MJL

But Berge and I let you have the first cast into the pool. It wasn’t our fault you hooked the tree on the far bank.LOL It was nice to meet both you and Berge today. Thanks for showing me around that river. I never fished that stretch of it before and it does look like a nice piece of water. I now know which trees to hit for some free floats this summer. Unbelievably chrome I walked by one of the holes on my way back to the car and just had to set up the rod again for a couple more drifts…Ended up with another small hen identical to Berge’s. Hope to run into you and Berge on the river again. I normally fish alone and the company today was nice. Great report and pics BTW

I was fairly close to the point of taking a pair of scissors to the squirrel I saw plastered to the road and making some flies or jigs...It wouldn't be the first time

Big Congrats! Having wilderness as your office is something I always dream about. Have a fun time up there.

Great pics Nomad. 3yrs ago I actually saw an animal like that steal an angler's steelhead from the garbage bag it was in. Was totally hilarious to see the guy's expression when he came back from taking a whiz in the bushes.

I've been running a Shimano Stradic 2000 for the last 10 years for my spinner and bottom bouncing fishing. I've dunked it in water, dropped it in mud and bashed it against rocks when I took a nasty spill and it keeps on ticking. Serviced it only twice in the time I've had it. Buttery smooth drag. I'm guessing the newer models would be just as good. Also impressed with my dad's Daiwa Advantage in the 2000 size. Fantastic little reel.

WTG Elusive! That's a fine piece of steel.

Awesome job on that fish Carole! 4 months without getting a fish is rough…I know the feeling. I guess the nightly ritual of out-fishing Cliff begins.LOL

You could try doing the polar bear club thing and strip down into a speedo while balancing your rod on your neck and holding the fish...Surely the cold water on bare skin will bring out your inner creative juices.

Very slick set up Spinnerdoc. Great job on the pod. A few guys in Hamilton have also made their own pods using various materials. It sure saves you from having to walk around with a power drill when you want to get a set of banksticks into concrete or wood boardwalks

Epic Report Mike! For 3 easy payments of $449.99 it can be yours.LOL It's the 20th anniversary edition.

It’s been an awfully long time since I’ve fished in March for anything – The last 4 years I usually had mid-term exams and assignments due at this time of year. I managed to get out for a few hours today from 9am-12pm. Scouted out a couple of tribs but they were quite muddy. I ended up fishing a small trib that I didn’t even know had steelhead in it till a couple of days ago. It pretty much looked like a drainage ditch with lots and lots of wood about. In the rush to get out of the house, I forgot my roe, single eggs, soft plastic tubes, flies, jigs, kwikfish and spinners at home…I only had pink worms with me in my wading jacket. I tried pink worms for most of my time there but couldn’t get any fish to take. One angler who was leaving put some uber-stinky roe bags in an empty coffee cup and gave it to me to try. I stuck a chartreuse coloured roe bag on my hook and my first 2 drifts in I had a few light taps register on the float...3rd drift I got a hookup. I didn’t really plan out what I was going to do if I got a hookup. I had a 13+ft rod with lots of wood both in the water and overhead…The fish made me go through all the position found in the Kama Sutra when it decided to go crazy. I was ducking under branches and guiding the line between some submerged roots. On top of that I slipped and fell on my ass twice during the fight – Mud and felt soles don’t mix. I got to test out my new digi-cam on this small silvery buck of around 3-4lbs Kudos to the angler that hooked me up with bait. Hopefully that fish was the first of many to come this year.

Great catch Cliff! With that said, I can't believe you skunked...That's like saying Bly didn't out-fish you or Solopaddler blanked on one of his epic trips...What is this world coming to!?

I used to fish the Humber quite regularly when I went to school in Toronto...Brought my gear to school and hopped on the TTC after class. Caught lots of suckers in the Old Mill area in mid-April through to late May. I mostly fly fished for them using egg patterns and pieces of chartreuse yarn. Caught 1 beauty redhorse there about 5lbs which was a very nice surprise.

Absolute stunner Silvio! Some of the biggest fish I've ever seen have come from that river (Including my PB). A job well done...Congrats

Drop the reel off at Angling Specialties at Kennedy and Passmore. George will send it over to Tom's store in Concord for servicing. Should get it back in a week or two.

I actually got my dad the book “50 places to fly fish before you die” for his birthday a couple years ago. My list (top 5) - Blue or striped Marlin (don’t care where): My mom was from Mauritius, which back in its heydays was the Marlin fishing capital of the world. When I was a kid, I used to eat dinner on a place mat from Mauritius with pictures of Marlins on it. - White Sturgeon (Fraser or Columbia river): Saw a picture of one in a book I got for Christmas as a kid. I’ve always wanted to catch one since. - Mako shark on the fly: They go ballistic! - Steelhead from the Skeena (or one of its tributaries) - Bluefin or Yellowfin Tuna: Served sashimi style at the end Other Notables - Mahseer and goonch catfish from India - Red-tailed catfish and peacock bass from the Amazon - Nile Perch and Vundu catfish from Africa - Tarpon from the keys - Tyee sized Chinook salmon from Alaska - Taimen from Mongolia - Muskie (Don’t care where or how big)

What are you fishing for? What are you casting? What do you define as a long cast? IMO, these questions must be answered if you are to find the best performing outfit to fit your needs. LD17 pretty much nailed it with regards to what a rod needs to do to cast its farthest. With that said, unless you’re tournament casting or distance casting in the park, I’d put having a reel with a smooth drag and reliable construction as my main concern when regularly fishing for something over 2lbs. Today there are reels out there that can be bought for $70-80 that perform very well and should last a lifetime.

