emjay88

Great looking steelhead! Hard to beat the fight of a spunky fresh chromer!!

Thanks very much. Wow that's a good eye you have. Yes it's a 10'6" St.Croix Wild River rod. I got it 2-3 years ago and it's been absolutely great for me. Exclusively use it for hardware. The water that day was still a little dirty but cleaning up and I was using a frog pattern flatfish for 20 min with no luck. I had read an article recently how black works better in dirty water as it provides more of a visible silhouette for the fish and sure enough the first cast connected. I was by myself for 1st, 2nd, and 4th pics so all I had was a go pro on a 6" tripod, hence the "bass" holds LOL.

One of my better weeks fishing including my personal best. Versatility was the key as roe, pinkies, beads, and hardware all produced at different times.

Holy crap!!! That's an incredible report. Monster fish after monster fish. Thanks for the great read!!!

Thanks very much I think he reached the end of the road. He disappeared in the middle of the summer. He'd been there for at least 4 years. We named him Jack because he once drank a guests unattended jack and coke and then passed out on the grass for about 2 hours lol Pretty cool ground hog, he would sometimes wake me up by scratching on my cabin door in the morning and he would come inside and we would share a granola bar.

Here is a slideshow of 2015 so far. Steelheading in southern ontario tribs in the spring, and lots of pics from working for the better part of spring, summer, and fall on the Attawapiskat River at Eddie Norths. Did some early season guiding at Windsor Lake, and then working at main camp at Beteau. What a great experience it was!!! I've been going here for 4 straight years, the first 2 as a guest and the last 2 working. It's hard to put in to words what this place means to me. So many great adventures, memories and friendships made. Demanding, challenging and rewarding are the adjectives I'd use to describe the experience. Not to mention some of the best fishing I've seen yet, it's been a great year. Caught my pb steelhead this spring, as well as my pb walleye and my first sturgeon Can't wait to get back!!!!

Fantastic read and report as usual Mike!! I love how it's written from each day to day from beginning to end as it makes the reader feel like they are along for the ride. I have the same feeling about deviating from walleye most of the time wanting to search for that one monster gator!!! Looking forward to reading the new mag in the future. Hope some BC steel is in your future Matt

Great watch!!!

Great report as usual Mike!!! Not just the size and numbers you always get but I love reading the outdoor adventure style of writing that you are clearly gifted with. It makes the reader feel like they are part of the adventure! Cheers, Jonesy

Yet you choose not to suggest who our saviour should be, just who we should not vote for. The "scandal" with Duffy is that you have an entitled corrupt conservative senator spending too much tax payer money, our money, on himself. The PM wanted the story to go away so he used backdoor channels to pay the money back when he found out Duffy was wasting tax dollars and yes probably lied about how he went about it. $90,000 was the whopping amount of waste!!! Now he is in trouble, not for wasting it himself, but for trying to pay it back lol. Paying back taxpayer money!!!! People are suggesting jail for the PM?!? I guess McGuinty and Wynne should face life in jail. Yes I realise this is provincial politics, but why is Justin holding hands with wynne today? http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/08/17/kathleen-wynne-and-justin-trudeau-rally-liberal-faithful-in-regent-park.html The liberals in Ontario have pissed away BILLIONS not $90,000 on cancelled gas plants to win 2 seats. Ornge, Ehealth and countless other examples. Yet the federal liberals want to align themselves with their provincial counterparts. Now that is scary!!! Yet under Harper's watch we rank #1 in the world again in reputation and have ranked #1 as the most desirable place to live. http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/canada-has-the-worlds-best-reputation-global-survey-shows-1.3155500 People like to point out he has the worst economic record since WW2 according to some left wing websites, yet the IMF points out the global recession of 2008-2009 was the worst since WW2. No kidding the economic record won't be favourable yet Canada came out of the recession leading all G7 nations. Liberals or the NDP the answer? I can't even fathom what our deficit would be right now if the NDP had been in power for the last 8 years.

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I spent about 5 weeks working up north this spring and summer at Windsor Lake and Beteau on the Attawapiskat River. Guiding, cooking, maintenance etc. This was the 4th year I have been travelling here and it never fails to surprise with the fishing and wildlife. This year seemed to be very special, with guests landing countless 40" plus pike, huge walleye, but the wildlife you see here on a daily basis is truly special. I was fortunate enough to have my girlfriend and one of my best friends visit last week as well as Eddie's wife for a truly memorable week. As for the wildlife, we saw bald eagles, golden eagles, a moose cow and her 2 calves in the same place almost daily, wolves, osprey, bears, snakes, and of course the camp pet "Jack" the groundhog. Getting a photo of this elusive wolf was great. I found his tracks one morning at the end of the beach and decided to set up a trail cam and got lucky with a few shots. We also howled back and forth together for a few nights which was a cool experience. I'm used to seeing bald eagles but this was the first time I've seen a golden up close. This bird was massive to say the least, at least a 6' wingspan if not more and I found it's nest which was the size of a volkswagen. One of the highlights was also learning how and where to target big sturgeon on the rod at the end of my last week. I wish I had more time with these tactics as I'm sure I could have landed 3-4 a day. Always next time though. Hope you enjoy the pics, it will take a few posts to get them all in. Tight lines, Matt

Thanks Mike, the last day we were there was rain all day so I decided to just try for Sturgeon off the dock. I moved the dock down to the North end of the beach last week for the planes to come in deeper water. Each morning I could see sturgeon jumping all over the bay in front of the camp. I didn't have the right gear to target them properly at all, I just used my pike set up, st.croix heavy action with a shimano low profile bait caster, 50 lb braid main line and 40 lb fluoro leader. I was short on single hooks so I took a few trailer hooks off my spinner baits. Attached a 1 oz weight to the barrel swivel and the weightless hook about 3 feet behind on the leader. Used cut pcs of sucker and tbh cut up pieces of kielbasa LOL as thats all i had. I had 2 break my 40 lb test leader and lost my rigs. I'm sure they were monsters as they have no teeth, but it must have been caused by a bad knot tied by me. I landed this one on just a big 1 oz jig head. Knowing what I know now, I will bring a three way swivel with a 1 oz weight 6-10" below and a 3 ' lead with some good circle or octopus hooks. Ive heard threading a bunch of worms on the hook works really well as well as chicken livers. Just wish I figured this out July 1st when the season opened as I'm sure there are some 5-6 footers in that system. Looks like you are having a phenomenal season Mike!!! Great pics of you and your son with some absolute monster lakers and pike!!!! What camera do you use for your stills? They are really great quality.

Great trip report as always Mike!!! Every trip you take looks epic!!!

I didn't realize what a fight these fish put up!! I guess that's why they have been around so long. I caught another later in the day not as big. It's too bad I figured this out on my second last day in camp. Can't wait to return so I can spend some serious time targeting them.One of the few places left in Ontario where the population is healthy enough you can fish for them. Catch and release obviously. Cheers, Jonesy

A fantastic read as always Mike!!! You certainly are a great story teller and fisherman!! Hopefully we can share some large esox pics after next week Cheers, Jonesy

very cool!! well done!!

one last one

and my PB

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