BillM

That's a big male!! Way to go! For future reference you might wanna black out the backgrounds

Awesome job Wayne!!! That is a very healthy looking fish!

How is St.Catharines the fattest city in Canada? The most donut shops maybe, but the fattest? We made it on to Letterman!!! lol I was born and raised there, moved at 26.

Tom, I went to a particular WNY trib a week or so ago and I was blown away. I thought I was in BC Extremely scenic, but hardly a secret spot. The spot the OP fished is also extremely well known.

Not sick, rarely ever get sick. I wonder if people realize how many people die each year from the normal flu? I don't get this whole OMG H1N1 crap.

There are secret spots in NY? lol

It goes in the back seat.

Nice browns! I need to make a trip out that way this year.

Fish the US, it will get your confidence up

You buy the tank yet that you're going to need to haul that sucker out? lol

Hey, I think I can see myself in one of those pics!!! lol Good job Mike, I'm glad you finally got a brownie for the kid, I'm sure he was freaking out!

Agreed. Although make sure you give guys flying at least 4-500 yrds I got yelled at last week for being to close... I don't think the guy was making a drift more then 20ft downstream, lol I was at least 50ft away... Not to mention the idiot was standing in the middle of the run...

Holy crap, those are awesome!

Wow, looks like that fish has been in the river for a while!

If you plan on bottom bouncing, don't do it in a run already occupied by a bunch of float guys. The two techniques don't mix very well.

Maybe it um..........hitched a ride with a few boats? lol!!

I wonder if the recent Kawartha monster made it in from GBay via the Trent....

STOP POSTING ABOUT ERINDALE PARK THAT'S MY SECRET SPOT!!!!!!!!!!

In fast water I like the float to sit up a bit more just because all the waves will usually pull it down a bit if I have to much shot on.. A buddy of mine puts hardly any shot beneath his float at all, it almost lays on the surface... He catches a tonne of fish I think he was up on me about 4x at least last week on me, lol.

Fighting a fish might be a bit of a pain in the rain, but man o man does it make trotting smooth!!!!! Especially when I have roe juice all over my hands, lol.

The whole point of trotting is to slow the float down so that the bait is downstream of the float during the drift. The surface water is always moving faster then the water near the bottom of the river (this is where you bait is).. The last thing you want is the float pulling your bait downstream.. You'll snag up way more and it's not a very natural presentation... This is where the shot pattern is also important.. I usually bulk shot right beneath the float in order to c.o.c.k it, then bulk shot near the leader and maybe even some dust shot on the leader itself, depending on how much flow there is.. I like to then stagger shot from the leader up towards the float with big spaces between the shot the closer I get to the float... hook----------dust shot----dust shot------swivel-SSSSS--s--s---s----s----s------s------s------s--------------s--------------s-----------ssss-Float. This is a setup similar to what I used the other day in a fast flow.

A centerpin knot....duh!!! lol

Awesome!! lol I usually flip the drag on mine I know it's lazy but sometimes I'm fumbling around with a landing glove and need that extra hand.

Big float (9.0g or more) and bulk shot the hell out of it right above the leader... You need to get it down and keep it down. Also, don't cast upstream, you'll have way better control of the setup if you cast horizontally or slightly down stream from your standing position. I don't start trotting until the float is out of the fast water and into the seam (I keep pressure on it and swing it across). This way you know the bait is downstream when the drift starts... Lots of shot, lots of trotting, and hold on. I wasted HOURS the other day with a rig that was only slightly wrong. Buddy if mine gave me a couple of tips and what do you know, 3 drifts later I'm into one..

No, but the setups commonly used when float fishing do I think that's what the OP was referring to.