MJL

I have heard that eating bananas will attract mosquitoes. Back when I was still in school, I was in a group with someone who was studying mosquitoes for her PhD program. Apparently any foods that increase your metabolism will attract mosquitoes – Foods high in sugars (like bananas, soft drinks, candy, etc).

As for dealing with mosquitoes, I wear the bug jacket and wear clothing which they can’t get through – DEET is always on hand. It’s the only way to fish the trout streams I do. I have tried the thermacell in serious mosquito infested areas – I must be the only one for which it hasn’t lived up to expectations (IMO).

I have used the SA mastery headstart line in the past (it was actually the first line I used when I first started fly fishing over 10yrs ago). It’s a great line that is extremely easy to cast. I think the newer Headstart lines have a bump on the line to tell you how much line to aerialize before shooting the rest. The short head will turn over just about any fly. With that said, if you’re looking to fish bigger rivers where long distance mending is necessary (nymphing), you probably will find the short head length to be limiting – You may be better served with the SA GPX, Nymph or steelhead line for those purposes. For $35 the headstart offers great value IMO.

Steelhead

Laker

Thanks guys. Glad you liked the pics

I'm having deja vu looking at all these pics

 

Really amazing shots Mike. You're becoming quite the photographer my friend.

Once I pick up a couple switch rods (5 & 7wt) and other bits & bobs of tackle, I’m definitely going to be getting that plane ticket to Cranbrook for some underwater cutty & bull trout photo shoots

I love those underwater pictures you're taking, keep it up

What camera are you taking those shots with ?

Thanks For the underwater shots, I was using a Canon 40D with an 11-16mm lens

very cool Mike!

I think some Northern Ontario specks are calling your name....

 

 

TDunn

You know it Tyler...After seeing all the pics of brookies that you & DanC post up, they have been on my radar the last couple of years. Finding time to make it north just hasn’t been possible yet. Hopefully if the season is still open in September, I may have a couple weeks off to chase some steelhead-sized brookies your way

Sexy water Brian...Great catch

Fnatastic Chris

I haven't fly fished for pike for at least 4yrs now. Really got the urge now after seeing this report. Thanks for sharing

Sweet! The Royal Wulff has been my go-to fly this season.

This spring hasn’t been as generous with regards to numbers of fish, but I can’t remember any other spring season where I’ve had as much fun.

Trout

Since I started hunting the resident fish a couple years ago, Brookies & brown trout have taken up more and more of my time in spring. I started with worms and spinners a few years ago but this year I had the luxury of borrowing a couple dozen different fly rods to test out from a friend (who is a guide and a serious gear junky). From 6wt down through 00wt, I tried all the lighter fly rods he had. Some I absolutely did not enjoy casting, some were too long, and others were just absolute bliss – I even tried 1 that was made of bamboo and a few that were fibreglass. After trying out the 0wt, 2wt and 4wt models, I ran to the shop and picked up a 7’11” 3wt Sage TXL-F and a small Orvis Battenkill mid-arbor reel to call my own.

The rod has been a dream to cast in the tiny to moderately small streams I’ve been fishing. When you’re out on the streams 12-17hrs per day, you might as well get something that fits your hand like a glove.

Some pics I took from 1 clear freestone stream

Rising for bugs

Dark purple brookie I caught from a tiny spring creek

Brookie I caught in a stream behind a busy gas station - go figure

Brown which put a nice bend in the 3wt

Lakers/Whities

Since I took up ice fishing for lakers a couple years ago, I’ve always wanted to try to catch one in open water. I also never caught a whitefish either so any opportunity to catch one would be awesome. A few weeks ago, Will (Young_One) took me & Frozen-Fire out onto Simcoe to try for some whities. The trip didn’t start out good. Will lost his boat plug the day before and we spent the morning in a Wal-Mart parking lot waiting for them to open – We killed time by pushing Will around the parking lot in a shopping cart...

On the water we tried a few different areas without much luck. The last spot of the day, Frozen-Fire gets one whitie to chase his BadBoyz up almost 60ft before it hit

With my 36” med-action ice rod, I managed to hook into a decent sized laker but lost it 15 ft below the boat after an awesome battle

Walleye

I got out twice for walleyes with Will, Frozen-Fire and EC1 the last couple of weeks. It would be my first time ripping bucktail jigs through weeds. Walleye have never been all that kind to me – In a nutshell, I just suck at catching them.LOL

I borrowed a couple bucktails off Will and pitched them into the weeds. I was surprised at how effective the technique was. A lot of the time, they would hit on the drop and all I’d feel is a little tick on the line. I didn’t leave the lake empty handed and managed to eat my first ever walleye . Floured & fried up in hot oil, the walleyes were tasty!

Double header action

Goldfish

For me, the carp fishing has been slower than normal this year. Usual spots which often cough up 20-50 fish per day haven’t been nearly as generous for the most part. I did still manage to snap some nifty underwater shots of some feisty carp.

