craigdritchie

Good advice in this thread .... allow me to add a couple of additional thoughts. 1. Spinnerbaits are the go-to lure when you need to cover a lot of ground in a hurry, or when you're fishing a huge area and aren't sure exactly where the fish are hanging out. They're not so good when fish are sitting very tight to cover, or are in a negative mood from fishing pressure or inclement weather. 2. As a general rule, they tend to work better in warm water than in really cold water. 3. Spinnerbaits made from titanium wire will stand up much better to pike & muskie than those made from standard stainless steel wire. If you fish in places that have a lot of pike, or are targeting pike and muskie, titanium is worth the extra cost. 4. Spinnerbaits with a large, single Colorado-style blade (fairly round blade) are best for stop-and-go fishing, such as when you buzz along the tops of submerged weeds, then stop and let the bait helicopter down into the open spots (works great for largemouth, by the way). When you fish this way, single Colorado blades are less prone to tangle the line than tandem blades or willowleaf styles. 5. Others have already mentioned that a single Colorado blade will run shallower than an identical bait with a willowleaf blade. What you also need to know is that the Colorado can also be fished more slowly. The willowleaf, on the other hand, is best when you want a really fast retrieve. 6. Personally speaking, I find that a white, 3/8-ounce or 1/2-ounce spinnerbait with a silver Colorado blade will handle 75% of my spinnerbait needs. But I also carry somet high visibility ones (chartreuse or orange/red) with bright, fluorescent painted blades for use in murky water. And I always have a few larger ones (5/8-ounce to 3/4-ounce) with one or two willowleaf blades .... usually a grey or silver skirt with silver or gold blades. That's my undisputed top bait ever for summer smallmouth on warm, windy days. I'll add a stinger hook more often than not.

Interesting announcement by Michigan DNR - they're reducing chinook stocking in Lake Michigan by 50 percent due, in part, to increased levels of natural reproduction. Read on ..... cut and pasted from Great Lakes Scuttlebutt: Michigan DNR To Reduce Chinook Salmon Stocking In Lake Michigan The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that, following more than a year of deliberations with constituents, scientists and fishery managers, it agrees with an inter-jurisdictional recommendation by the Lake Michigan Committee to reduce Chinook salmon stocking by 50 percent lake-wide. The Lake Michigan Committee is comprised of fisheries managers representing Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and five Michigan tribes that are party to the 2000 Consent Decree. Under the lake-wide plan, the 3.3 million Chinook salmon annually stocked in total in Lake Michigan by the four states would be reduced to 1.7 million starting in 2013. “This reduction is essential in helping to maintain the balance between predator and prey fish populations in Lake Michigan,” said Jim Dexter, Michigan DNR Fisheries Division chief. “These reductions are necessary to maintain the lake’s diverse fishery.” A key factor to Lake Michigan’s current and potentially precarious ecosystem balance is an increasing presence of wild Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan. Streams in Michigan continue to produce significant numbers of naturally reproduced Chinook salmon and lake-wide estimates show more than half of the lake’s Chinook population is of wild origin. Because of the significant natural reproduction occurring in Michigan, the DNR will shoulder the majority of the stocking reduction. Michigan will reduce stocking by 1.13 million spring fingerlings, or 67 percent of the 1.69 million recently stocked by the state. Wisconsin will reduce by 440,000; Indiana will reduce by 25,000; and Illinois will reduce by 20,000. This marks the third time in recent history that stocking in Lake Michigan has been reduced by the agencies. Previous decisions to reduce stocking in 1999 and 2006 resulted in maintaining and improving catch rates. Fisheries managers believe this is because natural reproduction continues to fill any available predatory space. The decision to reduce stocking is part of an adaptive management strategy that includes a feedback loop that will monitor certain indicators in the lake – such as Chinook salmon growth. If conditions improve or get worse, stocking will be increased or decreased accordingly, and more quickly. “This will give the DNR more flexibility to adaptively manage the lake,” said Jay Wesley, Southern Lake Michigan Unit manager. “Traditionally, we have made changes in stocking and waited five years to evaluate it, and another two years to implement changes. Now we have the ability, through a defined and accepted process, to make changes as they are needed.” The DNR’s Fisheries Division will discuss with constituents this fall how each stocking location will be affected by the stocking reductions. Future site-specific stocking levels will be based on natural reproduction, net pen partnerships, broodstock needs and hatchery logistics. Every existing stocking location should expect a reduction. Please visit the Michigan Sea Grant's website for more information on the Lake Michigan Chinook salmon stocking reduction plan. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state’s natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. For more information, go to www.michigan.gov/dnr.

