MJL

yea i just fold up my 3 peice 13' still rigged and than put the neoprene cover over my reel and the blank holds it good enough

Same here. I've also never been fond of leaving things in my car in plain sight for thieves to see (like a long rod tube).

I would be cautious though with float rods using the PacBay high-frame guides when doing this. I've broken a number of these guides just trying to break down my rods while it's still rigged.

Well done Dan! I'm starting to play around with HDR myself. Truly an inspirational photo for me.

I was sick a couple weeks ago with a pretty severe cold. I ended up taking some Cold FX I found in the medicine cabinet and went fishing...No kidding it cured me right up

Those brownies are simply stunning!

The colouration on those things is awesome. Well done to the both of you

Beauty piece of steel Jim. I never get used to how they annihilate spinners - No signs of subtlety there.LOL Great chatting with you on the river yesterday.

The one bait that has saved the day for me more times than any other, even under low clear conditions, has been the lowly garden hackle. The best ones were what were marketed as baby dews, they were like a half growed dew worm without the collar, thread them thru the nose on the hook the length of the shank. Haven't seen them in a while though for sale.

They sell live 'trout worms' at one of my local tackle shops (I think they're also called red worms - they don't look red.LOL). They look like smaller, thinner versions of the cobra sized dewies. Great bait...Unfortunately chubs and suckers love them too.

Well done Mike...Good stuff for getting out there

If if any of you were bashing, bash me all you want. I loved what I was doing and took gratitude towards Chris and Russ. Those guys really achieved something there, Atlantic's are tricky to create from what I heard.

 

O and it's not the Granny. A smaller inland river in the Cobourg area

What Kemper is referring to is the fact that Atlantics have been stocked into Lake O creeks since the 80’s without any noticeable returns. Probable causes to the lack of returns and a self sustaining population of Atlantics in Lake O include: Thiamine deficiencies due to the smelt and alewife they eat out in Lake O (it screws up their ability to reproduce). Competition from juvenile rainbow trout while they’re still in streams is another factor. There’s some thinking that the redds spawning Atlantics dig to lay their eggs are sensitive to sediment and silt (Ironically they were stocked in rivers known as ‘dirty Duffins’) and the success of the eggs surviving is low.

I see hawks all the time around the Warden and Lawrence area. I've also started seeing them around work, just off Ashtonbee

That's awesome. I hear there's a pair of Peregrine falcons which use the top of the Bell building (Ashtonbee and Pharmacy I think) as a seasonal home. I was fortunate enough to watch a peregrine falcon dive bomb a pigeon at the old Lakeview generating station before it was demolished.

Apparently there is a world wide shortage of cork. I'm not sure how long you will be able to buy a cork handled rod without paying a serious premium. Damn wine drinkers anyways...

I've been told this as well. Apparently it takes 30-40 years for a tree to produce the cork from the time of planting to harvest...Lots of things can go bad in that time.

I bought a bunch of premium cork rings for $1.10 each when I first started building rods...Now it's around $2.25 per ring depending on where you order them.

Update:

I've been seeing a good number of hawks in my neighbourhood this fall as well as at my local tribs when I'm fishing for steelhead and browns. Managed to snap this pic today while I was out fishing one of the rivers. I took it at my camera's full 18X zoom and cropped it a little...Would this be another cooper's hawk?

Original picture

This fall I've been lucky enough to see at least 1 or 2 hawks fly by each time I fish the river. They're really beautiful birds.

Hi Rob,

 

Niagara and Port D are both pretty challenging waters to try and fish with flies. If you're new to trout fishing, you might want to forget about the streamers and try drifting roe or emerald shiners along bottom instead. You'll have a better chance of success as you get the feel for it.

 

Simplest rig is a small hook (#10 or #12 works fine) and enough weight you're bumping bottom now and then without constantly getting hung up. Position the weight about 18 inches up the line from the hook, and don't worry about any snaps, swivels or leaders. Six pound mono or eight pound mono will work perfectly.

 

If you're getting snagged on bottom constantly, try using a three-way swivel about 18 inches up the line from the hook. Hang a short length of line (maybe six to eight inches) off the third swivel eye, and crimp the weight on there instead of on your main line. When you get stuck, give a smooth pull and you'll strip the weight off the hanging line. You'll need to replace the missing weights, but it saves having to re-tie the whole works.

