NAC

I've said it before, but really steelhead are easy fish to catch, success or lack thereof is a direct result of timing.

Couldn't have said it better myself!!

The less time I am at work and the more time I get on the river(s), the easier it gets..... paying attention to weather/ wind patterns and river levels can be real helpful too.

Sweet!

I like the part where she says something like "these come with padded knees for rolling around on the ground and other things"!!

When I used to drive from Waterloo to Mississuaga daily, there was a population deer that hung out in the fields adjacent to the 401, between Miss Rd and Mavis. I would see them every morning, spring and fall without failure, hanging on the outskirts of the bush near the farmers field, about a dozen. As urban sprawl took over, I would see a carcass on that stretch every now and again. Over the past five years they dwindled to nothing.

It was my morning escape to look for them as I drove the gauntlet approaching Metro. Traffic is always crawling or stopped every morning right there.

I know deer tend to be overpopulated, but it is still sad to see what was once a thriving population get pushed out of their green space by development to end up dead on one of the busiest stretches of highway in North america.

All the wildlife hangs out closer to the river near the lower trail. Too much traffic on the upper.

I used to run theat trail 3 days a week from the Lanc parking lot to Bingemans and back. Nice inner city escape and if you time it right, there is a gold mine of fiddleheads in the area.

Walter Bean, Grand River Trail by chance? near the Humane Society

A freak snow squall blew up and a change of wind direction spelled disaster for him.

I'm sorry for the feathers this may ruffle, but I totally disagree.

The weather we got that day is exactly what had been forecasted regarding the wind speed and type of weather to be expected. We fished the gorge at Niagara from shore that day and debated before we went if it would be worth trying to fish with the amount of wind, rain and ice pellets that was forecasted. We got absolutely blasted all day, even way down in the gorge. It would blow up for about a half hour and then calm down for a half hour all day long.

The event of the snow squall could not have been predicted, but all the other warnings were in place.

I knew him too, although not as well as others. He was very competent and experienced, wore a dry suit, carried GPS and VHF.

Nice '08 Sean and great way to put it all together! Burn it to a DVD and put it in the library.

Not to worry Pure unless you make a habit of falling out of your kayak. There's always the drysuit debate, but that is generally when going out into the lake. If your just paddling around near shore, you can still be very safe with your chest waders and a waist belt and of course your PFD on top. The pressure of the water on the waders is more than sufficient to not allow even a trickle inside when the waist belt is on.

Its been proven more than once. here's the most recent video -

Of course common sense toward weather and waves is really where you make your decision here. Paddling with another as suggested above is never a bad idea either.

I paddle and fish from ice-off to ice-up and have since 2001 and have never come close to landing in the drink.

My other suggestion would be that if you aren't confident in your skills, then don't do it.

and if you need a place to park next time shoot me a pm

Thanks Streamerguy. Very generous and I may take you up on it since that first excursion although being very productive, it cost $400 to repair the damage. Maybe you'll be able to make it out too.

Jeff

This time I didn't get broke into while fishing.

I hooked a fish on the first drift, I swear it(roe) barely touched the water! Lost a lot of line in a hurry from not having settled into a rythm of drifts and trying not to horse the fish too quickly. It snapped me off.

Three more drifts into the same spot and I managed this one below. Was a nice battle but short lived. She's darkened up on the bottom a fair bit.

About five drifts later, I hooked a real big brown which I never landed either. Would have been a PB for me for sure.

Then that was it, as fast as it turned on, it was over. I made about 30 more drifts with different colour/size bags and never had another sniff. So off I went home after a nice wind down to the work week.

BTW, I forgot my leader material and ran the same as my 8lb main line. Some times it just doesn't matter.

Great outing for sure and so early in the season! Nice little spot you found yourself there.

That'll get the board in the ice fishing frame of mind, if they weren't already.

Nice looking fish!

Those real-time charts will serve you well and you'll just get better at figuring it out the more times you look at them. I tend to store a copy that includes two days before and two days after each outing, to give me a better picture what was going on.

born in Wingham, ON

raised on the Maitland R, Huron County 21yrs

lived in Hamilton 3 yrs, London 2yrs

now in Waterloo since '95

and a landowner on the Maitland near the lake since '07.

I think you know another reliable place for that answer. G-B OD

8# Ande mono

Wow!

If I only ever have one walleye report, than that is how I would want it to look.... actually just any one of those fish would be sufficient.

great fishing!

Joonmoon, I hope you didn't venture over there just to find that out. Or were you really bored and felt like a road tour? There are some very good tools online to help determine what is in the picture, without leaving the house.

I think I made the ultimate fishing mistake!!

