Fang

Fishing World in Hamilton had a pretty good selection last time I was in. Lots of beads and quick change clevices and a really interesting selection of higher end blades. Nothing smaller than #4 though. They sell the bigger stuff for the guys trolling Erie Bass pro shops had a sell off barrel of XPS blades (3 pks) recently but odd colors and sizes. Think it was in front of the reel counter last time I was in there. If your looking for solid colors pretty much luremaking.com is it. I buy my smaller sized blades from them. Basic reds, oranges, greens in size 1-3. FYI, decent place to but bottom bouncing rigs 1/2 to 2.5 ounce is Canadian Tire. Save up some CTC money and you can get them basically for free. I change the swivel on every one I buy to a higher end

Back in last night from a week in Cocoa Beach Florida. My fishing time has been reduced the last couple of years as my son has been playing rep baseball year round. Last fall he tried out for the Oakville Royals in the Premier Baseball League of Ontario as a 15 year old and was offered a development contract to play and train with the 16 Y team all winter. He was also offered a travel spot to Florida for their spring training in Cocoa Beach. Wasn't a hard decision to take a weeks vacation to go down and watch some high level baseball and get the chance to do some inshore fishing in the famous Mosquito Lagoon. I searched many redfish guides through google, youtube and other Florida fishing forums and liked what I saw about a young Captain located out of Cocoa Beach. Booked a 3/4 day with Captain Jamie Glasner who runs Fin & Fly charters and the weather was perfect. Got picked up at the hotel at 5:45 and we drove north to launch out of Haulover Canal. As we drove we chatted about fishing and tackle and found that Jamie was a full time guide getting out on average 20-25 days a month - what a life!!! It was still dark when we were the first to launch but the ramp was getting really busy behind us. Had to be 6 boats pull in withing 2-3 minutes and all were guide boats. I got to drive out through the channel as Jamie got the bait and lines ready. In the dark I could here the manatee rolling in the channel. My spot for the day. Out in the Lagoon we headed east across to spot number one, a sandbar that had a water pipe ditch right off the one edge and a deep sand whole off the other side. After hearing about the size of the fish he was hitting the last couple days I left my rod under the deck for possible use later. We chatted on the drive so Jamie could get a sense on what I was looking for and I had an idea of first making sure of getting into some fish, then going for a big one and if all the stars aligned I wanted a fish with multiple tail spots. The first 2 were possible in spot number one. As we were slowly pulling up, the water went crazy in front off us as a big school of reds turned in the shallows and went back in the ditch. Jamie got excited as he indicated a school of big reds were here. Also on the ride up, Jamie explained that if I wanted to chuck lures I could but cut bait was the ticket for big fish and numbers at this time of year. No questions from me as I learned a long time ago to listen to the guide. We chucked out 2 lines with 4" slabs of fresh pinfish and in less than a minute (7:14 am) the right side line went tight and just kept going. I'd heard redfish pull harder than a lot of other saltwater fish and found out very fast how true that is. This fish peeled off half a spool from a 2500 shimano before it stopped and ran out to the side. The only word to describe this fish is BULLDOG, such power on each run and I was really laying the boots to this fish as it desperately wanted to rejoin the school. My arm was feeling the burn and this was just the first fish. I got to have the hands on experience and Jamie asked if I wanted to tail my first fish. Heck Ya!! Leaned down over the rail and grabbed my first red, what a fish - 32" and around 12lbs (Jamie's guess). Another item learned is the guides around here frown on those boca grips being used on redfish. Kept chunking out the cut bait as the school moved in and out around the sandbar for the next few hours. A clone of the first one came aboard a little later So with a couple redfish caught, someone read the script and I felt a pick up on the rod I was holding. Fed some line and it kept running. Jamie said to hit it and when I closed the bail and lifted back on the rod I could tell this fish had some bigger shoulders (7:59 am strike time). The fish peeled well off over half of the spool of 30 lb braid and just would not give up any line. It was a full 14 minute fight of straight pull, pull, pull mixed in with big head shakes. My arm was killing me and I had to use my left hand above the handle numerous times to lessen the burn in my right arm. My big red at 36.5 inches and maybe 16-18 lbs We worked this school a bit more and was holding both rods on the bow with cut bait out and had simultaneous takes going in different directions. Handed the right rod back to Jamie and set the hook into another solid fish. The other fish came unbuttoned after a few turns of the handle but I got wish number 3, a double spot 34" We must have been making a bit of commotion as more and more boats had gathered around us. Jamie's phone went off and his good buddy was pulling in just behind us. He had 3 guys in from Texas and hadn't seen a thing all morning and asked if he could slip in and get some baits in the deep sand hole. Being an OFC member here has taught me the importance of kharma and without even asking I told Jamie not too worry and tell his buddy to come on in. Didn't take them long to double up and the guide and guests thanked us several times. You can see 2 other boats in the background out of the 10 or so around us. Things did die down after this as there was alot of traffic around. Had a couple other big bumps but nothing committed. As we pulled off this spot, I was treated to a rare sight but did not get pictures. We pulled off the flat and as we fired the big engine up, off to the right about 25 yards the water started to churn up in a series of big swells. Jamie points and says "manatees". They are huge!!. Got to watch them for a few seconds until they got a few feet of water under them and disappeared. We moved down to a long big flat of seagrass and sand holes and got a few more small redfish and small sea trout, nothing really pic worthy except this guy. Jamie couldn't really see it from the back so when I asked him what the slot limit was for gators he first thought I was asking about big seatrout. This one was somewhere in 8-10 ft length and I was told to move back off the front of the deck if it got closer I'll definitely be back one day in August when the redfish spawn and 30-40 lb fish are in and aggressive. If you're going down it's only a 30 minute drive from Orlando to Titusville for some awesome saltwater fishing A good day fishing

