ChrisK

Well its been a busy couple days for me this weekeknd. First the St. Clair muskie trip and when I got home a call from a good freind of mine John who was interested in fishing the north branch of the Thames River in London. John came by at 7.15am this morning and picked me up and off we went. The river was in prime condition. John is big on fly fishing so he was armed with a 7ft 4 weight and I a 7ft 8 pound test spinning outfit.... The days started well as we walked the river to the more procuctive holes. John was consistantly catching smaller sized smallmouth and I nothing.....I was busy trying to find a pattern to which the fish would respond. I tied on a count down rapala(original)and caught my first smallmouth...Its was a little larger than the ones John was catching but we figured this was due to the size of the flies he was offereing up so he upscaled to larger flies...I then changed up again to a different colour pattern(perch) but same sized count down. Again I hooked up and landed another smallmouth..Once again slightly larger than the fish John was catching...Must of been the rapala's size again ??? We approached the last pool of the day...best for last.. It was the clay bank hole. The far side of the river had a clay bank with a deep cut in front of it where the river had been wearing it away.....From the past years I've learned in this run the fish were generaly bigger due to the deep water so I tied one size larger countdown in the perch pattern. I casted it out and imediately hooked up with what I thought was a nice smallie...As it got closer I noticed a silvery colour to the fish....It was a silver bass. Nice looking fish to say the least. John piped in and said that these silver bass have been migrating up the river since the Sprinbank Dam has been open. Well,I'm thinkin now that if the Silver bass can make it up this far so can all the rest of the migration type fish like Rainbow,Salmon and Walleye...If thats the case they can leave Springbank Dam open as long as they like....Anyhow we proceed to catch more of these Silver Bass...Good fighters and great looking fish. They took Johns fly's and my perch count downs redily until it was time for us to call it a day and head home. All in all a great day on the north branch for sure.. Only thing that really is of concern to me is the size of the Smallmouth in the Thames River these days. They are generally smaller than the ones we caught back in the 70's and 80's but still fun to catch. The silverbass on the other hand are lake run fish and are pretty much all the same size..... Heres a veiw of the last whole less the clay bank just up river a bit... These are about the average size of the smallmouth all day Starting to get into the Silvers Let me introduce to you John Makaran..Fly fisherman extrodinare soon to be a OFC member These Silvers are beautiful fish and I hope since the Springbank Dam is open they take up residency in the Thames River branches...Look familiar GCD Since John is going to become a member shortly I'd like to say one thing about this guy that I find incredible and then I'll leave the rest to him in his introduction. John is an amazing when it comes to fly tieing....Sure there are alot of good fly tieing folks out there but John is unique and stands above the rest of all I know. Reason being is when John ties he doesn't use a vise but has instead developed a tecnique where he holds the hook with his bare hands and ties the fly...Don't ask me how he does this but I'm sure if you ask him he will be glad to share with you all... Cheers !!!!

Thanks guys !! To those who were asking what we were using well....... When when we got into the river we didin't use the boards but flat lined straight behind the boat and this is the part were it gets a little iffy with the hardcore muskie fisherman.....I observed the muskie feeding in the river.It was was quite apparent what they were eating and where. The fish were on top slashing through schools of 2 inch shads. I could see the muskie with their dorsals right out of the water at times chasing the schools of shad so this was a for shure deal. I imagine these were shad that had been injured and died due to continuos attacks from the muskie..... So as I'm a firm beleiver of "matching the hatch" I set down that big old muskie pole and brought out a medium action spinning rod with 12 pound test on it. Snapped on a blue and chrome ripplin red fin and the rest was history. I could of went with a smaller blue and chrome type of shallow running bait but the risk of getting bit off with no leader and such a small bait increases ten fold. We got my muskie in pretty quick and it swam away strong....Heck of a fight on the lighter line. I also got alot of glares from the hardcores going by while landing the fish with a spinning outfit and even a coment from a fella in one boat "Look,a bass fisherman"........I found it kinda funny that I was on the other end of the comentary for a change.... Cheers !!

Was out with Slowpoke today on St Clair washing baits off of the Thames River mouth for a few hours with no luck. Headed back towards river and noticed alot of boat activity inside the mouth. We began trolling the river and within minutes had our first muskie take a bait.....Landed that fish and resumed trolling. Within another ten minutes another muskie hit and when I set the hook he was there head skaking and then gone. That was pretty much it. All in all it was a nice day although overcast for the most part.....

That is one hugo salmonoid Congrads !! Now did I here some say.......antlers ??

I don't know,to me it doesn't look any different than any other handle...I like the blanke its sitting on though,nice pole.

Nice pics Spiel...Was a awsome time we had up at the lake.... Already looking forward to next June...

This is what I came up with.............. http://fish.shimano.com/publish/content/gl...e_Spinning.html

Ok boys, On this positive note lets wrap it up and move ahead before this thing degrades itself into a rainbow verses salmon cage match.......

