MJL

As others have mentioned, the drag washers on rear drags are smaller than front reel ones. I actually find front drag reels easier to use and adjust in the heat of the battle.

With all this talk of rear and front drags, whatever happened to the center drags that Abu brought out back in the late 90’s (I think)? I remember they had one called the Suveran (or something like that and the CD series). It’s been almost a decade since I bought a 2000 sized spinning and haven’t really been looking in the market to see what's out there. Back in the day I was seriously thinking of spending my Christmas and Friday's lunch money on a Suveran after watching Italo winch in Kalum river steelhead with one . Apparently the drags were even more efficient than front drag reels and the washers had twice the surface area.

When someone invents C&R hunting I'll try it.

 

I wish I knew more about wild life photography.

 

JF

Ditto…There’s tranquilizer dart hunting . I heard there was an experimental type of hunting in Africa for elephants using paint balls…Pretty sure it didn’t work out though – Saw it on the Discovery Channel a while ago.

I only fish at the moment (almost entirely catch and release). I don’t hunt mainly because:

- I don’t have a freezer big enough to store all the meat

- My family in general doesn’t like eating game – The majority of my friends don’t either

- From what I’ve been told, you gotta drive pretty far away from cities to hunt (I go fishing often but usually not for very long)

- I do prefer eating different types of fish and seafood more than any other type of meat

- My friends tell me you gotta wake up insanely early in the morning (when it’s freezing cold) to set up decoys

I’m pretty interested in the various aspects of hunting – Like animal tracking, deer/turkey/duck calling, stalking, marksmanship, camo, trail cameras, etc. I’m sure a lot of what hunters do can be used in fishing situations. In the future, I would love to tag along on a hunt with somebody to see what it’s like.

Some animals I do find quite tasty. I don’t have any reservations on people killing an animal so long as it’s going to be used for food and not wasted. The closest thing to hunting that I do at the moment is walk around the local forests with my super zoom camera and take pics (sometimes I hide behind shrubs and trees)…Would love to get more into nature photography and learn more about animal behaviour (aside from what I see on the Discovery Channel or the internet).

What a coincidence!

I don’t have the Humminbird 565 but I’m seriously looking at getting one for fishing the same exact conditions you are (100ft under the ice). I’m actually looking at getting one to replace the fish finder I already have with the same problem you’re experiencing.

At the moment I have a very basic, old portable Eagle Cuda 128. It is rated to read depths to 600ft but with that said, in terms of looking at fish, lures and the jigging motion of the lure, it maxes out at 60ft. According to the user manual, the signal coming out of the unit isn’t strong enough to read fine detail at depths beyond 60ft – just the bottom. When dropping my lure, I can easily see it fall from the surface down to 60ft, then the line becomes almost invisible after that.

Maybe your finder is the same. I’d really love to know the max depths people are able to see their lures and fish with the 565 model. My friends have the Humminbird 343c and 345c which have 2400 watts + 300watts for the transducer and can view everything nicely on their units. Maybe the extra 400 watts compared to the Humminbird 565 (2000 watts) makes a difference at those depths.

Never could see why marshmallows wouldn’t work if you could get them to stay on the hook. They get a bad rap from all the shadier types of anglers who use them improperly - Truth be told, there are guys running high end float gear who pop or rip their float at the end of every drift, bottom bouncers and fly guys who run excessively long search leaders, and lure chuckers who target fish on redds in ankle deep water.

My only experience using them was when I was a kid. The ones my mom got from the grocery store usually didn’t last long on the hook – They usually just melted away after a couple drifts. Never tried the ones sold in tackle shops (I imagine, they'd melt off too). Diabetes runs in my family so, my mom doesn’t buy them anymore anyway.LOL

It doesn’t take a quantum leap to see that marshmallows don’t look all that different from: glo-bugs and other yarn eggs as well as flesh flies(especially in white and pink) that fly fishermen use; sponge eggs and roe bags that float fishermen use; lil corkies and spin-n-glows that bottom bouncers use. If you stuck a spinner blade in front, you’d have a totally new type of spinner.LOL I would imagine anything with a roe bag-like silhouette would work (especially in water with a bit of pace to it).

Steelhead will hit just about anything floating down river that looks or imitates anything remotely organic looking (plant material included ). Experiment with different baits and you might find a bait hardly used (if at all) by other anglers that works insanely well. This fall I’ve been doing quite well trying new baits like: “creatures”, “plastic creatures”, “squirmers”, “explosion squirmers”, “plastic squirmers”, “wrigglers”, “dung cobras”, "purple gummies" (Thanks jim!), “cheese diddlers”, “chirpers” and chunks of “sea ‘pods” (of different types and flavours) …Only resorted to using roe a handful of times last fall and did better on average than most other anglers on the rivers. It really does pay to put in time trying a variety of different baits.

