MJL

Just incredible! Thanks for the report Mike This is definitely getting me motivated to land my first musky

Very cool Dan

Totally awesome! The baits came out great I've been looking into making soft plastics of my own for my trips to BC (pink worms, artificial egg clusters, etc). Finding unscented and unflavoured baits locally is tough. Soft-plastics with scent constitutes to being bait out west - Not so great for rivers with a bait ban.

My only real experience with jigging lakers is on the ice. I have 8lb Berkley XL or 8lb Seaguar Senshi spooled on my reels. I run it straight to the lure. I think either would work OK as a leader. In the past I’ve tried 10lb PowerPro and an 8lb Maxima Ultragreen leader and caught fish as well.

Or how about Sepia?

Really cool pics Dave

Fantastic photos Bill...Definitely getting the urge to head away from the city to get some shots like those

Incredible specimen...It's a catch of a lifetime. Congrats!

Ever think about doing a B&W?

If you’re looking for additional fun, you can take a hypodermic needle to the neoprene booties as well as throughout the rest of the waders…Not that I would…Just saying…

This past ice season I had a chance to compare a Humminbird 565 (predecessor to the 570) that another angler had, with my 345c. The other angler walked over and asked if I was having any problems with my sonar (we were fishing outside). The colder it got, the slower the screen on the 565 got (real time window on the 565 was definitely not in real time). Everything just slowed way down while my 345c was running perfectly with the same settings (maybe colour units generate more heat to keep the LCD warm?). I was also better able to see individual fish in a school better with colour VS greyscale. As for the Humminbird ice units (graph display not the flasher models), pretty sure it’s just the ice transducer and the portable case that makes the difference.

From what I gather, it’s not a triploid but rather a brown trout that hung around a salmon farm and fed on a constant supply of fish food for most of its’ life... http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/excursions/post/enormous-new-zealand-brown-trout-possibly-a-world-record/ According to my friend who lives in New Zealand (for the past 5.5yrs), trout farming is illegal in New Zealand. You won’t find triploid trout or farmed trout there - At least not since the 70's or 80's. I wouldn't mind something like that at the end of my line...At least for 1 hero shot

This is definitely getting me pumped for ice season!

Yup...Same experience but at Pearson. After a short search, the baggage guys got it back to me. I think I'll paint my tube bright orange for next time.LOL

Awesome report Mike I'd love to do a fly in trip like that one day

Great report Joey! Really loving all the bird pictures. It's hard to choose which one is my favourite

Wish I could've made it down this weekend. Just looks awesome. Kudos to everyone involved

When my friends and I flew to BC last fall, we put our float reels in our carry on. For the rods, I UPS’d mine a week before in a homemade PVC pipe + end caps + sponge inside at the ends (I wanted to make sure my rods were there when I was). My friends shipped theirs in a bazooka case on our flight and rods came out unscathed. I left a note inside my rod tube with my address in case the tube got lost on the trip home. I also wrote the address on the outside of the tube with permanent marker (The custom float rods I took were not cheap). I’ve had friends fly with various airlines and with regards to reels, some accepted them no problem. Others required that my friends removed the lines from the reels completely (apparently lines could be used to tie people up). I travelled with air Canada and didn’t have a problem with lines on my float reels – I had a few spools of line in my check-in suit case in the event that I had to respool. Hooks and lures (with hooks) in carry on is a no-no.

Wiki has an audio recording of the French way to pronounce it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine

As an example: A 13' rod rated for 4-8lb line, you could use a 10-12lb mainline and use a 4-8lb leader below the float (if you were float fishing). You'd save yourself from losing a lot of floats too if you snag up.

If you already own a spinning reel with a smooth drag, you can save $ by just using what you have. When I fish the small to Med size Lake O rivers, I often use my 7ft med-action spinning rod and cast spinners, Kwikfish and other lures for steelhead. Works pretty well until the temps get super frigid. Honestly if I was fishing for salmon and steelhead, I’d purchase 2 different rods. 1 rod rated for perhaps 4-8lb or 4-10lb for steelhead and another 8-15lb for salmon (But that’s my opinion). You could use the same reel on both rods (load it up with a limp 10-12lb mono and use a leader). Biggest issue with using noodle rods for salmon is they lack the backbone to really turn or control the fish. It’s in the best interest of the fish that you land it as fast as possible to avoid killing it from total exhaustion. It’s also good not to tie up a large stretch of river and have other anglers wait on you to land the fish, for an unnecessary amount of time.

x2 I haven’t hooked anything on the Slammers yet, but they look too good not to get eaten by something. Anyone know if we can buy X-zone products, loose without the packaging, in bulk? I don’t care for the packaging and I especially hate just throwing it away for 4-6 lures.

Do you currently own any fishing tackle?

Great report Nick I remember one 15 minute fishing trip I spent at the Toronto Islands The day started by walking 10 minutes to the bus stop at 5:30am with 20lbs of carp gear in my backpack. Taking the bus 20 minutes to the subway station. I took the subway 25 minutes down to Union Station. Then walked 7 minutes to the ferry docks. Took the ferry over, walked a little and finally got to my fishing spot. I fished for 10 minutes then get a call from the girl I was seeing at the time… “I NEED YOU NOW! THERE’S A HUGE SPIDER IN MY KITCHEN!!!” Me = I spent 5 minutes of trying to convince her it’s harmless. Being the gentleman that I am, I packed up and made my journey back home to Scarborough. Granted it was a fairly large spider that was on her ceiling. But still…

Great report Brian...Just an incredible looking stretch of water