MJL

I'm sure all of Toronto is rooting for Doc. I know I am.

Pure class to the nth degree.

It's a chat full of steelheading commentary as well as snagging and lining salmon

Cars were confiscated by the MNR? I'm all for punishing these dbags but are you sure the MNR took their cars? That seems ridiculous to me.

The MNR definitely do confiscate cars (as well as fishing gear). I remember watching them tow away an individual's car at the Humber 6yrs back in the fall. I'm assuming the guy had stashed fish over his limit in his trunk...It definitely wasn't for parking illegally.LOL

If you go to Wilson's ask to speak to Billy. He's a great guy and a wealth of information.

He's also a great rod builder too as well as an amazing fly caster.

Dozer, if you're in the Scarlem area, you can check out Angling Specialties (Kennedy and Passmore area). There's a decent amount of fly tying stuff to be had. Unfortunately the shop may be permanently closing November/December.

Sorry typing on the iPod. Most guys are going lighter around Hamilton now. I'm seeing a lot more float reels and long light rods

Yes…There’s a general shift in techniques around the harbour. Feeder rods and float rods are becoming the norm there. From what I’ve been told by the local anglers, angling pressure seems to have a lot to do with it (unbelievable I know).

Jeff Vaughn is also promoting float fishing as well as feeder fishing when fishing shallow bays, pre-spawn on the St. Lawrence. He says he’s getting 3-4 fish on the float to 1 on the bolt rig early in the season. Except he’s using heavy action Barbel feeder rods (2.75lb), large Polaris floats and 30-40lb PowerPro for those fish.LOL

In most places around Ontario, a 1.5lb (or less) – 2.5lb rod is plenty unless you’re fishing big, gnarly rivers (like the St. Lawrence, Niagara, Detroit, some parts of the Trent system, lower Grand during high flows, etc). I got violated by a large fish on the St. Lawrence in September during a tourney using my 3.25lb carp rod!

If you're looking for a European specimen carp rod, a number of stores in the GTA who distribute Angling International products (like Raven, Drennan, Kamasan, ESP, etc) should be able to order rods made by Wychwood for you.

Here's the catalogue

http://www.anglersinternational.com/2010%20carp%20fishing%20catalogue.pdf

Here are the dealers

http://www.anglersinternational.com/dealers.html

Fishing World in Hamilton has some Shimano stuff and Bill's Bait and Tackle had some carp rods in stock last time I visited last year.

You can also order rods online from Canadian retailers like:

- New World Carp (Hamilton, On)

http://newworldcarp.com/

- Carp Kit International (Milton, On)

http://www.carp-kit.com/index.php

- If you know what you're looking for, you can also contact Jeff Vaughan at the Long Sault motel. He has a small carp shop there and owns a much larger one in the UK - He guides on the St. Lawrence river in summer. I usually do 1 or 2 orders off of him per year or I stock up when I visit the motel.

http://www.canadiancarpclub.on.ca/

or

http://www.longsaultmotel.com/

If you'd like, I could supply you with links from US vendors...Keep in mind that shipping costs will be quite high.

I started ‘trout season’ on opener with my dad, and I definitely wanted to end it with him. My dad has never caught a brook trout before or stalked the shrub-lined, brushy hell holes with me before for the resident trout. With nothing better to do Wednesday, he joined me for a day of fishing. Considering I couldn’t get out on the weekend, and it rained Tuesday, I HAD to get out Wednesday.

We hit up a river around 11:30 looking for brookies. I definitely wanted to try to photograph some fish in bright spawning colours. First cast into the pool I land this one with a spinner

My dad also using a Panther Martin gets his first ever brookie

Hens are quite drab compared to the male specks

When the spinner action died down, I switched up

Colourful male

FrozenFire Joined us at the river around 12:30…Unfortunately he missed the flurry of activity. He also took the wrong ‘path’ to the river to meet us. There was no real path but there certainly was an easier way to get to the water

On the way back to the car, we saw this fellow – There’s a big red band…Does this mean it’s going to be a mild winter?

He curled up into a furry ball when I tried to pet him

1:30, we were off to another river in the hopes of landing a trophy brown trout. We walked for a few KM down the river probing the pools, log jams, undercuts, riffles and various runs. My dad used to fish for steelhead a lot with me in the past and when I told him I’d get a brown out of a spot no more than 4-5 inches deep, he didn’t believe me.

2nd cast with a small Mepps and I got one (first cast the fish swiped the lure and missed). It really opened up his eyes to the amount of fishable water he walked past and didn’t fish. Big spots for such a little guy.

