Guidofisherman

I waited til there was a nice winter storm to post this abbreviated story from early September (2010). The pop-out photos of several fish were created using Photoshop Elements 9. Beginner's Luck Don't you just hate it when someone blindly succeeds the very first time when you have been toiling for eons. Now, I'm not jealous of their initial accomplishment, just amazed at how luck plays a part in success. Case in point...I admit to being a brook trout fanatic and while not particularly skilled, I have had a modicum of success. However, on this trip into Brook Trout Heaven, skill had nothing to do with success, just blind luck. For years, I have been trying to arrange a trip for one of my buddies who has never really been fishing for those famous Nipigon brookies. He doesn't have the commitment to fishing like I do, yet it was an opportunity to spend a few days reminiscing and possibly catching a few. I had been telling my buddy about the brook trout fishing whenever we met at various family functions. Now it was time to "put my money where my mouth was" and take him for his first Nipigon brook trout. So the trip was set for the first week of September when the fall weather was still nice and the pesky mosquitoes all but gone. My hope was to time it so the transient brook trout would be schooling up, in anticipation of the spawning season. After all, this was John's first trip and I wanted it to be successful. It turns out, I now seem to be getting a greater kick out of seeing the expression of sheer joy on someone else's face as they catch a crimson brookie for the first time, than catching one myself. Mind you, I still have the competitive drive to catch my fair share. "I think I got a fish!" he casually stated, as if it was routine. I was more surprised and elated than he, but it soon turned to disbelief. How could he catch a fish, on his second cast, with my rod, right where I told him NOT to cast? Pissed me right off! I don't think he really knew what he had achieved. A 24" beauty that weighed almost 7 pounds, on his second cast, with my rod, right where I told him NOT to cast. I'm not jealous, really...but I do have land for sale in Florida. To my way of thinking, it was now time to return it to Brook Trout Heaven, when he shocked me with this statement. "I think I'll keep it!" My mind began to race as I conjured up my strategy to politely, yet decisively say to return it. Torn between telling him the truth and lying to protect the fish, I chose an alternate path. "Yes, ...it is a legal keeper of over 22". "You can keep it," I said, "but it will be a long swim back to the trailer!" I did feel a little guilty putting the pressure on him to release the fish. Mind you, he did agree it was the right thing to do. Enough of that beginner's luck. Alan

Well, I got what I asked for. Great advice and opinions. I'll make my final decision in a few weeks, and appreciate the additional suggestions like: trailer size, weight distribution, drive-on ability, maintenance, etc. For the past 25 years, I've had rollers (now just rolls), and the fiberglass bottom has stress cracks and black marks from the rollers, but they worked great. For this boat, I'm leaning to bunks for many of the reasons stated in the posts. Alan

I'm buying a new 16 ft Lund Rebel XL SS with a 60 four stroke. That suits my needs and there is a good Lund incentive plan right now. I am still debating the old "bunk vs roller" issue. What do I order? I usually travel on good roads and launch at shallow, gravel ramps. I want to be able to get the boat on and off easily as I ain't getting any younger. Without getting into a heated debate, what is your advice and WHY. Alan

Its no secret that I'm interested in the history and fishing of the Nipigon area. Here are a few links to photos and some things I have found. 1: a fishing trip photo album from 1928 http://members.shaw....easefamily.html 2:a map from the early 1900's of the "Nepigon" river http://members.shaw....magnifymap.html 3: the only video I know of, that shows the "Nepigon" prior to 1923 There is more historic stuff under other drop-down tabs about the famous river. Enjoy....Alan

Great action shots. They capture the power of the situation and make you feel like you are right there. Great job. Alan

My thoughts and prayers are with you, your daughter and family. I applaud you for sharing such a personal event and how helpful it is to get support from family, friends and the OFC gang. I know from personal experience, ( I had basal cell carcinoma this summer), that the key to dealing with such an event is a POSITIVE ATTITUDE that we will beat this. Over the past few years, my wife has beat two different cancers with multiple surgerys, chemo, and radiation. Take it 'one day at a time', appreciate the little things and know you have our support. Alan

