MJL

Great report Cliff and happy belated B-day

Beautiful job Kemper! You're absolutely right about the purpose of building or customizing rods to suit your own preferences. I personally couldn't ever use a handle configuration like yours...Then again I'm not sure how many out there would like just 5-6 inches of butt behind the reel seat which I have on my rods.

Angling Specialties - Scarborough or Concord location. They have a few Sage spey blanks in stock. Best word of advice is to buy in Canada if you can. Some of the larger rod building suppliers in the States don't ship blanks to Canada by ground and the with the ones that do, expect to get raped by customs fees, shipping charges, over-sized handling fees, brokerage fees, etc. If you do order from the States, avoid using UPS as they charge noticeably higher fees over Fed-ex. I must just be unlucky but I've never had a great experience ordering blanks from the States.

Great catch Cliff Instead of counting from 1 to 15, try counting down from 15 to 1...You'll get more hits that way

Not hard if you have access to components. There are a few places online where you can get components and blanks. I'm not aware of any companies that sell rod building kits for float rods. In the past I've always bought blanks, guides, reel seats, cork, etc separate (not in a kit). Like Solopaddler mentioned, most companies don't honour warranties if you do the spey/float conversion thing. I think Sage is the only company out there that does. I've built 1 spey conversion for a friend on a Sage VT2 blank - 13' 7wt. Not sure if the blank is available anymore but it's a relatively inexpensive blank compared to other models out there. I think he paid around $240 for the blank or somewhere around that. The Z-Axis seems to be the "in" blank at the moment. It is definitely a sexy blank - really light too with a fast action (if you're looking for that).

Most of Team Canada has fished the St. Lawrence before. We already catch more fish than the Americans and we only need one rod to do it. I thought by now your profs would've told you they don't expect you to show up on Fridays. GET WITH THE PROGRAM VIC!

That totally sucks. People do strange things for $. I imagine it was probably going to be sold in the auto-parts market. In my case, I don't think anyone in their right mind would want to steal a bumper from my car which we've Christened, "The Rustang"

Fantastic report Cliff and big congrats Bly on the new PB. Do I really have to sell my soul to the devil to catch fish like that? Couldn't I just lease mine to DSN until I catch all the PB's I want?

Great write-up Lorne. The business end of the rig doesn't look all that different from what I used years ago as a kid...I've moved onto other rigs but thinking back, it was simple and very effective. See you at the Can/Am in 19 days. Earlier if we run into each other at Hammy Harbour

Fair play if you're 6'6" and 280+lbs...All the best to you for making a difference. Being less than half that size, I'm still waiting for Simms or Patagucci to bring out their Kevlar stab-proof line of waders and wading jackets.LOL Grew up fishing the eastern tribs and have seen people do some crazy things over half dead chinnies when they're in the rivers.

Big congrats Cliff Actually makes me want to dust off the pier gear and burn some calories tossing spoons this weekend. It'll give me a chance to try those spoons BPS fooled me with called Little Leos...I felt like a dumb@$$ when I got home and looked at the package.LOL

So many memories from that spot when the powerplant was still there. I spent a lot of time there when my dad worked in the plant. Fish would come out year round because of the warm water discharge. In other places I've caught carp well into October - I usually switch to fishing steelhead around that time. If the water isn't iced over, you can pretty much catch them year round. I'm guessing the place is still infested with gobies. If you use canned corn, there's a great possibility that you're going to get picked off quite a bit...The gobies annihilate any soft baits like canned corn, bread, worms, doughballs, etc and tear them to pieces. If you're stuck in the city and without a car, go over to the nearest bulk-food store for bait. Chick peas, black-eye beans and kidney beans make excellent hookbaits when you buy the dry ones, soak them overnight and then boil them for 10-15 minutes - You can flavour them if you wish (I find the canned versions a little too soft). If you're lucky enough to drive to a farm-feed store, maize (AKA cattle corn) works well if you soak 24hrs and boil for 30min. These baits are attractive to carp yet they're durable enough to withstand the gobies. The alternative is to tie up your corn in a spawn sack often used by steelheaders for their roe bags. For a relatively inexpensive and available chumming mix (aka groundbait) that can be purchased at a bulk-food store; bread crumbs + brown sugar (or molasses) + 12 grain cereal + cornmeal + enough water to dampen the mix is effective at attracting and holding carp in an area you're fishing. Both the scent and the cloud in the water attracts fish and gets them rooting around for the small bits of food. Adding a handful of whatever you're using as the hookbait adds to the effectiveness of the mix. Everyone has their own secret recipes for groundbait - Myself included Best of luck

Kick @ss report Tibbs Sturgeon fishing is one thing I'd love to do in the future. Looks like all of you had a blast on the trip. Dying to get out there myself. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats on the catch...I'm surprised you didn't have the camera...In all the times we fished together, you were my net and camera guy I remember my first mirror carp. It was a fully scaled mirror, black in colour and each scale had a silver lining to it. Like DSN, I didn't have the camera. I usually get 1 every couple of years. Before the carp die-off in the Kawarthas, my dad used to get at least 1 per year there. A few mirrors that I managed to take pics of From earlier this year From a couple years ago From a time before I owned a digi-cam...Scanned this one A baby mirror - about the size of a Kleenex box. Caught lots of mirrors around this size.

