solopaddler

Good job bud sounds as though you were right, what goes around comes around.

It's prime and has been fishing very well since Sat. Getting lower and clearer each day.

Wayne you might be surprised. I dragged my Dumoine for over a 1000 km's with nothing more than scratches on the gel coat.

As far as canoes go anything less than 16' is basically useless. If you can afford it go with standard kevlar. Not quite as pricey as U.L. or expedition kevlar but still light enough to carry. I've paddled a ton of different canoes. My flatwater boat for years was a Swift Kipawa. Solo boat was an asymetrical Swift Dumoine built with one sliding seat in the middle. Both designs have strengths and weaknesses.... If I had to pick one canoe to be an all around craft I'd have to agree with Bill Mason and say that the time tested prospector design would be it in a 16' length. Many different manufacturers have copied this classic design. Unlike many of the newer asymetrical designs the prospector is symetrical. This means if you want to paddle solo you can sit in the bow seat facing stern and paddle in that direction and the craft will still track perfectly. It handles fantastically in both flat and moving water, is very stable and can haul huge loads. Of the many that are available I'd have to say I'm partial to the Nova Craft Prospector. As far as motors for your 12' tinny go, if you're going to use it in back lakes where you might have to carry it I'd go with a 6 horse.

Correct. Not sure where some of the info has come from, but the river has been in prime shape for several days now.

Agreed, the old 1300 Whisker is a great reel that I still occasionaly use. I'm currently fishing with a Stradic 2500 MGF, great drag, love it.

Ah yes the old one arm (also known as the Izumi special LOL!). Good one bud, (at least I wouldn't be in a speedo or a woman ), but fellow steelhead anglers frown on the gill hold. I do like the 2nd one though I think I'll give it a shot.

Once again keep trying. (Sorry if I just squashed your fantasy Doug)

Ummmm...no, keep thinkin'!

Nice clean looking fish Carole! I've said it before Cliff but you're a lucky guy. The thought of Joanne waiting for me at home so she could shoot out the door steelheading is pretty cool. So is winning the lottery, getting struck by lightning and getting that pony I've always wanted for Christmas. None of them are ever going to happen.

That would've been a perfect excuse but no I was just lazy.

Hey that's my line!! (you catch on fast)

Just for Sinker's sake (and yours) I had planned on inventing some new and bizarre poses. Didn't do it this time, the creative juices just weren't flowing. So what would you have me do?

Nice fish buddy, can't believe you forgot everything except pinkies LOL! That there is a sign of true passion. Only someone who still has the fire burning in his belly would get that pumped up.

Nope you're not seeing things, there was one pic of a brown. Caught a bunch actually, most were a little more silvery and all of them were feeding like crazy on minnows. (White jigs were deadly)

Yep

A long time ago an old timer told me "when in doubt fish low". Now he wasn't referring to stance, but meant, fish as close to the lake as possible. Those words have stuck with me over the years and it's proven to be sage advice. On most rivers regardless of the season there's usually always going to be catchable numbers of fish in the rivers estuary. Whether it's fresh run fish that are staging or darker dropback fish, there's almost always something.... The added bonus of larger (albeit slower) water and more room for the fish to play makes it an easy choice, especially on most of the smaller watersheds (I despise small skinny water). With that in mind my good friend Fergie, his 10 year old son Liam and myself headed for one of my favourite estuaries last Friday. The conditions couldn't have been better, the water was just starting to clear after a huge blowout and the daytime temps looked warm. We had good reason to expect numbers of both freshies and spent fish and we weren't dissapointed. The last time we dragged Liam along with us he was really into it, this time not so much. Over the course of the 2 days he fished a total of 5 minutes. The rest of the time he spent crawling around in the bush by himself building survivorman forts and spying on people LOL! Ferg outfitted him with a 2-way radio so they were in constant contact (pretty good idea I thought), and by all accounts he had a blast. Kids, go figure eh? Anyhow on to the fish. We both caught enormous numbers of fish, the vast majority being bright chrome jacks. Not huge, but a pile of fun on the long light rods. Just to make things interesting we were surprised every now and again by larger spunkier versions. No need to finesse these fish, we caught them on anything and everything. Most were tricked using thumbnail sized bags of fresh roe, but many more were caught on a variety of jigs, flies and small pink and white worms. The roe worked best early on when the water was still cold. As the days warmed up and the fish became more aggressive the artificials really shined. When using jigs and flies in such slow froggy water, twitching and occasionally popping the float every so often resulted in more strikes......and they were absolutely savage. Breathtaking really . Enough chatter, on to the pic's. As mentioned the mornings were quite cold. There were still vestiges of winter to be found in various cool, dark recesses.... I thought this pic was priceless. I caught a fish early on and dragged it to shore to unhook it. After releasing the fish I turned around and this was the sight. I had just put my net down maybe 20 seconds earlier Without getting into a detailed description for each pic I'll let them speak for themselves. Suffice it to say these are a fraction of the numbers we caught....it was surreal. Great trip! Cheers, Mike

You..............are..............now..............officially............A STEELHEADER! (Everything has it's time and place but roe will still consistently outfish all)

Algonquin is closed to all fishing 'till the last Sat in April. (Unless you're a member of the Golden Lake band.)

Nice goin' bud. So I'm guessing you havn't picked up a centrepin reel yet?

Was thinking 18ish myself, awesome fish.

Silvio very impressive fish! Did you manage to put a tape measure on it?

Shad Raps and I'd be in for a couple dozen.

Everybody. What you didn't know?

I was just thinking it must be close to the time for your new arrival . Congratulations to the both of you, you've got yourselves a beautiful looking boy!