MJL

I build rods as a hobby and it's always fascinating watching them manufacturing them. A few years ago Sage sent me a DVD as a promotional thing on their own manufacturing process (pretty much the same as the Loomis vid). If you e-mail them, they might still have have copies left. A few other rod companies have done similar vids like Thomas & Thomas (Discovery Channel) as well as Winston fly rods which can be viewed here (Go to 'company films'): http://www.winstonrods.com/winston_channel.html Thanks for the link

Big congrats on your purchase. Hope you’ll get many years of service out of that outfit. Best word of advice is to get an instructor or at least someone to teach you who knows how to cast BEFORE you head out on the water. Also wear at least some form of eye protection when casting a fly. Ditto with what Highdrifter said about lawn casting and practicing and taking pictures of yourself casting. You learn quite a lot about what you’re doing right or wrong by looking at the loops…For me after a stressful day at work, I pick up my fly rods and distance cast them in the front yard for some relaxation. If you’re ever in the Scarborough area, I wouldn’t mind showing you a few basics.

Fantastic video. Read lots about waking flies on top for steelhead but not so much about dead drift drifting them. I’ve had one mind blasting experience with steelhead on top. Not exactly with a dead drift dry fly but on the Friday before 2004 May long weekend, I got one fish around 4lbs on a waked dry fly on the Humber. By far one of my most vivid memories of all time. I was off school for the summer and had no car so the Humber was one of the few places I could get to by TTC. Fished the river 4 straight days (Tues – Fri). The last 2.5 days were spent trying to get one on top. Managed to do it on the last day (Friday morning around 10:30am). The fish fell to a size 8 'wake n' bake' fly with a flat piece of yellow craft foam tied to the back of it for additional buoyancy - Pretty much looks like a muddler minnow with a piece of yellow foam on it (saw it on a website). 1st was spent float fishing. Got 1 steelhead around 6lbs, several dozen suckers and lots and lots of chub on trout worms. Saw several steelhead in the run roll on top every so often and one exploded on a dish washing sponge floating down river. 2nd day I had fly gear with me (8wt + floating line). Swung flies most of the day and beyond snagging a sucker in the head with an egg sucking leech I blanked. Again saw several fish (probably the same fish from the previous day rolling on top. Tried drifting unweighted leech patterns without any split shot on the line to get them to hit but that didn’t work – The flies also sunk. That evening I went to the tackle shop to pick up a few dry flies which might work for dry fly steelheading and got some basic advice on how to fish them (I had no experience whatsoever with dry flies). 3rd day water was low and clear. Forced myself to use only the flies I bought the previous night and left the split shots, sink tips and wet flies at home. Tried dry fly fishing with 3 different flies - Small Bomber, red and yellow Chernobyl ant and muddler minnow soaked with floatant (which still ended up sinking after a while). I tried dead drifting and waking them but hooked nothing and saw nothing roll for the whole day. Went back to the tackle shop for some fly tying materials to make my own dry flies. 4th day. Got to the river around 7:30am. Tried swinging flies and got nothing for the first 2hrs. Saw a few suckers jump straight out of the water but no signs of steelhead. Switched up to the fly I tied myself. Around 10:30am on one drift I see a V-wake heading upstream and didn’t think much of it till a few seconds later, I saw a flash of silver torpedo itself across the surface and connect with my fly. I was so awestruck I initially didn’t set the hook nor did I realize I had loose fly line tangled around my leg and the fighting butt of my rod. After 20 seconds of sheer panic of getting my situation sorted; finally realizing that I probably should set the hook; having my digital camera fall into the drink when it slipped from my wader side pocket (which as I explained to my dad was the reason why it no longer works as well) and 4 minutes of battling, I get my prize to hand. I asked a nearby dog walker who watched the whole thing unfold to take a few pics with her cell phone camera (she promised to send me the pics but never did). That was the one and only time I’ve ever caught something with a dry fly. I’ve also heard a few stories at the local tackle shop of steelhead falling to dry flies on the Saugeen and Maitland from guys who were chasing browns and brookies – Saw the pics too of 5-6lb fish with the flies in their yap. They told me it was a total blast on the 4wt!

Hard to choose just one By far one of the strangest carp I've ever landed. A tag team effort between my dad and I to land this one. Went 30lbs on the scale

PUT A PILLOW UNDERNEATH THAT REEL!!! OH THE HUMANITY!!! Great report and pics Mike Love the colouring on the first two.

