BillsTheBassMan

Ugly Duckling makes a tiny chub-impression crankbait that has been good for Browns in my area. Chubs kind of eliminate any (successful) live bait imitation. You can either work with the chubs or work against them (and trust me, you don't want to work against them).

Welcome aboard Alex!

I've fished his hole 3 more times since posting. I saw him once (chased a chub minnow imitation out of his area), once was abandoned due to a mosquito convention and no bug spray, and once he was a no show. I haven't got the opportunity to properly fish him in awhile and will be going after him again this week.

It's always a pleasure seeing and reading these reports . . . extremely well done (as always). Beauty fish.

I live in a Blue-Jay infested forest and they make some obscene, high-pitched, throat clearing noises, but I don't think that is what your caller is. I was at my GF's brother's place this weekend and he has a pool. Frogs always get caught on the tarp that covers the pool. They SCREAM this exact noise that you are describing, sometimes you get 6 of them screaming it at once. It sounds like the noise should be coming from something much, much bigger, but it is just frogs. That's where my money is.

Last night I was fishing the Conestoga River and I came across something pretty interesting. I caught three browns that were smaller than fingerlings and whose tails were not clipped. The colours on these smaller fish were much brighter compared to your standard Grand River stockers - they were dotted with big red spots, and two of them had a reddish-hue like a steelhead. The Conestoga is average water AT best, and there are next to no trees and miles of farmer's fields around the river. The river is FULL of weeds. We see a lot of run-off areas from farmer's fields down to the river. Natural reproduction in these waters would be a tough test to say the least. We've both heard that there is no natural reproduction in the Grand River Watershed - is this just an urban legend? Does natural reproduction happen here? Does anyone know to what extent?

Heh, yeah. A good way to do it is estimate how long you want to fish for before you go and then add two hours to that

That is an amazing looking fish. Congrats!

Next time move up the river 15 ft and fish that side pool - LOTS of fish in there

I generally fish with Timmeh from these boards and the fishing has always been steady. We understand good water, good cover and generally how to approach areas etc. We mix up our presentations when something isn't working and there is generally a reasonable amount of communication without too much communication. The catch here is that we both really love fishing and everything about it - research, reading, practicing, studying techniques, applying those techniques etc. Oftentimes, you'll end up going out fishing with others that don't really LOVE fishing. They just want to talk and fish for "whatever" by casting "wherever" and smoke some mary-jane or drink some beers. We also have people we fish with on occasion that always keep the tunes CRANKED when we're on their boat. This reminds me of another questions I had . . . Has anyone seen a study on whether fish are attracted to aggressively loud rap beats and occasional yelling?

DING - 1pt for the quote - I thought it would be a no-brainer. It is 100% confirmed for me now, my weekend will be fishless until at least Sunday evening - sitting at the girlfriend's family's place in Wyoming (unless anyone knows some spec streams that I can sneak off too). Sigh.

Hahaha, yeah, it's great seeing a youngster with "the bug." My nephew is 6 and all he ever wants to do (besides actually fishing) is go through tackle boxes and read fishing books. Great report and great pictures. Ryan

That's a great experience for YOU to have been a part of. That man probably understands more about fishing than most pros you could pile up. I mean the entire fishing experience - not just catching fish. It sounds like it was the proverbial highlighter of his life. You should ask him if he'd be interested in sharing his experiences via an article. Anglers, and Non-Anglers alike, could really benefit from something that deep and experienced. Great Report

Have you guys heard about this Snakefish thing (more than 8 times?) I heard its as tall as a giant and shoots lightning bolts out of its ________ (movie reference guess gets you 1 point). Jokes . . . Jokes. What are everyone's fishing plans for the weekend? Are you going to get some Musky-Hunting in? Are you going to take advantage of this week's rain and go after some trout? Are you working? Or are you going to go fishless, like me, sitting at the would-be-inlaws place thinking of wandering around for spec streams.

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Phenomenal Report Ben! You truly are living in a fishing-paradise there. Beauty Bass, Pike, and Pickeral - enough to make almost any angler jealous hahaha. Always love the reports.

Thanks for the post. Not the area that I am interested in, but it could help out somebody, so right on.

That's a beauty Bruce. Much obliged and thanks a lot! If anyone has any decent stories, you can still feel free to post them, but I've got all the info I need to move forward. My search of the website came up empty for stocking, so weird that it was there the whole time.

Hello Again Everybody! I've been talking to a few old-timers recently and they were saying that finding out information on bodies of water is easy via the MNR. Specifically, I am interested in finding areas that have been stocked with ANY species of fish near my home, but not the common bodies of water that I currently fish. What is the best way to attain this information from the MNR? If you have any stories about dealing with the MNR in this manner, please feel free to share them.

You wouldn't believe it - your Oberlin comment triggered my memory. I went to the garage and found an Oberlin Bait Canteen that my grandfather used to use (back in the 60's and before). I believe they were made locally here in Kitchener (as kitchener used to be called berlin) I'll have to check the label but Im 99%. Regardless, it isn't very big and can't possibly sustain the amount of worms I'd want to maintain. I'll give it a shot just for homage-sake. Do I just do the newspaper thing with it and keep it in the garage? Ryan

Let there be rain. I'm in Wyoming all weekend, and I don't think I'll be fishing at all. Rain all weekend please

FART "Oh wow Larry, that smells really good." Just doesn't seem right to me. Granted, I'd love to be on the marketing team that plan on making commercials for this Fart Candy.

Do the worms reproduce in storage?

Great thread - I've learned a lot that will save me lots of money in the long-term! Thanks to all who contributed. I have a 6-year-old nephew that has the fishing bug and who also really likes bugs. I'll get him to harvest as many worms as possible and I will give the buried wood box with coffee, earth, and shreded moist newspaper a shot. How many worms can live in a standard size rubbermaid box? If there are too many will there be die off?

Yeah, you should check out the Southern Pike vs Northern Pike thread. I guess this "snakefish" has a primitive lung so it can live out of water and it is a close relative of the Bowfin. The thread also states that it has yet to really have a negative impact on the American fishery (I believe it was specifically the Potomac). We shouldn't get all up in arms about this threat, but being aware of it and helping to prevent its impact in anyway possible is a good place to start.