Exactly why I avoid the crowd altogether. It's a lot more fun to fish out-of-the-way spots that may not have as many fish, but do have far fewer people. Like Mike, I have fishing licenses for a whole bunch of different places. I have no problem filling the truck with gas and driving several hours in order to catch some fish in peaceful surroundings that also happen to preserve my sanity. My time is valuable. I'd rather spend more of it driving and have really good quality fishing when I arrive ... than stay closer to home and waste an entire day in a circus with all the clowns. Fewer hours on the water, but better hours on the water. Quality over quantity. Jut my two cents.

It's not just Quebec. I shot this photo in the Cleveland airport three days ago.

Nothing like fish pictures shot with a super-wide lens. Provided you keep your hands hidden, it makes any fish look like Moby Dick.

That's right Aaron! It's too warm! If it weren't for climate change, those trophy 11-inch smallmouth I manage to catch every now and then (no, really, it's true!) would weigh six pounds instead of six ounces. Stupid global warming.

Bronte is a sewer. Check your PM, Gray-Wolf.

LOL ... ain't that the truth.

Seen it, and used it. And, couldn't talk about it till today due to confidentiality agreements. Good job lunkerhunter, it only became public knowledge this morning. AMAZING product. The touch screen is incredibly clear, and in my opinion it's easier to use than the previous version with its pull-down menus. The touch screen works like an iPad or an iPhone. You swipe, enlarge the image, etc with the same movements we're all now familiar with, so operating it is really easy and intuitive. It's also very fast. You can do split screens to have GPS/sonar, or GPS/down scan/side scan, for example, and control each one independently. Very cool. The physical box is a bit smaller than the original Gen 2 version, mainly because you no longer have the knobs and controls to fit onto the edge around the screen. So the new touch screen one is a little more compact than the older versions. I got to play with the seven-inch screen version (HDS-7). The one to buy is the nine-incher (HDS-9). Unless you have a big boat, in which case go whole hog and get the 12 inch model, but that will be big bucks. Navico's GoFree wireless module and app works with the new touch screens, so you can download the GoFree Wireless app for iPhone, iPad or Android to remotely view and control the thing from anywhere. You don't even have to be on the boat. It's pretty awesome. Even more awesome, Lowrance is also launching a new web-based application called Insight Genesis that works with the new HDS touch screens. In a nutshell, it lets you use your graph to produce your own high-def charts. So you go to a new lake and can't find a chart for it? No problem - now you can make your own. It's freaking awesome!!!! Prices on the website are MSRP. No one pays that. Retail will be less. I'm in Louisville, Kentucky this week at a boating industry trade show. LOTS of new stuff coming out, including new electronics like the HDS touch screen. Here's the HDS press release, cut-and-pasted for your convenience: LOWRANCE EXPANDS HDS® GEN2 LINE WITH NEW WIDE-FORMAT, TOUCHSCREEN MULTIFUNCTION DISPLAYS OCTOBER 1, 2012 Tulsa, Okla. – Lowrance, a world-leading brand in marine electronics since 1957 and GPS navigational systems since 1992 — announced today that it has expanded its HDS® Gen2 range, with the new wide-format, touchscreen HDS Gen2 Touch. Delivering the same award-winning benefits that made the HDS High Definition System the world’s top-selling multifunction display series, Gen2 Touch models incorporate new easier-to-use, wide touchscreens in 7-, 9- and 12-inch sizes. The new Lowrance lineup — an addition to the current HDS Gen2 series — also features the best, built-in fishfinding technologies on the market — the Broadband Sounder™ and StructureScan® HD — as well as powerful chartplotting capabilities and seamless integration of Lowrance’s comprehensive range of performance modules including the award-winning Broadband Radar™, SonicHub® marine audio server and LWX-1 Sirius® satellite weather/radio receiver.