For the purposes of extreme distance casting with spinning rods (200+ yards), the use of a larger butt ring in addition to a wide spool on the reel (as seen on many big-pit type spinning reels) will show favourable results. According to British tournament casters (and current casting record holders) Mark Hutchinson and Terry Edmonds, larger butt guides do add on a few extra yards provided you have the technique to cast in that neighbourhood of those distances to begin with. For the average angler like you or I (or someone who hasn't spent years tournament casting), a larger butt guide will mean absolutely nothing. As for reversing the butt guide, a few theories are floating around. 1. Line slap on the butt guide legs as line comes off the spool creating friction and thus losing distance. Could be a problem with too small of a butt guide choking the line too severely before it flows through. 2. When casting extreme distances, the line flowing off the reel will sometimes wrap/tangle around the butt guide legs and kill the cast completely. From what my carping friends tell me, it has happened to them using thin braid while chucking their hooks out a long way (150+ yards). By reversing the guide, you might lessen the chances of the line fouling around the guide feet. A few guides popular with surf fisherman are marketed as anti fouling – eg. Fuji Lowriders, PacBay XTWG For conventional spinning rods for bass, walleye, panfish, etc, I personally can’t see any significant benefit to reversing the butt guide when you’re casting 40 yards (usually less on average) with a 1/4oz jig or crankbait.

Congrats on a great year Kemper. Good luck with the studies. I remember my first year at university. Humber at Old Mill Mondays after 11am, Thursday 12-5pm and Fridays after 10am...That didn't last 2nd semester... Hope to bump into you someday out east Tightlines

Awesome report guys. Those fish are absolutely gorgeous. Really getting the itch to get out soon.

Stunning specimen! Great catch

Absolutely beautiful pieces of steel. WTG!

I use Stanleys Ice Off paste applied the night before. I find it works well till it drops to about -12. Also helps if the smallest guides on the tip of the rod are size 8 or 10. The match style guides found on factory Ravens, Frontiers or Loomis' ice up real easy - A great excuse for building a custom rod

I was always told to put my faith in 2 things 1. The Lord and 2. Shimano or Daiwa spinning reels I've seen a few Okuma baitrunners end up in the drink because the baitrunner somehow malfunctioned when the carp took. I briefly owned 1 quantum hypercast II for about 5 months. Within 3 months the trigger mechanism for the bail wore out and at 5 months my first chrome chinny of the year smoked my drag (Literally). Smoke could be seen coming out from underneath the knob and the first washer on the spool was very warm to the touch. After that, the drag was very jerky and pretty much shot. You get what you pay for. Still using my Shimano Stradic from 1999 and it works like new.

Awesome report Snag

Absolutely brilliant report Mike With all your trips, I'm wondering if you actually work for a living?LOL If so, what do you do and where can I apply?!LOL Can't wait for the 2nd part

Ironic thing is I've never had a positive experience with Siglon lines apart from their leader material and now exclusively use either Raven or Maxima (8-10). I've tried a few different spools of Siglon in lb tests ranging from 6-12lb. I found it didn't matter about the breaking strain of the line, all of them suffered from poor knot strength and poor abrasion resistance - To put things in perspective, I was breaking 10lb mainlines bringing in 6 inch baby rainbows (or at least trying to). Had every conventional knot break - from simple clinch and blood to trilene, grinner and polomar - And yes I do lubricate my knots. Odd bad spool? Perhaps but I bought their lines over the last 6 years from various local retailers. Definitely put me away from Siglon lines. Been using Raven since 2002 and in terms of performance consistency, I've never had any noticeable problems with any of the spools other than if you go below 6lb on a centrepin, you'll find it stretches and digs in.

Awesome hauling C&C!

There has been a recent trend towards developing new guides and guide spacings to improve the efficiency of rods. Many companies (low and high end) use the Fuji concept guide spacing charts as a reference when putting guides on their rods. The 'Fuji doctrine' is “use the least and smallest guides necessary.” The theory behind it is to reduce the amount of weight on the rod (especially at the tip) which improves casting performance and the recovery of the blank. Similarly, guides (however slick the ceramic or wire inserts are), they increase friction on the line and theoretically reduce casting distance. Of course there are instances when the Fuji concept is less efficient as is the case with extreme distance casting where larger diameter (but lightweight) guides are better to match spool sizes on wide-spooled distance casting big-pit reels.

