I'mHooked

Well for those that saw the other thread about the new toy being the Okuma Rage II Centre Pin Reel, I quickly decided that the new pin on the old 10½' Pfluger just wasn't going to cut it. I picked up a 13' St. Croix Avid Steelhead (AVS130MLM2) rod at Burns Fishing on Monday night, as I thought I'd better just start with all the right gear from the beginning! http://www.stcroixrods.com/product/avid-series-spinning To others it may come across as a less than stellar outing, but to me it was worth it's weight in gold! Decided yesterday was going to be the perfect day to hit the banks of a "rather large" river. (You know, that big one that dumps more water than the others combined into Lake O ) Had my Father-in law with me. We reached the parking area around 9am. After the exceptional hike to where we wanted to fish, we were at waters edge by about 9:30. Had his rod rigged up the night before, so just had to throw some roe on it (Brown roe from fish caught last year) and get him in the water. Rigged up the new set up which took another 5 minutes and got some roe on mine. 1st 'side cast' with the new pin and got it about 12 feet from shore in 6 feet of water. FIL says "hey, my bobber went down!" (he's 85 years old, but still does everything a 65 year old can do!) As I'm saying "set the hook" my float disappears!!! Double header, 1st drift, 1st time using centre pin! He's got a small maybe 2½ pound steelhead. I grab the net with my free hand and land it for him while hanging on to my new favorite rod. After a nice aerial display about 20 feet from shore and 2-3 more minutes of give and take, trying not to horse it like the Musky from last month, the leader breaks and it's gone. Well I'm pretty stoked just getting to play and experience the action of the rod and reel. Using 5.6# Dai-Riki Fluro leader, it broke at the swivel knot. 3 hours later...after having witnessed at least 4 nice Chrome fish breaking the water...1 jumps about 15 feet in front of us just as I was setting to cast a new drift. I said "Ted watch this!" and landed the roe right in the centre of the splash rings..1, 2, fish on!! :clapping: Checked my watch, then played the fish for 5 minutes being extra careful not to stress the leader, when...you guessed it...leader broken at the swivel AGAIN!! Of course now I'm getting in a thick polish accent "Baaghh, why do you need that leader material? I've never used it in all my years! It's too light!". Well my response was "That's what all the PROS on OFC said to use! " Ok, 7-8 minutes total of fishing fighting, which in itself is lots of fun, but time to land something!! Another hour goes by, and I've run out small bags (clear 6' visibility!), so I hook on the last pink trout worm I had and let'er rip. 3rd drift and the float disappears. Pull back on it and nothing budges. Great, bottom again with only pink worm. Well all of a sudden the "bottom" started to run away from me. BIG FISH on!! Damn, I couldn't move this things head if my life depended on it, and knowing how much you guys NEED pictures, I felt my life DID depend on it! Gotta be carefull with this one. Swivels were changed. Fresh leader. 8 minutes later of this brute TEASING me because I couldn't do anything to get him moving a direction I wanted, it heads away from our pool and straight for open current in main channel! I've got the clicker on so FIL can hear the action. This thing is screaming and guessing about 60-70 yards out when I knew it was not going to end well. Fish takes a turn and drags main line across 6 foot high boulder at corner of inlet. Fish gone. Any guesses on what the weight of an 8 minute played fish on 5.6# leader that couldn't be moved might be? Based on previous bottom bouncing outings and landing some 8-13 pounders, I'm guessing this guy had to have been in the 10-15 pound range. Another fun thing to see was twice during a retrieve, I had follows by what looked to be about 24" fish right up to 1 foot depth only 2 feet from shore at our feet. Saw them about 12-15 feet out and just continued the retrieve hoping one would take, but didn't happen. Never seen fish follow roe in to shore like that. Was quite cool to see. For having not landed any fish (of mine), the "in total" 15 minutes of fish fighting was worth every minute of it. Rod worked great, reel is still a work in progress, elbow a little sore, but one heck of day still! So, sorry, no fish pictures.

Decided to bite the bullet and go for broke. Picked up a 13' St. Croix Avid (AVS130MLM2) Steelhead rod to pair with the new reel. Out in the back yard trying to figure how to use the damn thing...good thing no body was watching!

Outstanding outing! Glad to hear your back in the saddle. Great looking fish.

Yah, yah, we know you can catch musky in your sleep, but that sure is a nice Smallie! Nice looking Blue Zone fish as well. We'll see if we can add some nice "river" specimens to your tally for the year also. Oh, don't forget about this one: Just showing off for the camera again eh!

What size main line would you recommend? Nice incidental Solo.

Yes, I've been sitting in front of the TV at night going "look honey, this thing spins forever!" with a bit of a glazed eye look! I'm hoping to be a lot happier than with cold coily spinner drifting. Was getting a little frustrating. "Bow chica wow wow" Well, there's still Christmas coming! Know any good places to catch Musky? Didn't order it. Hadn't even seen it before. Walked in to Fishing World to look at Ravens, and decided on this after a little fondling. (The wife just doesn't understand ) They still had at least one more in stock. Going to try and hit a rather large, high flowing river in the next week or so. Do you guys agree with 50 yards of 20# for backing under 8# main line?

