MJL

I guess I'm one of the few people that doesn't use a cell phone I think if there’s anything Ironic about it all, while attempting to take underwater shots of salmon (unsuccessfully…The river was a little too stained), I overheard one of the pro-staffer wannabes complaining about the crowds while taking hero shots of his friend (for over 4 minutes with the fish out of the water, possibly killing it in the process) and posting the pics to a facebook group…If only there was an emoticon to describe the level of my bewilderment.

It’s not 'where' that’s the issue, it’s 'when'. You can walk every inch of every trib that flows into Lake Ontario. You can memorize every bush, rock and tree along the river. And after all of that, you still might not have an idea of when the major pushes of fish for a particular river are going to happen (not every river rises or falls the same after a rain, not every river freezes up at the same time, not every river has fish running at the same time despite being only 5 mins away from one another). I started fishing the eastern ditches back in the late 80’s and yes, in many cases, there was a lot of shoulder to shoulder fishing. But there were also a lot of times where you can show up to a popular river at 9am, be the only one there and never see another soul in sight for the day while hitting 30-60 fish (or till you ran out of bait or lost the last of your flies). For some strange reason, people nowadays need to give up to the minute reports via cell phone and social media. I see it often on the river. One guy hits a fish, calls his friend who shows up 30min later with 3 other people who car-pooled with him. The last 3yrs, my strategy is to choose a few rivers that might fish well and select the one that doesn't have a recent report...Seems to work and I probably catch a lot more fish because of it.LOL

Thanks again guys I would first have to photograph fish that are meaningful/relevant to each month.LOL It wouldn’t make sense to put pictures of me carp fishing in shorts & T-shirts for the month of February.LOL For a few years I used to take product photos for Whirlpool/Maytag/Kenmore (of washing machines and dryers). At the beginning, when they said I'd be taking photos of 'models', I was thinking of something very different.LOL

I understand the concept of promoting products. I still don’t understand why the average Joe would pay $50/yr to promote someone else’s products with the possibility of receiving nothing or very little in return (as in the case of many amateur pros on that site).

I think the NPS shirt and hat would look nice on you. Especially while you pose with a dirty, black, lamprey scarred, fungus encrusted chinny from out east

I’ve only perused that site a few times but there are a number of things I just don’t get. I never really understood the concept of having to pay an annual fee to promote a tackle company’s products? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Surely if you wanted a free spool of power pro or a few boxes of Salmo lures, you could’ve just spent your registration fee $ at the local tackle shop instead. Or instead of putting $50 into NPS, why not donate to an organization like CRAA, Nottawasaga Steelheaders, MEA or the like or even joining a fishing club (like the Scarborough casting club or a bass fishing club) and make personal connections that way? All the people I know who tried to pro-staff various products ended up spamming online message boards. At the end of it all, no one really cared for the products or the person. If you’re already a sponsored individual and you post reports on NPS about how great their products are, who are you actually promoting to? What exactly are pro-staffers supposed to do when they are picked up by a company? On a resume, what would you actually put for a job description? It's an interesting business concept. Mike

Thanks guys. Glad you enjoyed the pictures The last few weeks I've been feeling great (pretty much back to feeling like normal again aside from my sense of taste - besides sour & spicy I really can't taste anything else except for cheese). Yay for poutine Thanks SB22. I used 2 cameras for the pictures in this report Above water: - Canon t3i +17-50mm f/2.8 lens - it's a fairly light combo (as far as DSLRs go) that I can wear around my neck and tuck inside the top of my waders when I'm hiking through the bush. Maybe one day I'll invest in a micro 4/3 or mirrorless system that fits in a pocket much better. underwater: - Canon 7D + 8-15mm F/4 fisheye lens inside an aquatech surf housing + dome port. Cheers The best camera is the one that's on you. haha. You can bring it next time we fish together Although if you really want to upgrade, you can send me your credit card info and I can put together a camera package that will never become obsolete...It will cost $9,000 but it will last you a life time Thanks again Mike

That red-belly brookie is by far the most amazing specimen I've ever seen I really enjoyed this report. Thanks for sharing

Nicely done Chris

A few months ago, as sure as the sun will rise, the salmon made their annual return to my local streams. Fed by cold springs, the salmon pushed through despite scorching day time temperatures. I left the fishing gear behind and hiked the creeks with my camera. The water was low but not as clear as I would’ve liked. I mounted my camera onto a net handle and probed the pools to document this great migration. Chinook salmon by MJLeung, on Flickr Chinook shooting upriver Chinook shooting upriver by MJLeung, on Flickr Spawning pair in B&W Spawning pair by MJLeung, on Flickr Coho buck Coho by MJLeung, on Flickr Swimming against the flow Swimming against the flow by MJLeung, on Flickr The last 2 weeks I drove up and down rolling hills in farm country. I found my way through gravel and dirt roads winding through valleys, before going onto sketchy trails ridden with pot-holes and fallen branches. Alone, I stalked the streams with ghost-like stealth carrying my fly rod and camera gear in hand. I had miles worth of river to wade without another person in sight. At the end of the journey, I eventually found freedom. The perfect cast The Perfect Swing Swinging down & across by MJLeung, on Flickr The perfect take A mint gem Male in spawning dress by MJLeung, on Flickr Fish-eye views brookie by MJLeung, on Flickr Brookie on the dry fly Royal Wulff Brookie by MJLeung, on Flickr Half & half Brookie Half & half Brookie by MJLeung, on Flickr 20" of spotted gold on the muddler minnow Brown trout on the Muddler by MJLeung, on Flickr Pretty little brownie on the Muddler minnow Half & half brownie by MJLeung, on Flickr Stalking the streams was just what I needed - It was therapy for the soul. Hope you enjoyed Mike

Great report Brad. It blows my mind that blackflies would be a problem at this time of year. I've never seen them after July. I guess I should leave a bug jacket in the car just in case.LOL Nice brookies too

Fantastic report Mike.Those pike are giants!

Incredible specimen

Beautifully done! Your co-worker is super talented.

I got an error like that yesterday when I was trying to send a PM...It ended up sending 2 duplicate messages to that person

Tanks! Nicely done Mike. Great report

Totally awesome Ryan. Well done to the little fella

Nicely done Brian

On the brightside, at least it was a safe spawn.LOL

Awesome Dan...Those brookies have to be the prettiest fish on the planet

Nicely done Rob. I don't have any flatfish in my box but Kwikfish have taken some of my bigger resident browns

Hang in there Bruce. I also had issues with nausea with the standard anti-nausea pills (ondansetron, dex & stemitil). Later I was given Emend (Aprepitant) and it worked very well during my high dose chemo sessions. It’s definitely something worth talking about to the pharmacist and oncologist. Nausea sucks especially when all you’re trying to afterwards is hydrate. Sending my prayers to you and the missus.

Just awesome Nicely done!

A quick Googling brought this up http://www.coastalwindsports.com/WhoseLine.html As FishLogic mentioned, both are made of the same material (Ultra High Molecular Polyethylene) by 2 different companies. For the lines that I like, I choose PowerPro (Spectra) and sometimes Tuf-Line (They use both Spectra and Dyneema depending on the model). Personally I don't care what they're made of so long as they perform well.

That camera has already been to the bottom of Simcoe then.LOL