Paulus

This is really late in the discussion, but I have an old Raven SST that used to make grinding noises and still has some wobble. The grinding noise I eliminated by first changing the bearings - which I ordered and then changed myself - only to find that the new bearings weren't as good as the old. So a friend of mine - you may know him on this board - suggested I dunk the old ones in kerosene overnight. I had nothing to lose, so I tried it. Once I rinsed the bearings and put them back in, the reel spun like new. The wobble was still there, but that's because I did fall on it probably a half dozen times slipping on river banks etc... but it never affected the quality of the drift - so I just put it in the "live with" category. Essentially, the fish don't care about it - so why should I !!! p.-

Sweet giant chromers, Mike! Thanks for sharing. Those fish naturally invite discussions about hook strength, for sure. Pulled hooks are possibly the number one cause of lost steelhead, at least in my own experience! Daiichi are good but kamasans are the best IMO. I've tried other shapes than you suggest and have always had good results. Of course, if you can get them on jigs, those bigger hooks are the best. P.-

I second that motion! Loved and listened to it many times already. Thanks so much for creating this and sharing it with us p.-

Funny But actually, I don't mind doing that work, myself. It's a neat way of re-living the experiences. Also, I use Picasa, which makes it a lot easier to fly through your pics (once you get used to it) and half the time, when you hit "I feel lucky," you actually get lucky...uh... I mean you get something decent. Also you can crop your pics and never touch the original, because Picasa basically remembers the changes as "add ons" to your pics, so that the changes you make in Picasa are only visible in Picasa. If you look at them in Windows picture viewer, for example, the changes are not there. That's really cool when you want to keep pristine originals. This is why you always see "b" and "c" at the end of so many of my pics, because I "save as" from Picasa as a new file, to avoid fouling up the original one. Anyway, please work overtime on this one, Borg. Resistance is futile. Git 'er done! p.-

Yes, that's the caveat of being the photographer. In general, to operate the apparatus, you have to be behind it - not in front. No bear pics? That's a bummer I would have given a considerable sum to see your face with the bear coming up behind! p.-

I have to agree. It's a big time game of timing. Best thing to do is be consistent & get out as often as you can, even if it's just for an hour or casting for 5 minutes out of the window of your car . Night time with glow spoons off a pier can also be good. And the big smoke probably has more salmon than you'd expect (if by "big smoke" you mean Toronto). There is a lot of decent chinook fishing in and around the big smoke, for sure. p.-

Agreed, most of the time. I actually pack it in baby food jars to avoid freezer burn. However, I do cure it when it comes out of the freezer. I may not cure it all, depending on what conditions I'm going to fish, but I will almost always certainly cure some. I like this better than constantly freezing and re-freezing fresh roe bags. Lots of ways to cure. I've used good old borax for a long time. Just sprinkle in a ziploc bag, dump the roe in and shake it around till it's all covered, let sit overnight then tie. No need for water. I sometimes also use pro-cure in the same way. I don't "wet" cure anymore. Some people swear by the borax thing before freezing. If the roe is loose, it's a good idea to water harden it for a couple of minutes (you can put it in an old nylon sock); and let it dry on paper towels overnight before freezing. THat way, there's less risk of ice and therefore perforated egg membranes. p.-

Salmon roe works well at times. I don't usually use rainbow roe in the fall, actually. Only salmon roe. p.-

Great post Cliff, and I think it was a tasteful way to bring it up. And why not talk about it? it exists and communication is the best way to get through it. I agree with Bill on this one, but I will add that I notice a definite shift once you get into the 2nd and 3rd generations, for all cultures. This goes for my own culture, too (French Canadian). I speak to guys who want to catch their limit every time they come out and know quite a few who've acclimatized and are totally on board with not only following etiquette but catch-and-release. One of my best friends and fishing buddies is from a completely different background. He’s first generation canadian and he has gone from one extreme to the other, from keep ‘em all to catch & release. It takes a while, I think for the ownership and pride in the resources to sink in, and conservationism is a big part of that. In so many countries, there are either no regulations or no resources left – but this is a great counter-point to use in discussion with some of these folks. That is, the reason we have so much is because there are enough people who practice conservation – if they didn’t, you and I would not even have the chance to do so. p.-

