craigdritchie

Canadadude: You don't need a TV fishing show to be able to fish on private land. Just drive around and knock on a few doors. If you're polite and reasonable, you might be surprised at the access you can get just by asking nicely. Even better, ask the landowner if you can repay their kindness by helping out with some work around the property. It might mean you give up a Saturday or two over the summer, but in return you get some prime water all to yourself. Sweet deal, I say. Terry: Not doubting that's what you may have been told - I'm just saying don't believe everything you hear. I've seen people lie through their teeth about stuff like that so many times I've lost count. I don't know why people feel the need to Bull like that .... I really don't get it at all. Whatever.

I've fished Beauchene with Bob many times, and find that very, very difficult to believe.

TV show hosts are not allowed to fish in closed seasons, in sanctuaries, or for out-of-season fish just because they have a TV program. Period. In the past Ontario has issued permits to some TV show hosts so they could shoot educational programming. However, the criteria for these permits are very specific. TV fishing shows are not normally considered 'educational programming' - especially when the show exists as a for-profit enterprise. Following the Henry and Italo fiasco of the early 90s, these permits are now almost impossible to get. The truth of the matter is, if the TV show host knows how to fish, they don't need to shoot in sanctuaries or during closed seasons to begin with. I shot a pile of steelhead episodes with Bob Izumi for the Real Fishing Show over a span of about 12 years, and all were shot during regular open season. One segment was shot on private land (a farm I had access to), and the other 10 or 12 segments were shot on public stretches of well-known rivers anyone can go to. Of course, we could do that because Bob knows how to catch fish. I can't say that for every TV show host I've met. I have held a couple of scientific collection permits over the years, and they are very specific as to where and when you can fish. They have nothing to do with filming a TV show.

The biggest difference between then and now is that 25 years ago, Bronte Creek had about twice as much water in it as it does today. So the pools were all MUCH larger and deeper, and there were many more of them. Even the shallow riffles were deep enough to hold fish all day long, and there was no shortage of deep undercuts and runs where you could always find unmolested steelhead and browns. Today, most of the smaller pools are long gone, and the bigger pools that do remain are nowhere near as large or as deep as they used to be. Those undercuts and runs that always held steelhead don't exist anymore either. Now they're all silted in. By building all those subdivisions in north Burlington, Waterdown and beyond, land developers have lowered the water table and cut the amount of water flowing into Bronte Creek by half. The river current isn't strong enough to clean sediment out of the pools anymore, so it just piles up and the pools slowly fill in. Back in the 70s, even a light rain shower would send chinook charging upriver all the way to Lowville. Today, even after a torrential downpour there's so little water in the creek that they barely make it to the QEW. The end result of all this is that where you might have had maybe 20 or 30 spots to fish over a given kilometre of river back then, today, you have maybe only four or five. Sure, there were heavy crowds fishing Bronte back in the 70s - there were just as many people as today - but because there were so many more spots to fish you could always find a place to drift. With more water in the creek, fish - and anglers - could spread out. But it's no longer like that. Now, fish and fishermen are all crammed into a few shallow spots. So the fish are pretty much permanently spooked. That makes it really hard to catch them. You know what? I can say exactly the same thing for pretty much every single stream that flows into Lake Ontario. They all used to be much better places to fish than they are now, mainly because they were bigger and deeper, with more consistent water levels and thus many more spots that would hold fish. Thank you, urban sprawl. I have lots of old Bronte and Credit photos, mainly colour slides and b&w prints. I'll see if I can find time to scan some just for fun.

Ah yes ... back when we called it the Credit .... and not the Dread-it.

Go to your vet and buy a tube of Skunk-Off. It's a paste that comes in a tube sort of like a toothpaste tube. Follow the directions and the dog will smell good as new. No muss, no fuss. Not so sure how it would work on the carpet tho.

It's a nice idea, but not terribly practical. Sucker eggs are really tiny, so tying loose eggs in bags is really not an option as they go right through even the finest mesh. So you have to deal with chunks of immature, skeined eggs. Unfortunately, those just don't freeze well - they tend to turn to mush really quickly. I guess you could try and Pro-Cure them, but it's not likely worth the hassle. Brook trout have never dominated any of the Great Lakes, at any point in recorded history. Not sure where that idea came from. Lake trout were at one time the dominant species on the Great Lakes. But as CLofchik notes, not many people fish specifically for them today. Lake trout just do not melt line from your reel like a chinook, nor do they jump all over the place like a steelhead or a coho.

