MJL

Congrats on your new fishing partner. No doubt she will out-fish you in the future...Ladies tend to do that. WTG on the fish

Beautiful...Simply stunning WTG

For Part I of my adventure, see here http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18591 Part II Synopsis The following text does not contain a chrome orgy or X-rated fish porn. It is however rated K for kick-@ss. Grab a coffee, a water and a bag of pop-corn or chips. It’s an epic tale of 2 OFC fishing bums with nothing better to do on a Sunday. Victor tries to ascend to manhood by catching his first ever steelhead. Mike (MJL) tries his best to show him the way of the steelhead force. Overwhelming crowds, spooky fish and a lack of experience threaten Victor’s quest to catch steelhead. Can he do it? The journey begins After coming back from opening day Saturday, Victor messaged me on MSN asking if I wanted to do some fishing for steelhead on Sunday…My reply…”Hell Yeah!” Victor has only gone for steelhead a few times before. He had yet to actually catch one. The times I went with him, we were fishing in -20 degree weather and spent more time picking ice from the guides than really fishing. I got my rods and reels ready and other gear packed. Victor didn’t have waders so I loaned him my old neoprenes that I no longer used along with boots and gravel guards. I took a brief nap in the car on the way to the river - having fished 13hrs the day before and slept 2hrs during the night I was dead tired. Victor had the GPS lady to keep him company while I slept. We got to the river at about 4am – There were still people camping there from Friday night. It took Victor a while to get into the neoprenes but that chewed up some time till the morning bite got good – It was quite hilarious as someone who wears breathables to watch; the act of putting on the waders was a journey in itself. In the darkness I tried to be his fishing guide. I helped him rig up his float set-up and showed him the best I could how to maintain a drag free drift with a spinning reel – It’s been a really long time since I used a spinning reel to float fish and even I had trouble remembering what I used to do. He picked up the technique fast. Dawn breaks and I’m into a fish. Like the previous day, I loose it – I always lose the first fish. 5 minutes later I hook into another one and it comes to hand after a few minutes – a hen of around 3-4lbs. The second fish I landed was a beautiful resident brown about 10-11 inches. It had red and black spots surrounded by the classic white halos Like the day before, the camera went mental on us…This time it was Victor’s camera. The roe bite died down pretty fast – I hooked 4 fish and landed 2 (1 steelhead, 1 brownie). I switched up to the little live trout worms and got into 2 more bows. One fish plowed across the surface of the river and nailed victor’s float while he was retrieving it. After that, out came the spinners. I got 3 more steelhead (3-6lbs) on a couple types of mepps and Vibrax. One fish with the spinner I’ve noticed over the years, a few fish seem to only have half a gill plate. Not exactly sure why? Victor not to be skunked got into his first ever steelhead on a big black mepps spinner…Big congrats to him. He fished hard all morning and fought it like a pro – I guess the carp prepared him well for the battle. I tailed it for him. It turned out to be a drop back hen of about 6-7lbs with a beautiful iridescent pink stripe along its side. I handed the fish to him for a pic but as luck would have it, she kicked out from his grip and swam for freedom while I was turning the camera on. In any case, that fish made his day – Heck it made my day. He however was looking for more... We walked further up river to see if we could tempt some more fish to bite. I toted my 7’ spinning rod along and victor carried his 12’ float and 6’6” spinning rods with him. We walked for a while but the majority of pools, and deeper runs were a little too crowded with people for our taste. We finally found a spot with no people and a few steelhead cruising about the pool. I tied on a small black mepps spinner and had 1 brief take and a couple follows but none would commit to hitting it. Victor tried out a small minnow bait you’d normally use for bass – I guess it was around 4 inches long. One fish followed it right to our feet but turned away the last second…Often people forget that these fish are predators in the big lake when all they see are the long rods, light lines and roe bags. In the end, we saw good numbers of fish throughout the river but couldn’t get another one. For most of the day we were fishing away from the crowds and pretty much had pools to ourselves. At the end of our trek, Victor also learned why man created gore-tex and other breathable materials…He was totally drenched with sweat from the hike. Victor and I met a couple lurkers of OFC at the river who recognized me. Great guys who I’m sure OFC would no doubt benefit from their expertise in steelheading. It was rude of me not to get your names. If you must know, Victor made me post this report. We left the river at about 1pm and took a drive to Rice Lake to see what the panfish were like. Victor put on a tube jig and a float and tried to get a crappie…I just chilled out for a bit on the dock and ate lunch. Victor didn’t hook into anything…The guy next to us caught a couple bullheads on worms…Didn’t look like there were many fish near by. Neither of us were ready to go home yet so… We left Rice at about 2:30pm and headed to another trib to do some sucker fishing. We fished a section of the river that was open year round – we were the only anglers there for the whole stretch. There were a few dozen suckers in the pool but to our surprise there were also a few steelhead lurking too. We grabbed our rods from the car and made a mad dash to try to catch fish – suckers and steel were fair game. Victor started out with roe, I started with spinners. I got into the first fish, a small rainbow about 6 inches long. 2nd fish was an OOS smallmouth about 1 lb. 3rd fish I “hooked onto” was a real surprise. For a while, a rainbow of around 8lbs had been randomly doing cartwheels in the pool we were fishing…We thought it was the steelhead gods trying to tease us…In reality, the fish had been snagged on the side with another angler’s hook & line…I found this out when my spinner snagged the 15ft of trailing line the fish had on it. The line lassoed around the treble hook of my spinner…Not knowing what to do with so much line out, I tried swinging the fish to shore so Victor could either tail it or net it…He opted to net it. We removed the snagged fly and released it. There were still a few more steelhead in the pool. I casted a size 1 spinner upstream into the pool and this beauty hen nailed it on the retrieve. Victor proposed that we have a sucker catching competition (seeing as how I already walloped him with steelhead ). I was up to the challenge. We both used worms and bottom bounced them. The end result…I dominated...The score was 14 to 6 in my favour. He did manage to beat me in the official categories of the biggest and most tree branches landed and the most times snagged up in rocks. The last branch was a biggun which he fought valiantly before it came to shore – It had to be a good 36-40 inches long…We released it of course. In total we fished from 4am to about 5:30pm – At the end of the day we were both too tired to care about anything else except sleep, dinner and our next fishing trip. Another big congrats to Victor for his first steelhead. You are on the path of a silvery enlightenment. Hope you enjoyed