Those are absolutely gorgeous - pics AND fish - thanks for sharing! p.-

Eille, mon estique! Presqu'aussi beau que toé avec tes belles p'tites mouchetées Thanks for the kind replies Yes, I do like a stogie now and then. I used to smoke 'em casually, sitting on the porch on a warm summer evening - but now I find I only take one out when I go fishing. Much less expensive (and I assume healthier) that way. Tuesday was just an awesome day for one, too. Not a breath of wind most of the day, meant I could blow smoke rings like a pro. Plus the fish were cooperating. Add good company in the mix, plus a miraculously unexpected dose of rain - and it was a sweet day indeed. It ended my season with a real BANG! p.-

It's been a surprising spring, here in southern Ontario. Summer-like temperatures during March Break seemed to herald an early and almost unnaturally warm spring. But snow in April and many night-time temps below zero seemed to put the brakes on it, and it left a little hope that there would be some rainbows left in the rivers come opener. I was concerned with the lack of rain at one point, but I booked time off & made plans nonetheless. As you get older, fishing becomes less about your own little victories and more about those of others. On opening day, for my son and his little buddy, piscatorial success of the steelhead kind remained a future endeavor, though they did manage to hook one that got off. That provoked some oooo's and aaaahh's and probably planted a little seed... Walking to the next spot, after our little friend had to go to Lacrosse practice, somebody got tired. This is how it is. But we made an early return home and, now, he wants to get back at 'er . 6 years old and counting. Star Wars and Hockey; and now fishing. Sunday saw me driving a good distance from home to spend a day with a friend. The river was somewhat stingy, too clear and in my estimation abysmally low. One I managed, early. My friend, plying the waters with a drift, while having a puff. An onlooker: Monday was not going to be a full day. One of the things that depress me about the trout opener, sometimes, is that finicky spring-times can be really dry. And when it's like that - maybe I'm getting old but - merely seeing fish (who spook at the first sight of your shadow) just doesn't do it for me. There was a stretch of river that I wanted to explore, and I didn't think it would take me much past noon to do so. Plus fishing there had the added benefit of getting me home in time to be of some use to the missus... always a good calculation for future days on the water, in my books . Not entirely unexpectedly, I had good results, and the best part was that I got to do battle with this tremendous fish - who dragged me down several yards of river and leapt and flashed many times in doing so. I took my sweet time releasing this one, because it really did give me an "epic" fight! It's important to make sure that they have a chance to rest a little before you let them go. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to fish on Tuesday. As it turns out, one of my friends who wanted to join me for the day could only go on that specific day. So I resigned myself to my fate, ready to fish more low and gin clear flows; until, not long after I got home on Monday, a wonderful thing: rain! Over the previous week, the weather network had called for 1mm at one point, scaled it up to 5m then, to nothing, then again to 1... but by the time I took the garbage out in the evening, there were worms out on the pavement - surely more than 10mm of blessed wetness! My buddy is not only a good fisherman, but a great photographer. He keeps telling me how great my shots are.... (three from me): But he's no slouch either...(three from him): This trip lasted all day, and the rain was just the thing to make the fish happy and give them added flow for their voyage back to the Lake. Getting home, I packed everything away until next fall. Steelhead opener's done for me for another year Thanks for reading p.-

Spectacular adventure and story, dubes! ... I mean Dudes! Funny. Almost as much as the brookies, what makes me want to go there is the campsite, complete with pine needle rug & vista over the lake. Must've been terrible going to sleep at night without the sounds of cars, trains or planes going by... ...just kidding of course. Thanks for sharing your story-telling skills with us again, Mike. Always a pleasure to read! p.-

I took this advice a long time ago & can tell you that it's worth listening to. Excellent point as usual, Mike! p.-