Good to here Glen..... Thanx for bringin all that shine with ya bubba !!!

Hey Joey, Nice job on the report and the campfire video was really cool.. It was nice to see everyone again and hopefully this fall G2G will become part of our traditional Lakair get togethers.

Goodbye Richard.......

Absolutely !!! The sales person will make sure you end up with one that fits you to a tee.....

Fine pup you got there !!! Congrads....

Buddy of mine shoots a Mathews Switchback or I think thats what its called ???Anyways he loves it..I shoot a crossbow,Excalibur Exomag. I find my shoulder isn't as strong as it used to be and I get shaking if I have to hold back the bow for any length of time. On the other hand the Exomag crossbow allows me to take as much time as I need to line up a shot. Some guys think its cheating to use a scoped out crossbow but man they are accurated,splitting arrows at 30 yards so just keep that in mind when you finally go to make your purchase. Cheers !!

You'll be fishin the same waters where I've been takin my folks for years... Hope you do well !!! Cheers !!

Where we fish the water is pretty clear and there is no need for colour. Just main line to a lead lindy slider(no colour),then a bead and the swivel. Add 24 inches of tippet material(floracarbon) and a small hook...Attach dew worm once through the nose and apply air under the worms collar(ring up by its head)until it floats....With the lindy rig if your fishing cloudy or stained water then you can add colour to the rig either by using coloured sinkers or coloured floating jig heads(no air required in worm).... Good Luck !!

Cudz, I can definetely relate with you bud. For the past twenty years Ive been taking my mom and dad up to Lakair Lodge and fishing with them regularily but in the past two years things have changed. They are now in their early 80's and can no longer cope with the all the travelling and the physical requirements of climbing in and out of boats and such. My dad and I would go out fishing for the whole day and never even now the time had passed until one of us would finally glance at a watch and realize how long we had been out on the water....Man were the girls ever angry when we got back to the cabin.....More worried than anything... You know,my dad took me out fishin when I was old enough to hold a pole in my hands and as the years went by the rolls slowly reversed and I was the one taking him out fishin and mom as well when heading up north. Heck,my wife Carol and I even had our honeymoon at Lakair and had mom and dad up with us that week.... Special times for sure never to be forgotten.....

Now thats a bucket mouth if I ever seen one. Nice fish !! If you ever get the oportunity to do a replica of that bad boy in the future it would be a great wall hanger..... Congrads

Been using a bottom bouncer type lindy rig in Nipissing for the past twenty years. This rig will get them when nothing else will. I use a 3/4 oz lindy slider weight(looks like a boot),small plastic bead,small swivel(smaller the better) and then a peice of florocarbon about 24 inches to the hook. One nice juicy dew worm hooked once through the nose and a good shot of air so it floats well(use lindy worm blower).....This rig works best in a slow controled drift or when using a electric positioning motor to push you along... Good Luck !!

Just to add another note to parts of walleye that are quite tasty....We do a thing called walleye wings..Its a part of the fish that regularly gets tossed away after filleting. Its the big chunk of meat just below the gills that the pectoral fins are attached too or I think thats what those fins are called...We cut that out fins and all and fry them up in the pan with a fish crisp or whatever batter coating available...Supprisingly enough there is alot of meat on them wings. Enjoy !! Cheers !!

Great story Roger...Nice to see people taking time to help others in need..

Your right,I did some reading after I typed that and they are in a matter of fact 100 percent Rainbows,,,,me wrong. Thats what I get for listening to old wives tales down at the river.....They are awsome fighters to say the least !!!!

The fish you hooked in South Hampton in July was probably a strain of trout called a Skamania. They were put in the Saugeen way back by the ministry. The fish is half trout and half salmon and it predominently spawns in the summer. This fish strain is a superior fighter due to the wide tail it inherrited from the salmon and the long lean bullet shaped body of the rainbow trout and widley known for its acrobatics and strength. Some anglers consider this fish to be on steroids !!! Consider yourself lucky to even of had him on as long as you did. http://www.flyguysoutfitting.com/skamie.html

Rainbow will eat just about anything in the fall. Grasshoppers,crickets,ants,worms,minnow,invertabrits and yes even crayfish....Sometimes it pays out big time to think out of the box while fishing for steel... Friend of mine would go to the grocery store and buy squid tenticals and use the ends of them to catch his rainbows..Sounds fishy,probably is and smells fishy too which explains why he was catching fish on them. He claimed he could go a whole morning with one or two squid tenticals because they were like rubber and stayed on the hook fish after fish....Hmmm, I still find that hard to beleive..... Cheers !!

Salmon have a habit of swiming against the current with there gaping kipes somewhat open and it is easy to slip your line in their big mouths at this point and for the most part this happens unintentionally with fisherman because of the high numbers of fish in the pools. then the fish usually swims off or your drift on your bait naturally brings the hook to the fish and then imbeds the hook into the face mouth area of the salmon.....