BillM

He sounds like an ass, I wouldn't worry about it to much.

Every once in a while things come together and a normal day turns into one that will never be forgotten. This happened to myself, Mike and our buddy Ferg on Friday.. After watching the weather all week we were super pumped about the prime conditions we'd find on one of our favourite rivers. However, the day didn't start off all that great, lol.. I'm about to jump into the car and I get a call from Ferg.. 'Hey bud, you almost here?'...I look at the radio in the car and it says '3:23am'... Damn!!!!!!! I set my alarm an hour late... Instead of leaving at 2:30am, I was leaving at 3:30 No big deal, Ferg said he'd take a snooze in the truck while I drove down to his place. After a record breaking time from Barrie > Mississauga (45mins, lol) I arrived to find Ferg dead asleep in his truck. A few taps on the window and we were off.. Met up with Mike and off we went on our adventure... I absolutely love fishing with these 2 guys, they compliment each other so well, the day is nothing but a complete blast. Ferg is a pretty interesting character.. Some of the stuff that comes out of this guys mouth just makes you howl. The sun was out, the deer and turkeys were in pretty much every field and we finally make out way down to the river. We were a bit disappointed at the water clarity, but we made due and it was on the drop anyhow.. By the end of the day it should clear up fairly well. A few small rockets and some suckers from the first place we stopped... Time to make a move. I apologize for the lack of pics, but after you're done reading this you'll understand why We hit our second spot and I hike upstream a bit with no luck.. After about 30mins I make my way downstream and Mike and Ferg are into them like hotcakes. While I was walking down and watching the action, I saw 2 double headers before I could even make my way into the spot, lol. The best part about these fish was that they weren't dirty, tired dropbacks. These were fresh chromers will lots of spunk.. 3-4 jumps per fish was the normal, blistering runs and just a non-stop battle all the way to the bank.. I finally make it down to the spot, grease Mike and Ferg out and get into a few chromers myself.. I went something like 1/4, lol. I lost a real nice fish after a massive hit and run.. ugh.. Finally got one chromer to the bank and it slowed down a bit, so we made the call and off to spot #3.. Now, spot #3 isn't a secret my anymeans and when we got there, we saw approximately a dozen or so guys.. We really weren't to worried about it though, we have a tendency to make out pretty good even in the middle of the crowds... Mike hiked it upstream a bit and me and Ferg hit a nice little seam about 50ft away from the car.. I popped 3 quick fish, Ferg popped 2 then Mike came down from upstream and it began... Mike makes his way out to this little rock outcropping and makes a drift.....WHAM!! fish on!!!... Me and Ferg start to laugh... Drift #2.....WHAM!!!! Fish on.. Ferg says to me screw this, one more fish and I'm going to grease him out!!'...... Drift #3.....WHAM!!! fish on.. Ferg walks out there makes a drift and wouldn't you know it... doubleheader!!! #4 for Mike, #1 for Ferg all in a span of about 15mins.. I yell over 'If you guys catch anymore fish I'm coming out there!!'.. Needless to say 30 seconds went by and they were both into fish and off I go!!. This is where the fun begins, lol.. I didn't take a very good route out to the spot and ended up in some pretty deep water.. I'm 6'3, so not a short dude and the water was well above my waste.. I almost make it out there, have a little stumble and both my arms, rod/reel go into the drink I'm ok, nothing down the waders I'm good to go.. I take a spot below Mike, and on my first drift the float shoots down!! This wasn't a little fish by anymeans, a good 10lb fresh from the lake rocket.. I look over at Ferg and he sets the hook into another fish and we tell Mike to hurry up and get in there also... 5 seconds later we are in the middle of our first tripleheader.. Mike and Ferg get their fish in and I'm still fighting this stupid thing. I finally get it in and try to get Mike to take a pic. These fish were super slimey, and I just couldn't hold on to it.. I drop the fish, try to grab it and down I go!! I drop the rod/reel into the drink, water goes down my waders and I am about to have a very bad day.. Mike grabs a hold of me and helps me up... I grab the Loomis and the AngSpec before it disappears into the water, right myself and try to gain a bit of composure.. Ferg and Mike are laughing their asses off at me and I gotta admit I was laughing also.. For the next 2hrs it was nothing but non-stop action.. Let's just say the locals on the bank were very vocal :) Everytime we'd land one they'd ask to meet us half way for us to give them the fish!! Now I'm all for giving someone a fish, but there is no way in hell I'm walking back across the river to hand one over, lol.. A small example of a typical fish we caught that say... Notice I'm soaking wet? I just couldn't believe it, this might have been the funnest 2hrs I've ever had steelheading.. It was 80 degrees out, a slight wind and two of my best buds smashing fresh chromers over and over again.. Things finally slowed and I lost count of the number of fish we got.. It was stupid.. Ferg had been up since 11pm the previous night so he was done like dinner.. We packed up, and finished up at our last spot.. Fish were rising all over the place, swirling, jumping you name it they were doing it.. As Ferg slept in the car Mike and I made our way down to the river and got right back into them.. My biggest fish of the day a good 10lbs.. It had a huge hump on it's back and just looked mean as hell!! What an awesome fish.. We popped 3-4 fish a piece until we just ran out of gas... Nothing but stupid grins on all our faces that day.. Definitely a trip I'll never forget..