I started fishing when I was too young to remember and then accumulated all my gear for every species over a 15 year span. Then I discovered beer, bars, women and other unspeakables that made me stop fishing regularly for 10 years or so... oh yeah, post secondary ed kinda got in the way too.

In those 10 years, I must have moved 5 times or more and with each move, I misplaced, lost, lent or gave away my gear. All I own of it now is a fly rod and reel that could be considered an antique.

Over the last 3 years, I have really got the fishing bug again and had to buy all that stuff over from scratch instead of updating it over time. Problem with that is that BPS showed up and so did all the great new "must have" gear on the market today!

I now come home from tackle shopping with receipts hidden and the gear left in the truck until she is out or asleep. It is my money that I spend, but there is a slight feeling of guilt.

The thing about it though is that no amount of money can replace the way I feel after escaping into my own world of fishing.

I remember those days.

That's back when the fish used to outnumber the fisherman on Huron and Geo Bay tribs.

retro steelie for sure!

Here is the one positive that did happen yesterday.

There was this slight problem in which one of Niagara's finest citizens decided to check out my truck without using a key, while I fished at the bottom of the gorge. Nothing of any monetary value was stolen, but my work briefcase for my "real job" was taken and of course it contained invaluable/irreplaceable documents for work! My fault for leaving it visible on the back seat of the truck. Another vehicle just down the road in another parking lot had reported a break in at the same time and there was absolutely nothing in it. I wish a long extended stay in a dank Ontario jail with cellmate "Bubba", to the culprit(s).

Anyway..... we fished for just under 2hrs, landed one fish, fought two others and missed about a dozen on the hooksets. Aside from the one expensive/negative event, it was an excellent two hour outing. As for tactics, it really didn't matter as the fish hit every colour and size of roe bag we threw at them under our floats.

First thing I would consider is whether people around you are catching fish in those same locations? If so, then study what they are doing that is different from what you are doing and then employ those tactics.

Maybe your confidence is low and you need to hit a "slam-dunk" location for a boost? Niagara R...

Make sure you don't transfer foreign(human or other) scent to the bailt/lure.

At least you are catcing some fish! It's easy to go o-for when conditions are constantly changing like at this time of year.

Maybe your float isn't going down because you should drifting across the bottom without one?

Be persistent, don't listen to negativity and keep a log.

Spinners tend to work very well in the fall when the bite is tough.... adapt.

nice!

Looks like I missed a good one SD...

Absolutely call the coppers, maybe someone in the restaurant got a better look at them or even saw their car.

 

If these punks find it funny to take pot shots at somebody with a pellet gun today, who knows what they'll get their kicks from tomorrow.

Good idea, but I'm leaving for 5 days in Minden in the next 1/2hr. I think I'll call the restaurant though just to see if anyone working saw them and can ID anything.

I should have used my cel phone and called the police before I let them know I could see them... I was a little too upset to think clearly right at that moment.

So I made my way to the Grand River at Bridgeport yesterday around 2:30pm to see the new bridge construction and how things have affected the fishing. I went up the south side of the river because there is no allowance behind the Lancaster Tavern anymore. I walked up the opposite side of the river equivalent to where I wanted to be on the the other side.

I'm standing on top of a concrete culvert trying to get a good vantage point of where I want to fish first. I'm looking around scanning for a nice pool when all of sudden I hear a totally unmistakeable sound off the steel grate infront of the culvert.... it's a ricochet. Immediately, the hair on my neck stands up and I crouch down and start scanning where it came from across the river. Then I hear a "fffffffpppptt" sound in the river just 3 feet from where I'm standing and I now know that the first wasn't accidental.

Now I'm scanning the top of the high riverbank across the river and catch a glimpse of something bright red where there should only be evergreens and just as another shot comes within a foot of me. I now knew for certain it was just pellets, with no crackle from the gun prior to the shot landing. I stood up and covered my face and looked right at what I thought was the culprit. I pointed to my eyes and then back at him twice to let him know I saw him.

By now I've pulled out my digital camera(only 6x zoom) and start taking pictures of them where they were at the back corner of Golf's Steakhouse, facing the river. Turns out there were two of them and they booked it when I started taking their portrait. I did manage a shot of one of them before they ran off, but it only shows his red jacket, location and side profile because he knew I had the camera.

It now looked like they were leaving dodge, so I ran to my truck and drove over to where they were and found nothing.

I've fished for over 30 years and that has got to be the single most minldess event I have ever seen, let alone been part of!

The Maitland peaked yesterday afternoon and it really wasn't a hard enough rain to muddy it up that bad anyway. From what I've seen of it over the past 1-2weeks and what we've got for precip lately combined with the big weather swing, Friday should be perfect. I'd go there myself, but I'm off to Minden for the next 5 days.

Bayfield and Sauble are fishable too.

Good luck wherever you end up!