MJL

Starting in 2008, there was supposed to be a stocking of 2 additional rivers with cohos supplied by Ringwood (MEA)...Apparently that never did happen.

I do remember reading about potential coho stocking in various Lake O rivers aside from the Credit in a few newspapers. After communicating with John Kendall last year, the plan to stock those rivers in 2008 never came to fruition. Also looking at the Lake O coho stocking records from 2008 through till this year, it confirms it.

Last year there was a guy on Kijiji trying to sell carp that he catches from the Peterborough area. Essentially you give him an order and he'll go out and catch them.LOL

Congrats Terry I plan to make a hero drift from 500m upstream down to where Terry is fishing and beyond...Thank goodness for the massive line capacity on my Islander and the power of the 13' 3pc XST Did I mention I only plan to retrieve halfway back through Terry's pool before starting my next drift

Very sweet Chris

Start having kids...And lots. Problem solved I haven't seen my buddy Chris since before kid #3

For the most part, the salmon are done. There’s a number of places along the north shore of Lake O that get stocked and will have zombies all the way into December. On that note, there are way better things to fish for aside from salmon that aren’t half dead nor fight like a dead log in the current. Back in the day, the majority of cohos used to run after Thanksgiving till early January in most rivers I fished. Can’t say the same thing for the current generation of cohos running up Lake O rivers now. The last 3-4yrs, it seems they’ve started running alongside the first runs of Chinooks going up the river. On my local rivers, they’re mostly done as well. Unless the vast majority of cohos I've seen the last 3-4yrs are strays from the Credit stockings, we could be in for an amazing wild coho fishery for a number of rivers.

Earlier this year, I did pretty well on one trip using X-zone Swammers in the 3 & 4" sizes. The lakers didn't seem to like them that day, but the steelhead sure did. In the past, I've caught steelhead on 8 & 10 inch pink worms (designed for Lake Okeechobee bass in Florida), 5" Rapala Husky jerks & jointed raps, Lipless cranks, green sponge balls dredged in Vasoline & cod liver oil and yarn. On New years eve (last day of 2011) both Frozen-Fire and I were fishing one of our local rivers. I caught one chub and jokingly, I immediately cast it back out and drifted the pool. On the 1st cast, I hooked a nice brown around 6lbs...Didn't land it though. We proceeded to catch and keep a few more chub in the hopes of hooking a few more browns or steelhead.LOL

Bring on the wings...Maybe some fish n' chips I'll try to duck out of work early...Possibly to hit up a river on the way No manager in their right mind would think someone with "violent diarrhea" is lying

I can't remember the last time I fished Bronte (Maybe 2002 for the migratory browns). I primarily used a 10'6" St. Croix matched with a float reel in the river and found that to be a decent all round rod for that stream. I used a 14' Hardy float rod off the pier when float fishing roe below a float. When I tossed spinners and Kwikfish there for steelhead, I normally used my 5'6"-6' UL and L action rods that had a soft tip and a meaty butt. You could cast real tight and accurate to wood and really feel the spinner blades turn.

I'd be interested in a G2G. If it's in Oakville and on a weekend, I may be tempted to hit up a nearby river or two before and after the swill

Brian, the reel is a 4.5" Angling Specialties w/ off-set reel foot (Regular drag model). I actually was in your neck of the woods a couple weeks ago...But according to your "Recent OFC status" update, you were at work.LOL The blank is a 13ft 3pc Rainshadow XST (6-10lb). Cheers Mike

Chris, it looked amazing in person when I was there to see it yesterday. I guess you can be rest assured that you won't need to do that on my next build...You may need to turn out some wood inlays for a handle though

Naming of fishing locations is strictly forbidden on this forum On that note, I'll be flying into John Milner's neighbourhood and hooking up with a few friends - Maybe picking up a reel if I like what I see. After, I'll be touring around for a couple weeks before coming home.

