solopaddler

Unbelievable, what a day! (I've got a feeling Peter will be getting some pm's )

Great read Drew, thanks bud.

Glad to hear you got your deer, congrat's!

Congrat's bud!

In your initial post you didn't mention whether it was loose mature eggs or skein that you scraped out. Interesting, I've never in my life air dried mature eggs, only skein that's been scraped. Always just water hardened with river water, then blotted on paper towels and frozen. That being said you should be just fine. The process you described (minus the air drying) is exactly what I do with my eggs. (and you're right brown eggs do tend to work better imo)

Nice job on the fish buddy.

To quote Adam Sandler: "Words! All I'm seeing is words! Each one more meaningless than the last!"

You're a funny guy Stan . Nice story and thumbs up on hooking a couple!

Just a quick comment... Generally speaking if you're faced with low, clear conditions there's always fish to be caught low down in the systems. The deep, slow, winding seemingly featureless lower ends of the rivers close to the lake. Rivermouths and piers are also an obvious spot. Trust me they havn't all shot upstream, there's tons of fish staging at the moment...

Good going Joe, nice to see you got out with your dad.

Now that's what I call a bow-nanza! Nicely done boys.

Sadly, it was.

Nice fish bud! How the heck did you manage to get that spot on a weekend? LOL! I've yet to fish it even on weekdays...always shoulder to shoulder.

I find it hard to fish with anything less than a 5" reel anymore which limits my options. That said of the 5" reels I do own the top 3 would be 1.fully ported Mykiss, 2. 5" Angling Specialties and 3. Kingpin The Mykiss's startup is the best and it's incredibly light. Problem is they're somewhat hard to find... I've got another custom 5" reel currently on the way. Guy in Ohio made a small batch of 30 and the spec's seem pretty darn good so I'm cautiously optimistic it'll be a good one.

I've been running one of the new 5" models all fall. Nice reel, worth aquiring if you prefer a 5" reel which I do but it's not my favourite reel. I've had some minor problems with the clicker spring popping off but nothing that would disuade me from purchasing one.

Well I only used it at the Saugeen, it's a big water stick as you know, so can't really say. Incredible power for such a thin blank that's for sure... I'll give you the definitive rundown after the Michigan trip this week.

So, last Thursday night my buddy Fergie calls me to say he can't make it Fri/Sat. We had plans to head to Ohio to meet up with a friend of mine who lives down there for 2 days of fishing. Looong drive when you're alone, so I decided against going. Still, I had 2 free days. The kids were being dropped off at my sister's place for a sleepover and Joanne had things planned for both days herself. Couldn't possibly let this opportunity go to waste . Friday morning I started locally at Port D. The browns had been hitting pretty good earlier in the week so I thought why not? After arriving at the pier I noticed a familiar looking boat drifting in the current. Turned out to be a couple buddies of mine and they were more than happy to welcome me aboard. Excellent! I've got no pic's to show you mainly 'cause I didn't catch anything . That's the way she goes sometimes! While I was with them the other boys caught a couple of browns and 1 lake trout though, but it certainly wasn't fast and furious. I did have a fat female brown on and right up to the side of the boat before the hook pulled free. Around 11am I said my goodbyes and left the boys drifting. I shot home, packed the car and hit the hwy north. Suddenly I had an urge to fish the Saugeen . I figured it would be good as I'd heard a couple of reports that the water was up, in prime shape and the fish were in. The only concern was rain. I drove through a literal monsoon approaching Southampton and it never stopped from that point on. I arrived at 4:30pm so I didn't have much time to waste. I quickly donned my waders and headed to the dam. Not a spot I normally bother with, but time was of the essence.. The river was up, slightly off coloured and just rippin'. In the rainy, murky gloom I saw 3 guys with fish on at the same time, rods dancing and bucking as they struggled to follow these fresh powerhouse fish downstream. I managed to squeeze into a spot and with about 30 mins of light left my float shot under and I was suddenly attached to a bolt of lightning. The fish, a good one, shot through the tailout and sped downriver through another riffle before I could blink. Stumbling after it as best I could the fish made one wild leap and spit the hook... Ah well... I snapped a quick pic of the pool before the rain and approaching darkness drove me from the river: Now I had decision to make, what to do? The 'geen is one of my favourite rivers, but with all the rain I was afraid Saturday might be a write off. Rather than potentially be faced with blown conditions I decided to head east to Georgian Bay. Those rivers (the smaller ones at least) would be a much safer bet in my experience... Pulled into town around 8pm, checked into a motel, wolfed down some fast food and a beer and passed out. The next morning I arrived at the mouth of the river in darkness. As best I could tell the water was up and off coloured but definitely fishable. Already both banks were lined with guys fishing with small glowsticks on their floats. I walked over to the east side and found a nice flat rock to stand on.. Now this is cool . It was really still too dark to see my float, but I couldn't resist lobbing a cast out anyway. I threw it out there blindly, and after about 10 seconds I feel this huge tug on my line. I thought it was one of guys across from me that I was entangled with. Great start I thought.. I slowly pull back (no hook set) and a fish erupted right in front of me apparantly attached to the end of my line. Great start indeed . Ended up doing quite well. Without getting into numbers it was by far the best day I've had up there in a while. Didn't get a ton of pic's, but I did get a few: I just bought a smoker last week and decided that I'd keep a couple of these chrome beauties to try out. Near the end of the day I dispatched a couple and filleted them up. Check out the meat, yum! Fantastic couple of days even being solo! Cheers, Mike

That's the thing, you can cut the lead into various lengths depending on water speed/depth. Exact weight is a guess as you're cutting chunks of it off a long roll...

Thanks Dave, perfect diagram!

Good things tend to happen to people who need a boost the most. I truly believe that. Congrat's!

Sorry that went right over my head . (sounds like we're on the same wavelength)

Well done Joe, nice fish!

Maybe east of T.O. .... Bigger rivers it's not easy to cast as far as you can with a spinning reel (without sidecasting and putting horrendous twist in your line). Plus the braid is key. Unless you run it on your pin which I wouldn't recommend (it freezes), you're at a disadvantage. You feel everything with braid.

13' Rainshadow float blank rated 6-10 built into a spinning rod. (My bottom bouncing machine) Spinning reel loaded with 15lb Power Pro tied to a 3-way swivel. Chunk of surgical tubing lashed to the bottom swivel with a piece of pencil lead shoved into it. Tippet length varied from 2-5'. Down there fluoro tippet is a recipe for trouble 'cause it gets so abraded from the zebra mussels. Because of that I use 6lb Maxima Ultragreen. #12 Kamasan sedge hook and nickel to quarter sized roe bags tied in charteuse with no floaters in them (although sac's with floaters would've likely worked even better). Cast across and slightly upstream, close your bail and let your bait swing past and below you ticking bottom all the way. As mentioned strikes are usually obvious.

You're a sponge Cliff! (You're welcome to fish with me anytime, you know that.)