What I lack in stature, I make up for in speed. The good lord built me like a Ferrari. Small, lightweight and agile (Pretty good looking too). Not only can I get to my baitrunner when a carp takes in record time, my ability to flee from a fight is unrivaled in the animal kingdom...That plus I figure there's at least 15km between either of us at any point in time. Thank goodness for fiber optics, copper cables and the internet

A long lean fish...A beauty nonetheless. Congrats with the fly rod.

AMAZING report Rich! I love eating fried smelt...Never fished for them myself but it looks pretty cool. Good job on the trout...Love the colours on the brownies and specs. Thanks for sharing Top Angling to you and the missus

Even Cliff? Sorry I had to

Great report and pics...All of them beauty fish. Top Angling

Great work and kudos to all those involved.

Since when did Spiel own an Islander? j/k Congrats on the new reel. Islanders are smooth sexy workhorses. Looks like you had a great day out. Great catch and the fish are all beauties. Although the fish are on the smaller size, I bet they were a blast to hook Top Angling

Great catch C&C I think carp are beautiful fish...The Japanese told me so.LOL If you think about it, some people spend tens of thousands of $ on a single koi for their pond...Carp aren't that different.

Beauty fish! Nothing better than a fresh trout meal. You certainly found a gem of a fishing spot. Top Angling On another note, how big on average do those resident browns get on average - What's a big resident fish? I've occasionally caught them by accident while fishing for steelhead. Never really tried to fish for them. That brown in the pic seems pretty big compared to what I've caught in the past.