Good job guys!!!

I just got home after leaving the house this morning at 3am. Best day of 2010 to date, double/triple headers, fresh chromers from the lake and piles and piles of fish. I'm going to bed, lol.. Shawn, congrats on getting your first fish on a pin!!

Allowed or not, I'd be lighting a fire...

That's a hell of a trip! lol

Friggin Dave, greasing people out!!!!! Tomorrow morning is going to come awful early.

Dan buddy, you gotta smile more dude :)

Except for the rear axle bushings that almost ALL the Mazda3 have had replaced under warranty, lol.. No company is heads above anyone else. All have their pro's and cons.

Hopefully will be out this weekend chasing crappies.

That's Coldwater for you :)

Tell me the beer you like and I'll make sure it's packed dude

My daily driver has 523,000kms on it.. It also pulls 50mpg US with ease. Damn unreliable VW's... For every person that has a horror story there are 5 that will praise the brand.. It's all relative. Can't go wrong with a Honda or a Toyota (even though they can't design a serviceable rear end for the Tundra, lol)

Someone just watched the Cronz on WFN

I used to drink Lakeport Honey when it was only sold at the brewery in Hamilton. $17 for a 24.. Lowest legal price my ass.. I hate those commercials... Now it's usually Coors Light or MGD or whatever Mike has in the cooler

I thought Ferg only rigged brookies? :) Also Mike, I didn't realize you just fished the US? lol

I've caught them as far down as Big Chute.. Hopefully can get into them this spring, never targeted them before.

Guiding in GBay tends to do that to equipment me thinks..

Done.

What model GL3?

Mike, really nice to see you get out with your dad. I know the feeling man, it just can't be beat!! I'm putting Michigan on the very near 'To Do' list!!! Good job bud!

Being a relatively new steelheader, if you are going to spend your money somewhere, spend it on the rod opposed to the reel. Don't get me wrong, I love my AngSpec, but I could get away with using my $200 Streamside and land the same amount of fish as I could on the high priced workhorse. Also Dr.S is right, save some $$$ for floats, terminal tackle, leader, etc etc. Those things add up real fast... From what I've heard the new St.Croix rods are really good bang for the buck, might wanna check them out. Also, buy used.. You can save a tonne of $$$.

That's a pig!! Still haven't come close to a 20lb'r yet... I gotta start fishing some more Lake O tribs

Opener means the end of steelheading and the start of real trout fishing. Can't wait. Let all the rubes fight it out for dropbacks, I'll be fishing for specs and big resident browns.

Carwin needs to get past the first round with Lesnar. After that, Brock will gas and it will be all over.