster , fly rells and specialty reels. 8. Train your volunteers. Nothing is more frustrating than watching mom or dad reeling a spinning reel backwards on top of a rod and the line spinning off in a tangled mess. A few minutes with the volunteers a couple of days before the outing pays off --- these voluntees will practice in the back yard. The voluntees will have a great time too. 9. Check all the gear well before hand. Nothing is more frustrating for a little person than gear that won't work. Scrounge some backup gear....just in case. 10. Safety glasses 11. Remind that reels and sand/mud just don't mix. 12. Above all, have fun. Teach fishing and the catching(that's always a bonus) will evolve by itself. muddler

Use whatever hook size you want as long as your offering looks natural and you are not sacrificing hooking power. I use size 6 on 4 inch worms, size 8 on large roe bags and pinkies, mostly 10 an 12 on small roe bags and 12 and 14 for singles. muddler

If I had to choose just one rod based on what you described, I'd go with an 8wt rod balanced with an 8wt line. Remember the "one size fits all" doesn't always apply. You may have too much power /rod for the smaller streams but you'll do well on the larger flows. I'm not a big guy so I prefer a 10 1/2ft rod for the big rivers and shorter rods for the smaller stuff. Now I should tell you that I have well over 100 rods. 40 or so are fly rods and of those I have 3 10 1/2 footers (7 wt , 8 wt and 9wt), 6 others that are 8 1/2 , 9 and 9 1/2 footers that are 7 wt or 8 wt. Those are my steelhead fly rods. I prefer Islander fly reels just because they 'feel' nice and they balance my long stuff nicely. The drag on the Islanders is really really nice too I started building rods 35 years ago so I built a custom selection for almost any kind of fishing. And some of you guys think you're sick? LOL Anyway, use what you feel comfortable with. If your rod feels right in your hand (no pun intended) you should enjoy a whole day fly fishing with it. It should be a pleasure to fly fish and not a chore. If you can test arod and reel from a buddy to get a feel of what suits you, all the better. Then go out and buy something similar. In the worst case you might find an outfit that you don't want to buy. muddler

My personal favourite fly outfit is a 10 1/2 ft Gatti for 8wt. I use a 15 ft fast sinking tip line with a fast sinking steelhead leader. I use about 5 ft of 8lb Floro for a tippet. The longer rog is great for the lager rivers like the Notty. This gives me about 18 feet of sinking line. If I mend the line properly I can bump bottom with a fly in 15+ft of water. For the smaller eastern creeks I use a 9 ft rod. I use an 8wt line on a 7wt rod. That way shorter casts are easier. I use a floating line on that outfit with a fast sinking leader with a shorter 3 ft tippet. By adjusting the tippet length I can go deeper or shallower. Since most of the eastern tribs I fish don't have much water over 10 ft deep, I can cover most of the water with that set up. I always bring two spare spools just incase I have to adapt. I always have with me a full floating, fast sink 15 ft tip and an ultra fast 25 ft sink tip. Those 3 setups can usually cover all fishing situations. muddler

Some these tips are great tips. I user super lines for top water. The no strech gives me absolute control, which I really. My favourite top water bait is a Chug-Bug (they have knock off at the Dollar store now). I use a very subtle retrieve when the water is dead calm. Almost as if the bait is NOT trying to attract attention. Pause a lot. I get a lot of hits when the bait has been sitting quietly for a while. I do that for a couple casts then I go to a little more aggressive action. If the water has a little ripple on it I'll go with some really noisy retrieve. Experiment and find out what seems to work for you. It's my favourite way of fishing. muddler

If your fly is dried properly it will look better in the box, but that's not the only reason why I dry them. The feathers will NOT be matted and they will perform as good as new the next time you use the fly/jig. I use a foam Patch attached to my shoulder strap of my fishing bag so I can stick on the wet flies/jigs that I've changed on my line. When I get home they're usually dry and put them back in the fly box. If not I dry them with a hair dryer or hang them on a horizontal wire (in laundry room) before replacing in fly box. muddler

I use a shoulder bag. muddler

December 16, 1999. It was on of rare global warming days, sunny and 16C. I had driven to my favourite spot on the Notty to try from some steelhead. When I got there around 9:30 AM most of the fishermen were leaving, and few guys told me that the bite was over. It was really hot at day break but it was dead now. Well after 2 1/2 hours of driving I was going to try anyway. Wade out to my favourite spot and tried the standards - roe in all colours, worms and stone flies. Nothing. I had read up on purple wolley buggers, I tied up a dozen weighted ones with ribitt strip tails the week before. I tied one on and tossed in the water a stepped on it (an old tradition for wet flies). The fly rolled down stream about 10 feet and disappeared. I tightened the line to pick up the slack for the next cast and the water exploded. I hooked a nice trout. Landed that one. For the next 6 hours I had a day that dreams were made of. For about a 300 yard stretch I would hook a trout just about anywhere. Fast, slow, boulder and flat water all produced. Landed 41 trout that day and hooked ove 60. A couple guys were still fishing and asked what I was using, so I gave each one a purple bugger. They were catching trout too. I quit about 4:30 PM because my arm hurt too much (only time that ever happen). I've fished that spot many more times in the future, and I never had a day like that again. Still run into some of the guys I met that day and we still talk about it. The purple wolley bugger would catch a lot of trout in years to come but that day it was THE bait to use. muddler

Well, when you can walk 10 feet above a creek that is 10-15 feet across and you can see the bottom clearly in 90% of the creek, it tends to look a lot like a ditch. It's not rocket science where the fish are. There isn't much to reading the water. If it has cover where you can't see bottom, it probably holds fish. Unlike the larger Huron rivers where you have to read the water to find fish. As to the time of day, I found that fisherman traffic was the worst thing to deal with. Regarless of the time of day that you fish, if there are a ton of people out there pounding the water, then your odds of catching a fish will be lower than if fewer people are making a racket. Spooked fish are very hard to catch, especially in the Lake O tribs. Either find a spot away from the crowds (lots of leg work) or go at times (even mid day) when the crowds are thinner. I used to get to the river just before day break and I'd have a hlf hour of fishing to myself. Usually I'd hook a couple. Once the crowds got there things slowed down. I usually get to the Notty around 9:30am as a lot of guys are leaving the river. Often I'd have entire streches to myself all day. muddler