MJL

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

Sweet stick Mike. Look forward to seeing when your up this way.

 

What reel is that?

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

looks amazing.

 

what blank is that built on?

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

Sweet stick! So where are you going, you havn't spilled the beans yet?

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

Very cool pictures. Just wondering if the line is flouro or mono? Not looking to open a can of worms here just curious.

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.

Best underwater brook trout pictures I've seen anywhere? BTW, how can you tell the difference between a Brown and an Atlantic at that size?

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

those underwater photos are awesome thanks for sharing is that an atlantic ?

Thanks John. It's a baby Atlantic salmon

Very impressive, clear underwater shots. Would you mind sharing your camera settings and technique used to get such great shots. I get the "falling out of the tree" part.

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

 

Thanks for dropping in this morning, it was great to see you again and get some of the details and efforts required to get all these wonderful pictures.

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

wow those underwater shots are by far the nicest i have seen. was that as a result of your lighting thing you mentioned? or just the camera and clear water?

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

At 5:27 this morning, I was at the river climbing an overhanging tree in the dark trying to strap multiple remote camera flashes to various overhanging branches...It's best not to ask why...It didn't end up so well

Do tell.

It’s a 40+hr drive from the Geen...A jet boat and bear spray may be involved on this particular excursion

Thanks a lot guys. Really appreciate the feedback. After some thought on transportation and practicality, I probably will settle on the 13' 3pc XST. I plan to take the rod on its maiden voyage to a land where the steelhead average 10-13lbs (with 20lbs not uncommon and 30lbs very rare but definitely possible). I'm definitely excited

Cheers

First thing, look at the tail, Chinooks have spots all over the tail, Coho only have spots on the upper half.

For 99% of the cases this is true (upper lobe of the tail would be the more correct way of saying this). I'm not sure if other anglers who have been catching Lake O cohos the last couple of years have noticed some irregularities with regards to the spotting on a good number of coho tails. The last 2 seasons, I have been catching cohos with spots on both the upper and lower lobes of the tails as well as spotting on the upper lobe and middle of the tail. Perhaps chinook/coho hybrids?

Hi guys. I’m currently in the market for a heavier float rod for bigger steelhead in bigger rivers. Planning to use 12-15lb Mainlines, 8-12lb leaders, 10-25gr floats and size 2/0 to 2 hooks. I have a few blanks on the short list but would be interested in some opinions before I bite the bullet. Although most of the heavier float rods I’ve built in the past for friends were on 7-8wt Sage spey blanks, unfortunately, $300-$450 for a blank is out of my budget for this build.

Short list of blanks under $200 I have in mind

- 13’ 7wt Forecast RX7 spey blank

- 11’3” Lamiglas (8-15lb)

- 11’6” Raven IM6 (6-12lb)

At the moment I’m torn between the 13’ 7wt Forecast blank and the 11’3” Lamiglas. I prefer the length of the Forecast and the fact that it is 4pc for easier transport, however the Lamiglas is essentially purpose built for what I’m hoping to do. Anyone ever use either of these rods? Are there other rods I should also be looking into?

Also appreciate it if someone could provide me with some contact info on purchasing a Forecast blank for a decent price here in Ontario.

Thanks

Mike

That's awesome Rich. Over my lifetime I've only seen 3 pinks caught from the rivers I fish. I'd love to land one of them. They look pretty nifty especially with the large hump.

 

1. I have an old Tournament Drifter with foam on the back plate. It's my "winter" reel. Ugly, but comfortable.

 

But the foam detracts from pictures of steelhead with the reel laying next to it. It’s obvious that Mojo & respect from other fishermen (particularly those on online message boards) is lost. 5/4 Facebook users belonging to float fishing groups agree

like this

Brian, that’s pretty similar to the way my British steelheading mentors taught me when I was a kid. In use though (at least for most European float fishermen), the majority of the time, the reel is face up during the drift (ie spool face pointing up and backplate pointing to the ground or at an angle close to it). Instead of trotting with your pinky finger, you use your thumb to slow down the spool during the drift. It’s easier on the wrist if you tuck the butt end of the rod underneath your arm pit (you do require a fairly long butt grip with this method). The key is to try to keep your wrist as straight as possible. A bent wrist carrying a load causes fatigue after a while.