solopaddler

Very cool, you sir are a kindred spirit . And you're right about the Hudson Bay watershed spec's, especially rivers like the Asheweig and Fawn that are still on the shield. Those monstrous coal black red bellied fish are river bred, not sea run.

I agree it's hard to pick just one, but if forced to choose....paddling solo on the Asheweig system in N/W Ontario I caught a 26" male brook trout, guestimated at 8lb's.

Great report man, that's pretty incredible fishing for that particular spot, especially with the bluebird weather!

Mike, as far as I'm concerned you've got yourself the ultimate boat, congrat's!

Mental note: make sure to bring rubber snake when fishing with Cliff 'Till next time bud!

The ones that look fresh are the few fully recovered dropback fish I mentioned in the report. They likely finished spawning a few weeks back and have been slowly filtering their way downstream regaining their strength and chrome colour. Not a fresh run fish in the bunch...

Great stuff Joey! Regardless of the consequences it sure is nice to bask in the warm sun after the winter we've had.

My bad, no it's in Grimsby actually.

Yep still in Dundas, 'till July anyway (maybe June).

What a gorgeous spring day! Bluebird skies, warm temp's, just enough breeze to keep things cool, and the always welcome company of my bud Paul (paulus on the OFC board). Big bonus was we pretty much had the river to ourselves, gotta love it! The river was running quite high making wading a bit dicey in spots. Paul went over the top of his waders during one particularly treacherous crossing, on the plus side it WAS a warm day so it was more refreshing than anything else . With the high off coloured water long leads in the neighborhood of 12-15', 12-15gram floats, tons of shot, heavy tippet, and large bright baits were the order of the day. Usually this time of year the bulk of the fish are dropbacks, but fully recovered, pure chrome and full of fight. The fish we caught were dropbacks, but mostly tired haggard looking fish barely finished spawning and covered with battle scars. We did catch a good number of recovered ones though, and those fights were epic . Based on what I experienced today the fishing should remain good for quite a while yet. One added bonus was 2 mature bald eagles soaring high above us in the warm air currents: Paul snapped a shot of this little guy sunning himself on the warm rocks: Took this picture to show the size of the baits. I was running a #8 Gamagatsu hook with a huge hunk of chartreuse yarn and an appropriately sized bright coloured roe bag. Don't be fooled by the seeming clear water closer to shore. Out in the main flow it was quite dirty... Overall the day started off a bit slow then at 9:30 it was like a switch was turned on and we began to hook fish like crazy: Battle scarred hen: Paul caught a few too: Paully hard at work (can you tell he's a happy man? ): Some of these pic's aren't the greatest as apparantly I didn't notice my lens was covered with water droplets...ah well still better then nothing : This one's outstanding I thought: A dirty double, one of many on the day: I havn't seen our new house since we first looked at it over a month ago, (closing is in July), so I stopped for a quick look on the way home to show Paul and he snapped this pic. Doesn't show the property entirely, but you get the idea : More than anything else I'm just ecstatic over our upcoming move and new abode. Currently we're living in a 2 bedroom house and there's 4 of us (Joanne, myself and the kids). The math just doesn't work. Can't wait for more space! That's it! It was a golden day, one for the books for sure. Now it's back to work. I've got a bathroom reno calling to me . Cheers, Mike

Of course you're 100% right. Except when you're on a canoe trip and carrying everything on your back. Then the stringer is your best option. No problem here with fish getting mushy from warm sunny water. It's Algonquin Park in May...

St. Mary's rapids in the Soo. It gets better later in May and into June. Big water though, it can be intimidating.

I already thought about the cupholder, but where would she put it? Naw, that's pushing it I think. What you need is one of those redneck caps with the drink holders on each side and a hose snaking into your mouth.... (I've got every angle covered! )

Now if you could get her to hold up a small portable tv with a playoff game on at the same time you were enjoying the other 2 pastimes...now THAT would be the ultimate!

