solopaddler

Beautiful fish!

Well done Brad, glad to hear your legwork paid off. Wish I had a creek like that 20 minutes from my house!

Fantastic, that pretty much sums it up.

Yes absolutely, and you can add slow to that as well. Most of my early spring pike fishing is with plastics rigged either weightless or very light. 7" Berkley saltwater jerk shads, 8" reapers, 5" swimbaits, they're all deadly. Once the water warms and their metabolism increases that's when I break out the big inlines, spinnerbaits, spoons, etc.

We moved our Nakina fly in from the 11th to the 18th because of the early spring. Personally I think it's a 60% chance that the ice will be out on that date Surprised you're asking about the first week of June. You don't have anything to worry about!

Sounds like a fun trip, minus the stench.

Sweet. Hope I can make it up there in July!

We changed our Nakina fly in date from the 11th to the 18th so I've been watching the long range forecasts up there like a hawk. 14 day weather forecast for Geraldton looks great starting on Saturday. Warm daytime temps and well above zero at night along with wind and rain. You apparantly live in a small corner of the world that God doesn't like very much LOL!

Thanks for the kind words everyone! It's funny how boys and girls have such seemingly stereotypical interests even when they're raised exactly the same way. (at least mine do!) I suppose it's societies influence as well as their peers. My son at 6 years old is already a rabid angler, he loves the sport. My 9 year old daughter not quite as much. She's been exposed to a lot in her young life yet doesn't have the same spark my son does. And that's fine, you can't force kids to like something. The biggest goal with my daughter is to try and instill a real love of the outdoors and wild places in her. I've already got a bit of a start with that, but what I think I need to do is start bringing her on canoe trips. I really think she'll take to the sense of adventure, setiing up camp, lighting campfires and everything else that goes with it. I'm going to try anyway. It's all about the kids, there's nothing better.

Elementary Miro, plan something for the weekend of the 11th.

I was thinking it was a perfect day for panfish Chris. Just 3 though? That's barely an appetizer!

Thanks guys, Brendan is a natural that's for sure. He does his dad proud.

With a week before opener and most rivers running high and dirty I thought it was a good opportunity to post a few highlights from the spring season. As usual I fished a lot, averaging 3 days a week during prime time. Managed to get out with a few different OFC friends. Chris (live2fish85) Fidel (Highdrifter) Aaron Shirley 'Course I managed a few myself. The "Michigan Dirty" in action: The biggest highlight for me is always fishing with my young son Brendan and we managed to get out together a few times when the conditions were just right. Here's a few pictures and video clips from our trip to a favored Stateside trib. We hit it right on the button after a heavy rainfall when it was dropping and clearing. Oodles of fresh chrome steelhead, and almost no one on the river. Can you tell he's happy? Managed a few video clips as well. Here he is briefly attached to a really hot chrome fish http://www.youtube.com/embed/Cr0WeULkz_k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> And a couple more landed on dad's centerpin. http://www.youtube.com/embed/KFBsnIb3jJk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZROl872cQPo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> This particular fish was special. I built the rod in 1987 for my uncle who very recently passed away. I recently reaquired it and it's Brendan's rod now. There's a lot of meaning and a lot of memories attached to it, and watching my son land a fish with it was therapeutic. http://www.youtube.com/embed/9akyLZ9msd0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> Hope you enjoyed, cheers

My favourite river bar none, glad you at least got to see it.

. Miro, the key factor in small brook trout lakes right at ice out is wind. In my experience ice out fishing for brookies can be tough until you get 2-3 days of heavy wind. I guess that's what's meant by spring turnover, but it's a completely different effect than fall turnover. The water needs to be mixed from top to bottom and oxygenated. When that happens fishing is usually pretty good. As a general rule of thumb I like about 1 week after ice out for good fishing. When the lake hasn't been whipped up yet, in my experience the brookies will hunker down right on the bottom in deeper water, and are generally very hard to catch. In those situations nothing beats an air injected nightcrawler dragged dead slow across the bottom. It can be a frustratingly slow way to fish, but it's the only way I've ever caught those fish.

Now that's funny. Seriously.

Certainly not Steve Galeas fault. I've had all kinds of issues with editors in the past myself. Mistakes get made, it's no big deal.

Pretty sure that comment was tongue in cheek right? Anyhow I'm gladdened that FINALLY someone in some kind of official capacity has echoed my feelings on the matter.

Nice fish you crazy ginger bearded nut.

Sorry dude, but whaaat?

If they can eke out a win tonight against a desperate Rangers team Saturdays game will be huge.

No, but I'm smelling burnt toast. Why?

Not surprising that you switch so easily. Who'd you cheer for prior to '92?

Steelhead rod would be the most fitting descriptor.

I fish with hardware almost as much as my float rod and I'm pretty picky about my rods. In general you want a rod with a little more oomph than you might normally choose. I prefer a rod with a soft sensitive tip and a rigid lower 2/3 with tons of power, preferably between 10 and 11'. Off the rack a great value (but more than your budget allows) is the 101/2' St. Croix Avid rated 8-12lb. The same rod rated 6-10 is "okay" but not quite as ballsy enough for my liking. A cheaper second choice off the rack is an 111/2' Raven IM6 rated 6-12lb. For me I can't find "precisely" what I'm looking for off the rack so have no option other than to have one built. I'm currently fishing a fast action 11' CTS rated 6-10lb and it's fulfilling my needs quite nicely. One final note, when throwing hardware for steelhead you don't have to finesse them, it's totally a reaction strike. For all the same reasons I run braid for other species I also do for steelhead. Recently I've been running 15lb power pro super slick with a 2' fluoro tippet of either 10 or 12lb test. Real gorilla stuff compared to my floatfishing set ups, but it's a completely different style of fishing.