Sitting here in cocoa beach Florida just wrapping up a week of junior spring training baseball for my son. Will have my report with pictures when I get back home but go saltwater, those fish pull crazy hard. I did a full day redfish in mosquito lagoon and will remember it for a long time. Things are starting to heat up offshore with spring weather coming in. Around here it's cobia, kingfish, and snapper offshore and redfish and sea trout inshore. Gotta watch spring winds as they may reduce the number of days offshore. Big swells and windy here last 2 days but inshore you can still get out. In this area you're only 45 minutes back inland to Kissimmee area for good largemouth too!

Can't tell you if it's readily available but R&B from BC have a Bacon stout that was hard to put down. A buddy brought some over at Xmas and I never asked where he got it. I have to be in that perfect frame of mind for stout but bête noir out of QC is good and one that I have not found but read great reviews is from Yukon brewing company

My boat is 1100 lbs, motor is 400 With gear, 3 batteries, full tank of gas I spec'd my towing weight out at 2200. Other vehicles that have been used to tow it, Ford F150, jeep liberty If you go to some car websites like auto park and auto dome they will show spec on towing most of the times. One that caught my eye but I could not find one to test drive is the Chevy Traverse. Towing rating of 3500 lbs, loads of room and great gas mileage Other thing I did was to use auto trader and pick SUV category. Type in the $ range and see they types of vehicles as we'll the dealers in your area that have good selections of brands. In around oakville you can test drive and look at a number of different SUV's on the same lot at Autopark, JP Motors and Autodome I really like the Durango but I wanted more power features and navigation built in

I'm in Cocoa beach later in March and will be on Mosquito lagoon hopefully 2 days. Booked a 3/4 day with a guide and we're gonna try to split that for reds in the morning and then head out off the beach for cobia

I did this in my backyard for a few years. Have 7 big maples and got a jar or two out of it. Was mostly for my kids when they were small for fun. They still remember and talk about it. very easy set up. Take 2L clear pop bottles and a 4ft section of 1/2 PVC pipe Cut the pipe in 4" length and then carefully drill a 1/2 hole into the pop bottle close to the top. Cut a thin notch in the pipe so the bottle has a notch to sit in. On the trees less than 18" diameter I only put 1 hole and in my two bigger trees I put in 2. drill 1" into tree about waist to chest high. Push the pvc into hole and hang pop bottle. Check each day and empty into larger kettle. I'd empty and boil off every couple days and left it up my kids to check the bottles. They'd run home each day after school to see how much was collected.

Looks like the face I drew on my mom's fireplace mantle when I was 4. It's still there 45 years later

I've got a crest liner 1750 w/115 Merc and towed it with a few different class vehicles. Do some research and try to keep to vehicles with a 3500 lb tow rating. For several years I towed with a Safari van, then a ford expedition and now a gmc envoy. When behind the ford you'd never know you had a load, the Gmc does a fine job now as long as you don't want to set any acceleration records. Stops in good distance too. I just traded the ford in and looked at 3 vehicles that would easily do the job. Acadia, Durango and Pilot all will do the job. 4x4 is nice to have but I've been driving an AWD for the last month and I think as long as your at decent ramps you shouldn't have any problems

I have both the Johnny Morris and last version of BPS Pro Qualifier and several reels for both model The pro qualifier came with extra metal spools which was a good deal but I found in about half the spools the drag was really sticky, so much so that I took them to Aikmans and got the washers all replaced with what he had to fit them and they seem fine now. I bought 3 of the JM spinning and 3 of the baitcast last year at the spring sale. All spinning were the 750 size and they have performed flawlessly. Used them for steelhead in the spring, light lining for carp on waggler floats and they handled the load fine. I normally have run Daiwa SS tourney 700/1300 and didn't miss them at all. I don't run anything heavier than 10 braid on these The baitcasters are still in the box so no review on them I see the JM spinning had a 2500 size reel and that would be my only thought on these. The 750 size was on the small size for a general purpose reel.