You got my attention with this one! I loved the adventure and great photos. Nothing better than fall colours on the leaves and the fish. Some days fishing for these beauties, everything seems to work and you think you have them finally figured out. The next day, you try the same pattern and ...nothing! Dan C's comment was correct. The best we could come up with was that they turn on and off for no apparent reason. Frustrating and challenging at the same time. I've tried keeping stats on every thing from temps, waves, barometric pressure to past success, but it is some subtle difference that turns them on-off. Just enjoy the success of that trip. Great report. Guidofisherman

Hi Ron: Loved your trip and great photos, including the underwater ones. I especially like the brook trout photos. I see you caught one of my tagged fish #1789. I originally tagged it on May 28 and it measured 21' and weighed 3.5 lbs. Let me know if you kept any stats on this fish. I hope you turned in the info to the MNR as it helps track the growth rates and population health. You can send the info to me or turn it in yourself. Here is the link. http://members.shaw....greporting.html That is one great fishing trip with all the species. Great work! Alan

It has been a few weeks since I caught this beautiful 24" brookie. It weighed almost 7 lbs. and had the most beautiful spots I've seen in a long time. This one had a lot of extra energy when we took a few photos. The mouth shot clearly shows the boat-shaped structure of the vomer, a bone in the roof of the mouth, and the inner row of teeth that distinguishes members of the char family. Tagged and released. My boat has been in the shop waiting its turn to figure out the intermittent electrical problem. Now that the trim button is working, its time to head out for some more action...hopefully! Alan

Hi Dan: I thought of you a few times this past month while fishing for our favourite. Your photos are excellent, especially the telephoto shots. Will you be able to go on the annual trip this year? If not, here is 24" of what you will be missing. Alan

It has been a long dry spell. ...Fishing, I'm talking about not the weather, the winter or the other dry spell. Finally we put together a few days of Brook Trout fishing. Up here, the spring has been very dry and the rivers exceptionally low. The Steelhead fishing was almost non-existent, so this trip was a breath of fresh air for a fanatic. It is still early in the Brook Trout season, but we did manage to catch and tag a few. One of the most unusual, was this football shaped hog. This male measured 21" long, with a girth of 15". He weighed almost 6 lbs. and had a thick back and fat belly. Obviously, he has been feeding well. I finally bought a new 27" Mac and redesigned my website with Freeway Pro. It has just been posted, so suggestions, PMs or emails are appreciated. Let me know what works or needs fixing. Alan http://members.shaw.ca/amuir/

The master of adventure posts another great story! An impressive trip with impressive results. I look forward to the next one. Alan

You guys are amazingly fast. When I go to the region map at the site, I can't download or view the map. It say "forbidden", but I did see Anders direct link to Lake Superior. Unless my memory is playing tricks, I remember the image showed more detail like a Google map, only updated like Coastwatch. Thanks guys.

A few years ago, one of the threads that I can't find, had a link to a site that showed daily satellite images of Lake Superior, etc. I need it to check if the ice is out in certain spots before we fly there. Hope some one can help out. thanks...Alan

Too bad about the late submission date as it eliminates anything we have taken this fising season for most of us up here. Keep us posted on the results. I'm not eligable, but interested. Alan

Congratulations Dan! You are now the recognized master of HDR. Thanks for the reminder about DP as I hadn't been there for a while. Once again, great shot, especially since it was probably taken in July, given our summer. thanks for sharing...Alan

Nice steeliesand great report. I think I packed it in too soon.

Thanks everone for the encouragement. The photography and post processing with Photoshop is all self taught. The second thing I do when I launch the boat is show my fishing partner for the day, how to use the camera. If it is their first time with me, I show them how to run the boat, (safety stuff like first-aid kit, life jackets and what to do If I drop with a heart attack). Then I tell them, if they catch more fish than me, it was a pleasure fishing with them only once. Ha Ha! Actually, I get a real kick out of someone catching their first big brookie. Here is a chart of the '09 season. Compared to previous season charts, this one shows that the move to a 22" size limit continues to work. The average size of the fish continues to increase slightly in both length and weight. While the MNR also confirmed that the catch numbers were down this year, the population is recovering nicely and apprears healthy. I'll share some more after I meet with the biologist in the next few weeks. Also, here is the link I forgot in the original post to Brian O'Keefe's Catch Magazine: http://catchmagazine.net/