Wohoo! Finally took the next big step in my fishing addiction...bought new gear! Some may think that after my rather successful 1st time Musky fishing 2 weeks ago, I'd be loading up with some Musky gear. (for those that missed it: http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=57904 ) I'm sure John may even be a little disappointed it's not a new St.Croix Legend Tournament Musky rod, but hey, there are other worthy species out there as well. That's where today comes in. Been getting frustrated the last few years trying to drift on fast moving water with a frozen spinning reel, so here's the new toy: Was looking at the Sheffield as well as some of the Ravens, but settled on the new Okuma Raw-II. Looks reel nice (at least I think anyhow), and seems to spin forever. Now, I'm still only paired with a 10½ foot Pflueger Trion HM45 Graphite light action rod, but it's been serving a purpose the last few years, and it's going to get me broken in on the new 'pin' I'll just have to figure out how to sneak a 13½ footer through the front door one of these days! Anyone else used this reel yet? Love to hear how it handles. Now just have to figure out how to use the damn thing!

Wow, great looking fish! Great read as well. Thanks.

Beautiful fish. Worth some wet socks!

I think it was one with Red & Black skirt and Silver blades? John was throwing it so I only recall it from seeing it being thrashed around when the his line was getting sliced. Tag...you're it Terry! (I've stayed home this weekend to give you a chance ) Thanks for everyones kind feedback , I attribute all our success to John's ability to put us right on top of them! Good luck to those hunting them this weekend!

It may be hard to believe, but we were actually banging our heads because we didn't land those extra 2! We were close to it being 4 each for the one day. We had some success with grey, blue & black bulldogs on a continuous jerk, stop & reel retrieve. I'll tell, it sure was a nice feeling when another boat got close to us and we asked how they were doing, they had nothing, we replied "Oh, we've only landed 3 so far ...we're hoping it'll pick up a little"

Well my buddy who'd already landed 48 Musky this season so far described Saturday as his best outing ever, so maybe I was the goodluck charm. While he was telling me how challenging it can be to find them and get them to commit, it sure seemed like we were dialed in that day! Lost 1 fish on the troll with the double 10's cowgirl. Set the hook and the line just came flying back to the boat with nothing on the end of it!

Yes it is a rush, and what disposible income? I was going to pick up my 1st centre pin reel in the next few weeks too! Damn...Musky or Steel

Well, all I can say is I'M HOOKED (sorry, but it's true!). Met up with Cowanjo last Friday 6pm at the lake (Kawarthas) and we were trolling by 6:15 for a couple of hours. Nothing. After breakfast Sat. were out in the boat battling the wind and waves. Ended up finding some sheltered spots for casting some heavy plastics, ie. Bulldogs etc. Well, it ended up being a productinve day with 6 Muskie landed and 2 others lost. There was some serious battling going on, and I was a Musky virgin to boot! What a thrill!! 1st fish went to Cowanjo: 2nd, to me at 43" What a fight!! Another fighter, The other fish caught are on his camera still at the cottage. We had a fish that was hooked doing the figure 8 right at boat side, with a few other follows to the boat that didn't commit. We had 1 fish take a Handlebarz spinner right at the boat. He jumped & thrashed as soon as the hook was set and sliced the braid with it's gill plate...fish gone...nice Handlebarz lure gone as well. Oh well, them's the breaks! They were all brought in on 80# braid with 100# flouro leaders on St. Croix Legend Tournament rods. Oh, and to answer the question from a few weeks ago about the Curado 300E vs. round baitcaster, I was casting for a total of 13-14 hours over the course of the weekend and fighting what in my mind are some pretty decent fish (for 1st time!), and have nothing but praise for the 300E! didn't tire me out & pulled the fish in quick! All fish released to be caught another day, a couple had the trebles snipped by some heavy duty bolt cutters and none the worse for wear. I've never had so much fun being soaking wet, with the boat deck covered in hail at one point. Kidneys a little worse for wear after some of the cross lake excursions. Hopefully have a few more pics from the other camera next week to add. Thanks for looking. Hey Cowanjo, don't forget to bring the camera back this weekend!!

Simon, I'm so sorry to hear of this. Suzanna is heart broken for you. Our condolences.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective. Live and let live.

The lead guy she hit won't have anything to do with it, unless there is front end damage to your car and trying to claim it. When rear ended from behind the person hitting from the rear is at fault, so your GF shouldnn't have any issues. If the lead guy was making a report as well, your gf's defense is that she was pushed into him, but that's not the case (he not making report).

Did he get a new sub-troll and cannon ball for his b-day? Happy Birthday Simon.

Paul is great guy to be fishing with. Knows his stuff. My avatar pic is my 1st Lake Trout caught with him. That's one heck of a smallie! (Kind of an oxymoron)

All you need is some bananas! (ps. pictures on your other post!)

Circle of life! Poor ducky...at least momma has a few others to keep her occupied. She won't even miss it by the end of the day!

Ah, you're killin' me! Nice fish! When's the official OFC Bed & Breakfast open at your place?

Ok, ok, well it's not photobucket, but I have managed at least these: Good looking crew! Yes, those are bananas that almost blend in with the banana coloured shirt. The intense "please don't let this one break off" determination with this guy was increadible! (Good thing you had a capable net attendent )

Well, with what I recall of your reaction to the 13+lb PB 'bow a few weeks ago, I can only imagine the colourful language on this haul! See...you posting video is like me posting pictures! Looks like was an awesome outing. Any bananas on the boat? Maybe that's why the cable broke?

Hey Simon, I was waiting for your 500th post before my report on our outings as well! (I haven't had a tonne of time and still haven't navigated through that Photobucket thingy you pointed me towards. ) I know, I've still got a picture of a nice salmon in one hand and a bunch of bananas in the other! Who knew you weren't supposed to bring bananas fishing. Great pics. I'll TRY to get a few of ours up as well. Oh yah, and thanks for doing the charity portion of things for Fishing for Tyler. As you know Sue, Brent & I had a great time!