Last brown from this river till next year

I landed 8-9 small browns to about 12 inches there and Frozen Fire landed a couple. My dad didn’t get any browns but got chub to keep him occupied. Unfortunately my dream of getting a monster resident brown will have to wait until next year ... but at least that’s keeping me hungry till next April .

I loved every minute of my trout fishing adventures this season (including those moments where I was: getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, falling into the river and dunking/destroying a camera, getting lost on the backroads in the middle of no where and patching my waders to the point where just about all of it below the knees is aquaseal). Can't wait to stalk the streams again next year.

Hope you enjoyed

Off I go to learn more about fishing for fall walleyes and I may also pull out my steelheading kit from storage - It's been a while.

Jealousy is an understatement...I want to be there!

Very nice Chris. I’m actually very close to clicking the submit button on an online order for a new switch fly rod blank. I’m hoping to get into the double handed experience. What line system are you using with the spey outfit?

Very cool Jacques!

Those sturgeon pics are super cool to the max! I want to catch one now. You should of kissed it on the lips.LOL

WTG Ryan! I'm still waiting to land my first one.

Amazing spotting patterns on those fish.

Very cool. In South America, the locals eat them and you can see various species of large specimens at the local fish markets (some as big as 1.5-2ft long) – Apparently they’re rich in iron. Various species of wood eating catfish (panaque) have been in the aquarium trade for years. The Royal pleco is probably the most common one found at pet shops and up until the mid to late 90’s, the blue eyed pleco was fairly common as well. I owned a royal pleco for about 9yrs and he made short work of the driftwood in my tank (cleaning up after it was insane!) – He also ate cucumbers, lettuce, algae wafers, frozen shrimp and blood worms. I named him Jaws.LOL

Driving 3hrs is dedication right there! Definitely paid off. Those brookies are sweet!

I really love the colouration on the last fish. Hopefully I can make it out one more time (or thrice) before the season ends.

Pretty interesting topic. Throughout my life I’ve always wondered why some anglers were more successful than others. I’ve come to the realization that, if you can competently use a rod and reel, own a set of eyes that can see, and have a brain that’s willing to learn, you can catch fish. I personally don’t know much about bass fishing. I only fish for them once a year (or less) on average). With that said, over the years I’ve thought about the various ways to approach fishing to become a more successful angler.

With just about every species of fish I wanted to catch, I went through a 6 part approach – I apologize to the fact that it sounds more like a text-book.

1. Information

Study your quarry and the environments in which it lives. In your case, it may mean: watching Bob Izumi or Al Linder on the TV or reading an issue of OOD to obtain information on possible tactics to try given a time of year or specific conditions. Forums (like OFC) are also great sources of info. You can never have too much info...Soak it up like a sponge!

Ideally you want to learn about where bass live (depths, preferred temperature, etc), what bass eat in nature (or key in on food items found in specific lakes), what bass do throughout the year (try to find info on seasonal patterns – this is perhaps the most important item to think about). What do bass do given specific conditions (like during cold fronts, heat waves, etc). This information will be your long term guide on how to fish for them.

Before your trip, you should familiarize yourself with the body of water. Topographic maps, hydrographic charts are excellent for this. Similarly you should obtain weather forecasts and determine what conditions to expect on the day you plan to fish. You can create a preliminary plan on what tactics you might need to use or a preliminary location on where to try, given X weather conditions at X time of year. You can do a great percentage of your “fishing” even before you leave the house in the hopes that you’ll be spending more time catching on the water.

It also can’t be understated...READ THE FISHING REGULATIONS BEFORE YOU GO FISHING.

2. Observation

It means comparing the conditions you currently see with information you’ve gathered in your information search (#1 above). If the weather man was wrong and the tactic you’ve chosen might not be the right approach, adjust and re-think your plan of attack. In this case, a guide and his/her knowledge is invaluable and can speed up your learning curve by showing you what to look for out on the water. Being able to adapt and select the right tactic and location is key. Most people (unsuccessful I might ad) fail to observe and they are keyed in on 1 spot and/or 1 tactic which might not be the correct approach - Because it worked for them last trip doesn't mean it's going to work for them this trip.

Observation also means looking for fish and/or wildlife activity. Polarized glasses are perhaps one of my important items of equipment I own. As a carp angler, I might look for carp rolling on the surface to determine where they are. Pike anglers often fish for pike in the shallows if they see them cruising there. Anglers fishing in the ocean look for flocks of birds and floating piles of garbage that collect in ocean currents. Trout anglers observe flying insects or they might use a small seine net to see what bugs are crawling on bottom. If you have a fish finder, looking for bait-fish may also improve your odds at catching predatory fish (like bass). Update your pool of information with real-time data.

