vanillagorilla

The fishing this year has been incredible on the North Shore!!! Bluffers did not disappoint. First lines were down at 8:00am with a dense fog wrapped around us. We hit this first fish in the mid teens at 8:30am on an APEX 4.0. These lures have not performed well for me for the past couple of years but my buddy had a hunch to give them a try this year and they have been extremely productive. The wire was the most consistent setup today with 6 of the 10 hits. We got this 25 pound plus fish on the wire with meat. I can tell you one thing there is no bait better on the lake at this time of year than fresh herring cut bait. All in all it was a great day on the water. We ended up going 8 for 10 with the fish ranging from mid teens to mid twenties. We headed in at noon and got the last fish as we were packing it up. This is probably the best year we have experienced in a long time on the North Shore so get out there and hook yourself a monster KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great day on the water! We went 8 for 10 with the wire dipsey being super hot. We also caught some fish off the downriggers. The dipsey rods were 40 and 50 feet down with one rod rigged with a spoon and the other with flasher & meat Our Cannon probe told us where to set the lines. We had surface temperatures of 54 and 42 down 50 feet. We started fishing at 7:00am and this was our first hook up. A 23 pound pig. The following fish was caught in the middle of nowhere (3 miles between 2 hot-spot waypoints). This fish believe it or not peeled off 660 feet of line before we were able to turn its head. WOW!!!!!!!!! We even caught a fish on a 4.0 Apex lure. Most fish were caught at speeds between 2.2 and 2.5 mph at the ball which was usually a 3.0 speed at the surface (for those of you who do not have a Speed & Temp monitor) Get out there the fish are on BIG TIME!!!!!!!

I very rarely keep any fish. I always try to practice catch and release. VG

We finally launched the "Vanilla Gorilla" after missing out on the Spring bite this year. Paul and I were really excited to finally hook into some kings. The weather was great with light South West winds at 5-10Km/h. The temperature was very cool and so was the water temperature. We had surface temperatures of 52C with temperatures at the ball of 42C only down 35 feet. We caught the first fish on a Wire Dipsey out 122 feet on a # 3 setting on a DW spoon. It was a beautiful 20+ pound fish. The next fish was this 18 pound screamer that took out 300 feet of wireline, who also succumbed to the exact same setup. We proceeded to catch three other fish with the largest being this 28 pound behemoth. This fish spooled off 200 feet of wireline on a meat and flasher setup. I was shocked to see it catapult itself completely out of the water after taking that huge initial run. It is pretty rare to see a king that large jump (at least in my experience). It took me a true 20 minutes to land this beast. I was shocked to see it break the 25 pound mark. I fished all year last year and never landed a fish over 25 pounds. There was a guy in my boat who did though AARON SHIRLEY!!!!!!!!! I even had to wake him up to take the rod. It was a great day on the water and a great way to start off the 2008 Summer Salmon Season. With fish this big so early on in the season I hope to see a lucky angler finally break the 40-50 pound mark. Good luck Vanilla Gorilla "On the side"

All the fish were caught on either "Stink Bait" (Dead old rotting Salmon Carcases) or on Golf Ball size salmon roe sacks. The gear was Penn International 2 speed reels loaded with 150 pound braid and a 130 pound leader. We used 22 oz weights to get the bait to the bottom. Most of the fish were caught in 10 - 30 feet of water. We used extra heavy / extra fast action fishing rods custom made by Lamiglass. This is strickly a catch and release fishery. I think I have answered all the questions? If not let me know. Mitch

I have just returned from an amazing fishing trip on the Fraser River. Our primary target was STURGEON and the Fraser delivered. The average fish was 6' long and weighted 200 pounds. Our largest fish weighted about 275 pounds and was just short of 7' long. This is a catch and release fishery so the only way to determine their size is by a length and girth measurement. These fish are without a doubt the kings of freshwater fishing. I have traveled to many exotic fishing destinations and I have never experienced fish averaging over 200 pounds jumping through the air and fighting on 150 pound test and heavy action rods and turning them into spaghetti strings. If anybody ever gets the chance to experience fishing for Sturgeon on the Fraser I would highly recommend it! Here are a couple of photos of the trip. The serenity of the River in November The Fight Begins The Rewards Another Crazy battle The Prize Too Big to Bring in the Boat We Had To Bring It To Shore Another 250 Pound + Fish The GIANT @ 275 Pounds + A Beauty From The Clear Waters of the Harrison Tribuatry Vanilla Gorilla.