* “The new HDS Gen2 Touch combines all the superior fishfinding and navigational technologies Lowrance customers love, in a sleek easier-to-use touchscreen multifunction system that includes our largest display ever, the new 12-inch HDS-12 Gen2 Touch," said Louis Chemi, chief operating officer, Navico Americas. “The revolutionary integration capabilities of the Gen2 Touch paired with built-in Broadband Sounder and StructureScan HD help our customers get the most from each on-the-water experience.” Easy-to-Use, Touchscreen Control: Featuring high-bright, sunlight-viewable displays, HDS Gen2 Touch models provide the flexibility to customize and configure personal screen views with up to four panels at once, and have the added advantage of a new three-panel, vertical-page view. Effortless touchscreen operation makes panning and zooming fast, responsive, and most of all, easy to learn with its intuitive icon-driven menu. The HDS Gen2 Touch also provides five push-button options, allowing users to easily remain in complete control in any boating situation. Cutting-Edge, Built-in Fishfinding Technology: HDS Gen2 Touch fishfinder models feature both a built-in Broadband Sounder and StructureScan HD. Anglers will enjoy legendary Lowrance sonar and sonar imaging performance with greater sensitivity, peerless echo clarity and underwater definition proven to find more targets. Built-in SideScan and true DownScan Imaging™ sonar signals offer full panoramic displays for best-in-class, clear picture-like views of underwater structure to the left, right and directly beneath a boat. The systems also feature Lowrance’s premier TrackBack™ functionality, allowing anglers to scroll-back through recorded sonar history to review and zoom-in for a closer look at bottom structure or fish targets, and pinpoint locations with a waypoint. To avoid losing important sonar data, HDS Gen2 Touch continues recording through the use of TrackBack to ensure valuable readings are not lost. All HDS Gen2 Touch fishfinder models are available with a 50/200 kHz Skimmer® transducer for deep-water coastal and Great Lakes applications, or a 83/200 kHz Skimmer option for inland fishing. The units are also compatible with Airmar® in-hull or thru-hull transducers for up to 1 kW operation. Powerful Navigation: HDS Gen2 Touch displays feature a highly accurate, internal 1 Hz GPS antenna with an external 5 Hz GPS antenna option, and are pre-loaded with Insight USA™ inland and coastal cartography.** All models include a standard SD card slot and are compatible with Lowrance Insight HD chart cards; Navionics® Platinum+, HotMaps Premium and HotMaps Platinum with Freshest Data; and Fishing Hot Spots® Pro. The displays provide an option to simultaneously view Lowrance and Navionics mapping data. Now with a new 3D perspective view for built-in Insight USA, and optional Insight HD and Fishing Hot Spots Pro cards, the Gen2 Touch allows control of the viewing and rotation angle for customized views of a boat’s position and surrounding landmarks. Navionics Platinum+ and Hotmaps Platinum are viewable in 3D perspective, as well. Also compatible with 3D perspective, a StructureMap display feature allows users to scan and overlay underwater StructureScan HD images directly on a chart in real-time — or create saved StructureMap views of their favorite boating, fishing or diving areas to display on or off the water — without the aid of a computer. In addition, HDS Gen2 Touch works with Lowrance’s new Insight Genesis™ — a web-based application feature that allows users to generate their own high-definition bathymetric contour maps from personalized sonar log recordings. Unparalleled Networking and Integration: NMEA 2000®, NMEA 0183 and Ethernet compatible, the HDS Gen2 Touch series allows multiple displays to be networked and share all data ensuring the ultimate in flexibility and cost savings. When networked with other HDS Gen2 fishfinder/chartplotter models, chartplotter-only displays easily become full-functioning combo units. In addition, 9- and 12-inch Touch models feature dual Ethernet ports for greater expansion options without the additional cost of a separate network-hub. They also feature two SD card slots, plus a video input for underwater or onboard cameras. Wireless Connectivity: Navico’s GoFree Wireless module and app for Lowrance, Simrad Yachting and B&G displays are scheduled to be available for use with the HDS Gen2 Touch in early 2013. This innovative add-on hardware option provides wireless connectivity of multifunction systems, and fully interfaces with engine data, fuel information sensors and transducers, to name a few. When paired with the wireless module, users can download the GoFree Wireless app on their iPhone and iPad, or Android devices to remotely view and control their HDS Gen2 Touch displays. Available from authorized Lowrance dealers and distributors throughout the United States and Canada, the Lowrance HDS-7 and HDS-9 Gen2 Touch multifunction displays will be available for purchase in October 2012, and the HDS-12 Gen2 Touch in December 2012. Minimum advertised prices range from US $1,299 for the HDS-7M Gen2 Touch Insight USA chartplotter to $3,249 US for the HDS-12 Gen2 Touch Insight USA fishfinder/chartplotter model. Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch multifunction displays are protected by a two-year limited warranty, and are supported by the five-year Lowrance Advantage Service Program. For more information on the Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch series, the entire Lowrance line of marine electronics or to locate an authorized Lowrance dealer, please visit www.lowrance.com. - 30 -