My therapist says it is good to talk about one’s addiction and that it is healthy to share experiences with other like-minded individuals. With the Brook Trout season officially over, I have now committed to a recovery program of summing up the season’s results with a few stories and photos. Don’t laugh…some day it will be your turn to stand up and admit, “My name is _________ and I am a fishaholic.” All joking aside, I am very fortunate to live in “Brook Trout country”. Several times a summer, I also get to fly into lakes north of Armstrong at the top end of Lake Nipigon for a variety of other species. (that will be part #2 later). I bring along a camera to record the fish’n trips and play around with creative ways to display them back at home. A few years back, I went to a fly fishing conference in Minneapolis and one of the presenters was Brian O’Keefe. He specializes in fishing and photography. He has an on-line photo journal called “Catch Magazine” that gave me the inspiration to try some different techniques. His photos certainly capture the moment and tell a story. So here is my confession. The season started with the typical anticipation of a great year. There was sufficient rain to maintain flows, but not the torrential floods we had a year ago. Everything seemed to be about 3 weeks late. The trees were slow budding, there was still frost at night and the days were cool for this time of the year. I found that the fish do not become active until the water warms up. Unfortunately, this year, the water temps remained around 45 degrees for much of June. As shown in the filmstrip photo taken on June 13th, there was still ice hidden in the rock crevasses. While the Nipigon system is known for big brookies, one can have a lot of fun fishing for the smaller ones. The shores are rugged and rocky with thick brush, but there are a few spots to get out and stretch your legs. In the photo with the magnifying glass, I enlarged part to show the black strip leech used to entice this one. The following photo shows one of the smaller fish of the season, but a good indicator that the stock is healthy and thriving. Late spring to early summer is often the best time, but this year the weather was all screwed up and the water never warmed up in the river till mid summer. By that time, I had quit fishing for the brookies to build a sauna at my camp on Trout Lake. (I think it is ironical that I now have a camp on a lake that no longer has fish in it). Usually the fall brook trout season is the most productive when the water turns and the spawning urges start to school the larger, more transient fish. The next photo shows one of those fish (previously tagged in another part of the lake) with a blemish on its cheek. The pigment was completely gone, but the fish seemed very healthy otherwise. September turned out to be the only nice month of the summer. Even the Mayfly hatches were off schedule as we had one in early September. However, Brian did land this nice 25” male and on the very next cast, Mark picked up this beauty. This year was a very challenging fishing season, but there is always next year. That didn’t stop me from going to the “dark side” and finally buying an Islander Float reel. I borrowed a rod until I buy or build one this winter. Spring is such a long way off.

Thanks for all the great suggestions and directions. MJL's suggestions are rods I see used on the rivers up here. I haven't given up on the 13' length just yet, but was leaning to the fixed reel seat rather than the sliding rings. Thanks Solopaddler for the custom rod link. This sounds interesting. I'll send him an e-mail. Now I can start shopping for Christmas! To Dr. Salvelinus: at our last NSSA club meeting, the word from the Steelhead guru biologist, and confirmed by other veteran members, your observations are correct. The big fish are the remnants of the 5/6 year class. The lack of mid range fish is a result of the poor year class results for those years '02 to '07 where there were hot dry summers and severe winters. Here is a link to the actual data: http://www.northshoresteelhead.com/project3.htm Thanks again everyone for the help. Alan

After reading the previous post on what float reel to buy, I am happy that this past summmer I did buy an Islander reel. Now I need your suggestions on what rod to buy. I borrowed a 13' 6" Aventa rod and found it a bit long and clumbsy, but that might be just my first attempts. I was thinking of an 11' 6" rod for the rivers along the north shore of Superior, but am open to suggestions. What names/brands should I be looking at, and what characteristics in the rod should I consider? Alan

Details??? If I tell you, I would have to kill you! Actually, it reminds me of a saying from an unknown source that said, " All fishermen are liars except you and me and to tell you the truth, I'm not so sure about you!" At times these fish will hit anything and then when you just have them figured out...they get lock-jaw for several days. I use a combination of fly fishing with streamers and spinning gear with my homemade jig flies. It generaly represents a sculpin pattern. Everyone of our group caught fish on different coloured heads and bodies, so we still haven't got them figured out. As a general rule, brook trout prefer shallow water, but they have been caught deep and they seem sensitive to pressure changes and the need for cold water. My buddy who caught this fish wanted to keep it as it was legal (over 22"), but I reminded him it was a long swim back to the launch. Here are a few more Photoshop framed shots of the big guy. Note: I tagged this guy behind the dorsal fin. Good luck!