Very nice! I like! p.-

Great story, Mike! Thanks for sharing it! That's publishable stuff and a great read! p.-

great topic, Limey The word "failure" is so badly connotated that it makes it sound like, when something didn't work out the way you expected, that's a bad thing. But in truth, if you can distance yourself from using emotionally charged words like "failure" and "success," you can see more clearly that life is a series of problem solving events. You know... "how am I going to catch fish at the opener - because there hasn't been any rain," and going regardless of how poorly it augurs because there's something else there for me to gain - i.e. a spring day spent outside fishing, a day with friends, a day NOT sitting on a couch or in front of a computer "wishing" I could act, etc... As for kids, I try to gauge the effort vs the result as best I can, based on what I think they can achieve if they try. If they exceed my expectation, which they often do, I give them a heavy dose of positive feedback - but specific: "I like the way you did this. I like that you didn't fall for that." etc. They feed off that and want more, and they soak it up that trying hard yields good results. Floating, though, or - much worse not trying at all - won't earn them any accolades. But I will be specific about what they need to do to get them. If they fall and get hurt (physically or emotionally), we look for how bad it is, what went wrong, what we can try next time - then we get up, dust ourselves off & keep going; because just around the corner is another accomplishment, another round of positive feedback, and why wait overlong to get there? At least, in theory... that's what I try to do! p.-

One thing to consider - which I learned by accident this fall - is that cameras with an automatic lens cap (like the Canon SX series) can have issues if the slightest grain of sand or dirt gets into the mechanism that opens up the lens cap. There are ways of fixing it of course, but none of the methods apply in the field. I had real issues with this last fall, when a fish kicked up some sand into the lens of my Canon SX120, and despite my best efforts at cleaning the actual cap, it still sticks and I always have to make sure that it doesn't mess up the edges of my shots. Most of the waterproof cams won't have this issue - but most of the pocket super zooms will. So, if you get one - they're great, but very delicate. Another option is to go old school... you can find old, working condition cameras on Kijiji and Ebay for prices that make accidents less painful. I recently revived and refitted my old Minolta Z1, which still has one of the better CCD's imo - although it's only got 3.2 megapixels. You once referred to this camera as a "beast" - but I have no fear for this camera falling in the water. p.-

Thanks for sharing, Mike. She's a gorgeous dog! Love the tail wag in the water. lol! p.-

Zzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzz. Eh? What's that dear? Turn over? Was I snoring again? Oh... Sorry love. *kiss* ...zzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzz. p.-

I heard they were seeing them at the Credit as well. That's the earliest I've seen them. A couple of years ago I was astounded to find them in the river already - on APRIL 25th ... not MARCH! Holy sunuva... Looks like the steelies are definitely going to avoid the slaughter this year p.-

Technically, Lake O rainbows are just that, rainbow trout - because they don't leave salt water to go to fresh water. I've seen this defined elsewhere but can't remember. The only problem with this definition is that there is no real precedent for the great lakes - especially Lake Ontario which is unique (blue zone). So, because of that, you can call them basically anything you want. So... if Steelhead sounds cooler than Rainbow... p.-

Port Hope, Darlington, Cobourg Harbour, Whitby, Port Credit etc... ad nauseum. You're bang on. It's unbelievable the number of fish that go straight from lake to freezer without ever so much as a chance to get to the rivers. p.-

Here's one article about it... Article: Farmed fish more toxic than wild fish If you compare them to the Ontario guide to eating sport fish, you might be surprised. Google is kinda neat that way p.-

Agreed. I just ate one tonight - she gave me roe and a good meal, cooked in curry by a friend. I usually just give the fish up, but it came back to me that way in a tupperware container...(ooops! did I just date myself? ) - I usually don't like fish very much, but I have to admit that it was awesome cooked this way. If I can get the recipe, I'll post it here. Anyway, one thing about lake O fish is that they are not as polluted as they used to be. They've got a bad reputation that's hung around since the 60's, 70's and 80's when you could basically use the PCB's in 'em to recycle tires, and the mercury to make new thermometers. Nowadays, they are cleaner than any farm raised fish that are not "bio." So, if you're going to keep a hen - eat her too. She's yummy p.s. I should add that she was a NY stray - thin fins and a worn out dorsal fin. p.-