A new study on climate change says that fish will begin to grow smaller by 2050. William Cheung, at the University of British Columbia, predicts that changes in the climate will continue to warm the world’s oceans. Fish will adapt by getting smaller. I doubt I will still be fishing by 2050, but it's interesting reading in any case. Click here for the full report.

This kind of crap goes on everywhere, not just in New York. So you have this kind of behaviour going on, dead gutted fish all over the riverbanks, garbage everywhere, plenty of guys riverside taking a leak in plain sight ........ and we wonder why the average person looks at ALL fishermen as a bunch of ignorant barbarians.

BRP is nowhere near under water. As the article notes, the sport boats represented less than three percent of BRP's sales. With the cost of maintaining a dedicated factory and 350 staff to building them, they were probably losing money on every one they sold. Better off to shut it down and focus on the products they do very well with - Sea-Doo personal watercraft, Ski-Doos, Can Am ATVs and Spyder bikes. Moving their personal watercraft production to Mexico was overdue. Everyone else builds stuff in Mexico, so why not them too? I have no idea what a unionized factory worker in Quebec makes, but I will guaranteed his counterpart in Mexico costs a lot, lot less. By moving production south, they've put the company back on a level playing field. Same deal with the clothing. Everyone else in the world outsources this. Why on earth would they make their own? Their business is building PWCs and snowmobiles and ATVs - not making t-shirts.

To each their own indeed, Mike. I find lighter-weight hikers are no heavier than any wading boots I've ever owned, and the lug sole provides far better traction on sand or mud than felt. Felt has a slight edge on felt, but I've never considered it a huge difference. I doubt I spend anywhere near as much money on equipment as you do, but I still have some nice stuff that makes me happy. Most of my spending goes into travel, so I can fish in the best locations and have those experiences one tends to remember forever. The few bucks I save here and there on equipment fund my annual BC trip for salmon and steelhead, or perhaps a week down south for sailfish or tarpon. Personally speaking, I'd rather put my cash into those kind of experiences than super-high-end equipment, but again, to each their own. We need to get out for some fish this fall.

Said it many times ... go to a discount shoe store and buy some inexpensive hiking boots with a good lug sole. Find a pair that are two or three sizes too big and you're all set. They work great, and will cost you half of what even lousy quality "wading boots" will set you back. Honestly - wading boots are the biggest rip-off in the store. They charge $100 for what are realistically $20 hiking boots, at best. I'm presently wearing some lightweight nylon hiking boots I bought at some discount shoe store in the mall two years ago. I paid $35 for them. I use them a lot, and they still look and work like new. Last pair I had lasted about five years, and also cost about $30. Why anyone would willingly pay more than that is beyond me.

