Snidley

Thanks Mike. Which one's do you have?

For anyone who owns a River Runner Elite Tech rod I'm puzzled by the ferules on them. I have seen several and the ferrule is "funny" in that there is a gap between the two pieces where the ferrule should close to the point that the 2 pieces of the rod are in virtual contact. With all of the River Runners I've seen there is significant gap between the rod pieces exposing the "male" part of the ferrule. One of the guys at Sail said it closes up over time but I find that hard to believe. If anyone owns one could you please comment as I like the rod other than this and might buy one in the spring. I do love the wide handle on the Elite Tec Smallmouth and River Runner rods even though they are split grips which I don't care for.

I've caught hundreds of Coho's and they don't look like that. I can tell from the tongue. I am serious about Coho's, all they do is roll and give up until near the boat then they thrash. It is NOT a fight. They do fight well once they change colour about November but by that time they are stream fish for the long rod crowd.

I would take a staging Chinnook over a Coho any time. Coho's are among the worst fighting fish out there and their only true asset is their appearance. Steelhead on the other hand are much anticipated by this angler.

The comparison of casting for and catching staging salmon (particularly early staging salmon) on bass gear vs trolling up silvery Chinnooks on trolling gear out in the lake is night and day. One is so boring that anglers have to be enticed with cash to do it and the other offers such an exciting fishing outing that guys stay up all night to do it. No comparison IMO.

My bet is a salmon lure. On the west coast spinners are considered the mainstay of salmon fishing and the lead would get the spinner down to Chinnooks, which tend to sit on the bottom when not active. I think the siwash hook also points to a Salmon lure. I think Mepps now has a weighted spinner that is probably viewed as the better option for this technique. Double Loon also made a weighted spinner called a 3A that has a #3 blade and a #4 weight to help get a longer cast as well as running the lure deeper on retrieve. A heavy spinner, counted down and equipped with a siwash hook would allow for "bottom bouncing" a spinner down to lethargic Salmon, Lakers and Steelhead. Personally I run #3A D Loons or #4 Blue Fox/Mepps spinners at the Whirlpool and I count them down up to a 25 count/seconds. With a treble hook you would be leaving a king's ransom of spinners on the bottom but with the siwash losses are minimal and for sure that is where the fish hang out so catching good number of fish is the result.

The authorities in Ohio determined that the disease potential of roe was worth banning it. It's a small reason IMO as it the real damage that roe harvesting does is both scientific, killing off the future for hackers to get bait and optics such as the overall loogan behavior it breeds on rivers around the GTA. You know, slitting fish, chumming, stripping fish and throwing them back, constantly seeking fresh eggs no matter how damaging it is. Literally planning egg trips to resupply yourselves. And then complaining when other "anglers" do it on your tribs in a way you guys determine is "not right". What a crew, sportsmen all.

Bronte was not good, it was the best at least of the west end tribs and everybody knew it hence the efforts to catch and strip browns by the roe crowd (ie you guys like you fellows). Now there's always the Oak and the other Lake O NY tribs you fellows frequent on egg trips. Like I said lame almost to the extent of trot lines and crickets (also defended, even legal, in their time)

One of the little known "facts" about roe angling is that roe IS an "invasive". Roe carries disease and that disease transmission (VHS in Ohio's case), not conservation, was the reason that Ohio banned roe angling 3 or 4 years ago. This is particularly the case when the really selfish hackers start chumming with roe. Inevitably they use old or stinky roe for chum and stinky old roe is contaminated with bacteria, that's what makes it stinky. This is why one cures roe with an anti bacterial like Borax. Bronte Creek used to be a great Brown river but over the years the roe crowd have stripped out almost all of the Brown females, and now, no browns. The lugans at the 'Shwa did the same thing and any guess why Ontario tires get slashed at the Oak in New York State. Brown roe raiders that take eggs and toss the fish. Roe angling is the bane of steelheading and the guys that do it are the leading perpetrators of anti conservation behavior followed closely by cash trollers who must have derbys to find fishing entertaining. A pox on both groups of dicks.

Go to the Shop section then to the Bargain Room and then to freshwater, saltwater or fly.

Freshwater and saltwater and fly rods for deep discounts. Lots of Wild River stuff for $100-$129 Some Legend stuff for $250. Great shipping with them (under $20) IF the rod is 7' or under or a 2 piece. Watch out for "border brokers" fees if they have to ship other than USPS ground (like 8' one piece rods get shipped )

I just talked to Frank and he has over 20 of them for $6.99. All sizes and probably most colours. If you can get one the big 7 or 9 are great in the Parrot colour for walleyes deep.

Fish and Game rules must take into consideration the entire public not just the ones that modify their behavior so as to minimize the impact of their harvest on their local fish. If it's legal to fish with bait eggs then it will follow that massive damage will be done to harvest those eggs. Be it poachers that slash hens (and being complete j#$k offs some males as well) or be it a bias for keeping females for the table because of the "bonus" eggs, or egg trips to the USA where they use proper management to supply abundance, OR to bag up the refuse eggs that idiots leave behind at the cleaning station for "table salmon". Salmon that are toxic unless under 20 inches but are consumed anyway because they are derby fish or the result of a large expenditure for a charter (and also don't offer even a passing resemblance to a Pacific Chinnook or Coho let alone Steelhead as far as taste in concerned. Bottom line you have to manage for abundance and conserve the resource or it will not do as well as it could. Roe ban is a great start but derby angling must also be either curtailed or, even better, made to pay for heavy stocking to replace the fish, mostly trophy fish, that their little profit center slaughters. Just like lumber companies paying stump-age AND being required to replant what they have logged. Incorporate a salmon/steelhead tag, that you pay extra for and limits ANNUAL catch and you have the beginnings of a managed resource that maximizes the potential of that resource. In other words manage these fish like they do where these fish come from. It is not hard except that leadership interests have to stand up to the roe crowd AND the cash trollers of all stripes. Bass guys have gone a long way to establish that Bass are for fun not for food, Muskie guys virtually all save the fish at all costs, (even the stocked ones). To manage top of the food chain fish like Steelhead or Salmon you need to pull out all of the tools in the kit or spend massively to really do well and I vote for both but would settle for either one. Currently in Ontario we do neither and this month we get to see the results of the roe crowd and what they spawn first hand on all salmon rivers in Ontario.