3. Presentation

Fishing for the most part isn’t 1 complex activity. It’s a bunch of smaller, easy to do things that when all done correctly will lead to success. All I mean by presentation is doing all the little things right. Keep your hook sharp, be stealthy, try to keep negative odors off your lures to a minimum, check your line for frays and cast accurately.

4. Documentation

Also another area where anglers fail. Learning is paramount in becoming more successful. Saying you have 20yrs of fishing experience means squat if you can’t somehow use those experiences in a meaningful way. Spending more time on the water will make you a better angler ONLY if you learn something during that time.

You have to ask yourself, why did I fail or why did I catch fish. What exactly were the conditions when I caught a pile of fish? What were the conditions when I skunked? What lure did I catch fish on this trip...What didn’t I catch fish on this trip?

I have a photographic memory and can remember just about every trip I’ve been on starting from my first trip as a 2yr old (pretty weird I know)...If you don't have a photographic memory, I recommend keeping a diary of your experiences (some people use excel spreadsheets) to document weather conditions, catch rates, time of year, etc. This will become your information (as seen in #1) for future trips.

5. Benchmarking and self-improvement

For the most part, I go fishing to catch fish. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy the scenery and the sound of running river water, but if I’m driving an hour away from home (and spending $ on gas), I want to catch a fish. I always aim to improve my skills and knowledge in the hopes I become a more versatile and successful angler. I try to benchmark my skills with those of someone or something that does what I want, better. It may sound strange but a lot of what I know about stalking trout was learned by watching sniper training videos on youtube – snipers are the stealthiest people I know of, who learn to gather intelligence from multiple sources and key in on details the best. You’re never too good of an angler to stop learning or incorporating new things into your fishing arsenal.

6. Respect the environment

It’s good for karma

Hope this somehow helps you on your way to catching more fish

Mike

All of my great brook streams that have BIG brook trout have healthy chubb populations.

Definitely the case with the streams I fish - Although I have yet to hook into and land one over 15". On average, the brookies in one chub infested stream I fish is 10-11 inches compared to others that on average, are only 6-8 inches without chubs. I just release the chubs.

Thanks for the comments guys. Glad you enjoyed the journey

I always appreciate your well written reports Mike! Beauty fish, I've just become addicted to brookies and resident browns on the fly, but its the very end of the season Next summer can't come soon enough, but steelehead season is almost upon us.

 

Congrats on that pb resident brown, it was probably a good battle on that UL

Hey Chris

Next year I hope to have my own light fly rod for the trout. This spring I bummed a 9ft 5wt off my friend and used it a couple times. I caught a few fish on streamer patterns - None on dry flies though. Already saving up for a 7’6” 5wt and a nice reel for Christmas. I wish I hadn’t sold the reel I had this spring.LOL

Damn, you're making me ill Mike.

I’ll trade you a guided trip to a super accessible, easily walkable stream loaded with browns in exchange for a new custom 5’6” light action rod

*Note the stream is highly accessible and easily walkable for those who are young and incredibly fit (and mobile), and able to hoist themselves over large fallen trees as well as push their way through dense, prickly bushes.

Up that way it is hard to cast, it is more like 'flicking' or at times flipping lure under overhead branches and such.

Good times

I guess why I like fishing for these resident fish is that it’s a lot more technical and challenging (accuracy, stealth and observation is definitely a must). It’s different than my usual steelhead and carp fishing for sure. Maybe we can hook up and I can learn more from a Jedi Master of trout

Dood! I'm very impressed. Hopefully this fall I can give it a whirl when I head your way for steel. You ever planning on doing a fly reel?

Mike

Fantastic report Doc ...Fishing for those biggun brookies is something I definitely aspire to do one day.

Nice fish!

Funny you should mention me. Perhaps the only reason I actually got started on fishing for resident fish was seeing Ehg landing piles of beautiful brookies and looking at pics Wallacio posted of several gorgeous browns here on OFC - OFC has also been the catalyst for other forays into other types of fishing for me too (like ice fishing). Stream fishing for trout is addictive to the max! I'm itching to get out to the streams again.

From what I’ve been told, Salmo Trutta-Itis or STI is an incurable disease which strikes 1 in 467 anglers. It is the inflammation of an angler’s imagination and mind, to which he (or she) is perpetually thinking of or dreaming of catching brown trout of monstrous proportions. It can manifest in fly, lure and bait fishermen. While symptoms may seem different from one discipline to the next, the end results are the same...Obsession

With only 14 days left in regular trout season, I had a flare up yesterday – Actually it’s the 2nd one in about 8 days . All summer I’ve been replaying that moment in my head when I lost what looked to be a 4-5lb resident brown this spring. It would’ve been my largest resident fish to date . I did a good number of trips this spring seeking redemption but to no avail

The previous week, Frozen Fire and I hit up one stream looking for some browns – Both of us had a craving. This spring, that particular stream coughed up some awesome gems which were beautifully coloured with amazing bright red spots as seen below.