Every year my dad and I head out on the opener to fish for steelhead…This year was no exception. We got to the river at 3am. My dad slept in the car for a couple hours and I fished in the darkness hoping to tempt at least 1 fish to bite. My main mission this trip was to christen my new float rod, “The Molting Diamondback” seen in this post: http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...;hl=diamondback And my dad wanted to break-in his little new Daiwa spinning reel on some steel. At around 5:15am I hooked into my first steelhead of the year – The headshakes and speedy runs were orgasmic. A minute later it broke the 6lb leader and headed back downstream…$h@+! It’s been exactly 1 yr since I fought my last steelhead – I caught my last steelhead on last year’s opener. I was so rusty this morning. My dad shows up to the pool I’m fishing and hooks on a roe bag. On his first drift, he ties into a fish. His reel sings for about 5minutes and it finally comes to hand – A fish of about 5-6lbs. 5 minutes later, I hook onto an identical twin of my dad’s fish. It tail walks across the river, does a cartwheel and goes ballistic around the pool. 5 minutes of playing the fish I grab its tail and my dad removes the hook...I christened the Molting Diamondback. Between 5:15 to about 8:30 I landed 3 or 4 fish and lost 4-5 fish. Talking with some of the other anglers walking by, they also didn’t hook into very many fish compared to prior openers. Despite the lack of numbers, the warmer temps we’ve had the past couple of weeks turbo charged these fish. Almost all the fish hooked this morning by anglers went airborne and were a total blast to fight. We had camera problems all morning. Despite having half a dozen fresh batteries, the camera gave us low battery warnings and turned off on us on several occasions we tried to take pics. Looks like it may be time to invest in a new point-and-shoot camera A couple pics we did manage to snap Early morning fish The molting Diamondback putting the boots to a fish. At 10am the roe, worm, fly and jig bite had died down. I grabbed my 7’ Shimano Compre spinning rod, my baby 2000 Stradic loaded with 8lb mono and tied on a silver mepps spinner. I casted it upstream and retrieved it with the current. This beauty hen nailed it and went nuts before being brought to hand for a pic. The spinner still dangling from its yap. In the afternoon we headed to another section of the river downstream. I hooked into a couple more bows and lost them but much of the time was spent hauling in chub after chub. Although we didn’t get into a huge number of fish (If you don’t count the creek chubs), I still had a blast. It was great to feel the powerful headshakes of steel again after so long. I was impressed with the performance of the new rod and my dad is still drooling over how well his little Daiwa reel worked. The shoulders and wrist are sore but it’s all good. On a more personal note, my hard work at school and my sabbatical away from steelhead for the last year did not come unrewarded. I checked my school marks when I got home and it looks like I’ll be on the Dean’s list for the 2nd straight year and in a position to graduate with marks good enough to get into most MBA or Masters program in Canada in the future (If I decide to go). With that said, I’m unofficially done school and hopefully this opener was just a taste of more to come. Hope you enjoyed

We own a VCR...USE IT!

That thing is almost as big as my head...You'd have to be a snake and unhinge your jaws to take a bite out of that Nicely done with the Q

My first opener was spent bottom bouncing pocket water of the Ganaraska with a short fiberglass rod, a reel with a sticky drag, a split shot crimped up the line and a roe bag impaled on a size 10 hook. You have a great list of equipment and tackle that you will no doubt enjoy using. Everything you have will help towards catching steelhead and trout. Actually it doesn’t look very different from what I carry in my wading jacket. You don’t need tackle in the quantity that I have them in. I’ve accumulated a lot of gear over the years and have done a good deal of tackle scrounging in a couple of rivers during the summer when the water was low. Floats – I usually stock up on floats because I know in one way or another, at least some will end up in trees and shrubs either behind me or on the far bank. I prefer balsa ones like you have but also have a few clear plastic ones as well for clear water. Terminal tackle and other bits and bobs of stuff - Left – Egg sucking jigs I tied myself…Riverwood makes commercially available ones in a variety of colours and sizes…I think Raven does as well. Often times jigs catch when nothing else does. - Center – Soft plastic tubes; tinsel jigs my friend made for me; spinner blades in size 1-3, clevises and brass, gold and silver beads. The spinner parts are for swinging un-weighted spinners down and across pools and in front of log jams and snags. I got the parts from Angling Specialties. - Right – Split shot and hooks in a few sizes Additional soft plastics Leader material I carry an assortment. I have them from 3.4lb all the way up to 20lb. I fly fish so I need heavier ones to create leaders which can turn over heavy split shot. 4-6lb is a good all round leader strength for clear water Hardware A few banana baits - They work great for teasing steelhead out of logjams. Spinners in size 1-4, spin-n-glows, more un-weighted spinner parts and nifty fishy looking spinners (TBH I haven't used these fishy spinners before...They just look so neat) A few flies I just finished – I swing the bushy and fury ones (left) on my fly rod, I fish the small bugs (right) under the float. Mostly woolly buggers, stoneflies, caddis larvae (or pupae…I’m not exactly sure), prince nymphs, egg patterns in this box…I’ll still tie a few more before the opener. There’s a wide variety of baits, lures and techniques you can try. I always have a bottle of roe in my pocket and I always carry a few small trout worms in a small container. Definitely bring the camera and your licence. Hope this has helped. Like you I'm pumped

