Rich

The worms will cook out. It's still safe to eat. Just make sure you cook the fish well. Kinda gross knowing you ate wormy perch though .. lol

Glad to hear my hook and corn is still the smart way to go. Just Kidding Photoz. That really bites. You'd think they'd cater more to their offshore market.

Sugarpacket, Splenda and I headed out east to Nova Scotia to visit family this week. I've never been out east before and Sugarpacket has only been during the winter. Beautiful area of Canada that's for sure. Most notably, the people out here are something else. Everybody we ran into on the rivers or in town was willing to share their fishing spots and tactics, and not only that some were actually willing to take us there or give us their hot baits. Totally different mentality from Ontario, where you ask someone where they caught their fish and they say "in the mouth". Obviously, having no experience in the area we were mostly scouting spots for the entire trip. Trout was on the agenda. The first few spots we stopped at had a few specks cruising through but we weren't having much luck. So we headed to the local tackle shop in Aylesford (Vimy Ridge Hunting & Tackle) and asked for advice. Brice Carey, the owner was very kind and not only told us the hotspots but actually wrote down directions for us. The first river we hit was the Cornwallis. Beautiful looking river. We headed here because Brice told us the smelt were running, and the browns would be up to follow them and feed on them. Brice was right. It took no time to get into enough smelts to feed the three of us. And I gotta tell ya, the sea run smelt are so much better than the lake run smelt we get in Ontario. MMMMM I see Curtis was in Nova Scotia, as he left this bottle of Colt 45 behind for us to store our catch in. The smelts were vicious, one even attacked my X-Rap. The browns were being difficult, but I did manage to get one on a rainbow trout pattern X-Rap. Another tip from Brice. Just a beautiful trout river that I will be happy to fish again next year. Of course, while I was there I had to enjoy the Nova Scotian lifestyle. Next stop on our trip was yet again the Cornwallis River, but much further up. We actually found this spot ourselves and searched for browns. First cast at one particular hole I had about a 6 pound brown come up and roll on a Panther Martin. After that, he had lockjaw. But I did manage a nice brown which some local kids helped me land. The speck fishing in Nova Scotia is amazing. Pick any creek, whether it be a ditch or a river and you'll probably get into some. We all had fun with the specks on the Cornwallis. Yesterday, Brice from the tackle shop was kind enough to offer to take us out to some of his spots. Great guy! We hit yet another section of the Cornwallis first, and the fish were lockjawed. A few hits from some specks of course, and Sugarpacket had an encounter with a nicer brown but it managed to shake the hook. After trying a few spots on the Cornwallis, Brice told us he had a guaranteed spot for numbers of specks. Sounded good to us, so off we headed about a half hour back on a fire road, which was pretty much a quad trail. Definitely some backwoods fishing. The creek was beautiful, and we were into natural run specks right off the bat. Yesterday, we ended the day with the best feed of trout I've had in years. We didn't keep more than we needed, just 2 browns and 3 specks. Best trout I've had in years. I was surprised that the browns actually tasted better than the specks. I tell ya, great eating. As much fun as we've had here, unfortunately today is our last day. 7am tomorrow we'll be on a flight to Toronto where we'll make a run to Bass Pro Shops and then head home. This is just a beautiful province. We have to give a great big THANK YOU to Brice from Vimy Ridge Hunting & Tackle as he went way above and beyond the role of tackle shop owner to take us out and give us the good spots. Thank you so much to Brice and Krina (his wife) for being so kind. If you're ever in our neck of the woods, we will be more than happy to return the favour. I'm sad to leave this area, but at the same time a little homesick. I miss my channel cats. Our original plan yesterday was to go striper fishing on the Bay of Fundy, but apparently it's just a couple weeks early for them to be running. Guess we'll have to plan our trip a little later next year.

Great laker fishing if you have access to downriggers or dipseys. Pike were introduced about 10 years back, and there are now trophy sized ones to be caught. Big large and smallmouth as well. My grandmother has a cottage on one of the smaller connecting lakes to Kushog. Fished Kushog many times and always did well. Laker fishing is good on the north end of the lake.

If your boat rental plans don't work out, there are some shore fishing spots for pike down there. Popular starting points are Port Rowan and Big Creek.

Yeah, we joked about it being an albino catfish. Truth is, most of the cats we get in this spot have the white tinge to them. Not sure why, maybe the shallow muddy water has something to do with it. They tend to be darker during the day.

