solopaddler

Dont let them get you down mike, I enjoy reading your reports and do think you are an awesome steelheader.

Experience shows.

Not looking for kudos, but thanks.

Nothing more than being excited about my trip and wanting to share, (a least with some of you).

Fact is I don't normally bother with this many pic's but one of my

buddies this weekend is an excellent photograher and was willing

and eager to take the pictures, something which rarely happens.

In any case the guy with the thinly veiled criticism pm'd me with a comment about

all the extra crowds I'll be sending to the river.

I've recently attempted to post only pic's with no background....unless you were fishing

with me on the weekend does anyone here really know for sure where I was?

You might have an idea, but you'd most likely be wrong. I'd bet on it.

BTW, if anyone else has a problem with my posts I'd appreciate it if you were upfront

with your criticism and why. Sarcasm is pretty obvious.

Congrat's, nice fish!

Nice report and great bunch of pic's bud, thanks for posting.

Great report Joey! (btw, nice fish!)

Nice report Cliff, sounds like a great time despite the slow fishing!

You're the best steelheader ever. Wow.

Had a great time out on the water with you and a few old friends I haven't seen in a while on Saturday!

Definetly quality company as well as fishing...

 

FUSION.

Yep, it was a stellar day and it made it even better bumping into you guys!

i recall someone around the merland bonfire talking about a solopaddler.... :whistling:

Uh oh, LOL!

Man oh man I love the month of November!

We had a bit of a drive this weekend so we decided to leave Friday evening for our destination: Fleabag Motel located amidst steelhead central, LOL!

The place was a bit of a rathole, but hey it's somewhere to hang your hat, a great place to socialize with other fishermen, and we were nice and fresh for the onslaught which ensued Saturday morning .

The river had risen due to snowmelt a couple of days before and we were hitting it on the drop, bang on the nose. Couldn't ask for better timing really......

Saturday started a wee bit slow due to the turbid water, but by around 10am right through both days it was fish after fish with many double and triple headers.

Initially fish were caught on oversized chartreuse "choker" bags because of the water clarity. Once things cleared up pretty much anything you wanted to use caught fish, LOL!

I used and did indeed catch a bunch of fish on Jason's (Basskicker on the board) hand poured steelhead baits.

Thanks buddy they were awesome!

The egg clusters caught a few fish, but the pink worms were killer!

Here's a few pic's from the weekend:

Lots of fish in pristine surroundings and a lot of laughs shared with a couple of good

friends.

It just doesn't get any better!

Cheers, Mike

Mike, you'd better go fishing! Cabin fever is setting in!! GO!!

hehe, I think you're right. Leaving in about an hour .

Just messing around .

Just wanted to thank Jason publicly, you're a good man bud!

Jason had asked me if I'd try out his handpoured steelhead baits

and offer him some feedback.

Naturally I was eager to oblige .

So about an hour ago purolator drops off a package for me:

There's absolutely no doubt they'll work great!

Thanks again bud, you're a true inovator .

Mike

Cool stuff TJ!

Gotta love the good old Flatfish (or was it a Kwikfish?) for walleye.

Deadly bait that's been around forever and has kind of fallen by the wayside

when it comes to walleye fishing.

I've got the same motor. Mainly use it on my 16' squareback, but I have used it on a 14' boat and it worked just fine.

Great for trolling!

If you can get it for a good price I'd grab it. Those little 2hp motors are nice to have for a lot of different uses..

cheers

HAHAHA! Farm trout?

Hey Paul nice going buddy!

Awesome, just awesome .

Your daughters a cutie bud!

"kitten eating smile" HAHAHA!

That's hilarious man! I made the exact same comment to Cliff when he fished with me, "figured you'd show a little more excitement bud, c'mon!"

Yep there's no doubt the man is coool. Icy in fact.

Maybe he's an internet posting android?

I did throw down. Haha. I saw them downtown a few days later. I unleashed some Bunk justice. After upgrading to the protein simswiches of course.

That's the spirit! .

(it's all in fun Rich)

Did you miss all the other important things you should do first Rich.

 

First "wit" (go to school, read, get yer thinkings all in order and stuff)

 

Second, Workout (you know... exercise, get healthy... for you that means 6 less Simswiches a day and only half a case of Wildcat)

 

if and when all your joints are lined up in order, your floaters are all aligned and the rabbit ears on your B&W are getting your favorite TV show "Size Small" on the UHF well....

 

then grease, grease, grease... pause, see if they swing, then pounce and beat. OK, first try being polite, then do everything I said.

Together we'll win the war on fishing terrorism.

You are a funny funny man bud!

(Best laugh I've had in a long time)

Great pic's!

Glad to see you're wearing gloves lipping those walleye .

The little girl is a cutie, your daughter?

cheers

This thread is the reason why God created BOATS, I could elaborate further.

I agree.

He also gave us a mind and a pair of feet. We all have the option of walking further to find solitude....

One of the urns developed a strange taste at one point, so they decided it was maybe time to clean it out. The basket to hold the coffee could be reached from standing on the floor, but to look inside the urn, you had to climb up the counter, and when it was emptied and the cleaner looked down inside, he found the remains of a rat.

Yech, OMG that's gross LOL!

Have the egg sack sponsors contacted you yet? 8-)

Ha that's a good one! I'd love to meet some egg sack sponsors, seems like I'm always the one sponsoring everyone else I'm fishing with LOL!

(Fish were caught on jigs, flies and worms as well as spawn. They weren't being overly picky )

Well, it's fishing from the shores... so some what longer casts.

 

Bait will be minnows & worms.

Hmmm...well in that case I personally wouldn't use that style of rig, it's not quite as natural as a simpler rig.

Hey everyone's different but I'd first run some type of sliding sinker like an egg sinker onto your main line. When you feel a hit open your bail and feed line to the fish. Your line slips through the egg sinker and the fish feels no resistance....

Next slide a small bead on your line and tie your mainline to a 2 way swivel. The bead acts as a cushion between your egg sinker and your knot.

Next, tie a tippet onto the other end of your swivel, something that's lighter than your mainline. Short (2-3') if the water is roiled or murky or longer (3-6') if the water is clear.

If getting your bait up off the bottom is important try running a small floater on your line like one of these:

You can let the floater slide freely on your tippet right up to your hook, or for a more finesse presentation, before you tie your hook on run your tippet through the floater twice and lock it in place on your line. When I do that I'll generally place the floater about 1' from my hook.

Another option for keeping worms off the bottom is to eliminate the floater entirely. Simply hook the worm once through the nose and inject some air into its tail with one of these:

cheers, Mike

Describe exactly what scenario you want to use the rig in. From shore or boat? Fishing vertically or a long cast away? What bait?