Call Frank at Bronte Outdoor 905-896-4009. He's got the Risto Raps on the wall (on sale or cheap I believe). I keep telling him to post them on a few websites and they would be gone allowing for some new stuff. I'm sure they are good lures as all Rapalas generally are and I have caught Walleyes and Smallmouth them myself.

I'm with Dave J Ban roe period. Virtually all the worst behavior comes from the search for fresh roe. The hackers all suggest alternatives such as raiding other jurisdictions for their roe as acceptable. That's ok but spare the females on their turf or you are a disgusting pig . Really it is about as lame an approach to angling that there is short of trot lining and it is only legal here in Ontario (and not the rest of Canada)because our leadership, at the MNR and private organizations, is so suspect. Clearly allowing anglers to target females of any species of fish, to get bait eggs, is just ridiculous and it astounds me when otherwise decent anglers suggest it is anything but.

This is my favorite law. It applies to my personal nemesis which is bait anglers that employ salmon/rainbow/brown trout roe. Federal law includes roe as caught fish and by extension the roe in your freezer is no different than fillets. Unfortunately the MNR stubbornly refuses to enforce Federal law and, even though their own studies indicate that over harvest for roe collection is endemic in Ontario, they steadfastly refuse to enforce the law or even make mention of it in their publications leaving our pelagics at the mercy of hackers that load the boat and freezer for bait. It's no wonder that pelagic fishing suffers annual decline when turf wars trump good fisheries management and anglers can't accommodate in their minds that you can't slaughter the females of a species before they spawn and still expect that species to thrive. Time to join the rest of Canada and outlaw roe as a legal bait.

When Croakers where present in the Notty I never noticed the steelhead quality getting diluted. The Croakers were very tastey but as noted looked funny and did not put up a good fight. The whole thing makes me laugh when I hear anglers claim that G Bay is not stocked. It's stocked plenty, maybe not by the MNR but by the native fish farms which always have escapees, this time a major jailbreak. The reason the Croakers were so tastey is that they had been GMO'ed with Brookie genes. Don't know if these recent escaped fish follow that same breeding (or abomination?) but if you catch a funny looking rainbow at the Notty this year keep it and give it a taste and you may be pleasantly surprised. As I said before the trolling on G Bay, especially by Manitoulin should be epic with $200K worth of dumb domesticated fish circulating.

The trolling bite on Lake Huron just picked up. Small Mooselock and Williams lures will be selling like hotcakes. Consider it a fishing "Stimulus".

In the last 2 years I have caught Carp on spinners, J-9's, Shad Rap RS #4, and Kwikfish K8. Not in any way a productive method and for a lure maker to call it one is close to fraudulent false advertizing. Par for the course in fishing tackle sales though.

Simple and easy to understand because it's a series of pictures featuring key anatomical differences within a class of fish in a waterbody. Great work NYSDEC, NYSG and USGS. Environmental, Conservation and Wildlife authorities in New York State are light years ahead of the buffoons running things here in Ontario. From stocking, to limits, to education and research they are constantly out front to the point that all we have to do here is copy what they have done yet we can't or more likely, won't do so. Makes one wonder. Great little illustration for all anglers that might be confused about species identification. Lake run Browns and Atlantic Salmon truly are very close in appearance since they are in fact cousins and many an angler claiming to have caught an Atlantic has in fact caught a lake run Brown. Maybe this handy illustration should be passed around to CRAA, OFAH MNR et al just to make sure they can count properly.

Some people say that if you are releasing the fish it's not great to hold them that way. Some people say....

That's a fairly common occurrence in both bill fishing and Tarpon fishing. Usually there's no photographer in the water to immortalize it though. It would be a momentary rush for the angler resuscitating the the Marlin and several minutes of panic for the photog that found himself in the water with a feeding Mako of that size. They are definitly "biters"

I recieved my order from Outlet Bait and Tackle today via USPS first class mail. It was mailed Aug 9th and I have it in hand as of today, the 16th. That is good for the current state of the border and our respective postal services. Probably a little slower the closer we get to Christmas. In the end I recieved 44 lures (Hot Shots, Kwikfish, Chatternbaits, and 5 bags of plastics) for $76.02 USD ALL IN. Under $2 a lure/bag which is a score IMO. I don't fish for them anymore but they are having a sale on Muskie gear currently so Muskie hunters might want to take a look at what they have.

Gutting and "cleaning" salmon and steelhead for their eggs stream side would be illegal, ie. wasting fish and leaving refuse behind on public AND privateproperty. For the Bronte bait angler, situation normal.

I've seen Daryl Cronzy flatline very small Williams and Mooselock lures around the commercial rainbow pens on Manitoulin. They hammered them and, as Cronzy does, they ate them too. Rainbows in open water are among the least discriminating fish there is so crankbaits, J-9's, small stick baits and small spoons will all work if you know where the fish are likely to be found. If they are in thick concentrations casting to them is much more fun.