For every small incremental increase in performance, there is an exponential increase in price. I am guilty of owning (or have previously owned) fly rods, float rods and carp rods valued in excess of $650. I’m a sucker for the marketing – Rods built for the extreme angler LOL. For rods, most high-end companies – By high end I’m talking about rods in excess of $150 – Strive towards the same goal as every other company. Make it lighter, stronger, faster and more sensitive than its competition and predecessor models. A lot of the cost of high end rods has to do with R&D and labour involved in building them. Most high end rod blanks nowadays come from the US (Sage and Loomis are in Washington State) or the UK (Zziplex, Century, Harrison and House of Hardy (Sans Greys or Chub)). Labour isn’t cheap however the quality standards are more strict than in say China or Korea – Century Composites (Based in Scotland) are actually ISO certified. From my own experiences as a rod builder (and obviously a field tester of rods which weren’t mine) and speaking to a couple friends in the composite industry, designing and manufacturing uber high modulus graphic and carbon (as seen on more expensive, higher performance rods) is not easy. High modulus graphite – despite being lighter, more sensitive and less prone to softening over time (due to lower resin levels) – has one huge inherent weakness…It is brittle. Finding the right balance between sensitivity and strength and making it better than its competition is difficult. Simply rolling more high modulus (low resin) graphite around the mandrel or adding an outer layer of carbon weave (as seen on many carp rods) theoretically increases strength but it also adds weight to the blank and reduces the casting performance and feel – Hence the need to find the right balance between super high performance materials and high strength materials. This research costs $. Beyond the blank, many companies used stepped up components on their higher end rods compared to their value rods. Fuji Alconite guides VS Fuji Hardloys. Fuji SIC guides VS Fuji Alconites. Fuji Titanium framed SIC guides VS Fuji Stainless SIC guides and the progression continues onto cosmetic components like cork and reel seats. Better warranties may also be factored into the price of the rod as well. With all this said about high cost/high performance rods, I still think there are high performing rods and blanks in the market at value prices. To the average or beginning angler, IMHO, other than being lighter, they probably won’t even notice much of a difference in performance between the average $60 rod on a BPS shelf or a Loomis GLX and both rods would serve them well.

I know exactly how much I’ve spent over the years and it doesn’t bother me one bit. I’m primarily a steelhead/carp angler so compared to different types of fishing, the cost isn’t too bad – No boat, no need for an SUV to pull it, no need to spend $ on a load of lures, etc. I’m not an impulsive buyer and know exactly what I want (or what I’m looking for) from the shop before I walk in. For the big ticket items, I do research and a cost/benefit analysis before I spend my money. I do have a vice for high-end tackle – Sage fly rods, Custom Harrison carp rods, Custom float rods + centrepins. I own fair bit of tackle for my steelhead and carp fishing but each outfit gets fished hard every season and I never find the need or desire to upgrade (which if you ask most people, ends up costing more). For my carp fishing, I take comfort in knowing that I only spend $10 on 80lbs of corn for bait which lasts me a season – I get most of my boilies for free nowadays from friends who smuggle them in from the UK. IMO there are worse things to spend your hard earned $ on. For me, I don’t smoke (never have). I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t drink coffee or energy drinks (which most people I know rely on several times a day). I don’t gamble more than $5 every 3 months when my friends get together to play a game of poker (which according to my own records, I’m up $10). Unlike a cigarette or a beer, my fishing tackle will last more than 1 shot and I always have the option to pass it along to kids or grandkids down the road. I consider my fishing tackle as a long-term investment for happiness.

Great reportage + pics there Spinnerdoc. Carp can be caught throughout the year and even through ice (if you're lucky ) . I'm sure there will be more fish to come before the end of the year. As for colour, smaller carp (Usually 3lbs and under) and ones that come out of muddy/murky water tend to be more silvery or pale in colour. I find in some places (Especially gin clear rivers) they even change colour and become darker in autumn and winter. You may also catch fish with fiery red/orange tails VS the normal dark brown colour - perhaps it has something to do with their diet or the environment they live in. As you fish more and more different waters across Ontario, you'll start to notice the differences from fish to fish. Don't worry about not owning high-end Euro-tackle. IMO, first learning about carp behaviour is key before taking the plunge into buying new carp tackle.

Brilliant report and pics Mike You skunking on steel is almost like CCMT or Bly not getting a PB on every trip...It boggles the mind!

A 5" diameter reel will generally retrieve more line per rotation of the spool than a 4" or 4.5" reel. Good for catching up with fast running steel at the end of the line.

In my case I often dream about catching record steel from the Kispiox or the Skeena. When I wake up I realize I'm reviving a monster eel instead.

Wouldn't be surprised if it was someone's escaped pet. Back in the late 90's I remember hearing about cougar sightings (of the feline type) in the Hwy 7 and Mccowan road area in Markham. If you're going to be hiking in areas where cougars have been sighted, I'd recommend going along with someone...Especially someone who runs slower than you.

Sweeter brownies than what the girl guides offer. Well done