Nicely done Jacques...Great tips for sure. I actually just started getting into ice fishing (I've been out a total of 3 times in my life). Lots to learn.

You ever think about making a jigging plug like the Rapala one...I imagine with your craftsmanship, and Busharts mad painting skills you could produce a weapon of mass fishing destruction

Beautiful bug Chris. You've got a lot more patience than me. I hate having to smear epoxy or head cement on turkey quills or other feathers to use as wing cases. I once got a bodkin stuck to my fingers with 5min epoxy. Swiss straw (raffia) or medallion sheeting for me

I haven't sat in front of the vice for a while...A few OFNer's sorta got me into ice fishing

You've inspired me to knock out a few flies at the vice tonight

MJL

It's a Sage Z-Axis 7136-4 blank.

7 wt 13 1/2' that I will be building as a float rod.

When you eventually get the blank, be amazed by the awesome power to weight ratio . Had a chance to play with several 6 & 7wt conversions on the river as well as fondle a few of the 5, 6 and 7wt conversions at the local tackle shop…The rods were violated even before they left the shop

Have it sent to Sault michigan

I'm going over for a week and have nothing I need to bring back..I'll send it to you from Canada

Totally awesome offer Dara. Many thanks. Haven’t decided which blank I want yet and probably won’t for another couple of months. Finding the right fly rod blank is a lot harder than I thought…Meiser, Beulah, CTS, Rainshadow, Winston, Sage…Only got enough funds for 1 along with the components I want to use in the build. If anything changes, I'll let you know ASAP

I heard someone in BC started a lawsuit against UPS for their insane brokerage fees a couple years ago…Not sure how that’s going. Each time the UPS guy came to my door, I was tempted to call 911 after the ordeal…I was raped!

If there was a local chapter of the “I hate UPS with a passion” fan club, I’d join. I’ve been bent over and violated up the yin yang by them more than a few times. My last order was hilarious:

Albright Tackle (located in NY State) sends my package via UPS (even after I told them to ship USPS). Called it in when I got my tracking number to cancel and reship…Albright cancelled the UPS delivery and told them to bring it back…I saw my tracking history state that the delivery was cancelled and somewhere in Syracuse, NY. Next day, I see the package arrive at the US/CAN border in Buffalo and make its way into Canada where it sits for a few days during the week…WTH? The record of the cancellation was gone.

Friday, the package makes its way to Concord, Ontario…Then to Scarborough…Then back to Concord. Monday, the UPS man comes to my door with the package asking for $77 in customs/brokerage for a package valued at $135 Canadian. I told him I canceled the order almost 10 business days prior (which it did take to get to my door – 5 day guarantee was a joke in any case)…Told the delivery guy I only ship USPS because of the brokerage fees…He tells me to ship by UPS air – That option would’ve cost me $150 for shipping but I wouldn’t have to pay brokerage fees

I cancel the order and my package goes from Concord, Ontario to Buffalo (and back to Concord another time)…Then to Ohio …Then to Kentucky …4wks after I made the order, the rods finally got back to Albright Tackle.

Albright ships via USPS the same day and I get the package in 4 business days.

Could be just me…I have the worst luck dealing with UPS and FedEx. Beyond the outrageous brokerage fees, they also lost a number of my packages…Most notable was a high-end carp blank – US vendor only had 1 in inventory…How the heck do you lose a 6ft long, bright chartreuse painted rod tube? I don’t know…FedEx still wanted me to pay $72 in customs/brokerage fees after they lost that one

PS

Which spey blank did you order? Currently looking for a switch/shorter spey rod myself...Have an 11ft 7/8 Meiser switch blank on the short-list...Dreading the news on how much it's going to cost me to get it over the border.

I have 2 fly rods, both 8wts (Sage XP, Sage LE). I use them mostly for steelhead but they also occasionally get used for salmon, pike, carp and smallies. Up until this spring, I didn’t really have a desire to fish for resident trout but may consider a 4wt for them in the future.

An 8 or 9wt rod will handle steelhead and salmon great. Though a 10wt has more lifting power if you plan on mostly using it for chinnies.