We see numerous deer along Rebecca west of Bronte as we head over to House Of Wings!!! another visible herd is on south side of 403 extension, past IKEA going into Hamilton. Just west of King Road underpass there is a large open field on the south side. Have counted many in that field while out shopping

2 different types for me when rigged weedless on a worm hook or as a trailer on a jig I have a few that seem to get used up faster than the others Berkley Chigger Craw Gambler Ugly Otter Strike King Rage Craw For more clear water finesse (shaky head, jig head) type waters for smallies TUBES!!!!!! and zoom brush hogs

Hit post before I finished my thought I built my first one out of 3/4 white PVC water pipe With t's, elbows and 45's I made one to do 2 rods for maybe 40 bucks Used picture on the web to come up with a basic plan. Probably would still work for me today if I hadn't left it on the bank down in Hamilton one day. Hope whoever found it is still using it

Carp kit is located in Milton Rich. There should be a number on the site. I've placed a couple phone orders with him in the past The other one I use is New World Carp in Hamilton, they usually carry a different line of products My pod is the pro logic 3 rod, I've been happy with it being a bit more stable and heavy to suit the longer 13 ft rods Last time I looked bills bait and fishing world both had a couple pods lying about, can't remember price or brand Seen a pretty cool rig last fall that used the basic camera tripods from XS Cargo for $15 each but you still need bars and rod rests

May is a perfect time to go as the winds offshore tend to be lower in the spring. You'll probably see a lot more deep water trolling opportunities but do not overlook the shallow flats fishing. If you want to tackle bonefish and have a really good shot at a permit or cuda, the top end of Cozumel is a hidden gem. Search Cozumel in the reports and you'll see my 2 posts from 2012. The ferry goes from Playa Del Carmen to Cozumel starting at 6 am every hour and costs about $12 USD one way The guys I went with are tops in Cozumel and can be found if you google bonefishcozumel (all one word). They can pick you up right at the docks and it's a bit 10 minute drive to their boat and a bout a 15 minute boat ride to the flats on the north end.

Staged? Not all all. On Lake Michigan there are a number of harbours with commercial piers and in particular Wisconsin. Public access to the best piers are not allowed. The winter harbour fishing down there is awesome and very similar to our niagara river fishery but without the current. Typically anchor and dunk big roe bags along the break wall and piers produces big winter steelhead and browns. As a twist some of the guys have you tube videos where they cut large chunks of ice and tow them out to the break wall or piers. Cut some holes and ice fish for something different to tape. Saw several shows like this with in fisherman staff over the years. You can see the boat middle of the video. There is one video on you tube where the host starts swearing about having to tape all over as they should be wearing life jackets on the ice. Not new to those that follow or fish steelhead a lot.

Still guys selling that body with trebles and weed less on eBay See them once in a while, not too often though. They don't call them rapalas so somebody must be copying the original out of china. I've got several big gold weed less ones still. Great pike lure

More rig set up as rod length and power does change for me depending on the actual lake My flipping system is totally different for say Scugog versus up north This is for ugly/weedy water Flipping rod with jig/craw combo Heavy worm rod for punching mats Pitching combo with worm/plastic baits Frog rod 2 multiple purpose MH/M that I can cast anything with ( spinnerbaits, buzz bait, cranks, jerks) Never go out without a MH spinning set up I use for slugo/big seniors So I need 7 not six. Most tourneys I had 9 systems but that would include at least 1 back up flipping that only gets used if something breaks and most times that would be the frog rod. If its smallies and clear water better plan for 6 completely different set ups. Biggest tourney weights over the last 5 years are almost 100% smallmouth. Light line and finesse style - tubes, swim baits, jigging spoons, jerk baits/spinnerbaits, top water

casting performance and overall weight are probably the 2 biggest features that go into a spool design for all sized spinning reels. A wider diameter spool is one but not the most important feature in maximizing casting distance. If they can deepen the spool and reduce weight, it also shows as a better spec on the side of the box nowadays. The other item that goes into spool design is drag force. In species specific reels larger drag washer for higher pound drag force require a bigger/deeper spool to get the bigger wider drag washer systems. Since I've gotten into carp fishing you see these design function much more prevalent in the long distance casting/pit reels. Big 8000 and 10000 sized reels with comparatively shallow spools vs the same sized saltwater models. I use 6000 sized reels that have tremendous line capacity and I probably average less than 40 yard casts.

Loads down here in oakville, all except salt they brought in a few pallets on Saturday and sold out in a by early afternoon. They had a full shelf of 1lb propane tanks minus the 3 I bought

Mine was with an Abu Garcia Ultra Mag. Took a lighter and x-acto knife to clear it

Got to spend a whole weekend on Lake Temagami with these guys, from breakfast to late night campfire. My job was to drive my boat around to show them some key spots and then make sure I stayed off camera Pretty hard not to be impressed by the guy on the left. As down to earth as they come

I'm enjoying 9 days off work. Stress free, relaxing days with family is actually strange to get adjusted to but it's working wonders. Oh yeah and a new IPad air, frogg togg wader jacket, aqua vu micro and hopefully 2-3 of ice fishing over the next week

Just picked one up from BPS. I've been playing with it and it is very sharp and clear. Will hopefully get it wet over next few days. I bought it for scouting structure and not to have it on all day. I had an older aqua vu and it was just way too big for me to haul around

JB1 If you can get over to fishing world in Hamilton they have a very good selection of ice rods this year. St.Croix's, fenwick's and a few of the new brands They even had a couple of buckets of Ugly Stik ice rods on sale