solopaddler

Havn't you heard, there's a handy little thing called weather forecasts, usually pretty accurate a day or two in advance. Wicked report, and gorgeous fish Aaron!

You're right of course. On the other hand anytime I hear that "grinding" "ratchety" noise, one quick dunk and shake in the river and I'm good to go .

Hey Steve, I feel the same way about your Simcoe posts as you do about my steelhead posts . Nice fish dude!

Simply because the majority of mostly newbie or novice river fishermen who unintentionally snag or foul hook a salmon or steelhead will still fight the fish to exhaustion and land it. Most guys with experience will instantly break off the fish and re rig once it's determined the fish is fouled. A. So the pool won't be tied up needlessly for a long period of time, and B. So the fish won't be stressed and might have a chance at survival. (when a large fish is hooked anywhere other than the mouth, they're infinitely harder to land and use 10X the amount of energy trying to escape. Delayed mortality due to the lactic acid build up is likely quite high especially in the warmer flows of early fall.) Bottom line, people will still get ticked even if the foul hooking was accidental, and likely lump it into the same category as snagging if certain protocol isn't followed.

That was funny Terry thanks for the laugh . Well done ranger, regardless of the outcome at least you tried, something most people wouldn't do.

After mulling over our options on Friday my buddy Dave and I decided to head north to Georgian Bay. The weather forecast was calling for a high of 8 degrees on Saturday with 10mm of rain overnight and another 10mm during the day. We were hopeful the cool temps and cold rain would push some fresh fish into the river. As it turns out there was little or no rain overnight and it didn't really start raining in earnest 'till about 10am, so at least the morning was perfect weather for steelheading and very comfortable. We drove up in separate vehicles so that we could leave one vehicle downstream, then drive up to our starting point and make our way back to the 1st car. We made a day of it and fished a lot of nice water which otherwise we wouldn't have seen. Anyhow the first fish was hooked, I fought it for quite a while then it broke me off.. Here's a shot of the fight Now this is really amazing to me. 10 minutes later I hooked a second fish in the same spot, only this one didn't fight quite as hard.. Turned out it was the same fish, there was my first hook broken off in it's mouth when I landed it! (that fish was either REALLY hungry or REALLY stupid ) Didn't feel so bad about losing the first fish after that. . These fish were absolutely electric! But that's par for the course for the particular strain of wild fish that run this river. The next one streaked 50 yds downstream the second I set the hook with me stumbling and bumbling after it . Gotta love it though, that's what it's all about! It's been a loooong day, so I'm just going to throw up the rest of the pic's minus the comentary. They'll speak for themselves anyway . And finally, a shot of the competition . By 3:30 the river was becoming blown out from the rain and the action was tapering off noticeably. No problem though, we'd had our fill...it was an incredible day, definitely one I'll remember for a while! Once again the vast majority of the fish were caught on large (quarter sized) chartreuse and hot pink roe bags. Because of the off coloured water no finessing was required as far as tippet goes... Under clear conditions I usually run 5 or 6lb fluorocarbon, today we ran 5 and 6lb Maxima Ultragreen (for those that care about the details ). Cheers, Mike

Entrance to Petro Can park is on the right side of Bronte Rd. just before the Rebecca bridge. It's pretty inconspicuous and easily missed. If you pass a day care center/church you've gone too far. Unless there's some decent amounts of rain over the weekend you'd be wasting your time at Bronte though. It's super low, crystal clear and the stench from all the rotting salmon with their bellies slit is disgusting. If you have to fish Bronte wait until mid November or so, after the water levels are up a bit after a rain.

Congrat's!

Whatever you say pun-master . It's actually a lake-O trib...

Saw 2 other guys, and that was from a distance. Normal for a weekday depending on where you're fishing.

It's a long season Cliff, plenty of time to get out.

If you're implying what I think you're implying, guess again. Wasn't anywhere near that river .

With the recent trips up to the cabin and the major issue of my friend Kareem being sick, today was the first chance I had to sneak out and do some steelheading. As most of you guys know this is a sport of timing: they're migratory fish and a slave to weather and water conditions. Hit the river on the rise or hit it on the drop if you expect to have good success. The internet is an amazing tool for steelheaders, there's just so much current info available. Graphs with your favourite river's flow rate in real time are right at the top of the valuable info heap... After years of fishing this particular watershed and looking at the flow rates and weather forecast, I knew today would be good. It was . I was by myself today, so really just have a fraction of the fish caught captured on film. I hit this spunky little skipper on my 2nd drift. As it turns out it was by far the smallest of the day. Release The fight Another release A few more... Wish I had more pic's, but c'est la vie . At one point I had a gorgeous buck in the 10lb class right up to my feet and while I was fumbling with the camera it got off (it happens a lot when you're solo ). The fish were very aggressive today and were caught mostly on large chartreuse and pink roe bags. (choker bags as I like to call 'em ). Also hit a bunch of fish on worms and one on a hot pink marabou jig near the end of my day when I was just fooling around. Great morning and early afternoon to work the kinks out! cheers, Mike

They've been a hot bait on G. Bay for a loooooong time, at least 20 years if not more. You can get them here for a lot less than $19 http://www.landbigfish.com/tacklestore/showcase.cfm?PID=4372

WTG Vince, I'll be interested to see what you picked up. Hopefully you didn't buy it cheaply on ebay from a Russian exporting scam artist based in Miami! (like I almost did recently )

Beautiful

I remember reading about that one caught through the ice. That's truly incredible what that fish traversed to get there.

I was also unaware of your loss. Can't even comprehend what you went through and continue to endure. You, your family and your son are in my thoughts and prayers today.

Yep, that was a great read bud, many thanks for taking the time. Interesting about the cranes...I saw a flock of about 100 feeding in a stubblefield just north of Ville Marie on the way home last Sunday. Obviously they do migrate together like geese, but I've never seen it before either.

Another nice simcoe smallie, awesome!

Considering the conditions sounds like a pretty good day to me. Well done!

WTG kid, awesome looking fish! Simcoe's definitely the spot for sm bass.

How about the Collins in Dundas? It's convenient for me at least .

Hey bud you're right about the prime pike fishing, but then the prime steelheading is just starting too, can't do it all . Your recipe sounds interesting you'll have to show it to me sometime. Thank's for the comments guys...