Crappieperchhunter, Sugarpacket and I have been planning a trip for channel cats since the beginning of the month, and the time finally came Saturday night. When he first got here, I told him we could hit a guaranteed spot, or we could scout out a spot that I know SHOULD have cats in it. But like always, if I haven't been there, it's a gamble. He said he was up for it so we brought the bucket o' stink bait out there to give it a shot. Action was slow most of the night. I put on a float and worm and played with the bullheads for a while, and there were a couple of missed hits before dark. I kept telling CPH about our giant carp, and regretted the whole time not bringing corn to give him a taste of carp fishing in our spots. An odd event was when a fish swam up to the shoreline and sat there, docile for quite some time. Sugarpacket and CPH were having trouble determining what species it was, but I was pretty sure it was a nice crappie. Since it was so docile, I grabbed the net and brought it to shore to figure out what it was. Sure enough, it was a nice white crappie. CPH said he has never seen one before. To me, it's rarer to see a black crappie in these parts than a white one. A pic of me and my specialized crappie fishing equipment. As the night wore on, I caught mostly these. Sugarpacket tried a different approach and made the catfish some rotten meat kebobs. Finally, Sugarpacket's drag started screaming and she hooked into the one and only channel cat of the night. A good 7 pounder, which is cool because I was hoping we'd get one that big to bring home and barbecue. The interesting thing about this fish was the fact that when we got it in the net, we realized it wasn't hooked by Sugarpacket's hook. What had happened, we figured, is that long ago somebody broke this fish off while perch fishing (it had a pickerel rig down it's throat). It had grabbed her meat and her sinker became entangled with the old pickerel rig. So by the time she landed the fish, her own hook had come out. Here's the mess it left: SP and I both felt really bad for Crappieperchhunter. He came all the way down here and ended up with a skunk. Though I have to say to CPH, you were great company. I was having so much fun talking to you, that 2 or 3 times I actually forgot I was there to fish. I'd look down at my rod and realize "oh yeah, I am fishing". LOL I hope you had as great a time as SP and I both had even though the fish weren't as co-operative as I had hoped. Thanks from Sugarpacket and I both for coming out we both had a great time. We'll have to go up one day and fish in your neck of the woods for carp or perch.

Best time for cats is right now until about the end of June, but there are resident fish there year round.

Nice work buddy! And you didn't even have to go far to get 'em.

Awesome!

One of my favorites. Better than perch IMO

I was very impressed with the Raven float line. Minimum line twist and pretty good strength.

Thanks for the warning!

Small jerkbaits are what I used in florida (Husky Jerk style). Ones I see around here are tricky, they don't seem to take to well to minnows. Love to hit my flukes when I'm bass fishing though (can never get the hook set that way).

freakin' steelheaders.. i tell ya. 12 creeks in an area with 2 million people and they think they can claim ownership over one. When does musky open again?

Awesome shots though!

Awesome man, you weren't kidding about pimpin' that 'tooner. Sweet mods. We'll have to race ya in the bass hound sometime out there

If you did break the rules, who cares! Judging by those reflexes, you'd have the CO's gun out of his holster and pointed at him before he had a chance to ask for your license!

At that particular spot you need a good spinning reel with lots of line and a long rod. The fish are sitting about 75 feet out. You just weren't getting to them!

Sleded and I had a late start tonight as we headed to the cat hole. On the way down to the spot, there was thousands of worms, so I picked a half dozen and threw them in my pail for the heck of it. I started off by balling like all 6 on the hook, and nailed the first fish of the night which was of course, a bullhead. Sleded opted for the sucker meat, as that has been the ticket in previous years. Good choice. It wasn't too long and he was into his first, which broke off. Not long after, he was into # 2 and this one was a good one. While he was reeling this fish in and I was getting the net ready, I heard a loud SNAP near us but thought nothing of it. After releasing the cat I looked over and realize that I had just had a monster hit. I always thought the Y-Stick was an impenetrable bind of fortitude, but it turns out they don't handle big cats very well. After completely missing this fish obviously, I re-baited with sucker meat. Then the storm hit. We were surrounded by lightning and thunder, and to be honest it kinda scared me to be standing on a riverbank with a 9 foot lightning rod in my hand. As we were packing our things, my rod fired off. Yes, I was into my first landed channel cat of 2008, and a pretty good one at that. We tried to ride it out a bit hoping the storm would fade, but indeed it intensified and I said nope, this ain't worth risking my life. We headed home. Even though mother nature cut our trip short, it was an awesome time and I can't wait to get out again! This is one of my favorite times of the year. Nothing fights quite like a big old cat. Thanks for the trip Sleded.

Awesome! Keep up the reports Steve. I'll be down for a visit as soon as I can make it! PS: Do you have those circle hooks in stock you had last year? Would like to get my grubby paws on some. My hooks are terrible, way too many lost fish.

Don't forget some glow in the dark Cleos!

Looks like a musky bait to me!

Yep, been at 'em for a couple weeks now. Lots of fun to catch and great cat bait if you're into that. Never thought of fly fishing for them, could be a fun thing to try tonight.