Are you a rod builder who happens to be allergic to 2 part epoxy? I sure am . The last 4yrs, my rod building has been limited to tying on guides and finishing them off with various clear coats like varnish (10-14 coats), 1 part rod finishes (eg. U40 Duragloss – 8-12 coats) and clear coat adhesives (eg. Diamondite II which I currently use for my own rod building projects -3 coats). With that said, I needed a handle built for a rod I plan to take with me on a trip due in a couple weeks. I exchanged PMs with Chris to see what he could do and what components he had access to. Time was limited for the both of us. Chris was busy with many other builds, and I was stuck with jury duty for a month with no real end date. Chris finished the butt section while I finished the mid and tip sections. The low-down - 13’ Rainshadow XST 3-piece - Reel seat & butt cap courtesy of John Collina - ALPS guides? (size 20 to down to 8) - Cork supplied by both Chris and me (I gave Chris whatever cork I had) Guide wraps in plain black Ferrules in black with 3 turns of metallic blue (Thanks Chris for hooking me up with the thread) Done This is no Abercrombie & Fitch model. The rod doesn’t even have a logo on it - It was meant to be that way. It was purpose built to handle the strain of bigger steelhead that average 10-13lbs (with 20-30lbs definitely possible) as well as bull trout that often get to double-digit sized proportions. I’m not sure if I’ll use the rod at my usual haunts when I get back (Perhaps Niagara?) – It’s quite a powerful stick! I’m extremely satisfied with Chris’s work and can vouch for the quality and attention to detail - It definitely gets Mikey's seal of approval Thanks again Chris

Thanks for putting that up Mike I'm really diggin' the fly-in trip reports

I like it Dave Really digging the lamprey shot! I still haven't figured out a system that doesn't require taking dozens of pictures of failed attempts. One shot I've always wanted to take is a head on shot (or close to) of a fish jumping directly at the camera. My friends in Alaska got close but they were chased off the river by hungry brown bears.LOL

Thanks again guys Mono. When I'm fishing gin clear streams for trout, I find line diameter to be more important in "line invisibility". IMO, fluorocarbon is just as visible as any clear monofilament of the same diameter. There are some fluorocarbons I do like for my steelhead fishing because they actually do seem more abrasion resistant than the Maxima Ultragreen I normally use for my leaders. Aside from the massive eyes as Bill eluded to, the mouth does not extend past the eye like it would on a brownie.

Thanks guys. Glad you enjoyed the pics Thanks John. It's a baby Atlantic salmon In bright light, gin clear water, my camera does a pretty good job figuring out aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc, automatically in Program-mode. In anything but bright sun and gin clear water (which is more often than not), I normally have to adjust the speed, aperture and ISO manually just so that I can get decent shots from one spot to the next Camera is set to burst shooting and with my Canon 40D, I can shoot at 6.5fps which equates to a lot of pictures . The auto focus system is pretty good on the camera and lens. All in all, its pretty much an exercise in getting lucky and hoping you get that 1 shot that turns out OK. I've got a hard drive full of pictures that didn't really turn out as well as I hoped. I'm blessed that the rivers I've been fishing have been full of co-operative fish As far as getting shots of the fish, often times I'm fighting the fish with one hand, bracing the camera with one foot and pressing the shutter with the other hand. Other times, I'm sitting in the river for an hour or two waiting for the fish to get close to the lens. I've done underwater timelapse with the autofocus still engaged (not the most effective but probably the easiest) - You just leave the camera in the water for a few hours and come back to a few thousand pics.LOL Eagerly waiting for the new stick to be completed It looks like the guides I picked up were pre-ground and then anodized over? Makes my job a lot easier I was only able to use the flash system for the 1st picture. All the other pics I did not use flash. With underwater photography, gin clear water and good natural light makes shooting easy

Great report! I'm wondering if I should start wearing blaze orange when I'm out on the rivers in the fall.LOL I've never tried grouse but they do look tasty!

Beautiful fish! Congrats. I really love the markings on the tiger muskies.

Sweet! Looks like an amazing weekend Really loving the 7th picture.

It’s the last day of September which marks the end of trout season for many stretches of river. If there is one thing I’ll miss, it’s stalking the river banks for colourful brookies. The last few days I was able to spend a couple hours in the morning stalking small streams for these pretty little jewels. The streams are cold, the bugs are gone, the leaves are turning orange, most other river anglers are salmon fishing elsewhere, what’s not to like? 1 brookie at the crack of dawn. I got to test out my remote flash system which involved climbing a tree at 5:30am to strap my 2 camera flashes and then falling into the river. I was soaked but at least I got 1 picture out of it Hide & seek It really is an Atlantic salmon this time Had to sort through a lot of these...I was surprised when I caught a few on muddler minnows swung down & across. Male brookie in spawning colours The red dots on the brookies from one stream were almost glowing underwater. Bye for now brookies, hello steelhead! Cheers Mike

Nicely done Will

That's awesome Brian