Up north, we finally got some nice weather and the big lake cooperated by lending us this 25" male beauty just starting his fall spawning colours.

Here is some proof to the the success of C&R and the management plans. I first caught and tagged it in '07 and again this year. In two years, there has been a significant weight gain....no... not my double chins, but the fish almost doubled its weight. The old scar is probably from a prop.

There has been some great posts lately about the Nipigon Coasters or Brook Trout that has spured me to share some information from a historical perspective about the reasearch and data that has lead to the current plight of this species. It is no secret that I have a passion for Nipigon brookies, but my wife says it is a sickness. For the past few years, I have been volunteering to do Brook Trout Tagging for the Nipigon branch of the MNR. I'm not sharing any secrets, just public information I have gathered over the years to help preserve the species. The following map shows where the Coasters were and are currently located. There are only a few significant populations left around Lake Superior. Their decline is well documented as a combined result of over fishing, dam construction, logging, transportation, increased pressure and other ecological impacts. The following information is specific to Lake Nipigon and the Nipigon river. This next graph (provided by MNR) shows the historic brook trout population for one part of Lake Nipigon. Estimated numbers of brook trout from which spawn was collected are based on historical spawn collection records 1923 to 1984. Note how the population significantly declined from thousands to hundreds. The current goal of Lake Nipigon and Nipigon River Fisheries Management Plan is to return the population to pre 1930s levels. A loftly goal. With alarm bells going off, the MNR conducted angler surveys in the '90s and early 2000s and released the following. There was a 315% increase in the number of angling hours or pressure on the brook trout from 1993 to 2003. Anglers caught 260% more fish from '93 to '03. There is a shift to younger fish on the spawning beds. The mean age of 4.1 years in 1997 has shifted to 2.5 years in 2003. This is a classic sign of over harvesting. This is shown in the following two graphs. Something had to be done. Thanks to the Nipigon MNR biologist Rob Swainson, the following changes have been implimented: stable hydro electric outflow during spawing periods to avoid the redds from becoming exposed, use of single barbless in Lake Nipigon and many other environmental initiatives I'm not going into here. The one I will focus on is the regulation changes to limits and sizes. With the population going down, spawning age going down and fishing pressure going up, The MNR coducted late fall netting operations to get baseline data in 2001-2003. I took their original chart and repesented it into three colours tobetter show the size of fish. In the following chart, YELLOW represents those fish under 18" or 27% of the popultion. RED represents those fish from 18" to 22" or an additional 60% of the population. GREEN represents those fish over 22" or 13% of the poulation. Prior to the 2005 size change, it was possible for anglers to keep both the green and red fish or 73% of the population. This meant that the old regulation was only protecting 27% of the population. Since '05, the only fish you are leagally able to keep are over 22". I know...most angles practice C&R anyway. So has this regulation change had an effect? I'm now going to jump back to the start of the post and my volunteer work tagging the fish. For the past several years, I have kept detailed records of the number of fish caught, their size etc. Here is the graphs of MY actual catch and release records that I provide to the MNR for thier use. It is working along with the other initiatives. Here are the charts for '07 and '08. I can tell you flat out that the reg change to 22' has been a success. I have documented in my own little study that there are more and bigger fish since the change. And to answer one more question. Is a Coaster a Brook Trout??? In 1999 a research program was initiated by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to determine if coaster brook trout are a unique stock, subspecies or an evolutionary significant unit The genetic results showed that coasters are produced by river brook trout populations, and are an ecological variant rather than a distinct group. This means that healthy brook trout populations within Lake Superior tributaries produce both coaster and typical brook trout and that coasters do not compose a cohesive group (population, stock or ESU) unto themselves. Some riverine populations of brook trout were shown to be closely related, indicating significant movement by coasters between river systems. Based on the number of coasters associated with river populations and the degree of relatedness among tributaries, coaster production varies considerably among Nipigon Bay tributaries. Comparison of hatchery brook trout stock with assessed river populations in these sites indicated that past stocking initiatives did not contribute to brook trout production in the study sites. This work was done at Trent University with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. For more information contact: Silvia D’Amelio Trout Unlimited Canada [email protected] I think my wife is right...I have a sickness. I hope some of this helps inform or clear things up. Here is one more chart I created (based on actual C&R fish) that is specific to these significant Nipigon beauties.