solopaddler

Exactly. From a purely selfish and unapologetic point of view that's one of the tangible benefits I was referring to.

Fished the Muskegon and Manistee back to back recently and had by far my most successful trip yet. The overall size of the fish was impressive and the numbers were unreal. Since I've been back I havn't had time for anything, but a detailed report is on the way. Until then here's a teaser: Stay tuned for the full story. Cheers, Mike

Actually you've got it all wrong. Nobody is discriminating against our American neighbours. Guaranteed EVERYONE who's responded in favour of the price increase buys a non resident NY licence every year. I definitely feel that residents of NY should not be hit with any increases, that's just not fair considering the current economic situation. Pile it all on the non residents! I'd gladly pay double or triple the current amount for the privelage of fishing down there! There'd be tangible benefits for all involved.

Great news, wish they were raising it even more.

Dude that was amazing. Thank you.

Nice fish, surprisingly chrome.

I always tip the Johnson Silver Minnows with a 3 or 4 inch twister. They've got a large single hook welded to the inside of the spoon. I'll sometimes tip my other spoons that are rigged with a large single siwash. You just thread them on the hook just like a jig head. The 4" tails are nice, they're a bit fatter but usually you've got to bite off a chunk and shorten them a bit to fit on the hook properly. Not only do the tails add action but the extra lightweight bulk causes the spoons to flutter down even slower than normal...

Check your pm's

Standard spoons already mentioned like Dardevels, Silver Minnows, Cyclops and Len Thompsons are great and I use them all at times..... But.... my ace in the hole is using salmon spoons with the treble switched out to a large siwash. The colour selections are amazing and most importantly they're light. You'll need a stiff spinning rod spooled with braid to throw them any distance, baitcasters won't cut it. Unlike standard spoons you can twitch and pause these babies slowly over the weed tops then flutter them down into the pockets. You can do things with these spoons that are impossible to achieve with standard spoons. Pike love 'em.

Good on ya bud, nice little fish.

Was wondering what you were up to Mike, glad to see you're finding the time to fish!

Can't say I disagree with your thoughts....but the fuji concept guides are different. As mentioned they're a mid frame guide.

The fuji concepts are indeed a "type" of guide. They're a mid frame guide, in between the old high frames and the standard low frames. As is the case with high frames I don't believe the mid frame concepts perform better than standard low frames. In fact not only do the low frames perform as well, they're stronger. Now that said I've got concept guides on most of my rods LOL! (I like the way they look )

Excellent fish! (Keep posting night reports and in no time at all you'll have the day shift all to yourselves LOL!)

Very nice Dave, I was wondering whether it was fishable.

solopaddler pose? (Nice bunch of fish guys!)

One more warm up today locally then we leave Tuesday morning. (You wanna tag along? )

It wasn't mine I swear!

A dozen should do.

You got that right bud.

You're right!, sorry about the slight. (Dave tied me some a few years back copying Henrys pattern)

Some nice chrome fish there bud!

Yesterday BillM and I ventured forth to a local trib in search of unpressured fish. Seems recently I've been faced with either high and dirty water or low and gin clear, no in between. Thursday was a nice change, the water was nice and high with a perfect green tint to it. Upstream the pools were filled with fish visibly spawning (left them alone). Downstream near the lake in the slower estuary water we encountered pod after pod of fresh, aggresive bright chrome fish. Almost all of them were immature jacks in the 3-4lb range. An absolute ton of fun to catch as they were by far the hardest fighting fish so far this spring. Pure muscle, just quivering with energy and almost impossible to hold when landed... Besides innumerable jacks there were a few larger specimens that surprised us now and again... While fresh roe was pretty hard to beat this type of water is perfect for jigs and flies: If any of you old timers have fished Cobourg over the years you should know Henry Lee. He's been fishing there since time immemorial, usually throwing his very cool hand carved plugs. Years ago he tied me a handful of flies that have proven to be deadly fished under a float in slower pools. This is one I've got left and it bested several bright fish yesterday: I hesitate to post all the pic's 'cause most of the fish looked virtually identical . To avoid being redundant here's just a smattering including a few action shots of both Bill and myself: Cheers, Mike

So many of you guys have chimed in saying that the fluoro is tougher, more abrasion resistant. I'm guessing you're talking the heavier lb tests for pike, musky walleye etc? 'Cause that's definitely not the case with the lighter fluoro used in a steelheading application. When light fluoro is nicked it's strength is dramatically reduced and there's no way no how any fluoro on the market is more abrasion resistant than Maxima Ultragreen. Even when that stuff feels like it's been through a cheese grater it maintains most of its strength.

Can't speak for others but as far as I'm concerned fluoro isn't the be all and end all like some make it out to be. I use it maybe 20% of the time when steelheading only when absolutely necessary (gin clear froggy water), mono the rest of the time. Learning how to read the water and present your bait properly is way more important.