Most of our trib's have a year round open season in their lower stretches. Personally I just don't see the attraction of steelhead fishing on the inland trout opener when the best fishing is long past.

That's more than just a simple move, it's a major life change. Good luck!

Well that's simple, use a stringer. (Or as I like to call it, my "Cronzy" . I call my net and fillet knife Cronzy as well. As in "Hurry up and pass me the Cronzy I've got a nice one on here!, we need a couple more to Cronzy up for shore lunch!!"

Said the pot to the kettle .

A spinner? Cast it out, let it sink, and reel it back in. There's not too much more you can do. The French or Colorado style of blades will turn a lot easier than the longer thinner willoweleaf style. Mepps Aglia long and Rooster Tail are examples of the latter... Make sure to tip your spinner with half a nightcrawler, it makes a huge difference... All lures will perform exactly the same regardless of the depth. The only variable being if mono is used in deep water it tends to stretch a lot and you don't get the same sense of feel or instant response that braid offers.

With gas prices being what they are, for me shopping online is the only way to go. I love Cabelas, by far the best . As far as returns go, yeah the stuff goes to Windsor I think, but when I've needed the exchange pronto Cabelas has always called the Canadian depot for me, confirmed the presence of my returned item, and expedited the shipping of my new item. Never a long turnaround at all. You do have to call customer service and explain the situation though..

You lucky sod . Congrat's!

When I mentioned bell sinkers in reference to the Wolf River rig here's a couple of sketches of the rig: Nothing could be simpler and you can rig up this way with whatever tackle you've got. Obviously this is a rig designed primarily for trolling when using it in lakes. I'd recommend some kind of braid (I like 20lb Power Pro) as your main line on your reel. On average about 6' of 8lb mono to whatever lure you're using, and on the dropper the bell sinker is tied to 1-3' of slightly lighter mono. That way if your sinker snags that's all you lose... (And yes the blackflies can be bad. Bring a headnet! )

Check your pm's bud.

I've fished Algonquin for 25 years. Late May is absolutely enequivocally NOT too late for either specks or lakers. In fact I've found it to be far more consistent than the first 2 weeks after ice out. The lakes are completely turned over, still cool enough at the surface, and much more "alive" with many more insect hatches and minnows in the shallows... If you can stand the blackflies fishing will be prime. As far as lure choices go spoons like the #2 EGB, 1/4oz Cleos, Williams and Dardevels are good for specks. #2 spinners tipped with a worm are also good (I like copper coloured Blue Fox or EGB spinners if you can find them). I've also had huge success in the park with perch coloured stickbaits and crankbaits for both specks and lakers. Smaller sizes for the specks, larger for lakers. #5 to #9 deep diving Shad Raps work great, as well as Husky Jerks and floating Rap's. Most of the larger interior lakes, Dickson and Lavielle being prime examples, have large populations of perch and trout like to eat them. . 1/4 oz jigheads tipped with a white 3 or 4 inch twister tail have also been very productive for me for both species. The plus is you can work them in a wide variety of ways, very versatile. For specks concentrate on shoreline structure like large fallen trees, beaver huts, inflows and outflows. Windswept shorelines are also good to key on as well as obvious neckdowns and narrows, especially if they contain shoreline structure. Work it slowly and thoroughly. For lakers at that time of year I personally like to concentrate my efforts on mid lake shoals and humps. The park has depth maps of most of the larger more popular lakes and they seem to be pretty accurate. They're absolutely worth their weight in gold. If I'm not doing a huge amount of portaging I always bring in a tiny portable fishfinder to help in locating the mid lake structure. If you have a blue bird day and the fish are a bit deeper you can run your lighter spoons or stickbaits off a 3-way (Wolf River) rig, with a 3/4-11/2oz bell sinker on the dropper. Have a fantastic trip bud and good luck!

Now that's funny! How about the "If I can touch you with my 15' rod you're too close!" section?