MJL

I heard the bullheads with the tumors on them make them extra tasty...And healthier too

Great flies! They look great I usually don’t worry much about hackle length much when I tie mine. Like Efka mentioned, if you’re looking for shorter hackle, saddle hackle will tie up real nice without being long and they give a very buggy appearance to the fly. A lot of my woolly buggers have long hackles made out of schlappen as it gives the fly a very nice pulsating action when I’m swinging them with the fly rod or I’m fishing in slow to med-fast water under the float. Tie on a small pink or orange head made of chenille or a small yarn egg at the eye of the hook and you have another great steelhead fly. Fly tying is addictive!

The IQ level of that sucker just dropped 2 points Well done on the bow

Great catches iCarp It won't be long till I make the switch from steelhead to carp. Gotta love the fight they give.

Can’t help you much with the price/quality aspect other than I get 85% of my stuff from AngSpec and the other 15% of my stuff from Wilson’s. I live 3min away from AngSpec in Scarborough and I used to go to school down the street from Wilson’s. From what I can tell, most places sell the same brands and/or product quality at similar prices – AngSpec’s prices are fairly good (if not slightly better) compared to others if you’re strictly looking at local shops. Like Twocoda mentioned, you can probably find the same materials for cheap in an arts and craft store – It would obviously be less convenient than in a fly shop but there’s still some savings to be had. Woolly buggers are a fly that gets you into trouble if you’re on a budget…They’re so effective in different colours and it’s a fly that presents countless opportunities to experiment with different types of materials and patterns. After 10yrs of experimenting and hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars spent in “R&D” costs, I have come up with a TOP SECRET, super woolly bugger pattern which uses materials so exotic I can’t even remember what animals they came from.LOL

Not sure where you planned on shipping the lure to but the Canadian distribution centre is in Oshawa. Normark Inc. 1350 Phillip Murray Avenue Oshawa Ontario L1J 6Z9 Canada Phone +1 905 571 3001 Fax +1 905 433 0111 In the past I have sent in defective lures where the plastic lips fell off - They replaced them no charge. My friends and I also did a few batch returns of rusty lures and the good folks at Normark gave us brand spanking new lures FOR FREE. Great customer service IMO.

Steelhead appreciate soft, silky smooth skin too. Especially in the midst of being violated and touched in some sensitive areas .

Suckers and carp are part of the same minnow family (cyprinids)...Just think of them as Canadian barbel.LOL

Looks like an absolute blast of a trip. Well done to the both of you. As for the sucker, I think you might have caught a species of redhorse. I've only landed 3-4 of them in my life. Not steel but a great catch nonetheless.

Love the vid Mike. Really great watching your uncle landing that fish. Thanks for posting

Well done JDMLS! Great reportage + pics. The fish in the 5th pic is absolutely mint.

I always look forward to the opener. For my dad and I, it’s an annual tradition. During the week before the opener, I go through the same rituals of tying flies and jigs (even though I really don’t need more), repairing or building new rods, re-spooling line, sharpening the hooks on my spinners and deodorizing my lucky socks. Yeah it’s shoulder to shoulder a lot of the time but many times, we end up fishing spots that 95% of the people fortunately walk past or we’re fishing beside friends we’ve made over the years and only see once a year on that day. Technically speaking, it's going to be your first true season opener...Last year we went the day after ...Try to remember the crowds that were there that day and multiply it by 4.

I'm not much of a pike guy but the majority of pike I've caught have come to minnow baits like Rapalas As for carp, if you're fishing the islands in spring, canned corn, maize and worms work extremely well (especially if you're into stalking them). Boilies do work as well but I find they're better in the late summer/fall than in Spring at the Islands. I love fishing the islands for carp. Panfish = sunfish, bluegill, rockbass, perch and crappies. BTW Are you on other message forums in the UK like CarpForum?

I’m fairly sure the IM6 has a different set of guides on it. I bought my IM9 back in 2001. They were marketed to have Titanium framed SIC guides on them back then. When the first guide broke, I thought it was a freak accident. I ended up repairing the guides as they broke over the years. They all broke in the same spot where the 2 legs of the frame met the guide foot. In 2007, I replaced all of them except for the tip top with a set of Fuji SIC guides. I’ve never been a fan of the smaller match style guides found on the factory Ravens or Loomis rods. I’ve done a fair number of repairs for my friends who ended up bending or breaking the small guides especially on the tip section – They also suck when you have to pick ice out of them too.

