justin elia

Ironically, they've come out with something a little smaller but thats because of high demand on the West Coast(Searun Reel). But you're right, there is talk of a larger version of the Steelheader; I hope they pull the trigger on that as well.

Smolts are aggressive little buggers and they'll eat anything, even loonie size roe bags. Releasing them unharmed means they'll probably come back in a few years.

September has been a great month for steelheading. We've been hit with alot of rain pushing a good number of steelies into various river systems. Over the last 3 weeks, I've been fishing Gbay tribs, North Shore Lake O tribs and I made it to the Catt for a quick morning fish. I hope all of you guys are taking advantage of this opportunity as its only going to get better. Here are some pics over the last 3 weeks. Some Gbay Salmon Ontario Steel I would encourage all of you steelheaders out there to pinch down your barbs to help protect smolts. Im sure alot of you have been catching them year round in most tribs due to the cool and wet summers we had in 2008 and 2009. Have a great season.

I use Sailflow.com and Windguru.com but out of the two, I find Sailflow to be the most accurate.

Banana Boy, eh?

When Aaron and I went out on Friday morning, he mentioned to me on the way to Port Hope that he would fish the derby hard all week and was going to win Week 7; the guy was seriously determined. Good on ya pal for sticking at it and calling your shot! I think I'll call you Babe Ruth from now on.

Jiggy Buggers work well too. BPS carried them.

I've used Raven mainline without any issues. Another decent line to spool with is Suffix. I typically run 12lb mainline as I do use 10lb flouro leader in certain conditions; 8lb mainline is too light in my opinion unless your a "light leader" guy. If you're seriously concerned about strech and you fish big river systems like the Credit, Saugeen, Notty etc. where long drifts are common, I would run a braided main line until it gets too cold. You can avoid cinching by spooling in an "x" pattern. Hope this helps.

Check out Fishpond. I use their vest and it has a lot of compartments. If you river fish religiously (especially for steelhead), then you should be prepared for all conditions. I pack as many items as I can comfortably fit in the vest. You should be looking for something with a lot of compartments and one that is well made. William Joseph and Simms are both good companies as well.

Couldnt sum it up better than that. It was a fantatsic day, all fish caught on Proking and Knockout spoons. Here are some more pics from the day.

Good movie.

10%!!!! I wish I made that on every deal. Standard fee's are 5% in our industry but with the competitive nature of our business, Im sure you could negotiate a better fee structure as a seller.

Fantastic advise John F. As a Realtor myself and a Broker of Record, I run into this situation alot. The most important thing I suggest to clients, or potential clients is to work with someone they trust. Being represented as a buyer is extremely important in my opinion, especially in this market(Sellers). I recently sold a condo downtown to a friend (Buyer Represented)in a multiple offer situation, and because of our strategy, we were able to solidify the deal for less than what other offers were brought in at. John, let me know your area of expertise and maybe I'll be able to send something your way. Rather send the referal to a fellow fisherman.

The brown was caught on roe.

Decided to hit a local trib for some good old steelhead action Saturday morning. Couldnt ask for better weather, no wind, bright moon and mild temps. It made for a nice comfortable night fish. We trecked up to our normal opening day spot just before midnight to find fish rising constantly so we knew we were in for a fun day. During the first few hours we hit numerous fish in the dark which was really cool to see the silhouette of a steelhead jump and cartwheel around the pool under the moonlight. The fish pretty much shut down after about 15 or 20 hookups until first light when the breakfast bell rang and it was fish after fish. Unfortunately, with low clear water and fish running and zipping around the pool the fast and furious action didnt last long. By 8am the pool was shut down. It didnt help when 3 guys showed up casting shadows into the pool and wading in creating wakes. Some people dont get it, but it was ok! We all got our fix of opening day steelhead and had a blast. I was trying out some trout beads that I'm working on a review for and Im very impressed with the outcome. Here's one of a few caught on trout beads that night. I decided to take Sunday off; with the baby only 7 weeks old I'd much rather spend time with her than catch ABC fish that have been spooked the day before. On Monday I canoed the Credit with a friend from Heritage Road to Creditview in hopes of drifting for some fish that havent been pressured. We ended up bumping into Joseph which was a nice suprise and we got into a nice handful of fish. The highlight of that trip was definately this beautiful wild brown that gave me a few good jumps during the fight. So at about 10:30am, we're about 5km into a 20km canoe ride and my friend looks at me and says, "hey, I want to be off the water by 12:30".....Im like what the hell!!??!! If you know that strech of river it takes 3 or 4 hours of straight paddling just to get through it WITHOUT fishing. If he told me that was the case at the beginning of the day, I wouldnt have canoed, I would have just walk another stretch of river. I guess it was my fault assuming we were fishing a 20km strech of river over the whole day.LOL! But what are you going to do, I caught fish with a good buddy and it was a beautiful day so I cant really complain. It was a great few days on the water but I think I'll be giving the droppies a rest for a while. Time to take the boat out for a spin