Starcraft, Smokercraft and Sylvan are the same company, and all three boats are manufactured at the same facility in New Paris, Indiana. They have made both riveted and welded aluminum boats for a long time. I do not know exactly when they started selling Starcraft welded boats, but the 1970s could be possible. Most of their welded boats are sold in the US, as Starcraft and/or Starweld. Starcraft does not sell its welded boats in Canada, which is why most people here don't know they even exist. However, welded boats made by Starcraft are sold here under other well-known brand names, and have been for years. They're very good boats.

Camera flash works really well. Go to a large camera store that does repairs, and ask the techs if they have some old beaters hanging around. A common problem with many old flashes is that the plastic mounting shoe that attaches it to the camera gets brittle with age, and eventually cracks or breaks off completely. It's not really repairable, but will still work fine for charging lures. Last time I went and asked, I got a half-dozen of them for $10.

Pretty sure it has to be a typo ..... 52 lbs should actually be 25 lbs. No one in their right mind would believe that fish is 52 lbs. Not even if it had lead teeth.

One safe prediction - with Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley on their team, San Jose will be unbeatable through the season and invisible in the playoffs. I say eliminated in the first round, four games straight.

As others have noted, side casts generally mean tangles, and usually within a few minutes. If you can learn to Walllis cast (i.e. line peels off the spool as it rotates, as opposed to off the end like a spinning reel) you'll eliminate the problem. Learning to Wallis cast is a pain in the butt, and you will experience some incredible birdnests as you get the hang of it, but in the long term, that's the best answer. It's a bit like learning to use a baitcasting reel. In the end, it's worth it. As far as the line setup goes, I agree you're probably over-complicating things. Since you'll still be picking out a few backlashes in the weeks to come, why not make your life simpler by just running some straight six pound mono all the way to the hook? When you get a backlash, you cut if off, stuff the dead line in your pocket, retie and you're back fishing in a few seconds - as opposed to screwing around with swivels and fluoro leaders and blood knots and all that other extra crap. You may hook one or two fewer fish by not having the fluoro leader, but then again you'll probably hook one or two extra fish by actually having your bait in the water, instead of spending so much time re-rigging. In the end, it will probably balance out. You'll spend more time fishing and less time knitting. Once you become comfortable with the Wallis casting, and have largely eliminated the tangling issue, then you can worry about experimenting with specific setups.

Dave ... I remember those SP guns quite well. I really wanted one, but couldn't justify it at the time with a young family and all. At one point Remington had a fantastic deal where you could get the SP with a 28 inch barrel for waterfowl, plus a short Parkerized slug barrel for deer for only about $100 more. If only ..... Billy Bob ... thanks for the link. Still looks to me like some sort of blued finish that has just not been polished, but who knows. Too bad it isn't Parkerized tho ... at those prices it would be one heck of a steal. Worm dangler ... welcome - enjoy the new piece! At some point down the road you may want to pick up an inexpensive press and start reloading your own shells. It's really easy to do, and you'll not only save a bundle of money on ammo, but will learn a ton about your gun and be able to dial things in so it hits anything you point it at.

The plywood test is a good start, but remember that the gob of shot elongates as it flies through the air, and soon looks more like a string of pellets than the disc-like patteern you see on the plywood (hence the term "shot string"). Depending on the load, you may find some of these "strings" have pretty big holes in them. Where ammo is concerned, you really do get what you pay for. Higher quality loads use higher grade components, so the shot travels more consistently after it leaves the barrel and makes connecting on moving targets a bit easier. That's especially true with a .20 gauge, due to a number of ballistic factors including the relationship between the barrel diameter and the mass of the shot column. Try a bunch of different brands of shot and see what works best for your particular gun. You may find that you shoot identical shells from three different manufacturers and have much better success with one brand over the others. In fact, that's pretty common. For hunting upland birds like grouse, pleasant and woodcock, you might also want to experiment with shooting target ammo, which is normally intended for trap shooting. It's cheap and generally very well made. I used to have an 870 that just couldn't miss with Winchester AA target loads and no. 7-1/2 shot.

Uh ... nope. Remington 870 Express does not have a Parkerized finish. It has a standard blued barrel, receiver and magazine tube with a non-reflective, matt crinkly finish. The Express models are intended as a lower cost alternative to the Wingmaster. Since Parkerizing (an anti-corrosion treatment of the metal parts) adds to the overall cost of the gun, increasing the price by about $75 - $90 at retail, this has never been offered for the Express models. Remington did sell a Parkerized version of the 870 for a while, which was called the 870 SP. I wonder if that's the one you're thinking of? Express and Wingmaster use the same metal parts. The differences between them are are strictly cosmetic.

