Ralph Field

Nice fish and reel! Doesn't it feel great when a plan comes together.

I like Chartreuse , Yellow , Pink , and Peach for tying spawn sacks. I always carry more than one colour , only because some days one colour may work better than another. When I change colours on slow days it seems that I will concentrate more on what my float is doing. Different hook manufacturers make different size hooks , there doesn't seem to be any standard sizing in place. One companies size 10 will be as large as some other manufacturers size 8 hook. I use hooks from 8 down to 14 depending on the size of my roe bag. In clear slow water I think that size matters because the fish have longer to decide whether or not to bite.

Great report! Gets the urge to get out even stronger.

Congratulations on a very successful outing.

Great looking fish , with all the rain I am surprised that you found a river to fish.

As John said some of the stocking has been off piers straight into the lake so these fish have no home river and therefore they may ascend any river or creek. The pen program is designed to let the fish imprint on the river where they are reared, so that when it is time to spawn they will return to the river where they were pen reared.

Cracks in guides will cause fraying , so guides need to be checked periodically by running a Q-tip around the inside of the guide to see if any cotton is pulled off the Q-tip.

I'm with Craig, I have yet to master it but love it anyways.

Leaf fans have got to be the most stubborn fans alive , they are disappointed year after year but keep the faith.

I will pray for your family and pray that all goes well.

I own both types of rods and have never had problems with either. I have to agree with what some of the other respondents have said that I would buy a St. Croix over a Fenwick today because Fenwick is now owned by Berkley. St. Croix rods are at least built in North America.

Loosing a dog is a terrible thing because they become part of our family. Loosing a sister or brother is more upsetting however.

I rig pink worms many ways. I like to rig them wacky style most of the time. I also like rigging them on Mustad slow death hooks. I've also been known to rig them on a jig hook with a cone head weight pinned to the front of the hook and I also hook them through the nose. I only use the wacky or nose hooking with the smaller 3 inch worms.

I own 3 of the 1300's and love them as well but I take the Shimano stradics now when I steelhead with a spinning reel. The 1300 is definitely the correct size for river fishing, but the 1600 might be better for pier casting.

I owned a gold Islander and enjoyed fishing it. What I've noticed in watching the classified adds for reels is that gold reels are not sought after with comments like, "NO GOLD PLEASE" so I would go with silver so you will have an easier time selling it later on. I loved the look of my gold Islander. I think the black Islanders are hard anodised and therefore more sought after, but my gold reel had no marks on it after 5 years of hard fishing.

You should be able to land big fish with your pin. Let the rod do most of the work for you by keeping the rod tip high and do not apply too much pressure on the spool. If you take your time it shouldn't take too long to land your fish. Be sure to use sharp hooks, and a decent brand of leader line like Drennan or Froghair and you will be fine. Best of luck!

Nice looking water and a beautiful fish.

I thought that I had read every dumb post possible until I came upon this post. The only thing dumber than what you did was posting your exploits for all to read, and now everyone will know that you are an idiot.

Woodenboater has the right idea when he suggested you check with surplus stores. I have purchased Lexon at Forest City Surplus in London which is 1 inch thick.

I can not believe that anyone would be stupid enough to try and stage this, which implies that he is in fact an idiot.

I would not eat any fish coming from lake Ontario . I have seen fishermen dragging half rotten salmon around, but I assumed they needed the eggs from the fish and were taking the fish home for fertilizer instead of throwing it in the bush to smell. I can not imagine anyone desperate enough to eat those half rotted salmon.

Looks like a full custom job and not a stock bike . I think the green is rather unique.

You are lucky,if it was me the plane would likely have to arrive on the fourth day instead of the eight day.

Bottom fishing at river mouths should produce trout as long as the river gets a run of trout. most anglers will put a little bit of styrifom in the roe bag to lift it off the bottom , or they will put a small marshmallow on the hook to achieve the same result .Salmon anglers that you see using this method are hoping to snag a fish , but later on trout will actually strike the bait.

The people who are still fishing for salmon will use roe bags with floaters in them or they may use marshmallows or perhaps even a cigarette butts are hoping that a salmon will swim into their line and hook themselves. This type of fishing is sometimes referred to as lining and is frowned upon by most serious steelheaders. Once a salmon enters the river they stop eating and die by having their flesh decompose on their body. I agree with the last post when he said that you can catch them with repeated casts of a lure to trigger their aggression factor. I do not fish for salmon, but concentrate my efforts in holes below where i see them hoping to find steelhead feeding on their eggs. I cringe when I see someone taking home a half decomposed fish,but if they are snagging salmon for eggs I would rather see them take the fish out rather than having it thrown in the bushes. If you are determined to fish for salmon stick to the piers and use lures or fish the rivers using the same lures. If you want to eat a salmon eat a pier salmon but never a river salmon. In 40 years of steelheading I think that I've only caught about 6 salmon that hit or lined themselves on a bait under a float.