Beyond line weights, You might also be interested in thinking about the ‘action’ of a rod along with what flies you plan on casting and how far you’ll be casting them. With my Sage XP (Fast action), I can launch 2-3 inch clouser minnows a few meters into the backing when fishing off the beach without trouble and into wind as well. Harder to do with my other rod, the Sage LE (moderate action). I also get better accuracy at further distances with the XP. Conversely, I find I don't get the same feel and accuracy with the XP as I do with my LE when fishing the smaller eastern tribs because the XP has trouble loading on a short line without X amount of line past the tip (Probably would perform a lot better matched with a 9-10wt line on for those conditions).

Some people also live at preferred tempos…Example…If you talk fast, drive fast, walk fast, etc, you probably might enjoy casting faster action rods…If you talk slow, drive slow, walk slow, etc, you might prefer casting slow to moderate action rods better depending on the conditions. I love casting my Sage XP better than my Sage LE given the chance (I also like casting the extra-fast Sage TCR or newer TCX…No funds to own one though ). A few of my friends are polar opposites preferring cane and fiberglass whenever possible.

To summarize, you can have a slow, moderate, moderate-fast, fast and extra fast action 8wt that will feel like totally different rods and have varying amounts of power to cast and fight fish with.

The last year or so, I haven’t done too much fly fishing due to a wrist injury I suffered a few years ago. Casting single handed rods becomes painful after 15-20 minutes (ironically I can use a heavier 13ft float rod for 14 straight hours without problems mostly because I can tuck the butt under my arm)…I’m currently planning on building a switch/spey rod for this upcoming season…I can use 2 hands instead of just one…With that said, they perform slightly different than most single handed rods and matching lines is a little more complex. Wouldn’t be surprised if a 6wt spey had the same amount of backbone as most 8wt single handed fly rods.

your welcome.

Awesome man!…Didn’t realize it was you. Good meeting you, Christian as well as seeing your buddy Tyler again...Can’t thank you guys enough for your help.

Mike

Definitely tough fishing today – Currently slathering on layer after layer of hand moisturizer from all the wind burn – I need better gloves. Got my car stuck in the muddy/icy parking lot for an hour and a half too which didn’t make things fun – 2 anglers came by and helped push me out to freedom. Hit up 1 Lake O trib between 7am to 2pm and landed 2 bows (1 big hen in the morning which took me down river a bit away from my backpack & camera - Perhaps my biggest bow of 2009 ... also got 1 small male in the afternoon)…Saw/heard of 7-8 other fish caught there all day amongst 20-25 other anglers I ran into.

Both fish were caught on a bait I’ve nicknamed ‘the creature’ . Nothing touched the roe bags I tied up last night. Actually it’s been a month since I last caught a fish with roe – Highly irregular compared to past falls/winters. Here’s a pic of the buck…Perhaps my last fish of 2009

When in doubt…GO FOR IT! Best way not to hear “should’ve been here yesterday” is to fish everyday

If you’ve got time (and a relatively good internet connection), here’s another cool interview with Gary Loomis. It’s a podcast about 55min

http://www.itinerantangler.com/podcasts/podcast66.mp3

Here's a basic fish and chip recipe from master chef, Marco Pierre White involving: beer, yeast and flour

He's also an avid 'pinner too

Great recap Vic. You just seem to have the knack for getting male fish excited...Maybe your small hands might have something to do with it

Hopefully the fishing in 2010 will be just as good...ROAD TRIP!

Ross CLA gets my vote for a reel $300 and under. I've had mine for the last 3 seasons for steelhead, salmon and carp (odd time for pike). Smooth drag and feels solid. My buddy has 3 or 4 of them and took them down to Fiji for the Giant Trevally on the flats as well as New Zealand for light blue water fishing. All the reels came back unscathed.

I don’t consider steelheading a sport...For me it’s purely a religion. As such, my steelheading religion is controlled by a super hot, incredibly attractive steelheading goddess – I call her Chromira . Why do I think so?

1) For one, steelheading during the uber tough times can be insanely maddening but highly compelling

2) You gotta spend some time trying to figure them out in order to get in some lovin'

3) The steelheading goddess really digs guys (or gals) who are observant and pay close attention.

4) The steelheading goddess appreciates good deeds and as such, no good deed goes unrewarded – Essentially good Karma

My buddy KelfuN also agrees…As he put on his MSN screen name “steelhead are like women, only if I do everything right will I get one”…Unfortunately for Kelfun, he’s not as good looking or as charming with the ladies as me …But with that said, he’s on the right train of thought.