Well done Carole and to all those that participated. Great post!

Unbelievable reportage! Float tubing for steel is something I definitely want to try...Pick a seam and go with it Definitely some beautiful water there.

If you’re looking for a new factory rod, I think St. Croix and Raven offer great value for the money – With Loomis Canada gone, there really isn’t a whole lot to choose from in terms of factory rods. In the last few weeks I met a few guys on the river who were playing around with Rapala float rods and they were saying it had a very sweet action for cheap. I’m used to rods on the softer end of the spectrum so for me, the St Croix Wild River and the Raven IM6 seem OK. I think the IM8 has the best all-round action compared to the other Ravens. I did have problems with the guides on my Raven IM9 breaking off. 7 of them snapped off at different times while I was: in the process of rigging up, dropping the rod sections into the rod sock and fighting fish. I think it had to do with the manufacturer grinding the titanium guide feet down too aggressively and over heating the frames. I stripped the guides off and saw that the guide feet were almost black where they were ground down. I’ve had similar issues with other titanium framed guides and now grind them down slowly with a hand file or my friends adjustable-speed grinder (I normally use a Dremel tool for stainless guides) If you’re thinking of going for an inexpensive custom rod, a Rainshadow RX7 isn’t going to be a heck of a lot more than a factory Raven IM9. At least you’ve got some time before opener to get yourself rigged up. Hope this helps

Totally awesome...Congrats to the both of you. Would've loved to go on Saturday with you guys but I was busy...There's always next time. You can try using over flavoured boilies for them...Last year I got into quite a number of them in the Niagara when I was fishing for carp...Certainly a lot less messy than cut-bait for sure.

Those are huge I've never purposely tried fishing for them. I normally get them by accident when I'm carp fishing. I'd definitely love to hook into fish of that size. Well done

Beautiful! Love the action shot and the scenery. Can't get them much fresher than that Well done

Holy mother of chrome...Another report? Congrats Carole on the new PB I had a similar experience this past week on hitting size VS numbers. Always seems surreal when you hit a pod of behemoths. I'm guessing night-time steelheading is on Victor's mind now...He got into his first steelhead on the float set-up yesterday but couldn't land it. Hey Vic, how about working 9-5 and fishing 5-9 this week?...I'll be up for it

Well done C&C The chrome is so bright you need to wear sunglasses at night ...Some real beauties you two managed to get into. Happy belated b-day to the little one.

When I see the letters STD in posts revolving around 2 guys utilizing their 'rods' for a bit of 'sucker action', I get a little bit worried.LOL Great post and welcome to the wonderful world of rainy days, constantly looking at weather forecasts, freezing your nuts off while wading into frigid water and putting a big bend in a big rod when everything goes right.

Great report CC. Kev's fish is chromified to the max! Well done

I used to fish the Humber a lot after class (sometimes in between classes if I had a 6hr break). Smuggled my gear to class - Even wore my waders a few times too without anyone noticing As for your questions: 1. Yes you can use a spinning reel for float fishing and bottom bouncing. In fact for newbies, I'd recommend starting off with one if you're most comfortable using it over a float reel. One of the most important keys to catching steelhead is knowing how to read water and understanding fish behaviour. A float rod + float reel won't do you much help if you're drifting unproductive water. You can still maintain a proper drift with a spinning reel. 2. I have friends who used to live up north by Lake Superior and fish the Superior tribs. They'd fill their fly reels with mono and use their fly rods. Their drifts were very short because of the uber-snaggy conditions and that combo worked for them. With that said, mono does wear through snake guides and IMO if you still want to use the fly rod (for whatever reason), I'd stick a spinning reel on it. The Humber is a great place to fly fish. If you have waders, it really opens up a few holes not easily fished from shore. The river is wide enough to throw some monster casts without hooking trees behind you. 95% of the time you can get away with floating lines + a few small split shots crimped onto the leader to get the fly down. I always swung the fly but most people I see down there are either nymphing or dead drifting. All tactics work. 3 If you're stuck to using TTC (and don't want to transfer over to using GO, YRT, or Mississauga transit), Rouge and Humber are probably your best options...The Don is accessible by TTC but I personally have no experience there (not sure anyone here really does). Hope this helps and welcome to the board