 

At least that will get you started. Good luck.

Ditto on what Craig said.

However if you tie your own flies, you can try tying your own polar fiber minnows (I tie mine at 3 inches). I've had great success fishing these in the lower Niagara for the steelhead. I've tied them with colour combinations such as blue + white (seen below), black + purple + white, green + olive + white and pure white. I'm really tempted to try tying them as tube flies for future trips so I can switch up the hook when it dulls from hitting rocks and other snags. I coat the eyes and head with rod building epoxy (30 min probably works best if you can get it) and use crystal flash (Usually red) for the gills. I sometimes tie in a few strands of different coloured Mylar, crystal flash or flashabou along the side of the fly for some added flash.

Woolly buggers work great for steelhead and browns as well as 3-4 inch deceivers and clouser minnows if you're beach casting somewhere at the mouth of a river.

Hope this helps

Heard he couldnt keep up with the demand thanks to the "net" and folded

Maybe too many loogans showed up and raped and pillaged the run of shrimps in his kitchen. Tons of garbage like empty beer bottles and cans were also left behind. He then put a No Trespassing sign up and closed off access to everyone.

He's got a ton of good shots from his recent trip to Alaska here: Sam's Alaska Pics

Those are amazing pics Dave. Photographs like those were the ones to really inspire me to get into photography. I've been googling up waterproof hard cases for DSLRs and the setup that your buddy Sam has looks like it's going to cost me as much as a new car

All the salmon/steelhead fishing packages I've looked into for the Northern BC and Alaska all recommended I bring a waterproof camera...Might as well go big for a trip of a lifetime

Is that a bead I see in the bottom pic?

With bullets like those and scenery like that, I'm dying to get up there.

Anybody up for a spur-the-moment road trip?

Welcome to the wonderful world of pinning in the rain

For me, I’ve got both hands working the palming rim. When I’m using my Islander I’ve got my right hand pinky and ring fingers + left hand palm & thumb working as a break. With my Angspec, I use the same set-up but always have the option flicking the drag on if I’m really desperate (rarely ever needed to use though – I occasionally just use it for carp or salmon off the pier). When I’m fighting fish be it in the rain or in dry conditions, a lot of the time I have my rod angled down to the side, lock the spool handles in place with my left thumb and index finger and play the fish on the rod. Pretty amazing at how little line you need to give when you get used to it.

You can also sacrifice your knuckles to the reel handles in the name of slowing down a big mamma jamma

Thanks a lot guys. Really appreciate the replies. I'll probably go with Doc's idea of a dry bag. I found a few small dry-bag waist packs online which look like they might fit the bill just right.

Overall, it worked but I had to get it off ebay and get it shipped here so it was probably not worth it for the money (was probably $80 all in). For not much more I picked up a waterproof/shockproof point and shoot now that I have a kayak as it's much more convenient (though it doesn't have nearly the picture quality of my bigger camera).

 

If you have any questions just let me know. Fire me a PM and you can borrow mine if you want, it's not being used currently so give it a shot.

 

Sean

Thanks a ton Sean. I was really looking for some sample pictures from the Aquapac. I would probably have a camera dedicated just for underwater pictures and use my other camera for the other pictures if I went the Aquapac route.

At this point in time, I will probably save up for a waterproof camera. Really liked some of the underwater sample pictures I found online from the Canon D10.

Thanks guys

Simply too amazing to describe

Keep the reports coming...I've enjoyed every single one of them.

On another note: You're buddy Phil looks vaguely familiar...Does he regularly fish for carp on the St. Lawrence?

I usually pick up a few when I hit up the Columbia outlet store in Michigan

For my 22 birthday, my friends got me a shirt they made with an airbrush that said: "The best head is steelhead"

I forgot to take it home and left it behind at All-Star Wings

Recently got into photography and digital imagining the last year or so. I guess it stemmed from my last job as a technical writer for Whirlpool (The Whirlpool/Maytag/Kenmore company). I used to be a writer, hand model, photographer and photo enhancing dude for the DIY manuals on how to assemble and disassemble the washing machines + dryers. Well Anyway, I purchased my own camera earlier this year hoping to get more into nature/fishing photography just for my own viewing pleasure (A used Panasonic FZ18 – a more advanced P&S without the heft of a full blown DSLR…Still big nonetheless and doesn’t fit in a pocket very well).