Billy Bob ..... what if it were the other way around? If two Canadians came to Lewiston or Buffalo or anywhere else in the States, were instructed by the Customs agent to wait in their boat, but came ashore regardless and were subsequently fined ..... would you feel the same way? Would you say WELCOME TO AMERICA, please keep your tourist dollars at home? Probably not, I would guess. Realistically, if a person disregards instructions by a border agent they are inviting trouble, regardless what country they are from or what country they are visiting. Am I wrong?

The newspaper story says they were instructed to wait, but went ashore anyway. That was followed by "an ensuing confrontation." This is no different than any other border crossing. If you don't follow the customs agent's instructions, you're going to have trouble. They didn't follow the instructions, and they got in trouble. Unless I'm missing something, I don't see why I should feel sorry for these folks.

Been to the real Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. It isn't cheap, but it truly is the ultimate experience every man needs to have at some point in his life. No exceptions! Just Google 'Oktoberfest photos' to see why. By the way, the name comes from its German origins, where 'October' is spelled 'Oktober.' So it was probably named that way by drunk Germans.

Not any more, at least not for salmon. It's still a complete gong show, of course, but now they try to make it look more or less legit as they rake huge hooks across the heads of chinook siting in four inches of water. You know, like they do at Port Hope. And Bronte. And the Credit. And everywhere else. Salmon run = good time to go fish in lakes.

This issue has been raging in Banff for many years - I wrote about it back in the late 90s, when Parks Canada and Trout Unlimited hatched a plan to eradicate book trout from some lake by poisoning it with Rotenone. The intent was to eradicate all life in the lake, then restock it with native cutts from another lake nearby. The problem with their approach is that they would have also wiped out numerous other species of fish and amphibians as well, including some that were considered threatened. Woops. So here we are 12 - 15 years later and nothing's really changed. It is highly unlikely that brook trout and cutthroat trout would successfully interbreed given that cutthroat are spring spawners, and brookies spawn in fall. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's quite unlikely, especially on a widespread scale. On the other hand, as MJL notes evidence of cutthroats and rainbows interbreeding has been widely documented throughout western North America. The resulting hybrids - called 'cutbows' - are indeed fertile. I suspect they aren't nearly as robust as either of their parents though, since there are thousands of waterbodies where both rainbows and cutthroats both exist. If interbreeding were a true threat, the hybrids would have taken over thousands of years ago.

Two ways to beat "centerpin claw" (love that term, btw): 1. I have an old Tournament Drifter with foam on the back plate. It's my "winter" reel. Ugly, but comfortable. 2. I use this with a specific "winter rod" that has a handle built from much thicker cork than normal. It's a lot more comfortable to hold in the cold weather. Not the prettiest approach, but it's effective.

Welcome to another salmon run. Same crap every time.

Quick update - both ships are in Hamilton today (Thurs. Sept 20) and Friday (Sept 21) .... open for tours.

Compre rods since the brown ones they brought out in the mid-90s have been pretty good overall. I have quite a few - many are getting pretty old, but I've never had any trouble whatsoever. I actually thought about replacing some of the really beat up ones but have heard of a few people snapping tips on the current generation ones, so perhaps I'll hold onto my old beaters a little bit longer. Or, just get somethng else. Back in the early 90s Shimano made these silver coloured rods (forget the name of the series) that consistently snapped like dry spaghetti. I think I blew up about six of them before I gave up altogether. They were expensive rods, and very sensitive, but just horrible in terms of durability. I haven't been to Grimsby Tackle in years.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the cohos, Snidley. They obviously don't have the body mass of a chinook going for them, but I love the way cohos jump. The way they just massacre crankbaits (Shad Raps in particular) is also a big plus in my books. I've always felt they were a ton of fun out in the lake on a bass rod - right up till November, when everything stops running :-)

Nice mudshark! Today's rain will obviously push the dark chinnies upstream to spawn / get snagged. But it will also bring more, fresher fish into the river mouth. Like broonies and cohos and rainbows - oh my! :-)