For salmon I normally use fluoro leaders from 8-12lb. Totally agree with Solopaddler on fighting technique. Side pressure most of the time with the spool locked giving line only when you really have to.

A few years ago I used to be strictly a mono user (12-17lb) and loved it. The last 3-4 years I've been using braided lines more and more because I find they handle zebra mussels, weeds, snags, bridge pilings, etc much better. I can only think of a few venues I currently fish that don't have any of these problems. Braid also handles better in heavy current situations than mono which tends to stretch a lot - If you're using bite alarms, you'll get a lot of false indication because of the stretch especially at long range. At the moment I have 50-65lb PowerPro on most of my reels now and can count on a single hand over the last 3 years the number of fish which have broken me off. I've never had serious problems with hookpulls using braid. I actually had more hookpulls using mono. The majority of my carp rods either have a progressive or a slow taper which handles braid nicely. A looser drag setting also helps. One thing I don't like about PowerPro is that it is far less stealthy than mono or fluorocarbon and more visible to the fish as they feed around your rigs. It also floats when you don't want it to. I've also seen grooving on hardloy or hi-alloy guides (Never had a problem with grooving on SIC or alconite guides) As far as fish safety is concerned, there are several other contributors to mouth damage beyond the usage of braided mainlines. Some types and patterns of hooks have been noted to cause serious mouth damage; the use of high test-curve rods on smaller fish; There is also an on-going debate whether barbless hooks actually cause more damaged than barbed hooks where the damage is done during the fight rather than during the removal of the hook. When I use braided lines, I don't notice any more damage to the fish than when I used mono. With that said, for snag-free/zebra mussel-free waters, I still use heavier mono but for everything else, I'd use braid.

Amazing catches C&C. I totally love the markings on the muskies. Catching a muskie is definitely on my life's to-do list. Congrats on the PB!

I've only fished in Long Sault once. It was last August. My dad and I got into a decent number of carp from 5-22lbs on our trip. From what the locals tell me, July/August is a slow time for the larger fish (30+lbs). Still plenty of tiddlers around for action. The larger fish start moving back into the area in September and October. If you're going out that way, stop into the Long Sault motel and ask Jeff or Colin for a few tips. Hope this helps

At the moment southern Ontario is my playground. Already have the Thames and a couple lakes down that way on my to-fish list. Urban Fisherman, I think that tiddler you caught might actually be a species of quillback instead of a carp. There's something not carpy about that dorsal fin. A rare catch.

Ditch the Froghair leaders. I've never had positive experiences with the stuff. I've used it in 4lb all the way up to 15lb and IMO it's just as bad as Berkley Vanish. I found Froghair fluorocarbon (and the mono) leader materials had poor abrasion resistance and poor knot strength (I always lubricate the knots with saliva). If I'm using fluorocarbon as a hair rig material, I use Seagar and P-Line in 15-25lb - Never had a problem with either. I have found that in some areas I fish - especially in clear water and highly pressured from other anglers - carp sometimes spook at the sign of braided mainlines and/or leaders...Ironically they don't seem to mind when it hangs vertically when I'm float fishing. For a lot of my fishing near fallen trees, submerged shopping carts, submerged picnic tables and bridge pilings, I use 50-65lb PowerPro mainlines combined with rigs tied with 20lb mono/Fluoro or 20-30lb braid.

Great going C&C That's some great multi-species action. Wouldn't mind getting into a few sheepies like that myself. WTG

Awesome report and pics. The scenery in that area is absolutely stunning.

Most likely you already have gear suitable enough to land carp. I've used my float rods and heavier salmon/steelhead rods for years and landed fish to 36lbs+ with them. I've used reels without baitrunners for years and backed the drag off enough to simulate the free-spool nature of the baitrunner function. Personally I'd recommend not skimping out on a decent baitrunner if you choose to go that route. I'd stick with Shimano or Daiwa. The Baitrunner function allows line to peel off the spool during the first run. A malfunctioning baitrunner can lead you to losing your rod + reel + anything else attached (Like a rod pod + bite alarms - I've seen these go into the drink too because of a malfunctioning baitrunner). A smooth drag is also important for fighting large carp. Hope this helps.

Thanks We were using leads that were 4-6oz in weight to hold bottom. In the past I found anything lighter tended to drift into snags or get kicked up when the jet-boat came through.

Great report GCD! Those buffalo are totally cool. Awesome catch for sure. I hear they can grow to 70+lbs in the southern States. Definitely on my life's To-Catch list.