Damn straight! I've been looking forward to this weekend for the last 6-7 months. For me the opener is like Christmas...Always has been, probably always will be. This past week I spent tying flies, greasing a couple spinning reels, Re-spooling my fly and centrepin reels, sharpening hooks on my spinners and Kwikfish, etc. 2yrs ago I got severe withdrawal symptoms the day before the opener and wrote this: ‘Twas the night before trout season and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The waders and vests were put together with care In hopes that the steelhead would still be there. Little Mikey was lying awake in his bed, While visions of steelhead danced in his head Johnny stroking his spey rod and Dad with his cap Dreaming of that moment when they could feel a fish’s hard tap Too excited to sleep Mikey began to tie flies With many different patterns, nymphs, buggers and dries Marabou and chenille and a generous dosing of yarn Hoping that steelhead would succumb to their charm There were leeches, muddlers, matukas and scuds Popsicles, clousers, Mickey-fins and glo bugs Wake-N-bakes, bombers and other various dries They all attract steelhead, from deep in their lies. Johnny awoke, also too excited to sleep He rigged up his spey rods in which he could dredge the deep Sink tips and shooting heads and split shot galore No steelhead could hide even those hugging the floor There were twelve rods together of all models and makes All back-ups in case, one of them breaks There were Thomas and Thomas, Loomis, St. Croix and Sage All of them beefy to control steelhead in rage All of the rods could launch a wet Popsicle with ease Even in rain, or in a stiff breeze Eight weights, nine weights and a couple of tens Hoping they’ll be tested, by monstrous hens Dad (a float fisherman) woke up to tie spawn Hoping to entice, a few fish at dawn Three salmon eggs placed in the center of the bag His recipe with fish scent makes anyone gag Dad rigged up his float rod a Frontier 13 The rod had a black blank with guide wraps of green It was his beloved float rod in which he placed on his ‘pin An Islander Steelheader, a reel with great spin Not to be forgotten the spinners and spoons Cleos and Gibbs, Mepps, double loons Marabou jigs and some made of fur Hoping that steelhead would give them a stir Finally dawn broke Mikey, Johnny and Dad jumped in the car Hitting the Notty which wasn’t too far Hoping the fish-gods would be on their side At the end of the day, they’ll be grinning with pride. Happy and safe opener to all

When I first got there I was thinking the opposite...At least compared to some of the tribs I scouted last week. In either case, some rain wouldn't hurt. The summery weather was nice though and it sounded like the frogs were getting it on. It's FREAKIN' GREAT!

Great Catch! Methinks I may have to wet a line there in the very near future. I've got 10lbs of boilies just waiting to be used and a new carp rod waiting to be Christened. Trout opener coming up and carp swimming about...I'm getting over stimulated. My Mikey senses are tingling! Victor's nightly ritual of hitting the refresh button begins!

It’s about bloody time! Today my dad had to drop off a reel at Aikmans in Mississauga for servicing and what better opportunity to go for a walk on a couple western tribs? Went for a short stroll at the Credit this afternoon and took a few drifts to dust off an old centrepin I rarely use now. Didn’t spend too much time there but enjoyed just being beside the water and getting my daily dose of vitamin D. I got a few nibbles from small river fish but didn’t land anything or hook into anything substantial. A couple pics of the river Fishing some pocket water View upstream Decided to stop in at the Humber river before heading back home. I only had an hour to fish it before we had to pick up my sister from work. The hour was worth it. It’s been a rough 7 months since I last hooked into a fish, so when I saw that float go down I was ecstatic…My first fish of 2008 turned out to be a creek chub about the size of my hand – I didn’t take a pic. I caught one more chub after that and finally caught something a little more substantial. It took a small live trout worm under a float. It didn’t fight particularly well nor was it very big, but at least it was a fish. From the looks of it, there weren’t many fish to be had in that stretch of river beyond chub and shiners - Most anglers weren't catching anything. A great day in general (weather wise) and I really enjoyed fishing both the Credit and Humber – It’s been about 3-4yrs since I fished either so it felt good getting reacquainted with both rivers after so long. Now that I’m finally done university, I can concentrate more on my fishing – Especially getting back into steelhead. Only 3 more sleeps till the opener…Can hardly wait.

Fantastic catch. Regardless of size, it's no doubt a special fish.

A stunning fish. Congrats

Thoughts and prayers be with you Never give up and Believe

Beauty fish! You never forget about your first steelie. As for the rod, I think Raven makes one called the Matrix. It's 12'6" or so and I think it retails for around $120 or $130 before tax. I've only played around with it in the store. It's slightly heavier in weight than most float rods on the market but I imagine it would handle steelhead of any size in this province...It probably would survive nicely against trees and shrubs which newbies tend to walk into with rods over 10' (first hand experience ) I think I saw someone selling their 13'6" Okuma for around $60 at one time in the Classifieds. Those are just a couple more options to add to your list.

Beauty fish and great report Love the 2nd pic. Definitely worthy of being in a magazine or the Toronto Bread calendar.