I managed to get the car today for 4hrs this morning. Dropped my sister off at the train station and I boogied off to the river. I was really surprised to see no cars in the lot when I arrived. Looking at the water, it was truly prime without another angler in sight. I hit one pool and tossed in my rig. Considering how tough the fishing was during the weekend and how light the fish were biting, I paid close attention for any odd movements on my float. The first 6 drifts I knew I had steelhead nipping at my bait. The float would stop dead mid-drift, twitch or just shoot down. Each time I’d set the hook and come up empty – Just like during the weekend my bait would be gone, ripped in half or torn.

The 7th drift I tried one trick my friends and I stumbled on for short biting steelhead. We originally called it the “Kristin Kreuk is So Hot!” hookset – But of course there are many different variations (As seen below). It was discovered by accident during one of those many manly (and often politically incorrect) conversations on the riverbank where my buddies and I were chilling and chatting and not really paying attention to our floats drifting downstream. Anywhoo, the whole premise of the “Kristin Kreuk is so Hot!” hookset is to say it out-loud first and then set the hook after you see the float go under in times where the fish are just nipping at the bait rather than smashing them…It gives the fish time to take the whole bait in their mouth. I must add that doing this every time in a crowded pool will make you look like someone suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder…or a pervert

7th drift I used a variation of the special hookset…I used the “April Vokey is so hot!” hookset and drove my hook into a solid fish. For those who don’t know who April Vokey is, here’s one pic .

Fought the fish for a pretty intense 5 minutes and pulled it from the clutches of an evil log jam which violated me 2 weekends ago. Even after the delayed hook-set, it was barely hooked in the upper lip.

For the rest of the session, the action wasn't amazing but fairly steady…With no one on the river, I went from pool to pool looking for active fish and resting the ones I knew had more fish sulking around on bottom. In between the steelheading action, I lashed a couple plastic bags to my backpack and picked up whatever pop-cans, coffee cups, beer bottles, empty packs of pinkies, etc I could find on the bank. It was pretty amazing to see how much junk there was after the ice and snow melted - Ended up with a few bags worth of trash + 1 free pack of unopened riverwood pinkies & a few floats . Binned it all at home

Seems the steelheading goddess was pleased with my deeds and blessed me with some pretty good karma…I ended up landing 13-14 beautiful pieces of bright, silvery chrome in the 7-10+lb range and lost a few when I got too trigger happy on the hook-sets. My hands were getting shaky from lack of food and the bite was dying down quickly with the sudden drop in temperature around 11:15am – I ended my day early on a high note and went home for lunch. It was a definite (but very welcomed) change from the last few trips which were much slower. Fish mostly took flies in various styles but also got hits with the plastic trout worms, micro tubes and live worms. Really enjoyed today out…Haven’t seen the river this peaceful in ages. Now if only I had April Vokey’s number…

Great pics Ant...A tougher session for sure. On the bright side, I think my waders don't leak anymore after I put a whole tube of aquaseal on the feet again

damn i missed out again.

 

nice job guys!

Vic...Good to see you're still with us...Kelfun, Frozen Fire, Jet and I had a minute of silence for you on the river (along with several other understanding anglers and strangers)...We thought you didn't make it after asking for permission (Please don't tell her I said that...She knows I'm joking ...I hope )

Amazing Cliff...Supreme talent to the max

Simply beautiful

Hey CC

Good on you for getting out there. Looking at the wind howling from my window this morning, I really didn’t have any major desire to hit up the rivers. I saw a squirrel get blown off my fence post by the wind and decided today might just not be the day . This fall has been a little strange. There’s a couple tribs I’ve been hitting up on a regular basis and even under ideal, prime conditions they failed to produce any real numbers of fish (at least compared to what I used to regularly experience in the past). Hopefully the rivers will cough up a few more gems before freeze up

Great report as usual Mike…Congrats to the both of you.

Also great tips for sure. Your self cocking floats with the leadcore sounds very interesting. When I was a kid learning how to float fish for steelhead, I grew up fishing with a few ex-pat Brits who fished my home rivers – They were finesse freaks running #6 or #8 shot all the way down from the float to the hook (usually #16 - #20 spade end hooks) and they never used more than 4lb line (mainline). They used to make their own floats as well that were self-cocking out of goose or porcupine quills. One of them gave me a book they brought over from the UK for his own kids (Which I guess they didn’t have much interest in reading – It was still in its plastic wrap)…It sort of outlines the floats they used to use in the frogwater on my local rivers…Here’s a scan:

I’ve always been interested in making these floats myself but never fancied grabbing onto an angry goose’s ass to try to harvest some quills …Might give the leadcore a try myself instead this winter

Not sure if they have XL sized Riverwood bunny jigs in stock but you can try calling

- Tightlines

- Angling Specialties (Scarborough store has Riverwood jigs in stock)

Not overly familiar with the tackle shops in your neighbourhood.

so...why wouldn't I buy a rather large spool of *insert name here* of #8LB and fill the spool with it? Then tie on a 10' section of #6LB or less of floro? Rather then using a (backing as I'm not sure why to use backing on a pin, just to cut cost on line?) or just fill the spool with #8LB? Again, I have no clue how much this spool/reel should hold... Thanks to all!