Perhaps we were overly confident on the ride there. To summarize, beyond 2 tiny browns which I caught, neither of us were hauling in anything other than chubs. We however did see in 1 stretch of river, no longer than 20 yards, 2 browns which would’ve weighed 4-6lbs, and 6 other fish behind them – Perhaps the smallest fish in the group would’ve went 15 inches!

We stayed into the night casting aimlessly in the dark (with just about everything we had or managed to catch like crayfish) hoping for just 1 of those fish. Nothing ever did materialize at the end of our lines.

Since that trip, I’ve been itching to get out again. The rain we got Thursday afternoon sealed the deal for me. Yesterday I just had to get out to scratch the itch . Got to the river at 10am and proceeded upstream. The rain didn’t do as much as I hoped – If it did, I missed it. The water was still super clear. Stopped at 1 pool and managed these colourful brownies (I had my camera on continuous burst mode and kept the finger on the shutter).

He took a cream coloured jig/fly I tied up.

dark amber hue on the adipose

And beautiful red marks on the dorsal

I was so tempted to use him as bait

I walked up to the pool where I saw the 2 large browns the previous week. They were still there chilling right in the middle of the river along with another large fish of equal size. All I can say is that I tried and failed miserably – They spooked into the nearest log jam after the 3rd cast with my jig/fly

1pm, I hit up another river. This spring I was tipped off by one gracious OFC member on a spot to try for brookies – Some as large as 14 inches. Seeing as how it was on the way to my next brownie spot, I pulled off to the side of the road and butt slid down the steep, grassy (and thorny) bank to the water. Got these beautiful gems in a few minutes.

With brookies, my #1 lure has been the Panther Martin. During the summer, I swapped the stock trebles with single Siwash hooks and crushed the barbs.

Spent a half hour fishing for the specks and ate my lunch before heading to the next spot.

This summer I studied topographic maps quite a bit and I was dying to try 1 river out that I had not yet fished. Like most streams I scouted, I had no real clue whether or not it would hold browns in any real numbers. I drove along tight, 1 lane dirt backroads (which was pretty freaky seeing as I didn't have 4 wheel drive) and got to the river. I knocked on a few doors to see if I would be trespassing. I got the OK from the neighbouring property owners and I made a mad dash to the river – I actually forgot my rod in the trunk so I made that trip twice (I was pretty excited)

First cast into the pool, I land a beautifully spotted brownie

I made my way downstream catching good numbers of smaller fish (to 12 inches) using a variety of spinners (Mepps, Vibrax, Riverwood, Panther Martins), kwikfish & flat fish, GULP soft-plastics and my jig/flies. The fishing was very much like target practice with accuracy being essential (or you'd snag up in a branch). With not another angler in sight (actually I hadn't seen one all day), I was thinking about all those years I spent shoulder-to-shoulder on the piers and rivers in September. I enjoy this fishing waaaaay better . I probably walked a mile and a bit downstream with only the sound of the flowing river and the birds to keep me company.

One spot I came up to did not cough up a fish like it should have . It actually bothered me somewhat. I went through my arsenal of lures and soft-plastics with no luck. I tied on my lucky #1 skunk Kwikfish (which I reserve for only very rare occasions) and backed it underneath a submerged stump. All heck broke loose!

Managed to land it . Measured him against my rod and marked it off with a white china marker to measure it at home. At 17.25 inches, he was the biggest resident brown I landed this season and the biggest I’ve landed on the UL.

I set him off for freedom and he swam back underneath the stump.

I fished till an hour after sunset hoping for a bigger fish but none ever came. It was still a great day with good numbers of fish and solitude.

I’m still on a quest for that 10lb resident brown...I’ll settle for a 6lber though . T-minus 13 days and counting.

Cheers and all smiles

Chromeage indeed! Me likey

Great to see you're out fishing Cliff. Gotta hook up with you this fall! Nicely done guys

Is it just me or is that a giant white marshmellow? Were you trying to line walleye?

Awesome report Ryan

I certainly don't like it when I see trash strewn around my favourite fishing spots. If I can, I try to make the place better before I leave for next time. Whatever I pick up gets packed out and disposed of at home.

Great video Simon. Definitely got my mouth watering for some walleye. Did you catch all of those fish on 6" sucker minnows? That's really like giving them a steak dinner