Thanks, all, for the plugs and kind words. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions ... happy to help. Cheers

Yes and no - apart from external finish, the metal parts are absolutely identical and completely interchangeable. Wingmaster gets polished, blued metalwork where the Express guns have a matt crinkle finish. The big difference is in the stock. The wood on a Wingmaster is oiled American Walnut, where wood stocks on 870 Express guns are made from beech, which has been stained to resemble walnut. Wingmaster stock has fine-cut checkering, where the Express has a stamped grip pattern. Depending on the age of the Wingmaster, there may also be very minor differences in the bead sight and barrel rib. Current 870 Express models are also sold a synthetic stock. Not as pretty as the wood on a Wingmaster, but perhaps more resistant to scrapes, scratches and water damage.

Laura clipped me on the stringer a long time ago. It's only the weigh-in that was recent :-)

Kentucky really does have some of the most unbelievable muskie fishing anywhere. I've been down there a few times, and after each trip I come away completely awestruck by the combination of good numbers and solid average size. Plus, every now and then you do see some really big fish. Coolest thing is, it's primarily a casting fishery. I wrote about this in more depth in this month's OFC digital magazine (see www.ontariofishing.net/news2009/sept2009-2.html). Load up with some Super Shad Raps, some Mepps Muskie Killers and a handful of Baby Depth Raiders, and you're all set. I have fished Cave Run Lake, with legendary muskie guide Crash Mullins, and it is amazing. Even better is Green River Lake - same fishery, but with one quarter of the pressure. If you want to have one incredible long weekend with your friends, drive down there (10 hours), stay at Emerald Island Resort (very nice lakeside accommodation, and owner Terry Brown is a great guy) and go fish with muskie guide Bill Jarboe - a tremendous character and one of the most brilliant anglers you'll ever meet. Mention you read about it on my article here, and you'll be well taken care of. Hatchery-based fishery, so it's a year-round season. Fall is (surprise) the best time to be there. The mind-blowing part is that Green River Lake also has an awesome walleye fishery - we're talking 'eyes to 10 pounds, folks - and no one touches them. It's totally untapped. Talk about a great combo for a fall trip!

But the big question is, can she cook fish? Congratulations - pretty girl, and another victory for the whole concept of "selective harvest."

I've owned a couple of 870s. Wonderful gun that will give you years and years of use with even the most minimal care. Congrats - having that history behind it just makes the gun that much sweeter. Let us know how you make out with the birds.

You know Anders I thought about your neck of the woods after I hit the "post" button and I concede, most of the Superior rivers are a bit of an exception (the Garden River circus aside). Unfortunately, in my neck of the woods it's just ridiculous. Ditto for pretty much all of the States I've visited.

Closing the season or designating the area as a fish sanctuary will accomplish nothing. These morons are already breaking a bunch of laws by blatantly snagging fish and tossing them in the bushes. Does anyone really think a closed season would deter them one bit? Every single night you can find gangs of idiots blatantly snagging or netting fish out of the existing sanctuaries on the Credit and Bronte. Laws mean nothing to these yahoos. If I didn't enjoy the lake fishery so much, I'd be all in favour of eradicating salmon altogether. It doesn't matter where you travel around the Great Lakes - anywhere there is a salmon run, you have this kind of hooligan act. It's completely sickening.

I remember reading something about the effect of water depth on lure colour in In-Fisherman a long, long time ago. They found someone who actually did some research on this and published a chart showing the depth that various colours "disappeared." Red was the first to go, at about 10 or 15 feet, followed by orange (maybe 20 feet?) and yellow (30?). Green hung on longer (think it lasted to about 50 or 60 feet) and blue was the colour that held out the deepest, at nearly 80 feet. Beyond that, everything apparently looked black. To JohnF's point, the text that accompanied the chart qualified it all as being dependent on ultra-clear water, the sun dead overhead, no algae, and a bunch of other factors. These findings were all using regular painted finishes, so no word on how fluorescent or phosphorescent finishes might compare. They didn't go into metallics either, so there was no sense on how chrome or gold plated lures might appear at different depths. It would be interesting to find out.

Hamilton is well known around the world for its delicious fishes. Nothing like a heap of Stelco Sheephead, or maybe a big plate of Dofasco Dogfish ...... mmmmmm. Tasty.