I think Tightlines in Pickering and FishOnline in Toronto might have carried a few spools of Drennan a while back. It's worth a shot to call them to see if they might have some in stock. Looking at the Top Mix Baits carp and match fishing catalogue as well as the Anglers International web-site, it doesn't look like stores in the GTA have access to the Drennan mono (only the fluoro leaders). I know Jeff at the Long Sault motel carries products from ESP. Drennan and ESP are pretty much the same company. You might have luck getting a few spools through him. It's best to contact him soon, the shipment of carpy goodies leaves England later this month.

Lining (aka flossing) means that instead of the fish taking the fly in its mouth, the leader (or line) slips into the fish's mouth first and the hook is eventually pulled into the corner of the mouth. Whether you're fly fishing, float fishing or bottom bouncing, you can still line fish by using an excessively long 'search' leader. Back when I started steelheading, people would bottom bounce their rigs using 8-10ft long leaders. The majority of fish they hooked had the bait either somewhere on the fish's head or on the outside corner of the mouth.

I filled mine out and sent it to Wayne Izumi

Back in 2003 or 2004, Float Fishing.Net held a seminar in Pickering/Ajax about the Ganny and Wilmot. The biologist there (can’t remember his name) mentioned that those 18,000+ fish were mostly wild fish. Various things can affect fish stock - Bait fish populations in the lake - Rising temperatures in headwater streams due to climate change or deforestation along the river banks which can affect the baby steelhead - Degradation of stream habitat due to urbanization and development - Foreign invaders (lampreys and whatever competes for bait fish) - Catch and keep fishing (I think I read that there was like a 40-50% harvest rate for the Ganny or something like that) - Predation from cormorants And More

Technically speaking, many things that can be done in fly fishing can also be done in other types of fishing (perhaps with less subtly). Want to cast a dry fly with a spinning rod? Use a plastic casting bubble tied onto the line. Want to cast a nymph or insect imitation? Use micro soft plastics. Nymphing? Use a float rod with a centrepin.LOL For me I took up fly fishing because I wanted to try my hand at catching steelhead as many different ways as I could – At the time I already bottom bounced, cast lures and float fished. I wanted to go for a grand slam.LOL Seems counter intuitive but the basis of fly casting revolves around technique and efficiency rather than strength or power. Essentially the less power you can afford to put into a cast, the better the cast will be – For distance fly casting, you will need to add a bit more ‘punch’ to the cast. You might not think it, but the basic fly casting motion can be used in almost all forms of spin and bait casting. My experience in fly casting has been applied to other areas of my fishing. I use my fly casting stroke (forward stroke) for pier fishing for salmon. My friends tell me that when I toss a Cleo out to the same distance they are (using the same equipment), it looks like I’m doing it with a fraction of the effort that they’re using…Hence I don’t get sore arms after 6-7 hrs of casting. For my carp fishing, when I want to cast 140yards, I use the same principles of casting as seen in Scandinavian underhand spey casting where most of the work involves pulling the butt of the rod towards my chest in order to obtain even more tip speed on the cast. Lots to learn about in fly fishing that can improve your fishing as a whole. Fly fishing can sometimes be more productive than lures or soft plastics because of the subtle actions of fur and feathers and I’m guessing it might feel more edible than hard plastic or wood. As an addition to my previous post, it is highly recommended to use the reel to reel in large, fast swimming fish. Grabbing onto the line when the fish takes off can give you a severe case of line burn (first hand experience).

Here's a picture which might explain what a cast generally looks like a little better.

Here’s my take on fly fishing The cast Casting a fly to a target 40ft out is a little different than casting a lure with a conventional set-up. You don’t cast the fly, you cast the line (which is heavy) and the line delivers the fly to the water. Essentially you’re rolling out (or unfurling) the line and the fly is traveling behind for the ride…If you watch fly casting in slow motion you will notice the line looks a lot like a candy cane that straightens up in the air…In fly casting, these are called loops. The back-and-forth part of the cast causes the rod to bend (or in fly casting jargon to ‘load’). In fly casting you need the rod to load in order to cast. With that said, you don’t always need to cast the line back and forth in order to cast. There are several other casts which have been developed to forego the back-cast through the use of water-loading (as in roll and spey casting) and you can literally grab the fly, pull the line (to get the rod to bend) and sling shot it to your target (though you’re pretty limited on how far you can get with this cast) Why not use the reel to reel in the fish? On small fish, you can strip them in. It saves you from having to strip out line to get to the same distances you want to cast out to. You are limited to how far you can cast by how much line is outside of the reel. Unlike spinning reels or baitcasting reels, line does not come freely off the spool. For larger fish like steelhead, salmon, pike and carp, I always use the reel to retrieve line. Why not stand at the side of the stream and just flip the fly into the water? Could be to keep stealthy and out of view of the fish. Hope this helps

If you have no reservations on buying something without seeing it, most House of Hardy dealers (Like Natural Sports in Kitchener or Withafly in Mississauga) can order you Chub or Greys rods – They use the same supplier out in B.C. (Highfields). Greys and Chub are subsidiary companies owned by House of Hardy http://www.chubfishing.com/en-gb/home/ http://carp.greysfishing.com/en-gb/home/ I personally don’t know any Hardy sales reps or store sales guys in Ontario who know much about the carp product line. If you have any technical carping questions, you’ll probably have to search for the answers yourself on the net. The Chub Outkast carp rods offer brilliant performance for the price of around $125…I might even say the ones I used had an even smoother action than my Shimano Technium.