Ran into Mikeh at one swim – He was doing well (Frozen-Fire lending a hand with the net)

Sweet mirror

Today I took my dad out to one spot for an early father’s day gift. He enjoyed the trip very much – Last year he complained he hooked into too many fish and his arms were sore after 3.5hrs . This year my dad was happy we hooked into the perfect amount of fish

Hope you enjoyed

Mike

Simon, you're living in paradise. Just awesome!

Just an incredible report Tyler. Brookies like those have been the fish of my dreams the last few years...I definitely have to make the trip up there soon.

Awesome fish!

I remember reading one book written by Bernie Taylor where WD40 was mentioned (I think it was called "Big Trout: How & Where to Target them")

In the book it was mentioned that trout do not have the receptors to detect or interpret what WD40 actually is. As such, it can be used to mask human scent on the lure. With that said, I've never used WD40 on any of my lures nor do I ever intend to considering all the other fish attractants on the market (eg. GULP, YUM, Dr. Juice, etc).

Simon, I can’t say I’ve suffered any forms of serious addictions to anything (aside from fishing). I will say that after going through various health problems throughout my life, it’s always worth celebrating victories, big, small and everything in between.

Big congrats

Just incredible looking water Brian. Great pics

It's been a while since I last broke out the fly rod for trout...Hopefully next weekend the fish will be rising for me

One camera I actually can’t wait to get my hands on to try out is this one:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/859981-REG/Olympus_V104090SU000_Tough_TG_1_iHS_Digital.html

For a point & shoot, the specs look ideal. “DSLR quality” in the description is probably an exaggeration. It does however have a CMOS sensor which is a little bigger than the CCD sensors you’d find in most point & shoots on the market. Waterproof, shock proof and freeze-proof. It’s got a fast lens at F/2 (at the wide end of the zoom range) which you’d expect to perform well in low light conditions.

I’m thinking this may be my next camera for shooting underwater pics below the ice – My DSLR + housing can’t fit through an 8 inch hole . I definitely will be looking for reviews on that camera before I spend the cash.

Reading the water is 75% of the game. Getting your bait/lure down into the strike zone and keeping it there is 20%. The other 5% involves catching fish

Once you figure out where steelhead hold in the river during specific conditions (involving water temperature, water clarity, water level, time of the year, etc), you’ll have no problems catching fish (and that doesn’t mean just catching steelhead either – it applies to pretty much all fish that live in or migrate up rivers).

Spend a day with an experienced river angler (maybe even hook up with a guide). The knowledge you'll get from at least one day of instruction will last you a lifetime.

Nowadays, it’s not so much what brand you should get, it’s what you’re really looking for in a camera?

- Need something that fits in a pocket?

- Want something waterproof without having to purchase an additional housing?

- Need a camera that can take fast action pics in low light conditions? Or low light conditions for that matter?

- Need a camera that allows you full manual mode? Or are you going to rely fully on auto-mode?

- Are most pictures you plan on taking close up and personal or do you want to take zoomed in shots of eagles, bears, deers, etc 500m away across the lake?

- Are you a pixel peeper hoping for the absolute best image quality with potential for selling pics to magazines?

- Do you plan to take HD vids? Do you have the computer hardware and software to edit the video files for X model of camera?

- Want a camera which you can accessorize with an external flash or remote shutter?

- Do you plan to shoot JPEG only or are you looking for something that shoots RAW.

If most of your answers to the above questions is, "I don't care, I just want to take pictures"...You can probably save some cash and pick up a decent point and shoot for $150-$200 and go at it on full auto-mode with pretty good results (Canon & Panasonic being my first choices when it comes to brand for point & shoots).

My favourite camera happens to be a DSLR camera (Canon) but DSLRs aren't the best choice for everyone. Let us know roughly what you'd like in a camera (or features you'd like). There's a good number of pretty good options available on the market.

Finally had time to watch the video...Great job on the editing Mike. It's pretty amazing to see all that work you guys had to do to get there. Just loved it

In some spots along the north shore of Lake O, the carp finished spawning well over a month ago and are now back to cruising around the big lake.

Just incredible pics Ryan...Really cool to see their nests...I don't think I've ever seen anything like that

Great report and pics...It's hard not to get addicted to the small stream speck fishing!

Just awesome Dan...One day I'll make the trip north for beauties like those

I don't have a GoPro of my own but if you're planning on doing underwater video-making with one, you definitely will want to either make your own flat lens modification or purchase the flat lens housing mod like this:

http://www.eyeofmine.com/gopro/underwater/index.html

Frozen-Fire has the Hero2 (and the eye of mine flat lens housing) and the results look pretty good

I'm not a huge fan of the wideangle footage when you're shooting above water though.

here is a quick video of cooks bay

I don't know why everything is so green might be the alga

 

Terry, the green water thing is very normal - I experience it a lot when shooting underwater pics with my camera even in gin clear water. I think I read somewhere that the deeper you shoot, the more green/blue it gets because of the way that light gets filtered through water (red & yellow get filtered out first leaving you with green/blue). Algea and stirred up silt can also be a problem causing that greenish look too.

Hard to be disappointed when a surprise like that happens . I definitely have to try fishing some of the lakes and streams up your way for brookies.

Awesome pics Brandon

Just a fantastic report

Well done to the both of you