I find I suck at multi-tasking and a lot of times when I’m fishing rivers for steelhead and trout and I’m wading or its raining, I take far less pictures than I would really like…Currently have it in a weather resistant camera bag + plastic bag without holes, but usually that’s tucked away in my backpack on shore. Just wondering if there are any waterproof waist packs or chest packs to shove it in while I’m fishing (even ones not designed for fishing per se) that I should take a look at. Ideally I want something I can strap to myself. It’s no doubt going to be submerged underwater a few times over the years. I already dunked the camera once this year on a brookie hunting mission (It died…Literally). I lucked out when Panasonic actually replaced the damaged parts and sent it back for free within a week and a half.

One other question I have is, anyone ever use the plastic camera housings designed for underwater use? If so, how are they. They look like glorified zip-lock bags with a hard lens (At least the ones for the small cameras do) and they’re relatively inexpensive (Compared to buying a whole new waterproof camera). None of the camera shops around my area carry them and none of them really know anything about them. I’d like to try taking pics of fish underwater while snorkeling (in summer) or creeping up behind them in the river and taking pics of them in their natural environment.

Any help or tips you can give me is much appreciated. Thanks

Here’s the only picture I’ve taken of my fish so far this fall. I played around with it in an HDR program and ran it through Noiseware and like the results.

Mike

I've been seriously contemplating on getting that reel myself...For me reels in the 4" to 4.25" size feel much more comfortable to use - Already have a 4" Milner Kingfisher, 3 7/8" Kingpin or another new 4" Angspec on my 'new toy' shortlist

The Greys centrepin isn't a very popular reel anywhere (Europe or North America). I've been having a hard time finding reviews and info about it myself. You may have better luck getting info on British match fishing forums or British carp fishing forums about this reel. A quick google search should come up with many.

Congrats to you Steve and Kelli!

All the best

2 years ago on one of my carp fishing sessions in the Kawarthas I witnessed a huge 33lb muskie caught from shore in a fairly small Kawartha lake – The angler was fishing for walleyes at the time using a Rapala. Really amazed at how a fish like that could come from such a lake – I would imagine it would have to be an incredibly old fish or it somehow migrated from another lake through the locks. It was weighed on 2 different scales that other anglers there had (1 digital and 1 dial) and kept by the angler to be mounted. That was the biggest musky I've ever seen before in person.

Do I need one?

Not anymore!

Ladies in hip waders aerializing 65ft of fly line or running down chrome steelhead in fast water has to be the hottest thing to look at out there…It wouldn’t be my fault either if they’re impressed with the size and action of my rod.

I own a couple west coast baitcasting outfits (old Shimano Convergence rods + old Abus) but I rarely use them beyond the pier when I’m float fishing for the chinnies. I tried them a few times upstream in winter (even caught a couple nice fish) but I think the grease packed inside the reels made the free-spool option a little too sticky and I ended up having to pay line out by hand. 2 of the older guys I fish with at one of my local rivers (Now in their 60’s-70’s) switched over to using baitcasters instead of the pin…For them they had pain issues with their hands and arms when holding a float reel in the cold. Both got custom float rods made with the spiral guide setup.

For me variety is the spice of life. I love using my centrepins but equally enjoy swinging flies with the fly rod or tossing spinners and Kwikfish on my short 7ft medium spinning rods. Many times I lug 2 outfits (1 float rod, + 1 7’ spinning) around with me on days when I have the river to myself.

A used setup is the way to go.. Can you get something decent for under $400 for sure..

Ditto

Check the Classifieds on various message boards. Even Craigslist and Kijiji have gear for sale. You can pick up a used Islander or Tourney Drifter for around $200 when you can find them. Aurora Barrington was a decent reel which was around $200 brand new but haven't seen them for quite some time. Lots of good deals to be had.

Done! Go Canada!