Zing!

We were working a little voodoo magic at the end of the day, making about 2 or 3 fish hit on demand as well as jump.

It was cold; luckily we were only in from the thigh down. Aaron slipped into a mud hole and went about waste deep.

I had the opportunity to get out and fish with Aaron Shirley for Grand River cats last Friday.;Its definately a different style of fishing from what I'm used to; however, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got the opportunity to sit and catch up with a good buddy who I hadn't fished with in a while. In between all the chatter, we'd be interupted by a "pick-up" from a cat from time to time. Here are a few from the day: First one of the day Its all smiles here Second one of the morning was a litte guy, but a fighter This one was hooked mid day, just before we packed it in Around mid-morning, Aaron and I decided to head down river to check out some new spots. As we weave around the numerous boats, Aaron decides to take the shallow side of this one particular boat;Im thinking to myself, "I hope he knows what he's doing", next thing you know we're running a 30 foot rooster tail of mud and we beach the boat on a mud flat. There is mud everywhere, on the engine, on the boat and on both of us. We take out the paddles and try shoving ourselves off, but its not happening. Luckily there was a boat near by and they decided to lend a hand. After numerous attempts of trying to pull our boat off the flat with the other boat, it still wasn't happening. So I look over at Aaron and Im thinking to myself, "this guy's going to ask me to get in and push..... Damn!" Aaron looks back and says, "Alright, we have to get out and push". So what am I going to do, say no to a good buddy, hell no. We strip down and proceed to jump into 50 degree water and eventually work the boat out. Needless to say, it wasn't the highlight of the day. Me giving Aaron the thumbs down award for the bonehead move of the day It was a great day to get out on the water; big cats and sunburns.

It was an absolute pleasure to fish with you Mike. Im glad we got the opportunity to do so before our trip. Looking forward to Part II of that adventure.

I think yesterday was the 4th time we've tried to hook up and I havent been able to join on any occasion. And everytime you hit the nail on the head......Fantastic work!

In a perfect world, everyone would carry around a rubber meshed net. Scoop the fish up, pop the hook and release. I would highly recommend to everyone to carry a net with a magnetic lanyard. Landing fish this way will actually land them sooner then they are ready to come in. How many times have you had a steelhead at your feet or knees and you try and grab it and it takes another 30 yard dash. With a net you can minimize those situations. In most cases, steelheaders dont land fish with nets, they typically bank them, which isn't wrong either provided you keep them at the waters edge and release them as quickly as possible. I personally don't use gloves to land fish. No matter how you look at it, it takes away protective slime. That being said, we have to use gloves when lifting steelhead at Streetsville or else we couldn't hold on to them. We do however, soak all gloves in an iodine solution before handling any fish for protective purposes. In priority, I would suggest a rubber mesh net, then no glove, then wet glove. At the end of the day, RELEASING the fish is the goal I like to see more anglers be a part of.

Mike is bang on. Steelhead are one of the most predictable fish to target. Not to say that its easy for beginners but the learning curve is a fast one compared to other species. For beginners, I would suggest that you mainly target fall running steelhead and spring dropback steelhead. The main reason in the fall, for one, is that there is way more open water to target them in. Typically in the fall, after the first cold rain around October you should start to see steelhead show up in the rivers. Water will drop and clear faster, bunching up larger numbers of fish. In the spring (dropbacks), the entire rivers are wide open and the fish are hungry. Find a pool with a shallow tail out or a log jam and you'll be in steelhead heaven. Keep at it, you'll be addicted soon enough. If you have any other questions, dont be shy. Justin

I would be concerned about the debris and stumps. With all of the high dirty water recently, tell your friend to keep a close watch.

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