My Pleasure!

I have only been on the fish because of good friends. That is what fishing is all about! Helping eachother catch more fish. Mitch

It was pretty slow off the drop at Bluffers on Saturday morning so with the advise of Riley Salmon (Chris Currie) we went out to 300+ FOW. The action was much better. We went 8 for 8 with one 18 pound king and the balance being made up of Coho & Steelhead. Paul Bordo with a 13 pound Steelhead that came off the Wire with a Spindoctor & Fly Paul with a 12 pound Coho that came off the Riggers with Flasher & Meat Thanks for the heads up Chris!!!!

Vanilla Gorilla & Riley Salmon teamed up for a night of non-stop King action. We went 17 for 20 with most of the fish being taken on meat 50 to 70 feet down over 150 to 200 FOW. The average size fish was approximately 18 pounds with the heaviest being approximately 23 pounds. Trolling speed at the ball were anywhere from 2.1 to 2.4 MPH with temperatures from 54 to 48. The Start of a Great Night of Fishing The Biggest King of the Night (I mean the fish) This guy grabbed all the rods all night long Mitch

To all participants, This was the best SHOOTOUTS yet!!! This series gets better and better each year. My hats go off to John, Chris & Vito and all of the volunteers who make this Salmon Tournament the most respected and saught after on the North Shore! Your tournament committee thought it would be a great idea if we could provide each team with an 8 x 10 photo as a momento of the event. So as everything else that your tornament committee as for and they recieve. There are 8 x 10 photos of each and every team that took the time to have there picture taken at the event available for them to pick up at Tightline Fisherman's Warehouse. Enjoy the images and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year!!!! Tightlines & Catch The Big ONE!!! Mitch

Being in a similar type of business selling branded products, each country has different channel & pricing strategies. Also, each country usually sets an exchange rate at which they calculate their pricing and once this is set it is set for the year, and usually does not change regardless of current currency fluctuations. Ihope this helps Mitch

I would suggest going to a Wal-Mart Photocenter as I have had a similar need to have an older picture scanned into digital. You can either use a Kodak Picture Maker Kiosk yourself or ask a lab technician to use their lab scanner. If your picture is poor quality to begin with then you are probably out of luck. I hope this helps. Vanilla Gorilla

To answer your question Tony, due to the extreme heat in the Amazon (100C in the shade @ 8:00am) most of the critters sleep during the day. As a result we did not come into contact with any unwanted critters. The only undisirables were the red ants. We sprayed Deep Woods Off on everything in and on our tent (including our beds) and fortunately they never got a bite.

I took the pictures with a Kodak P880

The Amazon Burning Burning Over The Road The Landing Pad A Successful Mission Finally On The Water Camp The Washroom / Showers Super Shad Rap Yellow Cats More Yellows Giant Taper Another River Braid The Angler & Guide Relationship The Jau (Catfish) Hole Another Fish On Jau Heaven Payara The Winning Team Patipitingua Our Security Guard

Believe it or not those Pirahna are only interested in other fish. My buddy went for a swim with no problems.

We ate some of the smaller fish especially the Pirahna. They taste like Walleye.

At this time of year from December to March is the dry season in the Amazon Basin. As a result there is very little rain and no bugs. The only pests that we had to be careful of were the read Fire Ants. There were a couple of people who ran into some and the results were not pretty. It looked like they had chicken pocks and very itchy. I was very supprised how safe and bug free the Amazon was in our experience.

It took 2 days of travel to get there and 2 days of travel to get out. 3 planes 2 buses and a helicopter There are only small Peacock Bass in this river. The natives use them for bait to catch the Giant Catfish. Mitch

The Burning of the Amazon (Helicopter View) The Urariquera River (Conditions Chocolate) A View From Camp BAIT - A 7 Pound Pirahna Paul Bordo's First Patipitingua 20 Pounds + Paul with another Patipitingua My First Patipitingua 20 Pounds + Our First Jau - A Dink - 20 Ponuds + My First Jau - A Dink - 80 Ponuds A Vertical View - This Thing Has Some Shoulders The Jungle In All Its Glory Paul Landing One Of 50 Fish in the 20 Pound Range A Monster Patipitingua - Weight Unknown (Bottomed Out Scale) One More Shot Of The Jungle