Geoff

The ideas behind backing:

1. Instead of filling an entire spool with mono, try to fill it up with something lighter (Dacron, level fly line, cork sheeting, etc)…This will improve start-up as it will take less effort to get the spool to start spinning.

2. If you’re side casting, you’d want to fill your spool up to approximately 1/8th of an inch to the edge (backplate side of course.LOL) - Some guys prefer to fill it up even more than 1/8 of an inch…Think about spinning reels – An improperly spooled reel will cut down on your casting distance. Backing helps fill the spool up so you don’t really need to fill it up with something expensive and stuff you’ll probably never use beyond just as backing.

3. Theoretically speaking, increasing the diameter of your spool will increase the amount of line you pick up on the retrieve. Backing helps to increase the internal diameter of the spool where the line will be (similar to the large arbor effect in fly reels) - Those who bought 5" reels for the retrieve rate might as well make the most out of them by filling them up.

4. Backing was used to cushion the effect of stretching/contracting mono when it got wet and cold. Stanton users often used Dacron as a backing for this. Apparently when mono gets wet and cold, it can shrink and bust or warp the spool of the reel (I’ve never personally seen this myself but I did use Dacron anyway with the black Stanton I owned for a short while). With Stantons, you pretty much spool your line onto small pins inside the spool drum (these pins are the things that can warp or break). I’ve heard that shrinking mono can put up a force equivalent to 400-2300lbs per square inch when it gets wet…I’ve always been pessimistic about those numbers but that’s what I’ve been told by anglers who were better mathematicians and physicists than I was .

Really? In over 30 years of using a center pin a LIMP line is exactly what I avoid, go figure.

I think the guys who wallis/pull cast like using the stiffer lines better VS the guys who side cast. For the side casters, the limper lines allow for better distance on the cast (pretty much what you'd expect from a spinning reel). I prefer stiffer lines myself as I find they are usually more abrasion resistant and they handle nicely when wallis/pull casting or when doing a spinning side cast (usually do this when my fingers go numb from the cold ). Different strokes for different folks.

Nice MJL, good to hear I will try bouncing them see if they bounce and to see if I used enough salt. For some reason I think I did not use enough salt, they still were kinda soft not really soft kinda between fresh and rubbery. Where i fish the current is too strong ( Niagara River) so i really dont think smell is too much of a factor there.. how long does this cure last for w/o having to freeze it?

In terms of making a brine, I’ve always been told to put enough salt into the water until you can’t see it dissolving anymore – My friends bring the water up to a boil and dissolve the salt into it to make sure it’s been saturated (They do let it cool down in the fridge though before dumping the eggs in) – Probably unnecessary to boil but that’s what they do.

Everyone has their own way of curing eggs and their own preference to what the ideal cured egg should feel and look like. I met one guy this fall who only uses roe from fish caught in that particular river using one out of a dozen curing methods dependent on a water temperature range at which the river will be at the day he fishes it . I think 8-10hrs in a brine bath is probably the longest I’ve heard people soaking eggs for…I remember someone telling me they only do it for no more than 10mins. With my eggs, I’ve kept them in the fridge from April through to mid-October (forgot to freeze them) and they still smelled and looked like they did when I first got them.

The roe I bum off my friends is cured pretty much the same way except they use sea salt instead of table salt – Soaked in salt brine for about 8-10hrs. They turn quite rubbery and will bounce if you drop them on the floor.LOL Takes a lot of pressure to break one by squeezing but there is still gooey goodness within.

I rarely use fresh roe myself as whatever I get from my friends or from the tackle shop is cured that way. To put things into perspective with that particular cure, in terms of roe bag milking, I probably can get an hour worth of fishing the same bag before the eggs actually start to change colour (pretty insane eh compared to most other cures or fresh eggs). Is it still effective? You bet…I still do quite well in froggy water with my indestructible roe bags …I often forget my roe container in my wading jacket pocket for 1-2 weeks without refrigeration and just use them as is...The roe doesn’t really go bad and the stinky roe is what I use at night (it’s not stinky as in bad smelling…Just slightly more fishy smelling).